In late February / early March, the family and I were able to take a trip back to the USA to see my family and catch up with friends...flying Lufthansa business class is such a huge blessing! It had been a long time since we were all together and will be the last for awhile. Lana and I are in Germany, my sister and brother-in-law are going to the mission field in Africa, and my youngest brother will be off to Air Force pilot training sometime in 2014. We were able to take a nice family picture all together for the first time in a couple years...good memories.
We split our time between Michigan and Ohio where my side of the family now lives. Ideally, Spring Break took place so most had more time off. Also, Lilli and her cousin Rayna's birthdays are only a few day apart which worked out well for a combined 1st birthday party...wow, time flies! I'm thankful God gave me the family I have and for the time together. We're going to see some of them again later this fall here in Europe, and hopefully more next spring / summer.
In Ohio, Liam and I along with some of my other family (mostly the guys) spent a morning at the Air Force Museum. Liam loved it and was super excited about all the "jets" he was seeing. All the jets seemed to be "Papa's jet". It's so cool to see Liam grow into a young little man and enjoy time with his cousin Seth. The last two pictures below are from the Vietnam era, but we still wear the same patch (4th picture down) and have the same saying of "First In, Last Out" (5th picture) in my current squadron. We fly the same Wild Weasel mission they did of "hunting" surface-to-air missile sites (SAMs).
Over a long weekend, Lana and I took the kids about two hours north of Wittlich to Cologne, Germany to get out and see some more sites. The old city is quite nice and has a huge cathedral in the middle. Lana did a great job finding us a hotel (she enjoys trip planning), which was a short train ride from downtown. The weather was even nice enough for me to go for a run through a park along the Rhine River.
We also took Liam and Lilli to the zoo...it was cool to see Liam's reaction to the real animals he's only see in books up to this point.
I'm currently at Shaw AFB, SC as the squadron makes it's way back to Germany after a month at Nellis AFB, NV near Las Vegas. We're here at Shaw just for a day, long enough to grab a couple meals, drive by the house to see if it's still in one piece, and sleep to reset up for the long F-16 flight...departing at 0100 tomorrow morning. I'm leading the third group of jets as only six are allowed to fly along with a single tanker crossing the Atlantic. After 8 hrs, 30 min and 10 air-to-air refuelings, we'll be back at Spangdahelm where Lana and the kids eagerly await my return...it will be great to see them again! Part of our return flight path takes us over Scotland, so if I need to divert I'll have some of my Scottish relatives to hang out with.
We spent the last month at Nellis taking advantage of the good weather, airspace, and bombing ranges not available in Germany...or most places in the world for that matter. We're training for our upcoming deployment and this is one phase of the spin-up plan I put together with the squadron commander and director of operations . We flew local flights just as the 480 FS early in January, and also participated in a simultaneous Red Flag and Green Flag Exercise towards the end of the month. This was my fourth Red Flag and first Green Flag. Red Flag had participants from the US (F-16, F-15E, F-18, EF-18G, F-22, B-1, B-52, KC-135, AWACS), the Netherlands (F-16), Singapore (F-16), UAE (Mirage 2000D), Sweden (Gripen) and the aggressors ("enemy fighters") flying F-16s, and F-15Cs. Red Flag focuses on the integration of all these aircraft in large formation exercises (LFEs). Green Flag is focused on close air support (CAS) of Army soldiers on the ground, and we participated in this with A-10s.
As the Weapons Officer, I was able to have each deploying pilot drop an inert (no explosives) GBU-12 (laser guided bomb), two GBU-38s (GPS guided bomb), and shoot a lot of 20 mm bullets at ground targets day and night. This was really important for the guys since it's not often we get to actually drop / shoot ordinance from our jets. Especially important as we train for our deployment.
I'm now a few hours away from getting back to the family! Liam and Lilli continue to grow like weeds and I'm blessed to have such a great wife and kids! Lana does really well with the kiddos while I'm gone on my Air Force trips (and when I'm around). Love you Lana!
Lana, the family, and I stayed home for Christmas 2012 since we took a holiday earlier in December and I had to travel with work on New Years Day. Lana's mother and brother came up from Munich to spent Christmas with us and I had a guy from the squadron over as well to enjoy Lana's good cooking and relax around the Christmas Tree (a nice real one Lana picked out of a German farmers field). A few months back, Lana and I bought a nativity scene made of stuff woolen figurines and it was nice to read and explain the Christmas story to Liam for the first time. I heard the phrase, "Papa, Jesus is dah" (Jesus is there) may times as Liam pointed to the baby in the manger. Lilli also enjoyed her first Christmas and did a pretty good job pulling the paper off some of her presents. It was a time of good fellowship and being thankful for God's gift to us over 2,000 years ago!
We also enjoyed more Christmas markets, this time in Trier and Trauben-Traubach. Both we pretty cool, especially the one in Trauben-Traubach as it takes place underneath parts of the city in old wine cellars. The best part was a French vendor selling great tasting olives and cheese!
We'll see where Christmas 2013 takes us, but I have a feeling we'll be in France visiting my sister and brother-n-law while there at French language school...looking forward to it!
We're back in Wittlich after a week holiday in southern Germany. Our trip took us to Munich, Garmisch, Chieming, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We stayed with Lana's Mom in Munich for a short time in order to visit family and enjoy the Christmas market, Christkindlmarkt (Christ child market) or Weihnachtsmarkt, in and around the city center of Marienplatz. As mentioned in the last post, they are generally set up in the city's stadtplatz (city center) with a nativity scene, nutcrackers, toasted almonds, food stands, Christmas music, Glühwein (hot red wine), hot chocolate and merry-go-rounds for the kids. Liam has had his fair share of rides. Munich and the surrounding area had over a foot (30 cm) of snow in the first few days we were there, making it perfect for the Christkindlmarkt. From Munich, Lana and I also drove to Garmisch for a day of snowboarding...thankful for Oma's babysitting! Garmisch is where Lana and I met for the first time back in September of 2006, time flies!
The majority of our time was spent in Chieming with Lana's grandparents. They really enjoy spending time with Liam and Lilli, and we're thankful for the time with them. Ur (great) Oma's food was great and the time relaxing as we stayed warm inside while it continued to snow through Wednesday night. We visited the Christkindlmarkt in the nearby town of Traunstein, and took a drive south into the Alps through Rupholding and Inzell to enjoy the sun and snow covered scenery.
To cut the drive back to Wittlich in half, we made our way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for a night. The early parts of Rothenburg date back to 950 and it's now known for its well-preserved medieval old town. The hotel we stayed in was Gasthof Goldener Greifen, 640 years old. We enjoyed yet another Christkindlsmarkt and I took the "Night Watchman's Tour". Every corner turned had something new and interesting to see and I wish we could "pause" our time here in Germany to enjoy all the sites to the fullest...time goes too fast! The same goes for the time I have off of work, as spending quality time with Lana and the kids is something I wish I had more of.
It's back to work next week for me before Christmas and New Years are here. I'll have four day weekends for each before catching a commercial flight to the US for the months of January and February. My squadron will be in the US training for our deployment later next year.
