Crossing The USA, Christmas & New Years 2011

On December 12th Lana, Liam and I started our trip back from Weapons School at Nellis AFB, NV to Adrian, MI.  We took our time along the way, stopping in Boulder, CO for a day with friends and only drove 8 hours / day.  Liam did great while driving and overall kept himself entertained in the little space he had amongst all our luggage.  Thank God for a boy with a great and relaxed personality.  Lana did well too being 8 months pregnant and not being able to recline her seat.  The first half of the trip was more enjoyable than the second as we drove through the Rockies.  East of Denver it's just farm land.

We arrived in Adrian, MI at my parent's place on December 17th after about 2,200 miles and enjoyed the next week relaxing with family and decompressing from Weapons School. Lana, Liam and I have enjoyed more time together during my time off! As I wrote about in the last post, we had a chance to visit family in Canada and take Liam to my Dad's farm where he had his first tractor ride. He and I both enjoyed it since I miss the farm.

After a week in Adrian, we made our way to Mansfield, OH to my Grandmother's place for Christmas. Lot's of family around on my Mom's side with almost every square in of the floor taken by someone at night.

We're now wrapping up our time in Xenia, OH where most of my family lives now. Lots of relaxing, eating, lifting / running with my youngest brother Devin without the routine of work is coming to an end. Tomorrow morning we'll be driving back to South Carolina where I'll return to work on January 4th. Crazy it's already 2012...seems as though that's become my normal response to each New Year's Day. This coming April I'll have been in the Air Force 9 years, and time is literally flying! April also means we move to Germany, which will be done with an additional family member due February 19th. Lots of cool changes ahead as we anticipate returning to Europe!

Jets & Tractors

I have officially brainwashed our son Liam into only thinking about jets and tractors.  A few times a day he'll walk to the computer and say jet or tractor since he's hooked on youtube videos about each.  We had the chance earlier this week to take a short trip to Canada to see some of my family there and see my Dad's farm...Liam also had his first tractor ride.  I hadn't been to the farm since 2003.

Yesterday I took Liam to a John Deere dealership to check out more tractors.  He was so excited when we drove in and saw all the machinery.  He's growing fast and it's quite fun to "hang" out together doing these types of things.

Weapons School Patch Night and Graduation

I'm officially now a USAF Weapons Officer.  Having "the patch" put on my left shoulder this past Thursday night is something I will never forget.  The part of Patch Night where we receive our patches is only attended by those who have previously received one.  The night started with the history of the F-16, followed by us all making fun of each other for some funny things that happened throughout the course.  Eventually we each had a patch put on our shoulder, with a punch to "ensure" it was securely in place.
 

Since F-16 Weapons School started back in the early 80's, 679 pilots have gone through the course. I'm patch #676. A lot has changed since I drove away to Officer's Training School (OTS) back in 2003 with my goal at the time to hopefully get an F-16 out of pilot training!

It was nice to have friends and family in town for Graduation on Saturday. The ceremony was quite a bit bigger than I anticipated with about 1,000 people in attendance. The class started with 108 students (across all airframes) and ended with 90. Thank God I made it through and had the chance to walk across the stage and receive a graduation certificate. The gravity of what we all went through over the past 5.5 months will settle in later I'm sure.

Lana and I are currently in Boulder, CO on our way back across the USA.  We're on our way to Michigan and Ohio for Christmas and New Years before we drive back to South Carolina.  It's a 2,000 mile drive, so we have about 2.5 days of driving left.  Looking forward to decompressing at home for a couple weeks with family!

Graduation Video:

Weapons School Complete!

My Weapons School experience is essentially over, except for Patch Night this coming Thursday (where the patch in the picture below is put on our left shoulder...it will be there for the rest of our time in the Air Force) and Graduation this coming Saturday.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, the time here at Nellis has gone both fast and slow depending on how I looked at things.  Slow when it came to family time, but fast otherwise.  They say an accomplishment means more when it takes a lot to achieve, and I can say this is the case with finishing WIC.  Weapons School has been the hardest thing I've done flying the F-16, yet the most rewarding. I used to wonder if I could make it through, and here I am on the other side thankful I did and had a great experience in the meantime.

This coming Thursday night we will finally receive the Weapons Officer patch, a symbol of hard work and credibility.  Since the beginning of the course, the left shoulder of our flight suits have not had a patch of any sort in anticiaption of the Weapons Officer patch we were working towards (you can see this in the picture below).  A Weapons Officer should be humble, approachable, and credible in order to build, teach, and lead other fighter pilots.  It's a big responsibility, and one I'm looking forward to as we move to Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany this coming April.

Starting on Wednesday evening, our family and friends begin arriving for Patch Night and the graduation ceremony on Saturday evening.  Graduation is a formal ceremony where we receive graduation certificates and the leadership gets a chance to explain what we've been through over the past months to our guests.  On Monday the 12th, Lana and I plan to hit the road for the long drive to MI and OH for the holidays before making our way back to SC.  I'll  put more info on here from Patch Night and Graduation in a few days.

Thanksgiving 2011 - Grand Canyon & Sedona

Lana, Liam, and I just returned from a long and relaxing weekend in Arizona.  Last Wednesday we departed for the Grand Canyon, and then made our way to Ft. Tuthill military recreation area in Flagstaff.  This was Lana's first time seeing the Grand Canyon and my third, but it's still just as impressive as the first time I saw it! 

The next day we made our way down to Phoenix for Thanksgiving lunch with some friends of our from our previous time at Aviano Air Base, Italy.  Both of our families have grown since then and it was a nice time to catch up.  The following day we drove from Ft. Tuthill alone the Oak Creek Canyon Highway to the town of Sedona.  The drive almost made us feel as though we were back in Europe again; winding roads and rock faces thousands of feet high.  The red rocks of Sedona are quite the sight to see with it being the first time for both of us.

We spent Saturday as a family relaxing at Ft. Tuthill and went on a short hike back in Oak Creek Canyon.  It was a great way to celebrate Weapons School being essentially over, with two more flights left.  We'll be on the road home in about two weeks!

More Pictures:
Grand Canyon & Sedona