crossxcheck

So, I went to work on the 30th of September (Tuesday, if you remember, and no, the rhyming is not intentional) expecting to do some training and safety stuff and go home to get ready to face the new fiscal year and new flying hour program. What I got was notification that I was going to school in Alabama. In two days. Oh, and I found out at 4:00 pm. So, 1 October I'm running around trying to get orders so I can get plane tickets so I can make it from Las Vegas to Montgomery by the time class started on Thursday. I finally got orders, and when I got to the travel office I found out my plane left at 1:30 pm. It was 10:00. So, run out of the office, back to the apartment, throw what I think I'll need in a couple of bags and call a cab. I made it. Barely.

I've been in Alabama since the evening of the 1st of October. The good thing about this class is that only the top 10% of those at my rank are supposed to be attending. I believe I'm only here by default and not because I'm in the top-anything, but I'll take it. It will surely help me with making the next stripe, should I decide I actually want it. And since I've started studying for the test I guess I do. What I've been doing is learning how to be a better military leader and manager. At least that is what the class is for. What I've actually been doing is hanging out with my peers, adults if you will, and taking a break from Vegas. A break I think I've earned. I have been learning stuff though. I learned that lieutenants are afraid of senior non-commissioned officers (of which I am). That makes me giggle a bit.

We've also had some pretty awesome guest speakers. Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Herbert Carter, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen talked to us about his experience in a segregated Air Force and the desegregation of the military. Colonel (retired) Jack Jacobs, Medal of Honor recipient and MSNBC military correspondent talked to us about his Vietnam experience and the fact that in the next 25 years there's a very real chance there will be no surviving MoH recipients. We listened to Lt col (ret) Stan Newell talk to us about his experience as a POW in Vietnam and how his actions in the camp earned him a field commission. There were other speakers, and there will be more (I don't graduate until the 19th), and every one of them has left an indelible mark on every one of us in the class.

That's what I've been up to. Like I said, I graduate on the 19th. After that I get on an airplane (20th), go to work for a day (21st) and get on another airplane (22nd) to go on leave for a week. I'll be spending Thanksgiving with friends in Anchorage. I think I've bored you all enough, and if any of you have made it to the end you win a prize.