So for the last ten days I have been doing this. Its been fantastic. I really love my job. There is nothing like the feeling of being strapped into a war plane (one of only 3 in the CF that can carry weapons), feeling the thurst of the 4 engines being slammed into full throttle, then the 100K + lbs plane leave the ground to take us into the middle of the high seas to find "the bad guys" We find someone suspicious on radar, we go low level (from 15000ft to merely 200ft) to get a look. Our plane breaks out of the cloud, our new camera usually is the first to get visual contact, followed by the pilots then the digital photographer then we do a low speed pass over the vessel of interest getting varied responses from the ships crew...regardless of the which job I am doing in the plane it is an absolute RUSH. 200ft off the ocean, I saw whales....a misplaced flock of over 10 000 birds resting on the ocean literally 1000 miles from any land. It is intense...our flights lasted over 9 hours each day and I am on the edge of my seat till off station. Knowing what I am doing isn't only cool, but it has a positive impact.

Shemya Alaska, is beautiful in its own way... VERY isolated, it had a store that only opened for 1 hour, 2 times a week. We had beer flowen in for us. It helped pass the time.

So, I see since I've been away, SG went a little crazy...I fear change and favour the old style BUT I felt the same way with every change and have adapted..I don't think itwill be any different this time.