It's Christmas, I missed my family a lot today. Mom sent me presents and a stalking of goodies, thank you mom. Dad put together a compilation of digital pictures and put them on a digital picture frame. All I had to do was plug it in a poof, pictures; thank you dad. I also saw the pictures and videos of sledding today, I wish I was where for that. But the part that is worth blogging about today is that I met my Navy family.
Today I went to church for the morning mass. As we were filing out a 40s year old woman and her 20s year old son approached me. They noticed I was sitting alone and asked if I had anywhere to go for Christmas. I said no, so she invited me to join her family for Christmas dinner. I went over to their house and had a great dinner. It taste as good as my mom's food and is much better than spaghetti with prego sauce out of a jar.
We talked about the military, apparently most of their family has retired from the military or had military experience. We talked about culture differences. I told them they had an accent. They told me I needed to go to a waffle house and have some grits ha ha. Their family was so pleasant, it felt casual and had a great time.
The most humbling moment was when the mom (Tracey) asked me where my family was, I said "Washington state. I'm really bummed I couldn't be with them." She smiled and said "Well you're with your Navy family. I can be your mom today." I felt so warm and blessed, I was smiling and didn't even notice until my cheeks hurt. I had to stop myself from smiling because I'm sure I looked like an idiot ha ha. Tonight I got some true southern hospitality. The Navy does take care of it's own.
Time for sleep, I have the watch in seven hours. Merry Christmas everyone =D
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Pensacola
So here I am in Pensacola. After 11 years of anticipation and brushes with losing my sanity during the 53 hour car drive from Pullman; I'm here at flight school. The military life is what I thought it would be and at the same time not. I meet all kinds of people: up tight, cocky, friendly, awkward, patient, laid back, funny, vulgar (it's the Navy, what do you expect ha ha). There are even people here who don't know how to SWIM! I met another SNFO (Student Naval Flight Officer) who said "I don't like flying, and I don't like being on the ocean." I was so dumb founded I just laughed and reminded her that our job frequently includes flying over oceans.
So far the training is not bad. The work load is manageable if you don’t mind having three hours of free time a day. The material is trivial, the only issue I’ve had so far is no one seems to understand the science behind what we do. So if I ask a question most of the time it’s a,”what’s your major? Look, don’t worry about it; you don’t need to know that to fly it.” Aka, “I don’t know the answer.” The real kicker with training is the level or proficiency we are expected to have and how fast we have to acquire it.
When I got here, one of the first briefs I had went something like “We’re the best in the world, we expect no less from you. Our military is entirely voluntary. If don’t think you can keep up, you can DOR (Drop on Request) and you’ll be dismissed from the program. If we think you are not good enough for this program, you’ll be dismissed.” I feel like they’re telling me to not only be the best, but also to hurry up about it ha ha.
One more interesting thing I’ve found. I saw a lot of weird insignia on flight suits and uniforms. At first I thought it was some weird coast guard uniform but then I walked past two gentlemen who were not speaking English, as I was pondering that I walked past a sign over a door that said “Saudi Arabian liaison.” I asked a couple of people what’s going on. Apparently we train some pilots from other countries. So far I’ve ran into student military pilots my age from Germany, Saudi Arabia and Italy. Pretty obvious what they’re trying to do, especially if you consider the countries the pilots are from. I like it, they’re all pretty nice and as Kim would put it “their accents are fun.”
That’s all for now, I miss everyone back home. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it home for Christmas. They got me good ha ha.
So far the training is not bad. The work load is manageable if you don’t mind having three hours of free time a day. The material is trivial, the only issue I’ve had so far is no one seems to understand the science behind what we do. So if I ask a question most of the time it’s a,”what’s your major? Look, don’t worry about it; you don’t need to know that to fly it.” Aka, “I don’t know the answer.” The real kicker with training is the level or proficiency we are expected to have and how fast we have to acquire it.
When I got here, one of the first briefs I had went something like “We’re the best in the world, we expect no less from you. Our military is entirely voluntary. If don’t think you can keep up, you can DOR (Drop on Request) and you’ll be dismissed from the program. If we think you are not good enough for this program, you’ll be dismissed.” I feel like they’re telling me to not only be the best, but also to hurry up about it ha ha.
One more interesting thing I’ve found. I saw a lot of weird insignia on flight suits and uniforms. At first I thought it was some weird coast guard uniform but then I walked past two gentlemen who were not speaking English, as I was pondering that I walked past a sign over a door that said “Saudi Arabian liaison.” I asked a couple of people what’s going on. Apparently we train some pilots from other countries. So far I’ve ran into student military pilots my age from Germany, Saudi Arabia and Italy. Pretty obvious what they’re trying to do, especially if you consider the countries the pilots are from. I like it, they’re all pretty nice and as Kim would put it “their accents are fun.”
That’s all for now, I miss everyone back home. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it home for Christmas. They got me good ha ha.
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