Going Home...

Howdy All,

I'm going home. In about two months I'll be on my way. Because of the move, I've been real busy. I recently sold my car and successfully completed lots of adminstrative tasks associated with the move. I'll update more as time permits. I may try to somewhat 'photo blog' some of what I'm doing.

That's it!

TEMPEST In A Teapot...

Once again, Wired provides us with an interesting article about the U.S. TEMPEST program during the Cold War.

Russian Mig Shoots Down Georgian Drone

Wired gives us a link to a video showing what's stated to be a Russian Mig shooting down a drone operated by Georgia. It's quite clear and amazing to watch.

Enjoy!

Wind Power

I found this interesting article on Wired News. It's about a small town in Missouri -- of all places that produces more energy than it consumes. There's an apparent typo in the Wired News article (and pointed out in the comments). However, I read the St Louis Post Dispatch article and the numbers there support the contention that the small town of Rock Port, Missouri does indeed produce more electrical power than it consumes through the wind farms that exist there.

ASIDE: I'm slowly getting the major work products for work completed and hope to return to regular blogging in another day or two.

Memories of Geese (not "Goose")

Spook86 at In From the Cold has an interesting article about some of the initiatives that are a part of the BASH program at Langley AFB, Virginia implemented to protect the F-22 (and any other aircraft operating on the field). He also mentions, for context, the crash more than a decade ago of Yukla-27 (an E-3 AWACS). I knew nearly everyone on the E-3 crew that went down. In fact, before leaving his place in Alaska to go fly that day, one of the crew sent me an e-mail. In his message, "Cowboy" thanked me for being a sort of (minor) mentor and for helping him decide to make the move to Elemendorf after his tour in Okinawa ended.


As I'd logged onto my computer that day, as was/is my habit, I started pounding commands into the machine while it was still very slowly processing previous ones. My regular routine was to go directly to e-mail to check for messages, after which I'd go back to the news screen of my ISP to see what was happening in the world. After I hit the "go to e-mail command" the news screen (first screen appearing after log-in) appeared with an alert that a USAF aircraft had crashed in Alaska. Of course, my machine was "committed" to going to e-mail by then but I made a mental note to go back to check that news.



The only e-mail in my queue that day was the e-mail from Cowboy. After briefly bringing me up to date regarding his life, he closed by reporting that he had to go fly and would be heading out the door as soon as he dispatched his message to me. I recall thinking that it was really nice of him to send me that update. I was no longer part of the flying world by then -- having returned to school for another graduate degree. Nevertheless, he was staying in touch. Good on him.

After completing the e-mail check, I went back to the news and discovered the initial vague reports of the crash -- of an E-3. I spent the rest of the morning working the news -- trying to confirm the names of all those involved in the incident and whether or not there were any survivors. First reports were rather sketchy so there was some hope that the jet had simply gone off the end of the runway such as happened to an RC-135 in the Philippines in 1979 with another bunch of folks that I knew and flew with at one time in the past. However, as the news developed, it became clear that the aircraft had gotten airborne so it was apparent that it was a catastrophic crash with certain loss of life.



I've still got a hard copy (just pulled it out looking for something from Cowboy) of an e-mail from "Kack" telling me that "Crusty" was trying to reach me. By the time I received Kack's e-mail, I'd gotten a list of the entire crew. As stated, I knew most if not all of the the crew.

Another one of the crew whose loss I particularly felt was Communication Systems Operator (CSO) Larry DeFrancesco. I'd flown with him less than a year prior on a deployment to the ME. I still vividly recall one 14 plus hour sortie that I flew with him during that trip where his performance from start engines to deplaning was flawless. Although it wasn't common practice to add anything to the debrief after such sorties (everyone would be tired and simply thinking of getting on the bus to return to quarters), I made a point of praising the entire crew for doing a fine job. Then I singled out SrA DeFrancesco -- personally thanking him for "Making me look good" during the flight due to his flawless execution of his duties involving supporting my communications requirements. He was an outstanding performer. The best.

Having flown with a lot of the crew I could sort of visualize who during takeoff would be alert and engaged (typically) and who would be zoned out waiting to get airborne so that the power-up of the system could begin. I know that Larry was monitoring the radio and all internal interphone nets so he knew exactly what was happening when shortly after liftoff the jet ingested numerous Canadian geese in the Number 1 (left outboard) and Number 2 (left inboard) engines. With that kind of asymmetrical thrust (on takeoff power no less) it was a "done deal" that Yukla-27 -- taking off heavy with a full crew and full load of fuel was going to auger in.

Such tragedies are a part of life. Cowboy, Larry and all the rest of them will remain young and vibrant forever. They live on in our memories and we'll never forget them.

As part of the news search that I made that day, I printed all sorts of "news flashes". I still have some of them -- printed on a tractor feed inked-tape printer those many years ago. Here's some of the other news that was reported on the day that Yukla-27 went down.

YUGOSLAVIA
A mass grave containing 540 bodies was found in northwestern Bosnia after the area had been recaptured from rebel Serbs.

NEW YORK
In the terror trial for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman (and nine others) U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey was instructing the jury before they began deliberations.

GERMANY
About 30,000 Bavarians protested a ruling by Germany's highest court striking down a state law that mandated crucifixes on classroom walls.

LOS ANGELES
The jurors in the O.J. Simpson murder trial are off for a three-day weekend.

WASHINGTON
The Unabomber had his way: The Washington Post and New York Times published his entire 35,000 word manifesto.

and...

Suspended FBI Deputy Director Larry Potts denied to a Senate panel that he approved improper shoot-on-sight rules for the Ruby Ridge siege of white separatist Randy Weaver.

So the world keeps spinning and people keep getting off and on...

I Dunno...

Aloha,

I do know from my many times in the Kingdom that there is a lot more at play than reporter Ebtihal Muvarek "reports".

Where there is smoke, there is (probably) fire...

Ebtihal, I beseech ye to find the fire!

P.S. This is not a story about "kimchee in space"!

Slowing Down (Temporarily)

Howdy All,

Within the next 72 hours or so, I'm either starting or ending five major projects for my employer. That means that I'll be "busy" for a while.

To "soften the blow" of this announcement, I've decided to create a new category of posts. The new category is "past and present 'scenes'". I'll begin with this post and continue as I see fit.

This first "scene" is a photoshot that I took last autumn of a "Seoul Sunset". It was taken right here in the mother city. Later I'll probably provide shots of similar themes from New Zealand, the United States and various other locals.

Enjoy and I'll be back soonest!