The Colonel's Forum

This is the Marine Corps' AH-1W "Super Cobra" attack helicopter. It's an impressive piece of hardware. It carries all kinds of weapons, and is typically used for close air support. My cousin Tim tells me "everything we do is based on supporting the Marine on the ground with a gun." In the next 30 days, the Marine Corps will hand Tim the keys to one of these bad boys and teach him how to do just that. Between now and then, Tim gets to attend SERE training. That's Survive, Escape, Resist, Escape training. Sounds like not a lot of fun, but compared with other things he's done, I'm sure he'll do fine. I attended Tim's winging ceremony this weekend and it was a real eye opener into the life of a Naval Aviator. In short, I am amazed at what these guys do, and so far they've only been in training helicopters. They learn the basics of flight in a T-34 airplane, then they fly the "mighty sea ranger" bell trainer helicopters...

OK, so it's been a while since I've posted here. Like you people don't have better things to do. Frankly, I have little if anything to report. I've been bored out of my skull for about a month now. Nothing new at work, nothing new at home. We've got about 6 projects that should kick off any day now, but that's been the case for two months. I'm officially an HP employee now. The only change that affects me so far is that the HP travel policy does not allow anyone to fly business class, ever. Looks like I won't be returning to Europe any time soon. I got in a minor car accident that could've been a major one. Ella sold a couple more houses. The two major presidential candidates are still lying to us, and lying about each other. The "decider" is still making awful decisions. August 16th marked a full TWO YEARS that the homeland security threat level has been at "orange" for airports. I'm off to Pensacola today for ...