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Actually, it's not really my mother. :icon_tong I haven't done the tour Brett referenced, but I understand it is a pretty long day - you have to pretty motivated to kill an entire day while in Vegas to see a few holes in the ground. (Especially when another thread elsewhere on AW discusses...

That's my mother.

One of my "cooler" field trips - this is the biggest of the craters at NTS:

"Surprising" just in the sense that the medical community is normally overly conservative, and I just assumed that normal color vision was required of all naval officers. (I've always sweated the damn "Which number is it" speckle diagrams, even though I've always had normal vision....) And...

Surprisingly (at least according to this reference: http://neds.nebt.daps.mil/Directives/1420/four.pdf) it's not disqualifying. They still check it every year in my annual physicals, though, and god help you if your Powerpoint color selection is off.

The golf deals in and around Vegas this time of year are phenomenal, especially if you play in the afternoon. The courses are empty, yet are still in fantastic shape; where you'd pay $250+ in the winter, you can play now for $50-75. You have to hunt around sometimes, but the deals are there...

The base was a former Iraqi Mig-25 base, so there are bits and pieces of them all over the place. (This was the place where they were burying the Mig-25s as some sort of odd force protection/archaeological project...)

Most of those were seized by the investigators. The rest, well, they're not suitable for a "family oriented" website....

Here's a few pics from some recent misadventures... -Baghdad -Fallujah -Queueing up at the tanker -Flotsam -Sunrise -D Model Loaded for Bear -The limited view from ECMO3... -Old Glory

We've gotten the AirSafe vests, and once you put the holster on there is just no more room for much else. Some guys take the Camelback bladder in a helmet bag or backpack, or just pack bottles of water or Gatorade. It's so hot here that you can go through a lot of water just in the man-up...

The ridicule of the squadron is not inevitable - only highly probable. If you can demonstrate that you are a) not a buffoon, b) are thick-skinned, c) have something substantive to contribute to the mission and the ready room, and d) are loose with your wallet in bars, then you too can be "one...

I bought myself an A2 (NVD compatible), brought it with me over here, and haven't used it once. When I fly, the L-neck flashlight in my vest is plenty bright, and I have a finger light or two in my nav bag. There's no easy place to stash the Surefire with all the other crap overloaded into the...

Magic 8-Ball says "Future unclear; check again later". There are lots of potential forks in the road, none of them even close to being certain at this point. Best case: 209 gets EA-18Gs in some manner at some time. Next best case: 209 gets ICAP III hand-me-downs, flies them until the wings...

If by "support" you mean "in Iraq", then 209 is definitely in the support role....

I'm sitting here right now wearing my Galco Miami, and it is extremely comfortable. The issue ones the rest of the guys got don't appear to be terribly comfortable; I see people trying to adjust them a lot. Under body armor, over body armor - the Miami is the bee's knees. Not cheap, but like...

It's tough to generalize on this, since it is very situation dependent. What unit you are in, your specific job, funding profiles, available billets, if your Training Officer is a d!ck, - all can play in the equation. A lot depends on your own initiative - find a school you want, then do the...

Better than Spyder? Inconceivable!!!! :icon_tong

I hate (and I mean really *hate*) having to correct myself, but here's a b1tchin' WMV of a BUFF with full-flaps at takeoff showing some wicked nose-down trim.... http://webpages.charter.net/gdawson/B52FullFlapTakeoff.wmv I still think the second pic looks fake.... (I wouldn't be a real...

I'm not buying it. The B-52 seems to have some very significant nose-down trim that would put it in the drink shortly after clearing the bow. Also, the second pic seems to show the same aspect ratio/perspective as the first pic; if it was that close to the flight deck edge, it would be a lot...

While at SERE School recently I threw out the "So we got that going for us, which is nice" quote. Got a bunch of RCA dog looks from the mass of ensigns and JGs. I said "Come on people, Caddyshack?" One guy piped up "Oh yeah, my dad likes that movie." I told him I had belly button lint in the...

Follow-up to an old thread: Rep points to Phrogpilot for knowing what he is talking about - just got my sweet new like-new-used Galco Miami holster, and it really is comfortable. Way better than other stuff I've worn. Tip: It pays to be a saavy Internet shopper. List price: $180...

There are no more Reserve IDs - part of a "One Navy" policy decision. If you currently have a Reserve ID, your next one will be a "US Navy" ID. You can wait until it expires, or you can go by your PSD and explain how you've been discriminated against as a Reservist (it happens....) and they'll...

Funny (related) story, obviously written by a Brit: "Is it Safe" - Going to the Dentist in India or Dental Healthcare Tourism India Many people from the West now indulge in "healthcare tourism" � visiting India for healthcare in order to avoid waiting lists or costly services back home. I...

I still say the squadron motto should be "Seemed like a good idea at the time!"

I'm actually surprised it was up at all. Several years ago when this was still a hot topic in the NSA crowd, there was some legal action regarding the website, and it was brought down; it disappeared for years, only findable via some creative Google cache searching. It wouldn't surprise me if...

I keep threatening to hang out my shingle as a "Republican Strategist" - I could drop acid and mushrooms simultaneously and come up with a more coherent PR strategy than the current Big Brains working the issues. BTW, Scales is pretty sharp - he fits into the category of "people who I...

I've always thought a lot of his decisions and the direction he took the NSA, and I think he'll make an excellent head for the CIA. Whether the CIA embraces him, or whether they give him the Porter Goss Memorial Heisman (aka stiff-arm) remains to be seen. One thing that I've known about for...

But you may end up with adverse effects on your FITREP as you stand tall before The Man explaining yourself.... I deperately miss Yellow Star Carpets in Incirlik - had I known then what I know now, I would have bought 10x as much stuff... And I haven't had a good chicken tava in years!

Good summary, but don't forget my personal favorite option - direct commission (DIRCOM). See http://www.navy-reserve.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=912 for more info.

It's bad enough anyway - they ended up scratching the sh!t out of the LO when they were dragging away the sliced off canopy. You'd think they might have thought of that possible outcome somewhere in the 5 hours of deliberation it took before they cut the canopy off - but then again, since it...

You hate to see this: An F-22 canopy being removed "the hard way" after it stuck in the down & locked position, with the pilot still inside...

In a real pinch, you can use powdered Country Time lemondade as a substitute for limes. Mind you, I'm talking about a *real* pinch - Russians crossing the Mississippi, cats & dogs living together, 5th month of a cruise, real end of the world stuff. But it *can* be done - desperate times call...

Pigs can occasionally get airborne, hell can get a bit chilly, and intel Os can occasionally find themselves leading VBSS teams. A good pal of mine, now a Boat School instructor, just came back from a cruise on a CG. He was leading dhow VBSS's in the Arabian Sea and off of Somalia (Arrr, me...

This one time, at band camp....

Probably off finding the mail buoy, or hunting down relative bearing grease.... If you consider the mere fact of being in England cool, then Molesworth is cool. Otherwise, cool describes the climate. It's an interesting place, with a lot of interesting work going on, but kind of out of the...

DARPA is making a push in this technology area, calling it "Underwater Express" - here's the link for you folks who want to get DARPA to fund your building of a prototype in your bathtub: http://www.darpa.mil/ATO/solicit/underwaterexpress/index.htm

Heard Thur nite in the jet while on an NVD-3 hop: "Man, glasses suck." Seems to be a continuing theme here. Much dissatisfaction on the Reserve side of the equation, when USNA Mids can get Navy-paid-for PRK, while deploying SelRes ECMOs don't rate....

I'm not so sure about that - these are the same folks that spent an insane amount of money on the spider fence. The one that keeps the spiders *inside* the base....

Nothing like an ice cold Efes after a hard day at ONW. The Champagne of Bottled Dishwater! (Plus a little formaldehyde...)

Whoops - minor nomenclature/context issue here. The "can't build on previous experience" comment was referring to the "experience of the prior week or so at Fallon", not on the experience base of their careers. There is a "flow" and "rhythym" that goes with any LFE (large force exercise), and...

Yes, but... For what it's worth, I was an NSAWC N2 instructor during the CVWR-20 Fallon det in 03. And for truth in advertising, prior to that I was a CVWR-20 "player to be named later" on several dets with several of the squadrons, and I am now in a CVWR-20 unit - so my perspectives, well...

Hell, if I could make it fit I'd jam a 12 gauge in there. Oh, and some porn.

Damn straight - A4s is one of the reasons I keep up with this forum. He validates the continuing wisdom of Dumb & Dumber, the movie I center my life around: http://www.moviewavs.com/cgi-bin/moviewavs.cgi?Dumb_And_Dumber=senior.wav :)

We've got M-11s, and I shoot left handed. A little awkward with the decocking lever, but you get used to it quick. I just slide my grip thumb over to the left side while keeping my grip. For magazine release, I've just gotten used to using my trigger finger. Not as quick as righties, but...

This seemed to sum it up nicely:

"Not puke" is high on the list.

Thanks for the gouge - I think the takeaway here is (once again) "you get what you pay for". The GALCO model seems to be the "Cadillac of Shoulder Holsters". We were at DT back in December, but only for the first three (academic) days; no flying for us this time, other than the O/I to get...

It's for illumination purposes - so you don't run over them when they're passed out drunk in the gutter.

But I thought that was the primary purpose of the Internet....

Given the degree of deep kimchi that senior elements of the Prowler community have gotten into recently for discussing too many operational details, I'm going to clam up on the when/where/why/what issue. The question on holsters was not while airborne, but only while on the ground. I was out...