The Big Trip

So much has happened since I dominated the gym in April. Amy and I took the vacation of a lifetime down in South Africa. After a short 9 hours on Qatar Airways (I highly recommend the airline) we arrived in Johannesburg at 6am. We quickly drove out of that city (very high crime rate) and headed for Kruger National Park. There we stayed in the finest 5 star hut you have ever seen. The 'hut” was probably around 700 square feet with glass walls on one side so you could look out on the bush where wild animals lived just outside your door. The resort had a chef and they kept us on a perfect routine of activity-eat-nap repeat. I didn't want to leave this place at all. Game drives were conducted every morning and evening. We saw elephants, cape buffalo, hyenas, warthogs, rhinos, yellow billed hornsby's (think Zazu from the Lion King), impala, kudu, lions, zebras, and probably some others that I can't think of right now. Our game driver Johnson and the spotter Reyfus were the coolest people we met. From there we went on a South African road trip covering almost the entire eastern coast a total of 24 hours of driving split up into 4 days. The terrain was very diverse and looked like everything from desert to jungle to mountains. We even slipped a little Bungee jumping into the trip. Very scary...I'm too old for that. We ended up in Cape Town where we met up with some friends of our friends that we traveled with. Glennes became our Cape Town guide and showed us around the area. We saw the Cape of Good Hope and Boulder Beach which has a small population of penguins that are only located there. We came home with a few souvenirs and about 1500 pictures that we took. The best of them have been loaded onto picasaweb where you can view them. Good Times!

Power lifter

Today was a good day at the gym. It was packed as it usually is on Monday morning, and two other guys worked in on the bench press with me and I was the "heavy lifter" of the three of us. That is definitely a first.

Christmas Party Slide Show

Here is a video from our squadron christmas party. It shows some of the places we've been and what we've done. Enjoy!

AC school and BIG news....

Well I completed Little Rock's AC school portion and made it home just in time for thanksgiving. Amy and I had a HUGE gathering and squeezed 24 people into our house for the big meal. It was excellent. I found out in December that I got a school slot for Kirtland AFB starting January 8th for the second half of AC school. I was extremely happy because that meant I didn't have to upgrade in house, which can take as long as a year or more. So right now I'm dragging along in AC school flying about once a week trying to get done. In theory I still only have two more flights and a checkride, but when you only fly once per week, and half the time you don't get completed due to weather or maintenance, those two flights can be an eternity. I am hoping to be home by April fools day. I'll keep holding on to that glimmer of a hope for another week or so. Then I will be a full blown Aircraft Commander and able to lead my own crew into battle (sounds exciting doesn't it?).
In other news, all of my hard work has paid off, and I fooled the squadron into giving me the honors of being the Company Grade Officer (CGO) of the year. A pretty big deal in itself. After that I competed at the group level, and won the same award for the group. I don't really think I deserve it, but it will give a HUGE boost to my career. Just call me General....okay maybe not :)
In BIG BIG news I received my next assignment from my commander. After turning down the opportunity to extend and stay in England for another year, they awarded me with an even better opportunity to live in Japan for the next three years. After reseraching realestate in Florida for the last year and a half, you can image my surprise when I heard. Amy and I talked it over, and we are both now very excited to be going. Adventure, here we come! We will be living in Okinawa and stationed at Kadena AB. SO all of you that are reading, come on out and VISIT! Okinawa is supposed to have a subtropical climate and the pictures I have seen look AMAZING. Downsides will be anther small house (possible smaller) more importantly, another small kitchen, and Amy will have to go another three years without a full time job. An idea I think she is starting to get used to. Upsides will be the amazing experience, the incredible travel opportunities, I'll still be getting Cost of Living Allowance (an extra $1000 per month) and the great TDY's (for me at least). We will be heading out that way this August. As the time gets closer, we'll have to see if I wil be able to makea stop in the US along the way to visit with some folks before we go. Getting back from Japan will be more challenging than getting back from England. Most importantly of all, Amy found the pet rescue website in Okinawa so we can get a dog (maybe two) when we arrive. Crazy Times!

Future Plans

Well, the English summer is over. It was yesterday. We all revelled in it and sunburned our white pasty bodies. Good times. I will be missing most of the winter thankfully. Around the 20th of August i will be heading out to Arkansas for Aircraft Commander upgrade at Little Rock AFB. I'm looking forward to going back. Amy and I really enjoyed the time we spent there. I've already contacted some old friends from the ultimate frisbee team we played on there. They've already reserved a spot on the team for me. After Little Rock I should be heading out to Kirtland for the rest of my training. I'm not sure how long all of these schools will take, but it wouldn't surprise me with Christmas being in there if it took 6 months or more. We're making plans for Amy to come out and stay for part of it, but the dates are always in flux which makes it hard to plan anything definite.
After I get back we are planning to travel as much as we can before we leave to return to the states. I talked with the boss and it looks like i have a pretty good chance of going back to Eglin AFB after this assignment. It will be nice to be back in some warm weather and sunshine.
All is well here, and Amy and I are doing great. Best wishes.
--Chris and Amy

Summer, grad school's rough start, promotion, and running again.

Hello all! Despite being as far north as Alaska, England is finally showing some signs of summer. Mild signs, but at least it's something. It gets dark around 10pm and the light comes busting through the windows at about 4am. I think it's keeping me from falling asleep, and as a consequence I'm having a bit of trouble getting out of bed. It sure beats the alternative of it being dark all day long.
So grad school wasn't quite what I expected. Actually it was, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I ended up dropping my first class and changing my degree. I found history to be, well not really my subject. So for at least the next 9 credit hours, I will be taking classes towards a transportation and logistics management degree. Now that's a mouthful. I'll start my next class in early July. It's on my to-do list to register. Good times. I'll be back at it soon enough.
For those that care, I beat out everyone with a DUI and I still have a pulse, and so I've been promoted to Captain. And there was much rejoicing! Not a big change. I was hoping that the red carpet would be rolled out where ever I went, and that the earth would quake beneath my feet, but no such luck. Oh well, I'll take the bigger paycheck.
After just a month and a half of pure laziness, I think I'm back up on the running horse again. I ran 7.5 at a 7:08 pace yesterday, and felt pretty good. I'm going to register for a 10k in early July. All the locals will probably smoke me, but it will be good fun. It's just me and the clock anyway. Hope all is well with you.
--C

London Marathon, Amy's Parents, and Grad School

Yesterday I completed the 27th annual (Flora) London Marathon. I hold steady to my assessment, that a marathon is about 6.22 miles too long. For those of you that don't know. A marathon is 26.22 miles long. In both of the marathons I have completed I had pretty much work all of the fun out of the race by mile 20. Everything after that becomes a gutsy groaning shuffle that no one should have to witness. I guess I'm just not built for the marathon. The jury is still out as to weather or not I will be completing another one. I see a bright future in half marathons. I finished in a (not so) blazing 3:53:55. Not exactly light speed, but i was happy to have finished it. As of right now I can hardly walk mainly due to my left foot. I guess it wasn't used to running on the pavement for that long. I did most of my long runs on trails. Anyway, the crowd was great. The people of London were all about cheering for everyone. Good times.
Amy's parents dropped in recently for a taste of Europe. Somehow they managed to cram 2 weeks worth of fantastic weather into their suitcases and bring it with them. I can't remember the last time we went so long without a cloudy, rainy day. They got to go over to Germany and stay with the Kabateks and then took a road trip from there through Luxembourg to northern France. Pretty busy trip. They leave tomorrow and i think they have gotten to see and do everything that they wanted. Amy as usual is an excellent host. If you want to come visit, drop us a line. We have two guest rooms (one double bed and one single) so bring a friend.
I am officially a grad student now for all of you who haven't heard. I decided to quit beating around the bush and go ahead and register for classes at American Military University (AMU). It's a totally online school whose professors are mostly retired military and they are supposed to be very flexible and understanding when it comes to deployments and things of that nature. you can check it out here. Classes start the 7th of May so I'll let you all know how they are. It should take about 3 years to become a "Master" of Military History with a focus on WWII. More later as things happen.