And Im Back!!!



I returned today (Saturday) from Wendover Utah. This place has some pretty interesting history behind it. The now dilapidated and massive facility is home to one FBO and the cargo plane from the movie ConAir. The entire south side of the airport has been turned into a "watch me fall apart" museum. Many of the WWII era buildings are still standing including barracks, chow halls, and massive hangars.

This was the base where the crew of the Enola Gay trained for their bombing mission of Hiroshima. The town of Wendover was established by a guy named Bill Smith. He owned a small gas station on a small 2 lane road now called I-80. He had a tall pole put up with a single light bulb that drivers could see for miles. This was back in 1920. The military still uses Wendover for a variety of purposes. As no units are assigned there the Army and Air force use it as a checkpoint on bombing routes and practice the VOR approach on the field. There is also a bombing and gunnery range on the airport that the Air force uses for war games.


The trip in the convoy took 3 hours and 20 minuets. Now it only should have taken 3 hours but the convoy commander got lost in town and couldn't find the road to the airport. Its just funny that we have this "phenomenal cosmic power!!" and we don't even use MapQuest to avoid getting lost.

While setting up our operations area, some of us from S-3 were setting up a large antenna with guy wires and the works. After we used the guy wires to carefully pull the antenna into place and staked it down, Barry, a fellow S-3 guy, noticed that we had a few extra parts. He and I shared a glance and be decided that "well....as long as we don't tell anyone it will be ok....maybe." The parts we found were the skinny end pieces to this antenna so no big deal. Right? As we continued on with that someone else noted that we forgot to tape the cord from its perch on top of the antenna to the pole itself. Strike 2! Dang....so now the antenna comes down and we work to tape the cord and put on the the end pieces where they go. Warrick, another buddy from S-3 gave us a little tutorial on the importants of having the antenna the exact length it should be because the frequency is tuned to that length or something like that.

Later on we were setting up our tent that was to be used for pilot mission briefs. All I will say is that watching a bunch of Guard folks set up a tent is hysterical.

Army Chow: The eggs were literally the consistency of old, tough play dough. I did have a steak towards the end of the week that was pretty good actually. I think its official; Navy food is better than Army food.

A Day in the Life: I usually woke up at the crack of 10 or 11 am. I would walk next door to the latrine and shave and brush then get dressed. Now I know what you are thinking. But the fact is that I worked the night shift while I was out there. So I would go on shift at 5pm or so and work until midnight then shower and head to bed. On the first full day we had classes scheduled for the afternoon. So Barry and I figured; sleep a little then head to classes. No sweat. The next day we woke up at our normal time and the classes had apparently been held at 8am. So no luck there. The next day we were told classes were canceled due to the masive wind storm we were having only to find out they were not. On a couple of days I even ate my lunch MRE in bed. Needless to say...that either from lack of communication and or lack of motivation ...it was a lazy morning around our bunk house for a few of us. I love the Guard!

I have been very impressed with the people I have met so far in the 211th. They seem to be professional and kind. There's not a nazi in the bunch and they keep me laughing quite a bit.

One day we took a couple of humvees and did a driving navigation course. We made th course up as we went and it turned into an excuse to drive really fast over bumpy and windy roads and up steep hills. It was fantastic fun. We got out and took some pictures from the top of a mountain and had a great time. The rocks we saw were amazing. One showed one rock being covered by what was once molten rock which has been eroded to expose the tougher rock below. Pretty cool stuff. It was cool to see the rock that was once "marbled" and the softer rock that provided that marbling has since been eroded away by wind and rain to leave the bed rock looking sliced and diced.

I took a group pic and forgot to put the front of my freakin hat down after looking through the camera. GOSH!! IDIOT!!

I was lucky enough to take a flight near the end of our training and had a fantastic time. The lower and faster we flew the bigger my grin grew. It was great.

We lived in what we called the "Hooch" or "Hotel Ocho" It had a cement pad and a swamp cooler. So not too bad.

Now all of these pics I took while out there. This is the first time I have thought that the Salt Lake looked good.


Here's to S-3 and a couple S-2 people as well. May all cooks rot in ...um...cook land!