Travel in the van and looking forward to seeing an old friend of ours and my family- Col. Jay Aanrud. We have been in touch with each other since my first visit to Alaska and hung out in NYC a few times we met each other's families, and his daughter even moved to NY!
I can't lie- I was a bit emotional knowing we were going to hang, and I know he had a lot planned for us- I had no idea how awesome it was going to be.
It is Red Flag Week here and at the airbase. This means pilots from all over the world come and compete in a series of exercises. The best in the world is all in one place, competing and flying. To me, it is like Top Gun except "Mostly Airforce instead of Navy" and "realistic"...
Jay (if you read past blogs) is in charge of what they call the Aggressors... who basically "play" the bad guys. So in my head not only is he Ice Man.. he is Cobra! I bet he is in heaven getting to go at it with these guys. Fighter Pilots seem like a competitive bunch.
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| Awards ceremony we got invited to |
The Army had some guys present.. you have to look close. They are in camo, so they are hard to notice!
I can't believe we got to be part of this long line of tradition. All the Airmen seemed so cool with us being there. We got a tour of the Airforces "digs" and, of course, Jays "Bad guy area."
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| Dick Heads Bar |
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| My Favorite Plane the A-10. Don't tell Jay. |
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| Puff the Magic Dragon |
Sitting in the cockpit of Jays Fighter Jet. Pretty awesome! They are designed, so you don't have to think about it; you just do it... I was confused and couldn't even think about it... These things are so amazing, and the crew chief showed us how hard it is to keep these maintained.. maybe not hard for them, but it blew my mind someone even thought to build this.
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| We watched a young Airman get promoted. What a big day for this guy!!! |
We went to Another awards ceremony- it was pretty awesome- This was a significant time to be here. All these airmen, not just from the US but other countries as well. It is the Olympics for pilots!
We were invited to go to the officers club for the pilots- what an excellent time. Jay taught us the rules to Crud- played on a pool table, and we did comics vs. the Pilots.
The Comics all got "Call signs," "handles," or nicknames. Usually, it comes from something embarrassing. Mine sounds cool unless you know the story. I am CHARGER: not because of the cool car or something like that... because I am always looking for a plug for my phone charger... I finally found one, and when I plugged in, the power went out.
I can't say why (ask them to hear the story), but the other comics' names are Liz "Hangry" Mieli. Jimmy "the Greek" Mendrinos and Carole "strap on" Montgomery.
Max, who played with the pilots (pilot of a P5) is Max "Throttle" Mayer. And Jay "Hoser" Aanrud.
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| Still Daylight... I'm going to hallucinate. |
