revchuck 

It's hard to sum up, but I'll give it a try. Out of 12 years on active duty, I was stationed in Colorado, twice in Monterey (first at the Defense Language Institute and then at Fort Ord), Arizona, and three different places in (then West) Germany. I computed firing data for 155mm and 8" howitzers, was in overall charge for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical defense training for a 500 person Engineer Battalion in Germany, worked as a translator/interpreter for French for that unit when working with francophone NATO allies and also for VIPs at the general officer level, came back and pushed troops as a squad leader in a transportation unit, went to Officer Candidate School and was commissioned in Military Intelligence, went back to Germany as an intel officer and did a bunch of unglamorous office work and also some other stuff. Then I pissed off my boss and he wrote an efficiency report that ensured I wouldn't stay on active duty. I came off active duty straight into the Army Reserve and was a Company Commander and staff officer, then accepted a job in Louisiana as a French teacher and transferred to the Louisiana Army National Guard in August 1990. Then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and I was back on active duty with the Guard, waiting to be sent over there; the 100 Hour War was over before we had a chance to go. I finished that school year and was offered a job with a new state-level distance education program, and I taught French and Spanish for that program until the end of the 2005-2006 school year. Of course, during that time the US went into both Iraq and Afghanistan, and I spent from February 2003-February 2004 first in Iraq, then in Afghanistan. I also spent four months in New Orleans due to Katrina. After I finished teaching I went back on active duty for about two years as mission manager for a team of European-language linguists doing various and sundry translations for the Department of Defense. That was probably the best job I've ever had; I ran up against the reservist-with-too-much-active-duty wall and had to come off active duty again. I was fortunate enough to land a job as a contract intel analyst with Lockheed-Martin and then with SRA International when L-M lost the contract and did that for five years. CENTCOM cut its contract analysts by 40% in mid-2013, and my office was shut down. I had retired from the Guard two years earlier, so I made lemonade and rode 8200 miles that year, most of that after I was canned. I never quite hit a 1000 TSS week...I think my highest was 970. I had a 100 CTL for a while. I had a short and unhappy stint as an insurance salesman, and now I just have my "retirement job" working at a bike shop.

So yeah, I've had a pretty good run.

LAJ

Bad ass, @revchuck. Well done.

Heathpack 

I rode the Magic Bike at Fort Ord with @sarals.

Mr. H was a pilot in the Navy, deployed in Sicily when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. He got sent to Saudia Arabia to help with the naval blockade (I think). But he flew a submarine reconnaissance plane and Iraq had no subs, so really he just sat around a lot and went shopping on his days off. In theory, he could have dropped bombs from his plane instead of sonar buoys.

Since you speak French and Spanish, you are in for sure when the Masters Racing Forum training camps start happening in Europe.

chasm54

@revchuck
Nondescript? You could take the view that all of us are nondescript (I'll make exceptions for Mozart and Michelangelo, and a few others) or that none of us are. Everyone's story is interesting.

YogaKat

Herbie53 I suppose it depends on what part of Texas. I have family in the DFW area and fracking and shaking has started down there in the last couple or so years.

revchuck you really have had an interesting life. I would imagine it has been quite a trip down memory lane going through everything for the move.

sarals 

Indeed. And thank you, Chuck!!!

Happy New Year, my friend!

sarals 

Yes you did!!

Other than that, I've got nothing.

Other than:

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!!

revchuck 

+1!

Racer Ex 

Chuck, did you do your NBC training at Ft. Lewis? I went through the NCO course there back in 81.

Happy new year everyone! Be careful on Zwift today, a lot of hungover riders out there 😀

revchuck 

Ex - Nope, did mine while I was over in Germany. Spent six and a half years over there altogether.

Cleave

Happy New Year everyone!
@revchuck, that was a pretty descriptive description. Ever get a ride on a C-17 during your "travels" abroad?

revchuck 

Cleave - Nope, even on my last deployment the only military aircraft I rode in were C-130s and a C5A once. Did a combat takeoff in the C5A - didn't know they could do that.

sarals 

Oh yeah they can. The A models with the TF39's sounded incredible when they were doing that, too!

shovelhd

They used to fly over my house daily until they shipped them to another base.

sarals 

Aluminum cloud....

Voodoo76

Live about mile and a half from Randolph, right on the approach. Don't get too much big stuff flying in here, impressive when it does. Got to see a C5 do a short takeoff a couple air shows ago, amazing sight.

shovelhd

On the other hand they moved the F-15's from Otis to a base 15 miles away. They are fun to watch.

Cleave

Hi, all of this talk about C-5s makes me sad.

When I was in design engineering on the C-17 program, some of us would take field trips to C-5 bases and go to the maintenance hangars to talk with the crews. Basically they'd say things like, DON'T design the C-17 like this with respect to several systems. We tried to make sure the C-17 improved on every aspect that was similar to all of the existing inventory at that time; C-130, C-141, and C-5. Based on the feedback from today's maintenance and flying crews, I think we did pretty well.

sarals 

It's nice to know there are engineers in this discipline who actually listen to the people who have to work on and fly their products. It doesn't surprise me that you're one of them Cleave. If only you'd had a hand in designing the EC135....

Heathpack 

I have a vet student from Scotland spending two weeks with me starting today. He's not actually from Scotland, he's from LA, just going to vet school over yonder.

We had a neck surgery to do today on a big dog, so it took awhile. I was making conversation & asked him what he studied in undergrad.

Classical trombone at USC.

Really?! Of course I have issued a command performance.

revchuck 

Her Ladyship desires...

chasm54

That's interesting. Glasgow or Edinburgh? Both great cities to be a student.

Also interesting that he got in with that background. Veterinary studies are fantastically competitive over here, he must have been able to demostrate serious creds in sciences.

Heathpack 

Glasgow.

Actually he was saying that the reason he went to school in the UK was because he didn't have to get as many pre-requisite classes done prior to vet school. So he would have needed another year of undergraduate studies before applying in the States, just getting the science pre-reqs that he needed to apply here.

I believe the European model for veterinary education is that it's a 6 year program, a combined undergraduate & professional curriculum. In the States, it's 4 years of undergraduate studies (maybe 4.5 to 5 years if you major in something unrelated like English Lit or Classical Trombone) then 4 more years of professional school. So in the US, you have certain classes, like basic chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, physical chemistry, physics, calculus, basic biology, and basic nutrition as an undergrad. There is some overlap in vet school- veterinary physiology for example is a year-long course in vet school that covers a lot of the same ground as biochem and basic biology that you had as an undergrad. Whereas in Europe, you'd cover all that material but just once.

The European model or veterinary education is more efficient, the US model is a little more thorough. When I was at the University, they told us that we couldn't expect students to really know something until they'd been exposed to the concept 7 times. I thought that was interesting. So to me, two years of important stuff like physiology/biochem/bio is way better than just one year.

For me, I then went beyond vet school for an internship and residency, which is another 4 years.

So I had concepts in undergrad, then an an underclassman in vet school. Then I'd be asked questions on those concepts as a senior student in clinics. Then as an intern. Then as a resident. Then I had to study for a qualifying exam, I needed to pass that one to be allowed to sit for my board-certification exam. So I studied the concepts again. Then I sat for my board exams and I studied the material yet again. There you have it- seven passes through the material over 13 years and finally I kind of know the stuff, you really can't escape it.

Lol, my colleague at work has a coffee mug that says on it "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have mistaken your google search for my veterinary education".

chasm54

That's all interesting, HP. You're right about the UK system. In terms of preparation it may not be so different in practice, because virtually nobody gets into veterinary school as an undergrad unless they have three "A" levels (the exams taken at 18 on the basis of which Universities make their selections) at the highest possible grade in sciences, including biology and chemistry.

If he's at Glasgow he'll be feeling a bit damp. It's just been announced that December was the UK's wettest month (not just wettest December) since records began, and Glasgow got nearly three times it's average December rainfall - and Glasgow's average is enough to make it one of the wettest cities here.

Heathpack 

Big Bear Lake, California. Today in sunny SoCal.