The Big Ugly Flying F___....

No, I don't mean me.... but I will be flying

the B-52H Stratofortress (aka "BUFF")

We had our assignment night on Friday and I found out that after I graduate from pilot training, I will be going to training for the B-52. As you can see from above, it's a bomber, and it's known for holding A LOT of bombs. It's one of our main planes with nuclear weapon capabilities and even though it was made in 1961, it's still one of the main weapon systems to get the job done. The Air Force figured that it would be too expensive to build a new bomber with its capabilities, so it just keeps getting upgraded over and over.

Here's the air force fact sheet -
http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=83

As far as assignments go, you may recall a year ago that I said I did NOT want this plane and that it's just a big ugly whatever. Well....times at ENJJPT have changed. When Ellen and I first got here, the drop nights consisted of lots of fighters and a few bombers. If you were anywhere near the top half of the class, you were basically guaranteed an F-16 or F-15. Since then, the F-16s unit has gotten so overmanned and backed up that they only give out an F-16 once in a few months. The F-15C has been replaced by the F-22 so they've pretty much stopped handing those out. (And it's too early for the F-22s to be a real option for pilot training students). The A-10 is starting to get overmanned and they cancelled one of the next training classes so that's becoming even harder to get. The F-15E is still open, but because it's the only real fighter available to us, it's obviously hard to get. Since last year, they've always started ramping up the "special ops" forces in the war. So we've been introduced to the U-28, NSA (Non-Specific Aircraft), RC-12, and soon, the MC-12. All of those planes are basically turboprop planes that are made to go somewhat undercover and deliver small groups of troops to remote locations where other planes can't get in. Interesting mission but when it comes to the plane, I could basically be flying the same model at some civilian commuter job. And lastly, the UAV (or UAS - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle/System). UNMANNED, yikes!

So here's what our class got:
F-16
F-15E x3
B-52 x3
NSA x2
UAV x4

So as much as I was dissapointed not to get a fighter, I was damn glad that I didn't get an NSA or UAV. And without any B-1, A-10, or F-15C, if you weren't getting an F-15E, the B-52 is basically the next best thing. There was a lot of mixed emotions (with an emphasis on the frustrated dissapointed ones) going around the room, but overall the assignment night as a party was pretty succesful. Ellen volunteered to make ALL of the desserts and they were a huge hit. We used our class funds to buy food from a local BBQ place that everybody really liked since normally, assignment night classes get the crappy overpriced food from the O-club. Our theme was Merry Chuckmas (since we're the Chuck Norris patch class). We had a person from each flight face off, take five steps, chug their drink, and then draw against the other person. Whoever wins gets to find out their assigment first by crushing a paper-mache head of an IP (Instructor Pilot) that they chose. See below....



And of course, the pictures-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2500422&l=fdcb9&id=1913937

Another highlight of the night was one of the guys in our class drove in his tractor that he had bought when he first moved here and completely restored on his own in a garage. He's a total farmboy from Iowa so it was pretty impressive to see his creation. Ellen had trouble deciding whether the tractor was cooler than my motorcycle, and I'd rather not say which won. And of course, our commander and other assorted "important people" made a fuss about how he parked it on the grass. The Air Force is always fussing about their grass...

Ellen also hosted an ENJJPT spouses meeting at our house the night before as it's tradition for the senior class spouse to host it. About 20-30 people showed up so it was a big hit. Needless to say, the kitchenaid mixer Ellen got for pre-Christmas has been putting in a lot of hours. Ellen has made a lot of freinds and connections through the group so we're already friends with a couple who's at B-52 training right now and another couple who will be moving there in January. "It's all about who you know" as they say.

In other news, my motorcycle has been throwing a tantrum with the cold (below 60 that is) weather. And that combined with me not riding it for a few weeks because I've been putting in such long days at pilot training, made it decide not to start up anymore. I tried so many times to get it going, that I eventually drained down the battery. So with the help of a guy in my flight who has a battery charger, I got out my mighty screwdriver (so to speak) and got the battery out. After a lot of trial and error, I got the thing recharged, put it back into the bike, and it started like a champ. So I took my victory ride today.

Yesterday, we had a good friend who I knew all the way back from Drill Team in CAP (Civil Air Patrol) come visit. Out of the 20 or so goofballs that I became really good friends with on Drill Team, a surprising number of them have ended up becoming soldiers and airmen in our military (watch out!). This gent is currently a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army and is going through artillary training up at Ft Sill, Oklahoma. So we got together, told old stories of stupid CAP shananagins and new stories of our crazy military shananagins like old farts do.

What's next, you ask?

Well, I still have to finish the Low-Level phase for pilot training. I've got 5 flights left before the checkride. We basically fly in formation, at 360 knots (6 miles/minute), 500 feet above the ground, using unreliable maps that we spend countless hours making on a crappy computer program, to get to a specific target in the deadlands of Texoma. It's pretty cool stuff but I think now, we're all really ready for pilot training to be done with. BUT, we are also supposed to get 3 four-ship formation rides before we graduate, so that will be a lot of fun- sort of a reward for all the many many, many crappy parts of pilot training. And in two weeks, December 19th, I GET MY WINGS!

Sometime around then, I'll also get my orders and figure out when we move to the B-52 training. But we do know the where part of it - Barksdale AFB at Shreveport, Louisiana. It's pretty much the same distance from Chicago, but about 5 hours East of where we are now at Sheppard AFB, TX. The training program is 6 months long and then after that, I'll either stay at Barksdale for my first tour or I'll go to the only other base where the B-52 is, at Minot AFB, North Dakota. Since the training classes are small (only about 6 people), they basically try to split it 50/50 as to who goes where (and you get a vote for where you want). I haven't been to either of those two states, so there might be some strategic vacationing to see which one we like better. We hope to also squeeze in a visit to Chicago sometime between graduation from pilot training and starting B-52 training at Barksdale.

So there ya go- I'm gonna be a bomber pilot, flying 10 hour missions and erasing entire villages off the map! Here's one more pic for dramatic effect...