“You don’t really learn how to swear until you learn to drive.”

May 27th, 2007 Just before sunset
June 2nd, 2007 – Early afternoonThe “blow” has headed inland, spreading the much needed rain….

Oh, the HYSTERIA! Yes, it is YOUR responsibility to have at least 3 days of MREs and stuff like that ready….

Cancel your summer vacation plans, and your Labor Day trip…we might get a CAT 5 or bigger hurricane between now and the end of October…be proactive!

MEGEN spent the afternoon at the beach the other evening and will soon be the subject of a short video. If you’ve been watching a little TV in the last few months, you might fully appreciate the theft of intellectual property used as a model, but just the same, I’m willing to bet you’ll have a wry smile on your face when you’re done watching it.

I just have to get to a computer with the right software to make sure the overlay fades in correctly….

Tomorrow, MEGEN will begin a longer journey to other distinctly naval environs, and there are more volunteers lined up with places for backdrops.

Stay tuned, tonight the snark email heads out to the other service team leaders.

OPORD and SOPs will be promulgated via “eyes only” to the Navy ValOUR-IT Team and also those who have come aboard for this operation. Check your email in boxes regularly!

Free range Open Trackbacks! What a deal!

What to discuss? How about the t-shirt?

The postal clerk had some rock music magazine he kept in his post office, up in the forward passageway. Often, on my daily messing and berthing inspections, I’d pass by and stick my head in to check the current status of the stowage of the place, which could range from neat and nearly empty to packed pretty full of large orange mail bags waiting to leave or to be sorted.

I paged through said magazine one day and noticed an article about concert shirts, which included one that said “Attila the Hun – Middle East Tour.” I commented on how I liked that one, particularly (if you caught it last week) since I had been posting sayings from “Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun” on my stateroom door during the cruise.

Very shortly before I was to leave the ship in Bharain and fly home, the PC3 handed me a folded up white t shirt. I unfolded it to see it was nicely hand lettered with “Attila the Hun Middle East Tour – Oct 89 – Mar 90.”

On the day I detached, the ship was also sailing to return to CONUS. I stood on the pier, watching my ship, my exclusive home for the last 5 months, single up, then take in all lines. As the 1MC passed the word “UNDERWAY! SHIFT COLORS!” I opened my shirt to reveal the “concert” shirt to the line handlers amidships, where the PC was.

For fear of the marker lettering running, that was the one time the shirt was worn, and only briefly. I changed out of it before I went to the airport and stowed it away for safe keeping.

I’m glad you asked….especially you from the Marine, Army and Air Force ValOUR-IT Teams.

“MEGEN” (say it sort of like like a girl’s name) is the “Most Exhaulted Golden NotEbook,” the trophy for the 2006 ValOUR-IT fund drive. (H/T: SteelJaw Scribe for the name)

MEGEN is going to help set up the fund collection efforts for this coming October/November campaign. If you other teams had done better, you wouldn’t be getting snarked by Team Navy like this. So, here’s the deal: MEGEN is going on a trip to many places Navy, to pose for pictures and allow the escorts to tell the story of ValOUR-IT along the way.

Today, MEGAN was fortunate enough to pose for a picture with a person from Navy history, a crewman of the USS MASON (DE-529), a destroyer escort in WWII crewed by African-Americans. Ben Garrison was a Radioman 3/C and plankowner on that ship and therefore is one of the Navy’s icons.We, Team Navy, are going to make a point of getting in contact with many people with strong affiliation to the Navy in order to be ready to flood the coffers of ValOUR-IT right out of the starting gate. Names and emails will be amassed to make sure we smoke you all and then we can plan on a second tour for MEGEN in 2008.Now, just to see how we’ll will douse this wonderful trophy in naval settings, you’ll have to come back here and see what our evil plans are to rub it in for the next several months. We’re not telling in advance, but know the locations will be well picked for maximum PR and donation effect.For any readers, if you’d like to kick in a few bucks to a great project to help the wounded troops, click here! Money is needed all year around, not just near Veteran’s Day. Thanks for your support!And Matt and Jimbo, Cassandra and John, time to get your game on!

Do you need to fact check, or are you just curious as to what happened today in aviation history?

Lilienthal’s “Jumping Off” place from the front – Credits – Gary Bradshaw; To Fly Is Everything

May 26th in aviation history:

* In 1923… Lieutenant H. G. Crocker lands at Gordon, Ontario, to complete a non-stop transcontinental south/north flight from Houston, Texas, of 11 hours, 55 minutes. (AYY)
* In 1942… The Northrop XP-61 Black Widow night fighter prototype flies for the first time. (AYY) [Such a a cool aircraft!]
* In 1970… The prototype Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner reaches a speed of 1,335mph, becoming the first commercial transport in the world to exceed Mach 2. (AYY)
* In 1972… Cessna Aircraft Corporation announces completion of the company’s 100,000th aircraft, becoming the first company in the world to achieve such a production figure. (OTM) [I’ve been a traveler in 172s, 180s, 182s, 205s, 206s, 210s, 214s….and on only a few occasions did I land with the plane]

U.S. Centennial of Flight has a searchable timeline part of the site to give you a hand.There is a section for educators that links to events month by month, that may be a good place to generate some ideas for blogging history.

Just a reminder to all those who try to profess they say they know what history will record at the moment something happens:

In 1967, when Governor Reagan and Senator Robert Kennedy debated a group of international college students, interesting things were said…

It sure seems to have taken a long time for a historian to remind us of this.

While not a total revelation — it was caught by a few early Reagan biographers — there was an event that occurred 40 years ago this month that has gone underreported and certainly unappreciated. The event concerns not only Reagan’s political life but that of an equally well-known rising star of the time: Robert F. Kennedy. It should be a permanent part of our mental history of Reagan’s rise, if not a permanent video exhibit at the Reagan Library and Museum.

On May 15, 1967, there was a fascinating debate between California’s new Republican governor, Ronald Reagan, and New York’s new Democratic senator, Robert F. Kennedy. The subject: the Vietnam War. The debate was titled “The Image of America and the Youth of the World,” and was billed by CBS as a “Town Meeting of the World.”
[…]

And, that wasn’t exactly what Governor Reagan said in 1967, but he did say the wall should be removed.

H/T: Chapomatic

CPT Chuck Z is trying to raise the funds to go to the biggest conference there is: Blog Expo.

He, accompanied by Matt and Jimbo from Black Five, will be able to stand up for us MilBloggers, but more importantly, Chuck, as the ValOUR-IT “patient 0,” will get the opportunity to tell his story to a bigger audience and thereby get more funds moving in that direction.Got a few non-tax deductible bucks to chip in? Do it here.

It sure couldn’t hurt, dropping three manly men in the middle of the Kos Kids to get more “support the troops” fever going on….

He said what? Here’s why:

After effects of the Toby Keith concert: Wrote this country music song while driving around in my humvee. Maybe later I’ll work out the guitar part and record.

The result?

The Free and the Brave
[Greyhawk]

Over in America, home of the free
Land of unlimited opportunity
People in the streets protest whatever they can
While over in Iraq and Afghanistan

The brave, far from home, are standing tall
toeing the line, so they can have it all
Some like to complicate it but it’s simple to me
<b><i>They’re making noise, we’re making history.</i></b>
[…]

(Click here for the rest of the song)

He already “wrote” the words for one song, which a group, 3db Down, used the words from one of his posts of his for his prior trip to the sandbox (2005).

I think he may have a career planned for retirement!