Pre- July 4th Trivia:

Who said the following?

1. Your President is lying to you.

2. This war is illegal.

3. You cannot win the war.

The answer depends on the timeframe!

July 1942- Tokyo Rose...

July 2007- The Democratic Congress!

Tip o' the hat once again to Blackfive.

Living in a Little Town...

On the left is that big old Oak tree I referred to in an earlier post. Behind it- Casa Greybeard.
It's a small place, more than adequate for our needs now that we've converted Big Bubba's old bedroom to a TV/Computer room. On 2 1/2 acres, what you can't see in this picture is the full-of-fish 5 acre pond that abuts the property in the back.

I was thinking the other day about how we ended up in this home. Have you ever considered the chain of events that lead you to live where you live, or work where you work?

My parents bought a home in a small community South of Indianapolis, Indiana, and lived there for more than 30 years. When I was drafted in 1966, I could not remember living anywhere else. I went to school there, delivered newspapers for five years there, worked at a Service Station and two different Restaurants there. That community was a second family to me... kids couldn't get into too much mischief, 'cause if ya did some neighbor would be on the phone tattlin' on ya in a millisecond!

I've lived in lots of areas in this country... visited in many, many more.
I still have strong feelings and very fond memories of growing up in Central Indiana.
One of the reasons we live where we now live is because this area reminds me in many, many ways of the community where I grew up. Something that happened last week reinforced that feeling...

We still walk often, Sara Jean and I, for fitness and to help control our weight. One day last week we were finishing our 2.2 mile walk, and we waved at "Ed" as he worked in his garden.
Ed is elderly... just lost his lifetime bride a year or so ago. He stays busy in the Spring through Fall by planting and working a beautiful vegetable garden.
Ed waved back, then shouted and indicated we should stop. He got into his John Deere "Gator" and came our way...
The bed of the Gator was full of fresh produce...
"You guys like broccoli?"
"How 'bout cabbage? There's lots of cabbage... help yourself."

Fresh, straight outta the garden, and the price was RIGHT!
Hard to beat, huh?
Small town life can be wonderful.

AStar/TwinStar Crash

A pretty dramatic video here of an AStar or TwinStar, I can't tell which, going into the drink. It's not good to jump to conclusions from looking at a video, but it sure looks as if this pilot was not in control of this helicopter. That four people survived this crash says a great deal about the toughness of the airframe!
I have 1100 hours in the AStar 350D (Ecureuil), and for the most part enjoyed flying that machine. But they sure seem to be having a rash of hydraulic systems failures in recent times.
UPDATED:
The second video happened longer ago than I thought- 4May 2004.
If you are interested, the accident report is here.

What? Me...Worry?

Someone bold enough to leave a comment
authored by "Anonymous" (!!) called my blog "uninteresting"
and contends I'm preachin' to a choir of two of ya...
I know who the two of ya are! (I even know where ya live, so be VERY careful with your comments!)

Anyway, by now the two of you know the Senate's Immigration Bill went down in flames, much to the chagrin of Ted Kennedy and his bedmate, George W.
Good riddance.

Now what?
As dense as our elected representatives have been, there can be NO question we now have their undivided attention! So now that we know they are listening, which direction do we want them to turn?

I keep hearing the number... 12 million.
Twelve million illegals in our midst.
And that statement is always followed by the assertion that we can't possibly deport that many criminals. Or the statement is made that we need these folks to do work that normal citizens won't do. And my opinion is that this work would in fact be done by normal citizens if the pay was adjusted to meet market forces. (I expounded in an earlier post about the craziness of raising the minimum wage while paying such low wages for this type work... attracting illegals.)

Here's the deal from my perspective:
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
First- build the damn fence we were promised during the Reagan administration!
That will stem the tide of humanity invading the country.

Then comes the "one bite at a time"... start arresting illegals when and where they are found, and insure we can identify them in the future. Those that are arrested for being here illegally must be made aware they will be ineligible for re-entry into the country. This will motivate illegals to leave the country if they hope to return and work legally.

Finally, Border Patrol agents should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs...
Release and re-employ Compean and Ramos!

Rubbin' Elbows With the Experts

The Oak tree in our front yard is majestic... at least four feet in diameter and forty feet tall.
I'm afraid to guess how old it is. (Old!) Every few years it bears acorns the size of plums. Squirrels find and bury some of those for a future meal. They bury more than they can eat, so in the Spring, many Oak seedlings seem to stick their heads into the sunlight overnight.
Three years ago I made note where four of them were with the intention of transplanting them to places on our property where they'd have a better chance of becoming a mighty Oak like their predecessor. A couple days later when I got the mower out to mow the lawn I noticed they were gone. I was puzzled, but in the rush to get the mowing done, quickly forgot about it. I wish now my memory had served me better.
This year it happened again. Three seedlings popped up, and I actually marked them by poking sticks in the ground around them to insure I didn't mow them down by accident. Again, when I began my mowing duties, the seedlings had magically disappeared. I think I know why they disappeared... they were stolen from me. And I think I know the culprit. You can see her pictured above. She's a beauty, but she'll steal from you when you're not lookin'.

I grew up in Central Indiana. I lived in the same house, in the same rural community for 18 years. Never in all that time did I see a whitetail deer, dead or alive. Now when I go back to visit my old stomping grounds, it's out of the ordinary to make the trip without seeing several dead Does alongside the road, killed by cars or trucks.
I puzzled over the fact that I couldn't remember deer in our community while growing up, and even asked several friends that were hunters about it. None had a satisfactory answer for me. So I did a little digging and found the explanation is pretty much what you might guess, covered pretty well in this article.
Left unanswered is what caused the population to be "pushed to extinction" by the 1930's...
one can only assume it was caused by over-hunting. I'm pleased to read that in Indiana the numbers of deer are decreasing. That's not true here in my present State of residence...
they are real nuisance, and the numbers of them dead alongside the road is frightening and sad.

As you know, I just finished the work I'm lucky to be able to do annually... herd geese with biologists with our State Department of Natural Resources. Within this group you can find an expert on most anything that lives in our State... Geese, Ducks, Deer, Wild Parsnip, Oak trees, etc.. So when I have questions I need answerin', I'll try to remember to ask one of the experts while we're drinkin' an adult beverage after we've finished harassing the geese for the day.

Some years ago, Big Bubba took Tae Kwon Do lessons at a facility that was co-located with an archery shooting range. While Big Bubba was working out, I'd bide my time watching the archers shooting at targets. On the wall of that store was a map of our State, showing deer concentrations. Two of the Counties were depicted in red, and my County was one of them. Checking the legend, I found that meant that deer population in my county was "greater than 25 per square mile". I mentioned my vanishing Oak seedlings and the deer population poster to one of the biologists one night last week, and it produced a strange smile...
"Greybeard, I'd be surprised if the deer population in your County wasn't 200 per square mile!"

Holy Cow.
It takes a lot of Oak seedlings and other "Deer snacks" to feed those kind of numbers!
(As I finished writing this post, a Doe rambled across our back yard from one treeline to another!)

Mommies and Daddies

You know the old saying, "even a blind pig will find an acorn now and then"?
Sometimes the blind pig finds enough acorns to gain quite a bit of weight! Again, the man thinks much like I do...
go read here.

Exit Strategy

"We didn't have an exit strategy!"
Don't ya hear that a lot these days? I do.
But here's my question-
When FDR gave his "Day Which Will Live in Infamy" speech,
what was our stated "exit strategy"?
Please provide me a link.
Thank you.

2007 Goose Roundup

We're halfway through this year's Goose roundup...
We're finished with the job up North, and will spend a couple days down further South in the State to count and band birds there. Don't ask me to explain why we do the Northern birds first... it makes no sense at all, because the Southern birds are more mature and more of them are through molting, and can therefore once again fly. Many of them say "screw this... I'm not putting up with being pushed by a helicopter", and simply take wing.

I hope to find time and inclination together to go more into detail about why this job is so fulfilling. I hope the inspiration will strike me sometime in about a week. But right now I'm recovering from 13 hours of very critical flying in two days time, and I just want to post a blurb and a couple photos for ya...

The above photo was a little risky to take. (It should enlarge if you click it.) Those trees were closer than they appear in the picture, and I had to let go of the collective while hovering about four feet above the water and take the picture with my left hand only. I'm surprised it turned out as clear as it did. You can see I am pushing about 25 birds up that finger of water. At the end of the line there are 15 or so State Biologists waiting to determine the birds' sex, then band the birds that have no bands. Those with bands will have their numbers recorded to check the files and determine where the bands were applied, and the age and sex of the bird.

One of the most wonderful things about this job, and why I love flying helicopters, is that I meet some pretty interesting folks along the way. Monday night several of us got invited to eat at a cookout. When we got to the proper address, this is what we saw:


Our host was an Elk farmer. He owned three of these gorgeous Bulls and 50 or so Cows and Calves. He was an interesting fellow with interesting stories to tell.

I'm goin' to bed, hopefully to sleep for 12 hours or more.
I'll have more on this years' roundup later.

Who you callin' incompetent, Willis?
I found a fun-to-say word that fits the Senate Majority Leader well:
Say it with me brothers and sisters... PUSTULE.
Eeeyewwww!

Hat Tip- Black Five

In Today's Mailbox:

From Desi and Big Bubba-

Who's a GOOD DAD?
You are! Yes, you are!
OH, LOOK at Him...
He's such a GOOD DAD!
Yes, HE IS!

To all you Fathers... Happy Dad's Day!

At War

You may say, "Well, Duh!"

But I'm not talking about Iraq, folks...
I'm talking about the war for the very soul of the U.S. of A.

Did you fly your flag today?
We did.

Google didn't.

But Dogpile did.
Not happy with the agenda bein' forced down your gullet by major information sources?
Like me, are you "Mad as Hell, and NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE?!"
Vote with your feet, people!
I like Dogpile. I think you will too.

Tip-O-The-Hat to ThirdWaveDave

"Atlantis, Houston, you are go for throttle up."

I'm sorry...
(No, of course I'm really not!)
I give you more of same fawning, patriotic attitude.

Well done Michael!

I Left My Heart... In Pensacola!

I've written before how I'm uncomfortable with the use of profanity or vulgarities. I don't commonly use them when speaking, and the fastest way to get me to avoid a blogpost is to use profane or crude language.
I don't need to be "dumbed down" that way.

Normally I'll delete comments that use language I'm uncomfortable with.
In my first Blue Angels post I made an exception, because I honestly no longer want to share air with Liberal-Socialists, much less my tax dollars! In that post, others... not me, used the term a**holes, and mothaf***ers for such individuals. This time I left those comments... obviously those commenters think the strong language fits.
Me, I just think some "sheep" are incredibly naive, and like Neville Chamberlain in his dealings with Hitler, will one day look so stupid they won't even admit to having such opinions.

For more reasons than I can easily list, (but will one day try), I'm proud of my sister.
A Viet Nam era Navy Veteran herself, she has tried six-ways-to-sundown to leave a comment on that original post, to no avail. So she did something better...
She wrote her own profanity-free post.

Tough, sensitive chick, my Sister!

Thunderstruck!

Sorry Mom- You WON'T like the "noise" on this video, but many of us love a rockin' tune coupled with great aviation images... This one put a smile on the face of this ol' Snake driver. (Watch for the aerobatic moves by the Apache at the end of the video.)
Thanks to YouTube, Army Aviation, and AC/DC!

Why Secession?

Because I no longer want my tax dollars spent defending people who think this way...
From KGO-TV in S.F.:

Jun. 8 - KGO - Three local peace groups and a San Francisco supervisor are working on a plan to end the Blue Angels flight shows over the city.

The Blue Angels navy fighter pilots usually perform during Fleet Week in October.

The event adds about $4 million dollars to the local economy but critics say the flyovers are a public safety risk and create air and noise pollution.

The groups Code Pink, Global Exchange, and Veterans for Peace are working with Supervisor Chris Daly on a resolution that would ban the event.

Let these "people" defend themselves.

UPDATE:
My brother-from-another-mother is 'way ahead of me...
Check his thoughts, and his worthwhile links here.

UPDATE II:
McQ at QandO nails it...

"Public safety, air pollution and fuel waste. Well heck, those sound like perfect reasons to shut down the airport there. Heck one of those big old fuel wasting air polluters could fall out of the sky and hit a CodePink demonstration being held for some other inane and stupid reason.

Wouldn't want that would we?"

Another Look At Secession!

Caution- Rant follows!:

Most would agree, this country is more politically divided than it has been in a long, long time... maybe even since the Civil War era.
I certainly feel it, and I'm not comfortable with it.

As a Conservative, I can no longer watch the news on ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, or either of the CNN channels. Deceptions or outright lies destroyed any credibility they once had. I continually gag when I listen to anything on National Public Radio. (I listened to and contributed to them for years... no more!)
I can no longer read the New York Times, Time, or Newsweek...
what I read or hear about the war in Iraq at any of those sources contradicts what my eyewitness- returning from combat friends tell me, or what I can read online from Independent News sources and bloggers who don't have an "I hate anything Bush/Military" agenda.

July of last year I jokingly wrote this piece about the possibility that more conservative citizens could form a Union with like-minded souls. As time has passed, I have given more serious thought to that idea as I have been hurt and disappointed by Liberal/Socialist friends and relatives. I no longer want to expend energy supporting people who don't share values I feel at my very core!

I admit that I smiled when this article was brought to my attention, (takes a few seconds to load). Obviously others, even folks at the opposite end of the political spectrum, are beginning to feel as I do.
C'mon folks, if Liberals and Conservatives all work together, we actually might be able to pull this off!

I'm terrified of what I see in the upcoming election.
I'm disgusted with illegal immigration, and I'm sick to death of folks that want to call illegal alien criminals "undocumented workers".
I no longer want to "Press One" to continue in English.

I'm tired of looking at the coming train wreck called Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security-
seeing Liberal politicians veto any market-based ideas about making those programs solvent.
I'm incredulous, having to participate in a government forced Ponzi scheme, with no private market-based alternative available.

I'm sick and tired of calling an efficient interrogation procedure torture, when it takes only a few seconds to COMPLETELY RECOVER after being "tortured"!

I'm at my wits end, being told to ride my bicycle everywhere or to use public transportation, while Liberal hypocrites arrive at Gala events in stretched limousines, or build 30,000 square foot homes with money garnered while making a mess of our medical system.
I'm just generally worn out by all the negativity.
And the capper... I know EXACTLY what the definition of "IS" is!
Sheesh!

It won't be easy, but if we start the movement now, we might actually be able to get a Presidential Candidate talking about a peaceful division. It won't happen quickly, and we have to be careful in order to avoid the events that happened the last time a division of the country was attempted.
But I want to be surrounded by like-minded individuals...
I want to be surrounded by those that "do".
My heroes don't quit until they accomplish the goals they set out to achieve...
I no longer want to support quitters. They make my heart ache. They sap the lifeblood of the country.

Frequently, comments left here at "Pitchpull" by Liberals/Socialists indicate they'd like to be rid of me as much as I'd like to be rid of them...
Let's get the ball rollin'.
Talk it up. Blog about it. Talk with your elected officials.
It's something about which even Liberals can have a positive attitude!

What's sad about this?
I'm not sure I'm joking any longer...
Democrats have a vision for this country that I don't share.
They, and most of our Mainstream Media have an agenda...
They want George W. Bush... who was elected only because the other Candidate was a traitorous liar... to fail...
They want the country to fail.

Although I'm not sure they'd agree with my "secession" idea, I know I'm not alone in my feelings of discontent:
Go here, or here, and read posts and comments from others who are tired of the "same ole, same ole".

The phrase I used when trying to motivate Big Bubba is still true-
"If ya wanta keep gettin' what you're gettin', keep doin' what you're doin'!".
I want to quit hitting myself in the head with that hammer.

Educate me.
Agree, or disagree?

Comparison

Scanner is hooked up, and Big Bubba showed me how to use it...
Now all I have to do is sort through stacks and stacks of loose pictures and select the ones I want to share with ya.

On this one, I was scheduled to fly with Terry, and a monster was nearly at our doorstep. Luckily Terry had brought his camera, so we couldn't resist pushing the R22 over for this comparison shot-
the biggest U.S. helicopter ever made, next to one of the smallest!

Do You Detect The Smell of Sulphur?

UPDATED, with a look from a different angle, by Roger Simon.


He doesn't like George Bush, so obviously he's a man of the people!


Taking up the cause of the oppressed people of the world!

Liberal Democrats all can unite behind this great man!

So a TV station in Venezuela starts telling lies about him...
what's he supposed to do?
He does the same thing any good Progressive would do...
he insured the lying stopped!
Thousands of obviously rich Venezuelan Republicans have taken to the streets to protest this great man's actions at furthering the needs of the oppressed.

We have a phrase for this, don't we?
He's bein' SWIFTBOATED!
And now that he's in trouble, where are these good friends?
Why aren't they coming to his aid?
Fair-weather friends, indeed!
Another TV station has begun to tell the same lies... more swiftboating!

C'mon Cindy, Danny, and Harry!
Show your mettle...
Rally behind this great leader!

From Exhaustion to Elation

Ted needed time off...
It's Memorial Day weekend, so it's nice to think he might spend it enjoying time with his bride and new baby. I agreed to work Friday and Saturday for him.
Friday unfolded normally... I had two flights, dodging a few area thunderstorms, and logged 1.9 hours of daytime in my logbook.

Saturday started similarly.
Thunderstorms in the area kept the BK117 in the hangar until the phone rang a little before 11 O'Clock-
"Can you check weather for a flight to *****?"
I checked. There were a few isolated cells around, but nothing we couldn't drive around.

We flew 15 minutes to pick up the 27 year old guy... trimming trees with his Dad, a 4 inch diameter branch had fallen on his head, knocking him down and out. We loaded him aboard the helicopter and flew another 12 minutes to the Trauma Center. After dropping off patient and crew, I flew to our downtown base to refuel and wait for my crew to call after finishing their paperwork.

But then the phone rang again.
"Can you take the Children's Hospital team to ******?"
Another weather check... more thunderstorms, but they were still pretty isolated.
"Yeah, I can do it. Call my crew and make arrangements to drive 'em back here."

Takeoff to landing at the Children's Hospital took 3 minutes. I loaded their stretcher aboard, insured the 3-person team, (Doctor, Nurse, and Paramedic) was safely situated aboard the aircraft, and gave them a safety briefing as we took off on the 60 minute flight to pick up a 2 year old girl in respiratory distress.

After landing and getting the team on the way to help the little girl,
I buttoned up the aircraft and flew 5 minutes to the local airport for enough fuel to make the flight back home, considering the possibility of having to dodge Thunderboomers along the way.

Hot refueling was quick, and kept me from having to log another expensive start on the BK...
Another 5 minute flight found me back at the hospital, waiting for the Children's team to finish their preparations to take the little girl to the city for the care she needed.

The 55 minute flight back was routine... a few showers served to clean the bugs off the windshield.

After dropping off the little girl and her caregivers, I returned to our downtown base and hot refueled, loaded my Nurse and Paramedic, and flew the 22 minute flight back to our remote base.

We didn't stay long. Thirty minutes later, the phone rang again...
"I need a weather check for a scene flight at ******."
"Okay, I can do that."
"Then your flight is a go, for a 19 year old male involved in an ATV accident."

We landed in the middle of a two-lane road 18 minutes later. The hard-headed 19 year old was not wearing a helmet when he crashed at something near 70 miles per hour, making mush of the back of his skull. I flew him to the Trauma Center, and by the time my crew was finished with all their legal responsibilities, I was earning overtime pay on the flight back home.
On my 12+ hour shift I logged 3.9 hours of flight time and 15 takeoffs and landings. I felt like I had been carrying the helicopter around on my back all day.

I popped an oldies CD in the player and called Sara Jean to let her know I was exhausted, but finally on my way home. We have a routine when I get home... I pull in the drive and shut off the ignition. Sara Jean opens the door and sends Lucy out to greet her "Pop". Then Lucy and I walk to the house together.

I drained my bladder and washed my hands. When I turned to walk out of the bathroom, the door was completely blocked...
Fatigued and confused, I had difficulty computing this vision blocking my way-
260 pounds and 6' 3" tall, Big Bubba had flown home over the long weekend for the first time since we moved him to Mesa, Arizona in February.

Hugs. Tears. More hugs.
"I'm so glad you're home."
"Me too, Dad."

What a wonderful gift!
Have a nice weekend everyone, and remember the reason we celebrate it.

Liberator Vs. Flying Fortress-

In my previous post I asked if you could guess which of the two bombers I decided to ride in.

I chose the Liberator.
My thought process was pretty much in line with Teller's comment...
There were over 10,000 B24's built during WWII, yet "The Dragon and his Tail" was advertised as the only example of the type flying... the others presumably cut up for their scrap value.
There was some talk of a B24 being used as a firefighting water-bomber in South America, but knowing there are a handful of B17's making the fly-in circuit, I figured I might get a chance to fly in one of them at some future date.

I arrived at 0900 and received my briefing from the Captain. There would be three of us aboard... Captain, Co-Pilot, and yours truly. He led me to the crew compartment at the rear of the airplane, showed me my seat, and gave me my seat-belt brief. I was to remain seated and belted until he indicated it was safe to move around by sounding a bell and turning on an indicator light. At that point I was free to move around the airplane at will until he sounded the alarm prior to landing, when I was to return to my seat and buckle up.
He showed me the "catwalk" that extends over the bomb bay- an approximately 12' long, six-inch wide walkway with cable handholds. He cautioned me to be careful while crossing the catwalk... "The Bomb Bay doors won't hold your weight if you fall on them."
Reassuring!

The takeoff was wonderful-
Four big Pratt & Whitneys singing at the top of their lungs.
Then the Bell rang and light came on. I unbuckled and moved to the tail-gunners post and sat there, looking out the plexiglass windscreen, imagining I was firing a .50 Cal machine gun at menacing Messerschmitt 109's.

I took a deep breath and negotiated the catwalk, knowing we were at 2500' AGL and a stumble could make life interesting for a few seconds. I stuck my head up into the hole that provided access to the cockpit, chatted with the crew, and viewed an instrument panel that with the exception of a few new radios, was mostly original equipment.

I carefully made my way back to the crew station in the waist and took a picture of the shadow of the B24 making it's way across the ground. From that vantage point there is a great view of the big rudders and the rear of the wing.

As I said, the flight lasted 75 minutes, so it ended too soon...
But I have pictures and memories that will last the rest of my life.