Memorial Day

From AF.mil:

5/26/2011 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz send the following Memorial Day message to the Airmen of the U.S. Air Force and their families:

As we pause this Memorial Day to honor those who have died in service of our great nation, it also is useful to reflect on what this day of remembrance reveals about the character of our nation and its people. History records that Maj. Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, formally designated May 30th, 1868, as a day to decorate the graves of the fallen.

History also suggests, however, that long before this formal decree, the people of several towns and cities organized local efforts to decorate service members' graves, demonstrating the deeply personal and heartfelt gratitude that Americans express for those who serve, and for those who sacrificed. Since its origin, Memorial Day has been an opportunity to pause and reflect on the sacrifices of the more than one million Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen who have made the ultimate sacrifice to secure our freedoms.

Let us also not forget those who are still counted among the missing, including more than 1,600 from action in Vietnam, 8,000 in Korea, and well over 73,000 in the Second World War. We also demonstrate America's character through our ceaseless efforts to account for each of them, with gratitude for their sacrifices and that of their families. No other nation in history has dedicated as much care, effort, and expense as we have to find our missing comrades and bring them home with the honor that they deserve. And, thanks to our staunch determination, 80 formerly missing service members, including 31 Airmen, have been returned to their families since January 2010.

Now that these 80 heroes have returned home, grateful Americans can decorate their graves on Memorial Day, too, along with those of many others who sacrificed all. This year, as we observe Memorial Day, let us renew not only our solemn gratitude for their sacrifice; let us also renew our thankfulness for having the privilege to serve such an exceptional nation. Your sacrifices, and those of your families, have earned America's respect. Our proud nation is truly grateful for your service.

We are indeed.  We're just as proud of, and grateful for, the soldiers, sailors, Marines, and coastguardsmen who serve.

About This Weekend

I normally wait until the actual day... as in the "designated holiday," which is this coming Monday... before I put up my Memorial Day post.  On further reflection my habit strikes me as bein' a lot like a day late and a dollar short.  Not for the lack of sentiment or sincerity, but for timeliness.  Therefore: just a reminder (as if you really needed one and I know YOU don't, Gentle Reader) as to what this weekend is all about.  Go give Lex a read, too.  He has a few great Memorial Day posts today (there are four links there).

Happy Mother's Day

I almost never get this right... is it "Mother's" with the apostrophe, or without?  Well, the Wiki sez "with," so that's the way we'll go.  And here's the third fourth annual iteration of our Mom's Day post, in part.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ah…dog poop. Probably one of the (very) minor reasons my second marriage failed…coz The Second Mrs. Pennington was largely in charge of the particularly odious chore— following behind three dogs, including two pretty good-sized ones— let’s say about 90% of it. And she never hesitated to point out that fact to me. 

[...]

The Mom’s Day image comes from new-to-me blog TGAW…who has great pics of Glacier National Park, in addition to providing me with this “wouldn’t it be great but it would NEVER frickin’ happen in real life” Mom’s Day illustration. Thanks, TGAW!!

Remind me to write about Glacier…some day.

But, seriously. Happy Mother’s Day to all my favorite Moms, and even to those who aren’t my favorites. I’ll remain cryptic on that last.

Call yer Mom!  Or better yet, give her a big hug and a kiss if you still can.  There comes a time in life when she won't be around, ya know.

Happy Easter

1 Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...

Image: Sistine Chapel. Hendrick van den Broeck (1519-1597) — Scenes from the Life of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ (H).
 

(Yes... it's the same thing I posted last post every year.  Some things cannot be improved upon.)

Happy New Year!

We went looking for a suitable HNY graphic earlier and were torn between the two you see above.  We decided to post both; that's not unreasonable, is it?  The top one is more traditional than the odometer but I like the odo concept, primarily because NEVER in my wildest dreams did I think I'd put this many miles on my poor ol' bod.  Funny how stuff happens, innit?

But seriously:  Happy New Year to you and yours, Gentle Reader.  2010 wasn't as bad as all that but 2011 could be better.  Just think: only two more years of Obama!  Oops.  Sorry about that.

A Christmas Toast

Merry Christmas yet again to you and yours, Gentle Reader.  I hope your Christmas Day was warm, peaceful and full o' love.

We're doing eggnog for our Christmas Day Happy Hour and basking in the warmth that's coming through the window here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  I didn't buy any rum but whiskey works JUST as well!

(tech note:  This is an accidental shot.  I didn't check the camera's settings before I took this pic; I had left the camera on shutter priority and the flash was disabled as a result.  I actually like this pic better than the one with the flash.  Accidental photography sometimes yields good results!  YMMV.)

Merry Christmas!

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S

God Bless Us, Every One!

And He's OFF!

Well, the jolly ol' guy in the red suit has already done New Zealand, Australia, all of Polynesia, and is currently in Indonesia as we speak.  And we have film, of course.

I love NORAD's annual Christmas exercise and while I don't go ALL the way back to the beginning, I do have some history with the program.  Here's a lil blurb I wrote in 2005:

Back when I was in the radar biz we used to do this sort of thing locally for the families of the guys at the radar sites where I was stationed. Back in the day every USAF long-range aircraft control and warning (AC&W) radar site had a video mapping device that fed programmed exercise video to Operations; the normal output from the video mapper was "canned" and consisted of video blips simulating actual aircraft. The video mapper was used to train ground-control intercept controllers and technicians during the course of “normal” business, but we put that video mapper to a much different use at Christmas. On Christmas Eve we'd load up a special video overlay and route it to the intercept control scopes in Operations. While "exercise" video consisted of fake bogeys (simple blips) and tracks to train intercept controllers and technicians, the special Santa video showed a sleigh and reindeer on the scopes, and of course the sleigh moved…traversing our radar coverage area. Not nearly real, but real enough for the kids that saw it! (And for the adults, too…those willing to “suspend disbelief,” as it were.)

The kids always got a big thrill out of the radar displays. Doing the Santa video was one of the most fun things I ever did while I was a radar guy.

My first Santa tracking experience was at Lompoc Air Force Station during Christmas of 1964.  A lot o' water has passed under the bridge since then, but I still get a kick out of tracking Santa.

USAF Santa Support

From a post of the same name I put up three years ago (hi-res versions of the pics are but a click away):

The folks (all volunteers) in the NORAD "Track Santa" boiler room, last year (2006).

Santa arrives via F-15

Santa arrives in yet another F-15

Santa's Own F-16?

Santa in his A-10

Santa arriving via C-130

One wonders how the ol' guy manages to stay qualified in all these various airframes not to mention passing his annual flight physical. But then again, there's probably a lil bit of Santa Magic at play here...and he does have the requisite flight experience. You can't disregard the thousands upon thousands of multi-engine hours he has in his log book, eh?

(all official USAF photos)