A quick update, because things may start to get expectedly interesting unexpectedly early.
The Kurdish Autonomous Region holds its elections tomorrow, and CoS of the Iraqi Air Force released our Kurdish cadets early on Thursday so they could vote and take part in the festivities. Which is a sign that there have been some changes in High Places since we've gotten serious about seeing if our Words and Deeds have had any effect. The IqAF, at any rate, now considers the Kurds as Iraqis, rather than "foreign students."
At the political level, things aren't quite as expected. The Kurds are now pressing harder to return Kirkuk to its former status as the capitol of the old Kurdish empire (a small one, but it fit the definition). The Central Government in Baghdad is still adamant that Kirkuk is an integral part of Iraq Proper, even though its population demographics were forcibly changed under Saddam, who removed thousands of Kurds and replaced them with Sunni and Shi'a Arabs and Turkmens. In this instance, it really *is* about the oil -- Kirkuk sits right on top of one of the superfields containing about 40% of Iraq's oil reserves. At the provincial level here, elections held in January were *not* held in Kirkuk proper, but rescheduled for June, and in June, were put on indefinite hold. Needless to say, the Kurds in Kirkuk won't be voting in the KAR elections.
For a more in-depth synopsis, drop by Megan's place. Just don't forget to come back.
I just finished putting the second class of RW cadets through a full week of instrument flights in the sim -- limited to a half-hour of actual stick-wiggling for each, because our generator gets turned off every day at noonish. The generator split a gasket, and, because it's Turkish-made and, because someone fairly high up in the Finance Ministry decided that the Turks wouldn't get any Iraqi money as long as they kept siphoning off Iraqi water, they won't buy a new gasket. So far, it's wobbling along okay on reduced hours and daily oil changes. Anyway, Sunday's the last training day, and I'll be perfecting their Unusual Attitude Recovery (fancy term for Unintentional Aerobatics When You Can't See Outside) techniques, because Monday is Checkride Day. Class One finished Advanced Instruments and is starting Basic Combat Skills on Sunday and Class Three inprocesses on Sunday, and I finally figured out how I'll manage to be in three different places simultaneously.
If I gibber in any of the comments on Sunday, well, you'll understand why.
John, of course, will opine that you'll be unable to differentiate the gibbering from my usual contributions...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the "Life Sometimes Sucks" arena, we lost four guys when their convoy was ambushed. Cold comfort that they grabbed the ambusher...
The Kurdish Autonomous Region holds its elections tomorrow, and CoS of the Iraqi Air Force released our Kurdish cadets early on Thursday so they could vote and take part in the festivities. Which is a sign that there have been some changes in High Places since we've gotten serious about seeing if our Words and Deeds have had any effect. The IqAF, at any rate, now considers the Kurds as Iraqis, rather than "foreign students."
At the political level, things aren't quite as expected. The Kurds are now pressing harder to return Kirkuk to its former status as the capitol of the old Kurdish empire (a small one, but it fit the definition). The Central Government in Baghdad is still adamant that Kirkuk is an integral part of Iraq Proper, even though its population demographics were forcibly changed under Saddam, who removed thousands of Kurds and replaced them with Sunni and Shi'a Arabs and Turkmens. In this instance, it really *is* about the oil -- Kirkuk sits right on top of one of the superfields containing about 40% of Iraq's oil reserves. At the provincial level here, elections held in January were *not* held in Kirkuk proper, but rescheduled for June, and in June, were put on indefinite hold. Needless to say, the Kurds in Kirkuk won't be voting in the KAR elections.
For a more in-depth synopsis, drop by Megan's place. Just don't forget to come back.
I just finished putting the second class of RW cadets through a full week of instrument flights in the sim -- limited to a half-hour of actual stick-wiggling for each, because our generator gets turned off every day at noonish. The generator split a gasket, and, because it's Turkish-made and, because someone fairly high up in the Finance Ministry decided that the Turks wouldn't get any Iraqi money as long as they kept siphoning off Iraqi water, they won't buy a new gasket. So far, it's wobbling along okay on reduced hours and daily oil changes. Anyway, Sunday's the last training day, and I'll be perfecting their Unusual Attitude Recovery (fancy term for Unintentional Aerobatics When You Can't See Outside) techniques, because Monday is Checkride Day. Class One finished Advanced Instruments and is starting Basic Combat Skills on Sunday and Class Three inprocesses on Sunday, and I finally figured out how I'll manage to be in three different places simultaneously.
If I gibber in any of the comments on Sunday, well, you'll understand why.
John, of course, will opine that you'll be unable to differentiate the gibbering from my usual contributions...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the "Life Sometimes Sucks" arena, we lost four guys when their convoy was ambushed. Cold comfort that they grabbed the ambusher...
I don't see why not -- I simulate a sandstorm by presetting a 5-mile visibility, then disabling it, putting a scattered cloud layer between 500 and 6,000 feet AGL and an overcast layer from 9,000 to 12,000 AGL, then disabling them. After the student climbs to 3,000 AGL, I trigger the visibility, then reduce it to 2 miles, then trigger the embedded clouds, then rapidly reduce visibility to a half-mile.
Guys who *have* flown into a shamal over here said that if everything went beige instead of white, it'd be a perfect simulation.
Some of the highers in the IqAF are still mumbling about moving the RW portion of the school either to Tikrit or Al-Kut, and I met one general who insists it should be moved to Taji, but he's never *been* to Taji and can't visualize the impact of mixing student traffic with operational aircraft...
Be safe... and good luck with that "splitting image" trick you're supposed to pull off!
I think we just found your rival for "Retired Viet Vet Old As Dirt".... or at least his c-rat cake is....
Man.
And check out all that fruit salad too!
Yup, Serve at HQDA and you collect pretties -- he's got a good collection.
*snicker*
My "retirement ceremony" consisted of a Friday afternoon e-mail directing me to report to Ft. Dix for outprocessing on Monday morning.
I did at least get a goodbye lunch when I retired, and I chose to forgo the retirement parade down at Fort Sam. There was just something sadly pathetic about a platoon of 'hey you'd" MEDDAC types, mebbe 50 spectators/family and 5 people retiring, on a parade field meant for a full division. The crowd wouldn't even fill the reviewing stand. The photographer had to work hard not to make that look lonely.
Well, he's an aviator, so my edjimacated guess is it would be the Quad-A Order of St. Michael.
Sorry -- Quad-A is the Army Aviation Association of America.
I always wondered what the UA -- who'd gone home early -- thought when he walked in on Monday and saw all those keys and my Facility Entry card sitting on his chair...