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Goodfellow Static 3—Oh-Mi-Gosh! MiGs!

Two of the most unique Goodfellow statics have to be the Russian-built MiG fighters resting near the main school houses. Part of the training at Goodfellow involves recognizing our own military aircraft and especially the adversary’s aircraft. Our classes use the two MiGs as training aids, as you can see in the photos. The U.S. government obtained these jets after the Cold War ended and our ally, Germany, sold them to us from old East Germany’s inventory.

MiG-23 "Flogger" at Goodfellow AFB, Texas.

Hidden along Fort Lancaster street sits a green camo schemed MiG-23 Flogger fighter-interceptor. Russia, then known as the Soviet Union, began making MiG-23s in 1970. Like its adversary the United States, Russia has upgraded its jet fighters many times in the past 40 years. The “Flogger” does fly on, however, and has been sold to several countries who aren’t able to afford newer jets. These countries include Cuba, North Korea, Syria, and many more.

"Me & a MiG-23"

Read more about the MiG-23 at CombatAircraft.com (click here). And finally, take a look at (and a listen to) MiG-23s taking off. Click here for coolness!

The cockpit is made for shorter people.

Sitting closer to my school, the 315^th Training Squadron, rests a MiG-29 Fulcrum. The Fulcrum came into Soviet Russian service in 1983. The designers kept improving later models for several decades. Russia built and sold many copies. The MiG-29 continues to fly today for more than 30 countries including Russia.


The instruments are labeled in Russian (of course!)

You can read more about the MiG-29 at CombatAircraft.com (click here). And check out this very cool promotional video for the Fulcrum. The plane on display sports a stylish paint scheme and the videographers layered in shark video on a background of European techno-instrumental music (click here).

The MiG-29 is looking down
its nose at us.

And for the real aviation or military geeks, check out a Russian documentary series called “Wings of Russia.” It’s an English-translated version of a Russian-produced series about the many decades of Russian military aircraft. I appreciate listening to the Russian perspective on their own equipment and their opinion of American aircraft. The menu of Wings of Russia episodes can be found by clicking here. (The narrator’s Russian accent on English is priceless.)

A MiG fact for movie geeks: Tom Cruise, while playing “Maverick” the arrogant Navy fighter pilot in the 1986 movie Top Gun encountered a “MiG-28.” In reality, it was an American F-5 fighter painted black to appear like an enemy. It’s sort of a rite of passage to learn this factoid here at the school house and chuckle at those who don't know.

"I think I see a MiG-29!"

Russia remains a worthy adversary in developing jet fighters along with China. With some American innovation and a stronger economy, the U.S. will be able to keep pace. HF1

Some additional links to explore (click on each link)

Area51 hosted tests for “secretly acquired” Soviet Fighter jets (The London Guardian)

Goodfellow Air Force Base moves its MiG-29 to make room for Saudi training facility
MiG corporation begins testing new Russian navy fighterjets

Four Months Done (It Won't Be Long Now)

Excited for pizza in Austin.
Soon I'll be waving goodbye to Texas.

I can hardly believe it, but I’ve completed four months of the approximately five month course. A month from now I’ll be HOME! It would be difficult to describe how I feel about going home, so I won’t. Just imagine for yourself.

What’s been going on in the past month?

The coursework here has continued to challenge, but we returned to the lecture format for a few weeks. We left behind the world of high-stakes briefings until November. Our class enjoyed a dinner out at one of the local wood-fired pizza establishments. After delectable food, a few of us attempted to catch the local Angelo State University theater production “The Lion in Winter.” However, dogged by a torrential cloudburst and my assumption that the fine arts building’s theater was where one would—you know—stage a play, we arrived ten minutes late to an alternative auditorium on campus and were denied entry(!).

Enjoying some rain! Click here.

We got soaked. I mean SOAKED! I didn’t think to capture a photo as I attempted to avoid stalling my car on the suddenly flooded and impervious West Texas ground. “Master Sergeant Kiel is a maniac driver” emanated somewhere amongst the passengers. But hey, in a rainstorm once you commit you have to make it to the crown of the next street! Basic driving right? Can I get an amen?

As I've written before, Texas needs every drop of rain it can get this year. They are recovering from a persistent drought that will take some time to replenish the water table in many parts of the state. Rather than a cloudburst, steady rain is most appreciated and I captured some on video here.

I dried out the next morning in time to participate in our training squadron’s adopt-a-highway cleanup project. We got a beeee-you-tee-ful Saturday morning! Take a look at the short video here.

I got my geography geek on with a drive to Midland, Texas two hours west of here. You can bet your energy-using self that I enjoyed the heck out of the Petroleum Museum!


I browsed through oil pumps & drilling rigs from all eras.

The museum illustrated everything from how geologists search for hydrocarbons (natural gas and oil) to how it’s extracted and shipped. I came away with a much better understanding of how we use these resources and how fossil fuels still have a long way to go.


At the Bush home in Midland.

I paid a visit to former President George W. Bush’s childhood 1950s home which is now a small historic site. A very Texas-style hospitable tour guide showed me around the place and I couldn’t help but think that my parents’ modest homes were much the same in the 1950s and 60s. After that it was time to head back to San Angelo.



"Horse-head" pumps mingle with other styles.

Speaking of San Angelo, I forgot that one of my favorite bands, Third Day, produced a song called “San Angelo” some years back. And in a weird coincidence, some of the lyrics seem to capture my desire to get back home. The band must have been inspired to write while on tour here. Check the sound and lyrics here.

My high school buddy Dave.

And finally, I got to rekindle my friendship with one of my best friends from high school. He and his family live near Austin. They spent time teaching English in China for years before settling here to raise their kids. We mostly “hung out.” But we did make time for a few sites, including Austin’s famous bat colony along the Congress Street Bridge. Wow.

From summer through November, people gather on and near the bridge at dusk to hear from 500,000 to 1.5 million bats squeak to life and then massively head out for that night’s hunt for mosquitoes and other bugs. My photos and video were poorly lit so I linked this better video for you animal and Batman enthusiasts to check out. It’s truly amazing and the guide in the video explains it all.

I’ll end it here and continue another day. I look forward to meeting you in December! Godspeed! HF1

Goodfellow Static 2—Trainer Birds!

Training. Training. Training. Goodfellow Air Force Base has always been all about training. It may be a runway-less base today, but it began as a pilot training facility in 1941 and continued to do so heavily into the 1960s. Today, Goodfellow has three well-preserved static displays of training aircraft that once filled the west Texas sky. Many other models flew here too. Let’s take a look at the statics. (click any photo to enlarge it.)

BT-13A Valiant

The earliest of the three to arrive was the BT-13A Valiant. This aircraft type almost exclusively flew at Goodfellow from 1941-1944 (much of World War II). More than 8,800 pilots trained in Valiants at Goodfellow, including a squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Leon Vance who would go on to give his life in the skies over France and be posthumously presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor.


Rare color photo of Valiants on the flight-
line at Goodfellow Field in the 1940s.

Check this 11-second video of a BT-13 Valiant passing by at an airshow in 2008.



The T-6G Texan began arriving at Goodfellow in autumn 1950 and dominated the numbers of training aircraft. More than 15,000 Texans were built from 1935-1950, with the “G” model being the last. The last T-6G departed Goodfellow in summer 1954.

A T-6G Texan in front of the base headquarters building.

Take a look at this 90-second recruiting video that uses footage of T-6 Texans to appeal to young men to join the Army Air Corps (the U.S. Air Force was not separated from the Army until 1947). This was shown in theaters before full-length movies during World War II.



The T-28A Trojan served at Goodfellow from 1953-1955 as the Texan was being phased out. This particular T-28A did not fly at Goodfellow, but represents those that did.

A T-28A Trojan static rests at Goodfellow Air Force Base.

Check this video of a hobby pilot starting up a T-28 Trojan and taxiing it to takeoff. Notice the optical illusion when the propeller spins. It looks like it's spinning slowly. In reality it's running at full speed. Imagine the sound of dozens of these planes flying all over the place when Goodfellow was running a full day of training.



Goodfellow is a very different base today. The runway effectively closed in 1975, but remained ready if needed. The runways were last used in the early 1990s when cargo planes delivered equipment for the firefighters’ training school that moved here from a base that closed in Illinois.

Dozens of BT-13A Valiants lined up at 1940s Goodfellow.

But Goodfellow Air Force Base is still all about training. Training. Training. Intelligence and cryptological specialists and firefighters from every branch of the military make up the thousands of students that pass through each year. The planes on base now forever “rest” as the base mission presses on. HF1

Packer Injuries Mount; I Stand Ready If Called

Randall Cobb agonizes as he expresses genius thoughts.

I did not get to view the Green Bay Packers' pyrrhic victory on Sunday against Baltimore as the San Angelo, Texas Fox affiliate force-fed me the Rams/Texans game. However, I read that the Packers lost defender Nick Perry and potent receivers Randall Cobb and James Jones. I've heard some possible solutions that range from coaxing Donald Driver out or retirement to signing Braylon Edwards, Andre Rison, or Phillip Epps.

James Jones clutches his knee on the cold and indifferent Baltimore turf.

But the Packers need not fear. For I am ready to take my kettlebell-trained arms, golf cart speed, and Rudy-like heart and report to 1265 Lombardi Avenue as their emergency wide receiver. I only need time to book a plane ticket, stop at Scheels for some cleats, and ask the Air Force if I can take a little leave time.

#86 in '86 (I reached double-digit yardage!)

So, fellow fans and hangers-on: fear not, Mr. Kiel is here and hopefully on the way! HF1

Goodfellow Static 1—Predator & Global Hawk

The Global Hawk's "BB" stands for Beale AFB, California where this aircraft was once stationed.

UAVs. Drones. Breakthrough technology. Murderous death machines? There are many words, positive, negative, and neutral when talking about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The first part of the series “Goodfellow Static” takes a look at two of the most interesting displays on base: the RQ-1 Predator and RQ-4 Global Hawk. I’ll take a neutral approach and tell you what these can do and why they are seen as valuable and terrible, depending who you talk to. (Click any of the photos to make them larger for viewing.)

RQ-4 Global Hawk static display at sunrise.

These unusual aircraft require no onboard pilot, which reduces a tremendous amount of space and equipment needed to support a pilot’s survival. Instead, drone “operators” sit at work stations far away—sometimes on another continent—as they control the drone from a video-game-like console.

The drones, while using far less fuel than a regular plane provide a large amount of surveillance, which is a steady visual monitoring of a specific area. The R/MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper (not located at Goodfellow) carry missiles in addition to their sophisticated cameras. 

RQ-1 Predator looks toward the BX.

Critics say that the drones are just weapons of murder used to terrify the population in the areas that they are used. Anti-war activists who supported President Obama’s campaign in 2008 often lament that he has ordered far more drone strikes than President Bush ever did. For people living in areas where terrorists live and hide, the drones are indeed grim symbols of a constant possibility of attack. But drones have provided countless examples of helping to warn US and allied troops on the ground about the dangers around them.
 



It's not Wi-Fi, stand back!

But let’s stick to what goes on at Goodfellow. Students train to learn the capabilities of these aircraft and will work with the visual information that drones send back to control centers. Some airmen will eventually use images taken by these aircraft to make judgments about what the enemy is doing and give assessments to commanders who need that information. You can watch a short video interview with a young airman who does that, by checking the links at the end of the article.
 

I already mentioned the Predator which started as a camera/sensor aircraft in the 1990s. In 2002 it was fitted with missiles that could strike enemies spotted while scanning the landscape. The RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV drone is for observation only. It carries no weaponry. It is designed to fly very high for long periods of time, taking all sorts of imagery in areas of interest.
 

RQ-1 Predator underbelly sensor.

When you get down to it, the UAV/drone has assisted the US and allied nations in keeping enemies on the defensive in an era of shrinking military budgets and lower loss of pilots’ lives. However, the unchecked use of drones by a country’s leadership can lead to poor relations overseas and collateral damage and death. I believe that as long as responsible citizens in a republic like ours continue to hold Congress, the President, and military accountable, their rights will be safe. It’s up to Americans to demand that their leaders use this technology responsibly. Whether someone thinks that isn’t happening or everything is fine, you’ll have to be the judge.

 

You can read the Air Force’s unclassified site links at the end of this post. Let’s take a look at some photos.

RQ-4 Global Hawk static display.

Fascinating links (Just click on the words)
MQ-1/RQ-1 Predator US Air Force Fact Sheet
RQ-4 Global Hawk US Air Force Fact Sheet
Young USAF airman describes her mission as UAV operator
Drones becoming more controversial as possible spy tools
Slate online magazine’s interactive map of US Drone strikes
See how the Air Force delivered the retired Global Hawk to Goodfellow in 2011
Private citizen’s drone flies through abandoned buildings in Detroit

"Goodfellow Static" -- a blog post series

Greetings from comfortable Goodfellow Air Force Base! This historic base boasts a collection of about a dozen and a half static display vehicles from aircraft to fire engines. What is a “static display?” Glad you asked. A static is a vehicle or aircraft that isn’t expected to be used again. It’s purely for public interest, enjoyment, and in some cases to train personnel to recognize specific features.

The static displays at Goodfellow represent the types of training that have gone on here since 1940. Some models were once flown here. Others represent individuals who graduated flight or intel school here and went on to perform heroic service in World War II and beyond. Two aircraft are Russian-built MiG jet fighters brought here for intel students to study. And two more don’t even require pilots. To top it off, Goodfellow even boasts a Russian tracked surface-to-air missile system and a collection of runway fire engines from throughout aviation history to honor the firefighters’ school on base.

Through the end of November, I’ll highlight these statics. Hopefully you’ll get a better understanding of the Air Force mission and Goodfellow Air Force Base’s role in it. Stay tuned Thursday evening for Goodfellow Static Part 1: Global Hawk & Predator. HF1


A static B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft at Goodfellow's Jacobsen Gate.

Three Months Done (And... I'm Starting to See an End)

The 28th brings another month since I rolled into San Angelo on June 28th. Three months are done. I crossed the "Halfway" point of my time away a week or so ago. So what's been going on this past month?

"I think I see a MiG-29 Fulcrum!"

• I'm continually impressed that I can talk on Skype with my family back home and friends in Germany and elsewhere. You students probably don't think that's all that amazing. But let me have an "old person" moment and say that I started with four TV channels, AM radio, vinyl records, and the worldwide web was something I swatted aside trying to dig the lawnmower out of the shed every April. It's remarkable. 

In Luckenbach, Texas with "Hondo."

•We’re into Fall now, and the temperatures are finally holding in the 80s with an occasional 90. We've even seen some rain and one overnight low around 59°!

• The coursework in the intelligence operations course continues to get more challenging. I've learned to deal with small setbacks and continuous improvement. I will be equipped with a vast amount of personal stories to shower on the first student who whines about a difficult assignment. Y'all are on my radar (but is the radar continuous wave or pulse doppler?).
• I celebrated the Air Force's 66th birthday with hundreds of others at the annual Goodfellow Air Force Ball. You can see photos here and the story here. My right elbow made a corner of the ballroom photo. I should tag it on facebook.
• I made a second trip to see friends Rob and Karen in Fredericksburg. My main purpose is to visit my friends and see how many calorie delivery mechanisms I can experience.
• I still shop at the HEB grocery store and highly recommend their produce. Their employees are friendly and the sales are fantastic (Please send help as I am talking about grocery shopping and turning into my late-grandparents...God rest their souls) 

(U) My Nemesis.

• In a move that my muscles are still protesting, I am regularly working out with Russian kettlebell weights at the nearby gym. I was going to work with American weights, but Vladimir Putin ordered John Kerry to make me use Russian ones smuggled out of Syria. A permanent party person is teaching three of us priors in basic fundamentals as we move along to more intermediate exercises. As far as we can assess, the Russian kettlebells are unclassified.
•My computer still occasionally streams that little country station KFAN out of Fredericksburg. My iTunes actually downloaded several country songs. If anyone knows how that could happen, please let me know. (Again, send help.)

Everyone have a good October and I'll be posting again soon. Take care and drop me a line on Edmodo, twitter, or at bkiel(at)Neenah(dot)k12(dot)wi(dot)us


Take care y'all. HF1

 

A Second Weekend in Fredericksburg

Tour guide & driver Rob.

I finally got around to visiting my friends Rob and Karen in Fredericksburg again. They're only two and a quarter hours down the road but I hadn’t been there in more than two months. You can read more about Fredericksburg’s history and my first visit by clicking here.

Rob (who is a superb tour guide) introduced me to the rapidly growing Texas wine industry. Fredericksburg is the heart of the tourism side of the business with multiple vineyards, wineries, and "tasting rooms" springing up along the main highway. We toured Becker Vineyards & Winery in nearby Stonewall, Texas. I learned how Texas' climate supports grape growing and vineyards are found most everywhere from the Panhandle to the Hill Country. Fredericksburg reminds me of Door County with its shops, moderate size, and tourists everywhere (Door County lacks a world class WWII museum though). 

Becker Vineyards in Stonewall.

The Becker tour guide explained that they order their wine casks from a small "cooperage," or barrel factory in Missouri. It takes many hours for craftsmen to pretty much hand make a barrel. The winery uses each A & K Cooperage cask four times. I'll talk more about the industry when the 7th graders get to Human Systems element of geography.

I don't live far from Cranky Pat's in Neenah. Rob and Karen introduced me to Cranky Frank's Barbeque for lunch. I savored smoked brisket and all the southern fixins I could stand. Yeah, did I mention I passed my fitness test in August?  Anyway, I can't compare Pat's and Frank's since one serves excellent pizza and the other BBQ. I'll just have to patronize both!


You have to try their brisket!

We drove around the gorgeous rural Texas Hill Country, meandering around hills, over metal cattle-guards, through some gravel, and over countless creeks. Enchanted Rock State Park boasts a big round rock that looks like an excellent hike. Rob and I agreed that we'd tackle that thing in October when it was a little cooler.



"Downtown" Luckenbach, Texas.

This is before most of y'alls' time, but some of your parents will remember the 1970s country music song Luckenbach, Texas by Waylon Jennings (Click here to hear it).  Rob and I drove the 15 minutes east and had a brat for lunch at the little tourist trap and dance hall so eloquently described by Mr. Jennings and Willie Nelson.  Luckenbach is just a collection of small buildings that were preserved in 1970 as a music venue. I can see where real country fans would enjoy taking in a concert, the creek, and rural atmosphere. As Waylon said, "Ain't nobody feelin' no pain."

I plan to visit a couple of more times before heading north in November. If your future ever takes you to south Texas, make every effort to visit Fredericksburg and take it easy. HF1

"Ain't nobody feelin' no pain."



Baseball & F-16s

Imagine you don’t know what baseball is. You’re going to learn by studying the rulebook, reading about each player’s responsibilities, and be tested on how they all work together for a game. One more thing: you can’t watch what a baseball game looks like until you figure it all out.

This baseball analogy popped into my head Thursday after digging through web-based manuals, maps, and diagrams for a two-day in-class project. I had to locate more than a hundred pieces of data about the simulated adversary, many of which were interconnected, and depending on the accuracy, could mess up the entire conclusion (it sounds like me doing algebra). And hypothetically, an F-16 pilot’s well-being depends on the work quality.

Again, ask a European to explain why you "tag up" on a fly ball in baseball.

My class instructors are amused by us students and our apparent talent at looking too deeply into some items and not giving enough attention to others. But don’t worry, I started with kind of an ugly but passing grade and improved it after the first corrections (Yes Mrs. Hobbs & Mrs. Wilharm, I DID my corrections!). We get a full chance to ask questions Friday morning. My number one goal for that time: figure out how and why many of my educated guesses were correct. Wish me luck!

Check out this video clip to see the kind of mission we are supporting as we train [click here]. Can you imagine any of these pilots asking Mr. Kiel to brief them on their mission? Yikes! This humbling experience has already taught me volumes about being a better teacher when I return home. That’s not a rip on my instructors, but a comment on how it feels to spend all your effort and not fully understand everything. It’s going to be good to learn the answers today. Have a great Friday Shattuckians! HF1

A sample F-16CJ Wild Weasel [U.S. Air Force photo]

 

Having a Ball (the Air Force Ball, that is)

A joint honor guard with Air Force,
Coast Guard, Army, Marines, & Navy
set the "missing man" table in honor
of prisoners of war & missing-in-action.
See script of ceremony here.
[U.S. Air Force photo]

On Friday evening I ate a scrumptious chicken and roast beef dinner with hundreds of fellow Goodfellow Air Force Base people (see what I did there?) and many people from the surrounding community of San Angelo. We came together to celebrate the U.S. Air Force's 66th birthday.

I arrived early to greet guests and direct them to tables. Many other students (pipeliners, priors, and permanent party) attended or served as volunteers. The event planners gave us a very good mix of musical entertainment, time to converse with our fellow guests, and celebrated the memory of airmen from Goodfellow who have given their lives in action throughout the decades.

It's a good thing to occasionally take a break and enjoy a little pomp and circumstance and consider why we're all here doing the job. Take care and have a great week everyone! HF1


I greeted three of my classmates who volunteered as buffet
servers alongside the Angelo State U. culinary students. I
asked them if they had planned to arrive as the Brawny
paper towel mascot guy.

The photographer captured my elbow & leg. As you can see,
many people came together to wish the Air Force a happy 66th!
[U.S. Air Force photo]

Goodfellow Air Force Base official Public Affairs Office Article (click here)

95 Years Ago Today: First Lieutenant John J. Goodfellow, RIP

1Lt J.J. Goodfellow of San Angelo, Texas

Ninety-five years ago today, Saturday, September 14, 1918 a young native of San Angelo, Texas flew his lumbering Salmson 2A2 observation aircraft on a reconnaissance mission from Gondreville, France. Flying at low altitude due to poor weather, First Lieutenant John J. Goodfellow sought aerial intelligence to assist the allies in blunting German forces at St. Mihiel. Sadly, Lt. Goodfellow met his death in those skies just two months prior to peace.

Today’s Goodfellow Air Force Base proudly uses the young man’s name in honoring his service, sacrifice, and local area ties. It’s fitting that the base went on to train some of the most notable pilots in US history as well as produce the intelligence troops needed to interpret the kind of information that Lt. Goodfellow’s successors provide to our military leadership. 1Lt John J. Goodfellow, RIP. HF1

Salmson 2A2, similar to craft flown by 1Lt. Goodfellow.

 

Hashtag: #MrKinTX

Greetings to my new 7th and 8th graders at Shattuck! Before I return in December, I will be blogging, tweeting, and otherwise communicating with you about what I'm up to and how things fit with what you study in class. For those who use twitter, I use the hashtag #MrKinTX (for stuff I see here), #SHsoc7 (for topics relating to 7th grade), #SHsoc8 (for 8th grade topics), and #dcny14 (anything related to the June 2014 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. and New York City). HF1


Mr. K. inspects a MiG-29 FULCRUM jet fighter.

Pipeliners, Priors, and Permanent Party People

Our class poses on an old Russian surface-to-air missile
battery on static display at Goodfellow AFB, Texas. (I am
in front, on the right from shoulders on up. Click any
photo to enlarge it.)

No, this isn’t the next reality series on the Military Channel. I’m not sure it would be all that interesting. But pipeliners, priors, and permanent party are three kinds of Air Force personnel in training. 

Pipeliner: an intel school student “brand new” to the Air Force; they were shipped directly from boot camp

Prior: a student who already serves in the Air Force, Reserve, or Air National Guard learning a new Air Force job 

Permanent Party: Any other Air Force non-student member working here; instructors, commanders, police, civil engineers, and everyone else

Pipeliners march to and from class each weekday.

When pipeliners graduate their course here they will report to an Active Duty, Reserve, or Air National Guard base depending which one they signed up for. While pipeliners enjoy much more freedom than they had in boot camp, their daily routine is still highly structured. They must march to class, live in dorms, and earn privileges like going off base on the weekend or driving their own vehicle. The many rules they follow are designed to get them used to the military lifestyle. I was a pipeliner a long time ago.

Prior – This is my status. I am in the Air Force Reserve and belong to a unit Minneapolis. “Prior” to this, I served at bases in Illinois, Milwaukee, Florida, and elsewhere. Priors enjoy somewhat normal privileges. Based on our ranks, we live in a motel-style room, a small apartment, or single apartment. I have a small two-man apartment with my own room and share the kitchen and bathroom with one other prior. We have to report to group physical workouts twice a week, fill out map sheets telling where we go if we leave on the weekend, and have occasional apartment inspections.

Permanent party & their families participate in a local parade.

Permanent Party, while following Air Force rules, mostly live with their families in base housing neighborhoods or off-base in San Angelo. Their kids attend local schools and live lives a lot like your own. Sometimes their moms or dads get deployed overseas. Permanent party people usually serve four years at Goodfellow before getting sent to another base.

My class has ten pipeliners, two priors, and is taught by permanent party instructors. Outside class time, we may only socialize with members of our own group. This prevents favoritism keeps things in order. These restrictions end after graduation. There you have it: pipeliners, priors, and permanent party (if the show goes viral, I get some credit!) HF1

A student pipeliner dormitory at Goodfellow AFB, Texas.