Family Update

Thanks for all your kind emails and calls regarding Lori's auto accident. She's doing better Saturday morning as the kids stayed overnight Friday at various friends' houses. She's sore, but thankful that she's largely unscathed regarding serious injury. If you need a primer on the entire situation, just email me.

It's time to get back to Wisconsin. My service at Centcom is finished at month's end. I'll be so glad to get back home. I look very forward to settling in and enjoying the fall colors and some bonfires in the back yard. But once the magic of the Christmas season's snow is past, I will want to bring Tampa northward for sure. I'll admit, I've been softened by a collective 9 months out of 17 in this climate. What do I want to be when I grow up? Snowbird!

Thursday marked three months since the Kiels joined me in Tampa. (I took the above photo outside my apartment the day they arrived. There's the now-totaled van with the "Sears X-Cargo" topper-boy those were heady days). They headed back seven weeks later in August. It's been a long six and a half weeks since then. The three month marker hit me a bit as I realized life's passing me by until I get home.

Thanks to my friends and colleagues at Centcom as well as the good folks at Bayshore Baptist for being such strong supports even though they may not know it. They all welcomed my family when they were here and we've made many lifetime friends. Lori, we'll have to resurrect our Christmas card program we jettisoned a while ago.

I'll stop prattling on now, but thanks so much to the Florida, Midwest, and Worldwide AF Historian contingents of Kiel friends. HF1

Bring Back the Idiot Box!

Campaign 2008 is and will continue to be full of inaccuracies on all sides. This is not to say "all" information is bad. Here's a humorous tidbit that shows a disingenuous Obama ad. I focus on Obama for reasons obvious at the top right of this blog. This comes from a writer I like named James Taranto (available at the "Best of the Web" link in the list at right). Check this short insight:

Obama decries the decline of the TV tube industry. What's next, buggy whips?

"A new television ad released Wednesday by Sen. Barack Obama's campaign highlights the closure of Corning Inc.'s plant in State College, Pa., and accuses Washington with Sen. John McCain's help of selling out the workers," the Associated Press reports.

So what did Corning make at the plant? The ad, which you can see here, does not say, but the AP story does: "glass tubes for television sets and computer monitors."

It's hard to remember now, but in the olden days TV sets and computer monitors used a technology called cathode ray tubes. A CRT consisted of an electron gun that projects an image onto a fluorescent screen. In most cases the gun had to be some distance from the screen, with the entire assembly enclosed in glass, which meant that TVs were bulky and boxy (hence the term "idiot box").

In modern times, the CRT has given way to superior technologies such as plasma and liquid crystal, which take up less space and provide superior picture quality. This is an enormous blessing to all Americans who watch TV or use computers.

It's hard to imagine a more backward-looking position than mourning the decline of the picture-tube industry. What'll Obama do next, promise to restore American supremacy in the manufacture of buggy whips, iron lungs and floppy disks? HF1

CENTCOM Coalition Reps In Solidarity Against Terrorism

On Friday, September 12th, Coalition military members lined Bayshore Blvd. at Bay to Bay Blvd., otherwise known as "Patriots' Corner" where a dozen volunteers wave U.S. flags at MacDill AFB workers headed home on Fridays around 5pm. The Coalition people came out to commemorate when NATO declared its solidarity with the U.S. on 9/12/01.

Hello Belgium and others!

New Zealand!

Not to get political, but dozens of Obama enthusiasts with signs hooted and shouted happily at the traffic. The community-organizer fans placed themselves on both sides of the Coalition troops. I'm happy they can exercise their rights to demonstrate in our country. I'll exercise my freedom of speech to call them self-important opportunist lemmings, unaware that the Coalition folks were there supporting our country in comemorating 7 years since 9/12/01, when NATO invoked its defense of a member clause for the first time ever. It looks like these folks understand history as well as their candidate speaks without a teleprompter.

One of the Coalition officers told me to stop by American Legion Post 139 on Dale Mabry Hwy where they all were headed for a BBQ cookout with the Legionnaires of Tampa. I enjoyed a cross cultural event, speaking to officers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Italy. There were many others there too. I sat with these three gentlemen from Kazakhstan and one from Poland. Two of the Kazakhs had served in the Soviet Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s when Kazakhstan was part of the U.S.S.R. Talk about a fascinating conversation! I really felt proud to be part of Centcom with these folks working with us. What a great time! HF1

Obama Leads World Poll

I understand that a lot of journalists favor Obama for president. They sense an historical moment...and if they can assist a little, well, that's okay in their consciousness. I had to chuckle recently. CNN’s morning guy John Roberts slipped the other day by referring to the Obama campaign as “We” when he asked a guest what the campaign could do to regain the upper hand against McCain. See that video clip here.
I was trapped Monday in a waiting room running an errand. As the blaring TV projected John Roberts’ semi-cocky delivery, a "story” caught my attention:

ROBERTS: 20 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." It has been said that politics is a popularity contest. And according to a new BBC Poll, Barack Obama is more popular among people overseas. CNN's Becky Anderson is looking at the poll results for us this morning. She is live right there by Carnaby Street in London.Good morning to you, Becky.

Last I checked, Americans vote for their president. Reporter Becky Anderson chimed in, almost giddy:

REPORTER: “You're absolutely right. An overwhelming majority of the 22,000 people who are polled across 22 countries around the world favor an Obama presidency. Now, let's be honest. Obama did have an advantage going into this campaign as far as the rest of the world is, was and will be concerned, John. It's ‘anybody but Bush.’ And by dent of association, therefore, ‘anyone but John McCain.’”

The two went back and forth with some banal dialogue before Roberts added, with absolutely no sense of irony:

“ We should point out, though, that only people in the United States, people who are Americans, get the opportunity to vote. But it's interesting to look at that worldwide opinion. Becky Anderson for us this morning. Becky, thanks very much.”

There's some hard-hitting invesitgation! Did he call an 8th grade civics student? In case there were any undecided voters, CNN wants to let them know that it's okay to vote Obama. "Everybody's doing it...it'll make you feel good. Henri in Paris, Rajiv in Mumbai and Abdul in London love him! Go ahead..." Sadly, this didn't turn out to be a Saturday Night Live skit. HF1

URL: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/15/ltm.03.html

I Just Clicked "Send"

This is for friends and family who've visited down here in Tampa and have heard me at one time or another talk about having "to do some homework now." My class, LW545 Studies in U.S. Military History, is DONE! I loved the material, but it's been so labor-intensive. I just completed the 2-hour final and feel great! Of course the 2-hour limit killed any sense of coherance in my arguments. I hope my 93% going into the massive final can hold above 90%. I feel like that sea wall in Galveston. It's lookin' bad. Oh well. HF1

Which Palin is That?

If you're not a Monty Python fan, then this won't matter. Friday's Get Fuzzy comic nailed the same thing I thought of in an earlier post (see here). (Click the comic strip to increase the size)


Thanks to Steve for getting me hooked on this comic strip. HF1

Jett Favre

Like many of you, I caught some of the first non-Packer regular sesaon game for Brett Favre and it was fun to see him gunslinging again. I wish him all the best. Go Jets! HF1

I (don't) Like Ike

Hurricane Ike is the next huge storm to bear down on the Florida Straits this season. While I like that Ike (President Eisenhower at right), I don't care for this Hurricane Ike that will really mess a lot people up by next weekend. You'll notice the cone is set to miss Tampa, although they can turn at a moment's notice. What's one to do? It's summer and it's the Caribbean and Gulf. Deal with it! HF1

Air Force Shorts & Other Funny Things

As our chartered 767 cruised back to North America last week, I read a silly account in the "Washington Whispers" column in US News & World Report. It seems our beloved PT gear, specifcally the shorts, made it into this column, widely read by politcal junkies. Air Force shorts! You Air Force folks will totally get this, and many of us have complained about this junky gear. Beddard writes:

More complaints on the military fashion front. This time, it's the gym, or physical training, uniform Air Force troops must wear in Afghanistan and Iraq when out of their official uniform. Seems the PT uniforms have a lining that's too tight, something an ongoing redesign might fix. So, the airmen and women wear shorts a couple of sizes bigger to give them the baggy feel. The result isn't a good one: When troops are running, the larger suits chafe their inner thighs to the point of bleeding, troops tell Whispers. And now it has become a rank thing that's irking the troops. While they can get busted for being out of uniform, it turns out that war boss Gen. David Petraeus, a dedicated runner, wears comfy civvies for his workouts. But we can cut him some slack—at least he wears logo-embossed T-shirts of various units under him. "The focus should be on getting a good workout," says spokesman Col. Steven Boylan.

Chafing of the inner thighs makes USN&WR! Crazy!

And in an old Photoshop job from a few years ago, someone layered Darth Vader into a promo photo of proposed new Air Force dress blues. The attempt at Billy Mitchell went awry in my (and many others') opinions. The officers appear to resemble Admiral Piette and Captain Needa, the poor guys suffocated by Vader in the Star Wars movies.

What's new, and only the Centcom folks will notice this, is that the Major General modeling at right is now the Centcom J-5, Robert Allardice. I wonder if his buddies have fun with this photo.

And in the spirit of the music video by Air Force pilots at Al Dhafra Air Base "This Is Why I'm Hot," some Air Force ladies on duty in Iraq filmed another music video called "Muddy Boots." Click here and push download. Fantastic! HF1

Brewer Business

As my wise friend Dan wrote, this is the streakiest team in the world and Ned Yost is akin to Mike Sherman: His shortcomings as the field boss are masked by talented players. One player whose talent left his body along with the last remnants of synthetic substances is Eric Gagne, who wears #38 as sort of a goal for how many home runs opposing teams will hit off of him this year, or perhaps month. Thank goodness for the excellent starting pitching of CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets (#15).

It looks like the Brewer PR team is doing their Hispanic outreach with the uniforms again. You think we'll see a celebration of Milwaukee's German heritage with "BIERBRAUER" emblazoned in navy with gold trim? You know, the Germans, who brought the ale heritage with them? "Keine Chance," I'd say.

One of my photos with single-A Brevard County Manatee players in 2007 paid off (a little bit) when the Crew called up catcher Angel Salome to play the fourth string. Perhaps if a natural accident fells the room where Jason Kendall and Mike Rivera are conferencing and Vinny Rottino oversleeps, Angel will get a chance to call pitches for CC. Barring that, I think pinch-running is probably his lot this season. Still, here's a pic of Salome with the dundering tourist in Sarasota in July 2007.

Hurricane Season!

Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm (for now) Hannah are packing a one-two punch in the tropics this week. Tampa looks safe for now. But Gustav will shred whatever locality unfortunate enough to be at landfall. HF1

A Little TDY to Qatar

I recently returned from a short TDY (temp duty away from station, for you non-mil folks) to Centcom's forward HQ in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar. You can pronounce it "kuh-TAR" or "cutter" or even "gutter" but either way, it's a small nation with a population similar to the city of Milwaukee. It earns great wealth from natural gas and petroleum reserves. In fact, a minority of its citizens are Qatari nationals. The rest are "third-country-nationals" (TCNs) who are brought in to do all the menial and blue-collar jobs. TCNs perform most of the food and cleaning service jobs on the American military bases. Overall, Qatar has the very rich and the poor (TCNs, etc.) and no middle class to speak of. I saw very poor apartments and gleaming mansions and condos in and around Doha, the capital. In my short two trips off Camp As Sayliyah, I saw a whirl of activity, some of which is shown below. You can read more about Qatar here.


Here I stand along the Corniche, Doha's long promenade along its bay leading to the Gulf. Construction is booming everywhere with all the oil money coming in.

One site near Camp As Sayliyah boasted no less than a dozen cranes (above). The type of crane above is something like the national bird here in Qatar.

The ads are becoming more westernized. Here a woman urges Qataris to check out a great deal on TV, Internet, and phone for one low price (I don't read Arabic. I saw the same poster in English downtown).

Whether rich or poor, Islam is the underlying support of society. This mosque above is one of the newer ones on an outer ring of the city near As Sayliyah.

I thought it looked strange to see a Chevy Impala-type sedan with Qatari tags.

Petty Officer "Archie," one of my Centcom acquaintances, decides where to shoot into the traffic at a roundabout. Neenah roundabouts are nothing compared to the insanity of Arab driving in the Middle East. We plunged our Chevy Tahoe into the fray with pedal to the metal. The military leases SUVs exclusively to make sure everyone's safe and that we can make a quick getaway if necessary.

More roundabout madness.

Wrecked autos line the roads all over outer Doha. I saw no less than eight on one quick trip to pick up someone at the international airport. Here a bus must have recently lost control and shredded a section of the highway boundary fence.

This is the wildly-shaped Doha Sheraton along the Cornische. After dinner at the Four Seasons buffet Thursday night, I located a geocache in front of the Sheraton. It really looks neat illuminated at night.

Here's another item for rich Qataris to show off with: A Harley! I thought about getting one of those t-shirts with Harley and the dealership city, but those were $35! No thanks!

I don't have any on-camp photos since pictures are strictly forbidden. Safe to say, Camp As Sayliyah looks a lot like Tatooine on the Star Wars movies. Sand color, drab, hot, dusty, and strange creatures everywhere (Centcom people!).

I spent several evenings after work talking with soldiers and Marines on R & R breaks at the camp. The Army has a pool, a club, and a USO warehouse made to approximate a town main street with an Irish pub, wine bar, and Mexican restaurant to go with an 8-lane bowling alley, wi-fi, and a performance stage to say nothing of the sports TVs and other things. The NY Times wrote an article about it in 2005, click here to view. It's great to see the troops enjoy their four days of leave. It was an honor to chat with many of them each night. Our country is in good hands with these people representing our nation to the Middle East and Afghanistan. HF1

6:15 PM, Finally

For all the excitement, Tampa has finally gotten a little rain from Tropical Storm Fay. Originally, she looked to be bearing directly in on Tampa. But what a difference a day and a half makes. Of course it's a blessing not to have a huge storm hit, but I thought it'd be a little more intense. The Weather Channel guy in Naples made a valid point that despite some discomfort, overall Florida is blessed by this slow moving storm that's filling up drought-plagued aquifers. Areas farther south have flooded a bit such as Everglades City, Naples, and over on the Space Coast. But all's well from SoHo in Tampa. Check the latest radar image here. Cheers all! HF1

The Bucs Come To MacDill

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished their training camp and came to MacDill's gym complex for a walkthrough ahead of their Sunday Night Football game against the Patriots. The first photo shows me with none other than "Chuckie" or Jon Gruden the head coach who came right by me. Fortunately he was saying, "Thanks for all you do and God bless you." We usually see other God-prefixed utterances flying out of his mouth on game day...



Fan favorite Derrick Brooks delighted the fans and kids.

Journeyman QB Brian Griese good-naturedly came down the line, exuding a down-to-earth demeanor with the fans.

Fan favorite and returning Buc Warrick Dunn posed with many airmen including these guys.

All in all, a nice time before getting on with the day. HF1

Good Times w/Friends Old & New

My Reservist friend Ray visited Centcom on some annual training. We had a blast working at the HQ and getting to know another Centcom troop, Carlos. The three of us enjoyed many stories, laughs, and all parted ways this week. HF1

Gabe Gross at MacDill - 8/5/08

A few weeks ago, Rays outfielder (and former Brewer) Gabe Gross came to MacDill's credit union to meet and sign autographs. The family and I went to four Rays games while they were here and we rooted for Gabe and Eric Hinske, the former Menasha Blue Jay. These two guys are part of the Rays' unsung heroes as they defy logic and keep a three game lead on Boston. He's a great guy from Dothan, Alabama who started QB at Auburn and has the PA play "Blessed Be The Name" when he comes up to bat. In the photo above, Gabe signs my ballcap that Jack and I got at Brewers' Spring Training in Arizona. We saw Gabe there but couldn't get close to him. HF1

Baseball Macarena (finally)

Jack and I went to Arizona last March to see the Brewers in Spring Training. We planned to make this video back then, but I couldn't get the software to cooperate. After a visit to the Tampa Apple Store, we're finally on YouTube. Check it out. It's the first attempt, so be kind. HF1

Space Shuttle & The Tampa Yankees

A funny thing happened on the way to watch the shuttle... I think that could be the name of my forthcoming bestseller. One of my Centcom colleagues and native Floridian planned to spend Saturday, May 31st driving to the Atlantic side and catch the Navy SEAL museum at Fort Pierce and then head north to about Melbourne and watch the shuttle launch.

Well, we reached Vero Beach around noon and stopped at Sonny's BBQ where we enjoyed the excellent all-you-can-eat BBQ chicken and pork. After we finished, my buddy popped a nosebleed that wouldn't quit. It was such that I drove him to the nearest hospital, Indian River Medical Center in Vero.

We still had a couple of hours till launch, I figured we would scrap the museum, take care of the nosebleed and head straight for Melbourne. Well, the very understaffed medical staff took FOUR HOURS to get my friend stabilized. Gott im Himmel!!!

The above photo is me standing in front of the lovely Indian River MC about a minute before launch. I decided to step outside and see the launch. Well, Vero Beach is not nearly as close to Cape Canaveral so the photo below shows my view.

We languished another two hours, watching Forrest Gump on cable as the nosebleed had long since corrected. At least I got to see a launch up close in 2007 (see link). The next launch will be a few weeks after I return to the north. Bummer.


At least we got to see a beautiful sunset on Highway 60 en route back to Tampa after our meal and ER experience on the ocean side of Florida.

On Tuesday, June 3rd I scoped out a Tampa Yankees game (Florida State League, A ball) to preview the experience for Jack and the kids when the Brewer A team, Brevard County Manatees visit in July. Here you see the scoreboard of the newly named "Steinbrenner Field."

The Major League New York Yankees train here in Spring, necessitating the bigger stadium.

Above, a Clearwater Thresher (Phillies' A-team) delivers a glove-smacking pitch.

Above, one of the "T-Yanks" scores a hit. Notice the non-crowd behind him. I bought a front-row ticket on the Threshers' dugout a minute after the first pitch. Despite the non-crowd, the vigilant usher made his way down to ask me not to set my game program on the dugout. He was right, I had about 3,500 seats to choose from to rest my program on. :-) HF1

Conspiracy Theories R Us!

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin offered this community event on their website, which was quickly removed on Friday afternoon. [Click the photo for a legible closeup] It's a wonder it ever got on there in the first place. See the archived link more closely here. HF1

I'm Still Here!

It's been a dazzlingly fast week as work at Centcom picked up with some new weekly taskings and my next online grad class that began Monday. Reading & writing by day gives way to the same in the evening. I will submit a more interesting missive this weekend. Have yourself a wonderful weekend and HAPPY SUMMER to all those Shattuck Mariners and friends! HF1