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.