Ft Bragg move in M-30D

[Sean McEntee]

ALCON,

         I'm making one last attempt tomorrow morning to persuade the Aviation Branch (Mis)Manager to send me to Ft Rucker, but in the meantime, I am 30 days out from moving to Raeford, NC.

         Thanks again to the Texas/Okie group for all of your support.  Didn't get out as much as I wanted to this time around but it was always a good time when I did.  Big thanks to Fred Von Gortler.  I have Army friends and modeling friends, but not a lot of Army modeling friends with similar experiences as my own.  We spent way more time BSing and trading our "So no sh*t there I was..." stories then we did actually flying, and that was just fine by me!  I had a Soldier who was a domestic violence victim (female Soldier), needed to get her kids and her 3-bedroom house's worth of stuff out of government housing in about 5 hours before her "husband" was released from jail,  and we had very little in the way of moving equipment.  I called up Fred and he dropped everything and came out with a trailer, and we got everything out of there.  I didn't get a chance to tell him since, but I picked her up from the hospital and she was in tears that we got all of her stuff into storage until we could get her into a new house.  The only one who appreciated it more than me was her!

         For the east coast guys in that area, please "come up on the net"!  Anyone within about an hour of Raeford would be sweet.  Contests within 6 hours driving time are reachable on a normal weekend.  Also within striking distance of Brodak, but must decide (as well as see what the COC will let me do) whether to attend it or the Nat's: got a bit of an itch to go rumble in Muncie. 

         Once I get "on ground and shook down", I'll start hitting folks up. 

[EddyR]

Sean       You will be almost on top of Bill Little 12-15 miles and less than 2 hr drive from Huntersville field.
Ed

[Peter Nevai]

ALCON,

         I'm making one last attempt tomorrow morning to persuade the Aviation Branch (Mis)Manager to send me to Ft Rucker, but in the meantime, I am 30 days out from moving to Raeford, NC.

         Thanks again to the Texas/Okie group for all of your support.  Didn't get out as much as I wanted to this time around but it was always a good time when I did.  Big thanks to Fred Von Gortler.  I have Army friends and modeling friends, but not a lot of Army modeling friends with similar experiences as my own.  We spent way more time BSing and trading our "So no sh*t there I was..." stories then we did actually flying, and that was just fine by me!  I had a Soldier who was a domestic violence victim (female Soldier), needed to get her kids and her 3-bedroom house's worth of stuff out of government housing in about 5 hours before her "husband" was released from jail,  and we had very little in the way of moving equipment.  I called up Fred and he dropped everything and came out with a trailer, and we got everything out of there.  I didn't get a chance to tell him since, but I picked her up from the hospital and she was in tears that we got all of her stuff into storage until we could get her into a new house.  The only one who appreciated it more than me was her!

         For the east coast guys in that area, please "come up on the net"!  Anyone within about an hour of Raeford would be sweet.  Contests within 6 hours driving time are reachable on a normal weekend.  Also within striking distance of Brodak, but must decide (as well as see what the COC will let me do) whether to attend it or the Nat's: got a bit of an itch to go rumble in Muncie. 

         Once I get "on ground and shook down", I'll start hitting folks up.

Dang, Did'nt know you wanted Rucker, Spent several weeks there putting in new data network infrastructure back in 2011. 6 airfields , Carins, Shell, Hanchey, Knox, Lowe,and Ech. each hosts a specific type of helicopter . Unfortunately the CO has changed since I've been there so I no longer have any names for you to drop to help you out. Have my shirts from Mother Rucker's though. A photo of part of Carins airfield and a shot taken inside the rucker museum on base.

[Sean McEntee]

Dang, Did'nt know you wanted Rucker, Spent several weeks there putting in new data network infrastructure back in 2011. 6 airfields , Carins, Shell, Hanchey, Knox, Lowe,and Ech. each hosts a specific type of helicopter . Unfortunately the CO has changed since I've been there so I no longer have any names for you to drop to help you out. Have my shirts from Mother Rucker's though. A photo of part of Carins airfield and a shot taken inside the rucker museum on base.

      I put in a packet for an instructor job at the Noncomissioned Officers Academy.  They want me pretty bad--I'm a bit of a unicorn in the UAS community in that I'm checked out on what is now every UAV in the Army, have quantifiable experience in all of them, and I'm not broken physically and can still run fast.  However, the folks at Ft Knox aren't playing along.

      I made friends with some folks in the museum, and they took me to some of the "back hangers" and got to see some Hueys and Cobras from 'Nam that were pretty shot up, and some other neat things back there.  They used to have the prototype Commanche in storage, but have recently moved it into the Museum.  They use the museum a lot for graduation ceremonies for the flight schools, warrant officer candidate school, IET training and the NCO academy.  It is a pretty neat museum and they have some good stuff outside too.

[Peter Nevai]

I remember there was an space behind the building somewhat like a bone yard with bits and pieces of all sorts or helicopters. Back during the project we were in every building and hangar on base, swapping out network equipment and running new fiber.

[Sean McEntee]

So no kidding...

A bunch of people got promoted at Ft Bragg, and have filled the position that I was slotted for.

Simultaneously, a bunch of people at Ft Carson, CO got selected for Warrant Officer Candidate School, and have vacated those positions there.

So bing, bang, boom....going back to Carson.

It was quite a shock...nice duty stations like Carson, Germany, ect are really hard to get to in the first place, and absolutely NOONE goes back.  This is one of those things where all the dominoes fell in the right sequence.

Its not the teaching job at Rucker that I wanted.  From what it seams, the number of SFCs are hard to maintain due to retirement, selection for WOCS so its difficult to get out of the field and into a strategic assignment like that.  With that in mind, Carson is the best place to get stationed at in my opinion.  Just a really nice area. 

Time to put my FF cap back on...

[Randy Cuberly]

Sean,
I looked at the maps for Ft Bragg and decided it was a "Little" different than when I was there in the 1960's for Special Forces Training!   

There was actually a very active Control Line Club there then!  Mostly a bunch of crazy combat fliers! 

Nothing stays the same however.

Best of luck on getting what you want.  The Army is definitely "different" now than then also! 

Randy Cuberly

[john e. holliday]

Maybe a few more years and you can retire from the service and get a cushy civilian job.   

[Jack Pitcher]

Sean

If you’re going to be coming up to Denver to fly FF, you might also consider joining us for some stunt flying at our Arvada Associated Modelers field. We’ve developed a well prepared CL circle there now and have a local cadre of 6 -8 regular fliers and growing. There’s usually activity on weekend days and we’re just getting started on trying to establish a more or less regular Wednesday morning session for those who have weekday time available. We’d love to have you join us if you can.

Jack

[Sean McEntee]

Sean

If you’re going to be coming up to Denver to fly FF, you might also consider joining us for some stunt flying at our Arvada Associated Modelers field. We’ve developed a well prepared CL circle there now and have a local cadre of 6 -8 regular fliers and growing. There’s usually activity on weekend days and we’re just getting started on trying to establish a more or less regular Wednesday morning session for those who have weekday time available. We’d love to have you join us if you can.

Jack

Hey Jack,

       Sounds good! I'll hit you guys up once I get settled in.

       I started flying FF last time I was at Carson since you guys up in Denver only have one contest a year (is it still that way?) and the next closest contest, I believe, is Jim Lees contest which is a bit out of range. My dad flew free flight real heavy back in the old days so I went and relived it a bit. Great group of guys in the Springs!

[Jack Pitcher]

The Denver contest was hosted for many years by the Rocky Mountain Aeromodelers. There was no event held last year as a result of losing access to the contest site at Front Range Airport. So far as I know there is no contest scheduled this year. I don’t know what the future holds for a Denver area contest. The Arvada club Board of Directors would like us to hold a stunt contest at our site but the CL fliers consider that not feasible at the current time due to having only one circle available.

The inside joke around here is that we’re surrounded by contests, it’s just that they’re all a thousand miles away.

Jack