My bride and I spent a couple of weeks, less a day or so, on a road trip back to some of the places we've lived. I spent 21 years in the Air Force and so we got around. As a young captain, we were stationed at Fort Worth, TX at what was Carswell Air Force Base. After that, we were transferred to Bellevue, NE, to what was Strategic Air Command Headquarters. Bellevue is just south of Omaha.
Took us four days to get to Fort Worth. We stopped for a couple of days in New Mexico. Fort Worth has grown by leaps and bounds. Where we bought our first home, used to be the end of Fort Worth's western boundary. Today the city goes on further west than we could see. The base is now a naval air station. We drove around and only recognized a few places. Lots of new construction. Our first home has fared well and we were happy to see that someone had kept it up.
After a couple of days in Texas, we drove to Nebraska. Bellevue is a little bit bigger but seems prosperous. Our home, the second we bought, also had fared well and had been upgraded. It was also nice to see that it had good occupants.
We then drove back to California.
We both enjoyed the trip; but, we both also felt the same feeling that there is no way we could return to those parts of our lives. The past was the past and we could never repeat it, only recall it. Nostalgia isn't all it's purported to be......
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Flying
I've been a flying advocate for as long as I can remember. My Uncle Bill Baughman was a pilot in World War II and returned to Salt Lake to start a flying school. I got to fly with him when I was about 4 or 5 years old and it was habit forming.
I joined the Civil Air Patrol when I was 14 and got to fly in an old L-1 observation plane and in a Steerman Biplane. Duane Smith was the pilot in the L-1 and he let me take the controls. I was flying higher than the plane!
Swept out a hangar and washed airplanes for flying lessons to get time to get a private license at 16. Begged, borrowed and stole flying time whenever I could.
Went in the Air Force and flew several different aircraft. Did some time in the Great Southeastern Air and Land War. That was exciting at times. Moved up to staff jobs in the 1980s and flew less and less.
Retired from the Air Force in 1986 and sort of lost interest in flying. However, met another afficianado in 1980s and we have flow together, in his 1969 Cessna 150 quite a few times since. We split the gas charges and always fly somewhere nice to have lunch. It's great fun for a couple of old farts and between the two of us, we have one good set of eyes and ears.
As soon as you takeoff, you are separated from the Earth and all its problems. You have to think in three dimensions. You have to stay sharp, watch out for other aircraft, and listen to the radio. You also have to pay attention to navigation, fuel and other instruments. Although the 150 is forgiving, you can still get it out of the envelope and buy the farm. It's an entirely different skill set than other daily chores.
Gayland is great company and we enjoy the drill. One of these days, either one of us or 51084 (aircraft number) will age out of the program. That's going to be a sad day.
I joined the Civil Air Patrol when I was 14 and got to fly in an old L-1 observation plane and in a Steerman Biplane. Duane Smith was the pilot in the L-1 and he let me take the controls. I was flying higher than the plane!
Swept out a hangar and washed airplanes for flying lessons to get time to get a private license at 16. Begged, borrowed and stole flying time whenever I could.
Went in the Air Force and flew several different aircraft. Did some time in the Great Southeastern Air and Land War. That was exciting at times. Moved up to staff jobs in the 1980s and flew less and less.
Retired from the Air Force in 1986 and sort of lost interest in flying. However, met another afficianado in 1980s and we have flow together, in his 1969 Cessna 150 quite a few times since. We split the gas charges and always fly somewhere nice to have lunch. It's great fun for a couple of old farts and between the two of us, we have one good set of eyes and ears.
As soon as you takeoff, you are separated from the Earth and all its problems. You have to think in three dimensions. You have to stay sharp, watch out for other aircraft, and listen to the radio. You also have to pay attention to navigation, fuel and other instruments. Although the 150 is forgiving, you can still get it out of the envelope and buy the farm. It's an entirely different skill set than other daily chores.
Gayland is great company and we enjoy the drill. One of these days, either one of us or 51084 (aircraft number) will age out of the program. That's going to be a sad day.
Death
My sister died about 10 days ago. One usually uses words like "passed on" or "passed away" or some other less direct term; but, just the same, he life ended less than two months after her 65th birthday. I was able to see her the day before the event and it was evident that the end was near; however, I opted not to go to the funeral.
My wife and I had just finished a road trip to two of our prior homes and, to say the least, we were fatigued. I didn't think there was anything I could do for her because she was no longer here. I had stayed in touch with her over the years, mostly by phone but we did visit occasionally. She never visited us, whether by choice or by simple omission. I certainly didn't hold it against her. I believe we all have the right to make choices.
I am now the only survivor from the family of my childhood. Dad's been dead over thirty years and my Mother died in 2007, just before her 90th birthday. Now sister Carolyn is gone. The feeling is sort of sobering and I have spent a bit of time thinking about this since she died.
My sister died as a result of multiple causes, not the least of which was many years sufffering from Krohn's disease. The malady caused her to be perpetually short of hemoglobin and she spent a lot of time in hospital getting transfusions. She also had complications regarding liver, pulmonary and other vital functions. She became very ill at the end and her directives precluded extraordinary measures.
At any rate, life can be capricious and short in some instances. I learned many years past that, in all liklihood, any experience you miss in this life will be forever missed. Do your own thing now and, if you haven't already done so, create a "bucket list."
My wife and I had just finished a road trip to two of our prior homes and, to say the least, we were fatigued. I didn't think there was anything I could do for her because she was no longer here. I had stayed in touch with her over the years, mostly by phone but we did visit occasionally. She never visited us, whether by choice or by simple omission. I certainly didn't hold it against her. I believe we all have the right to make choices.
I am now the only survivor from the family of my childhood. Dad's been dead over thirty years and my Mother died in 2007, just before her 90th birthday. Now sister Carolyn is gone. The feeling is sort of sobering and I have spent a bit of time thinking about this since she died.
My sister died as a result of multiple causes, not the least of which was many years sufffering from Krohn's disease. The malady caused her to be perpetually short of hemoglobin and she spent a lot of time in hospital getting transfusions. She also had complications regarding liver, pulmonary and other vital functions. She became very ill at the end and her directives precluded extraordinary measures.
At any rate, life can be capricious and short in some instances. I learned many years past that, in all liklihood, any experience you miss in this life will be forever missed. Do your own thing now and, if you haven't already done so, create a "bucket list."
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Religion
A recent series on the History Channel about the world's major religions has been very interesting to me perhaps due to my age but also because I have observed the effects of religion all throughout my life and it religion has not left me with a warm feeling.
The three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all spring from the same geography, the area which is now southern Israel. The Jewish people trace their roots back to the second century B.C. and have numerous times been descimated by various other peoples and have been carried off as slaves to other lands. There is some empiricle evidence in the form of ancient writings which, more or less, confirm their experiences and validate parts of the Torah and Old Testiment; however, much of what is written has little support except for the Bible which has been edited and modified over the many centuries. While Judaism came out of a notion of polytheism (many gods), monotheism (belief in one god) was the primary belief in the later years.
These two religions coexited for a short time in the area of Palestine around and subsequent to the life of Jesus. Most of the earlier Christians were Jews.
Islam came later in the middle of the first millenium. Islam built on earlier tenets of Judaism and Christianity but did not accept Jesus as the son of God.
And so her we are, a couple of thousand years later, with numerous denominations of Judaism, Christianity and Islan. These range from an almost primitive acceptance of what is written in the Torah, Bible and Koran to more liberal accommodations.
So, unless one believes in the literal interpretation of the various holy books, the only other thing you have to hang your hat on is faith. Faith is difficult to describe as it defies logic and relies mainly on what someone else tells you that he/she has heard or experienced.
This has led to legions of evangalists from all faiths who claim to have either had a conversation with God or have experienced God's direct effect on their psyche. They all are very sincere and exhibit a built in framework on how everyone should live their lives, how they should replicate ceremonies, and such simple things as what we should include in or exclude from our dinner plates.
This naturally leads to squadrons of folks who make a living by selling this subscription from heaven to the many. If I was selling snake oil, I would expect that my customers would at least validate my research. This is not true of the rabbis, priests and imams who feel that they have the answer for everything and enjoy the many privlieges of their exhaulted status while the rest of us rabble perform the ceremonies, furnish the cash, and blindly follow the tenets, never thinking how foolish it is to expect a reward of several dozen virgins should one choose to use his/her body as the vehicle to transport death and destruction to others.
But, then, I did the same thing with a B-52 during the Vietnam difficulties. Without the reward of virgins, though.
The three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all spring from the same geography, the area which is now southern Israel. The Jewish people trace their roots back to the second century B.C. and have numerous times been descimated by various other peoples and have been carried off as slaves to other lands. There is some empiricle evidence in the form of ancient writings which, more or less, confirm their experiences and validate parts of the Torah and Old Testiment; however, much of what is written has little support except for the Bible which has been edited and modified over the many centuries. While Judaism came out of a notion of polytheism (many gods), monotheism (belief in one god) was the primary belief in the later years.
These two religions coexited for a short time in the area of Palestine around and subsequent to the life of Jesus. Most of the earlier Christians were Jews.
Islam came later in the middle of the first millenium. Islam built on earlier tenets of Judaism and Christianity but did not accept Jesus as the son of God.
And so her we are, a couple of thousand years later, with numerous denominations of Judaism, Christianity and Islan. These range from an almost primitive acceptance of what is written in the Torah, Bible and Koran to more liberal accommodations.
So, unless one believes in the literal interpretation of the various holy books, the only other thing you have to hang your hat on is faith. Faith is difficult to describe as it defies logic and relies mainly on what someone else tells you that he/she has heard or experienced.
This has led to legions of evangalists from all faiths who claim to have either had a conversation with God or have experienced God's direct effect on their psyche. They all are very sincere and exhibit a built in framework on how everyone should live their lives, how they should replicate ceremonies, and such simple things as what we should include in or exclude from our dinner plates.
This naturally leads to squadrons of folks who make a living by selling this subscription from heaven to the many. If I was selling snake oil, I would expect that my customers would at least validate my research. This is not true of the rabbis, priests and imams who feel that they have the answer for everything and enjoy the many privlieges of their exhaulted status while the rest of us rabble perform the ceremonies, furnish the cash, and blindly follow the tenets, never thinking how foolish it is to expect a reward of several dozen virgins should one choose to use his/her body as the vehicle to transport death and destruction to others.
But, then, I did the same thing with a B-52 during the Vietnam difficulties. Without the reward of virgins, though.
How to Start a Military Career
I spent my senior college year wondering how I was going to avoid being drafted into the U.S. Army and being subsequently sent to Vietnam, a country that I didn't recall evedr studying in nearly 16 years of public school and college. It seems that things were beginning to heat up in that neighborhood and I, as an unmarried 21 year old man in Utah, was prime draft bait. Most of my contemporaries were already married with children at the age I was due to the Mormon influence. The available draft pool was very, very shallow. I received my draft notice soon afterwards.
One day, while walking through the Union Building, I came upon a recruiting booth for the U.S. Air Force. I chatted with the two non-commissioned officers about what my options were. They informed me that they could enlist me prior to my reporting date with a delayed enlistment so I could finish college and, as well, offered to give me the tests to qualify for Officer Training School and for flying training. I accepted all of their offers and, after graduation, headed for San Antonio's Lackland Air Force Base.
Basic and Officer Training were challenging. In Basic, I was the oldest guy in the program. Most of the rest were kids right out of high school. My training instructor appointed me the dorm chief. This meant that I was ultimately responsible for the cleanliness and orderliness of the barracks. Cleanliness and orderliness have an entirely different meaning to military guys.....
Anyway, I got through it and went on to aviation training and eventually into the Strategic Air Command. Through all of the training and the subsequent 21 years, I gained confidence and skills that would never have been available through a civilian career.
One day, while walking through the Union Building, I came upon a recruiting booth for the U.S. Air Force. I chatted with the two non-commissioned officers about what my options were. They informed me that they could enlist me prior to my reporting date with a delayed enlistment so I could finish college and, as well, offered to give me the tests to qualify for Officer Training School and for flying training. I accepted all of their offers and, after graduation, headed for San Antonio's Lackland Air Force Base.
Basic and Officer Training were challenging. In Basic, I was the oldest guy in the program. Most of the rest were kids right out of high school. My training instructor appointed me the dorm chief. This meant that I was ultimately responsible for the cleanliness and orderliness of the barracks. Cleanliness and orderliness have an entirely different meaning to military guys.....
Anyway, I got through it and went on to aviation training and eventually into the Strategic Air Command. Through all of the training and the subsequent 21 years, I gained confidence and skills that would never have been available through a civilian career.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Education of the Masses
Public education is in hot water. There are never enough funds to provide the levels of education that we have been led to expect. Teachers are being laid off. Schools are being closed. The sky is falling......
The school paradigm that we have today is essentially that same one we've had for nearly two hundred years - Kindergarten to Grade Twelve. Most districts have three grade levels, classrooms are self-contained, and, by law, kids have to attend - at least until they drop out.
Essentially, students learn all the basics (or should have learned) by the end of grade three. After that, teachers build onto the basic skills. If a child fails to adequately master basic skills by grade three, they are destined to the hard road and usually do not succeed without some interventions.
By the time a student is in about grade 10, every class is a repetation (basic subjects) of past studies. The result is a high drop out rate.
Additionally, school rapidly becomes irrelevent to students in the poorer sectors of our society when they approach high school when they notice that their peers with the greatest power and wealth get these things from the narcotics trade or other criminal activities.
Couple these phenomena with the fact that many kids are already behind the educational eight-ball before they go to school. Absent parents, gang activities, poverty - all make the transition to a closed school environment nearly insurmountable.
So - what to do. Since the school system has become the adhoc parent, health provider, food provider, etc., maybe we should start earlier. A kid should start school when toilet trained and reasonably socialized (can get along without mom for a reasonable length of time and can play with others).
Stop the notion that all kids should go to college. Only a minority of students will benefit from a four-year education at a college or university. Get more vocational training. Also, get some life skills training on how to get up and get ready for work, how to manage finances, and how to work with others.
Stop blaming the teachers. They are doing what they are told.
The school paradigm that we have today is essentially that same one we've had for nearly two hundred years - Kindergarten to Grade Twelve. Most districts have three grade levels, classrooms are self-contained, and, by law, kids have to attend - at least until they drop out.
Essentially, students learn all the basics (or should have learned) by the end of grade three. After that, teachers build onto the basic skills. If a child fails to adequately master basic skills by grade three, they are destined to the hard road and usually do not succeed without some interventions.
By the time a student is in about grade 10, every class is a repetation (basic subjects) of past studies. The result is a high drop out rate.
Additionally, school rapidly becomes irrelevent to students in the poorer sectors of our society when they approach high school when they notice that their peers with the greatest power and wealth get these things from the narcotics trade or other criminal activities.
Couple these phenomena with the fact that many kids are already behind the educational eight-ball before they go to school. Absent parents, gang activities, poverty - all make the transition to a closed school environment nearly insurmountable.
So - what to do. Since the school system has become the adhoc parent, health provider, food provider, etc., maybe we should start earlier. A kid should start school when toilet trained and reasonably socialized (can get along without mom for a reasonable length of time and can play with others).
Stop the notion that all kids should go to college. Only a minority of students will benefit from a four-year education at a college or university. Get more vocational training. Also, get some life skills training on how to get up and get ready for work, how to manage finances, and how to work with others.
Stop blaming the teachers. They are doing what they are told.
Don't Ask; Don't Tell
As a libertarian, I'd be likely to not really care about a person's sexual persuasion as long as they didn't want to make it an issue. What consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooms.....etc. I served over twenty years in the U.S. Air Force and, although we suspected some of our own may be homosexual (this was before the term "gay" was coined). Why gay? Are heterosexuals sad? Anyway, nobody brought it up. In fact, although sexual matters were readily discussed, nobody ever had a problem if they opted out of the discussion. As an officer, I had to ride herd on the younger military members so that harmones didn't get in the way of good military order.
Now, my successors are going to be ordered to accept openly gay persons into the ranks. Time will tell how this will work in combat. We can only hope.
The second concern I have is that we continue to approach the precipice edge atop the slippery slope. Point one is that sexual behavior, from a biological standpoint, is designed to ensure that the species will survive through production of progeny. Nature, or whoever designed the system, made the act feel real good to encourage the participants. In and of itself, the act is most to satisfy the physical. The majority of humans are attracted to the opposite sex by reasons of biology. If attracted to the same sex, the reason seems to be physical pleasure and is really a conscious adaption. No one has ever discovered a "gay gene."
Point two is by tacit approval or by giving legitimacy to this life style, it's only a short hop to accepting other lifestyles. Some that come to mind include incest, polygamy, polyandry, pedophelia, bestiality, necrophelia - to name a few. Over the centuries, we've sort of agreed as a species that these things were contrary to the safety and progression of society and should not be condoned.
The question that I am left with is this - how far are we willing to go in our pursuit of pleasure before we lose our humanity. Although many of these practices may be shown to be "victimless," the purpetrator may just be victimizing himself.
Now, my successors are going to be ordered to accept openly gay persons into the ranks. Time will tell how this will work in combat. We can only hope.
The second concern I have is that we continue to approach the precipice edge atop the slippery slope. Point one is that sexual behavior, from a biological standpoint, is designed to ensure that the species will survive through production of progeny. Nature, or whoever designed the system, made the act feel real good to encourage the participants. In and of itself, the act is most to satisfy the physical. The majority of humans are attracted to the opposite sex by reasons of biology. If attracted to the same sex, the reason seems to be physical pleasure and is really a conscious adaption. No one has ever discovered a "gay gene."
Point two is by tacit approval or by giving legitimacy to this life style, it's only a short hop to accepting other lifestyles. Some that come to mind include incest, polygamy, polyandry, pedophelia, bestiality, necrophelia - to name a few. Over the centuries, we've sort of agreed as a species that these things were contrary to the safety and progression of society and should not be condoned.
The question that I am left with is this - how far are we willing to go in our pursuit of pleasure before we lose our humanity. Although many of these practices may be shown to be "victimless," the purpetrator may just be victimizing himself.
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