Grub This

Belgium Seafood grubbed by yours truly.

Belgium

Belgium is a really cool country---I'd recommend going if you get the chance. Of course, I wanted to geek out and visit some WWII sites, etc. Bastogne, central to the battle of the Bulge, etc. was a really cool town. The monument dedicated to the U.S. troops there is amazing. It lists every state in the U.S. and has plaques for every unit involved. A very cool memorial built by the Belgium. I saw a sign there that read: "The people of Belgium will never forget their American Liberators."
Also, there were a bunch of people in U.S. WWII uniforms that were driving around in WWII era U.S. jeeps, etc. They were having a 12km march from one town to the next to commemorate a part of the campaign. The weather was snowy, so it made for tough conditions.
Brussels is an awesome city. Cool markets, monuments, etc. Good seafood. Much bigger than I thought. I flew RyanAir from Venice for fairly cheap compared to what you would pay to take a train or drive. Definitely worth it. I'll post some more pics of the city tonight.
Later

Weekend News

Recovery from flying alot this week. I'm looking forward to a trip next weekend to Belgium to see Brussels and some WWII history sites (Bastogne, Battle of the Bulge, etc).
I'm also starting a new side project in my life. I'm doing a "history project" on the 510th Fighter Squadron during WWII. Maybe one day I can have it all published. I'm starting it in blog form and will be doing interviews with some of the veterans.
Take a look if you want: www.jerryjunkers.blogspot.com

Hermit Life is Good

Really I've been a hermit the last couple of days--the last two weekends for that matter. Even though the weather has been awesome (blue skies, warm, snow on mountains) I've stayed inside either at the squadron or at home. And it has been GOOD. Guess I kind of got burned out with constant travel.
Anyway, I've been to work both days this weekend churning through volume after volume of classified or unclassified manuals that we have in our weapons library. I'm updating them and putting them in new binders, etc. You see, I'm in charge of our weapons and tactics library...which sounds neat, but right now it's a serious pain. I want the vault library to be good...a place of quiet study...but it won't be that unless I get it at least visually pleasing. I've noticed that if surroundings are at least tidy, that the work or study level in people goes up. At least it does in me.
Anyway, I did way too much bookworm work this weekend and was about ready to lose it when I thought of my favorite remedy for frustrated times: Just call Alex "Artie" Thompson. I can assure you, his day or week is always exponentially worse than what yours might have been. Next post, I'll have a "Maddog Minute"---which will be a short narrative from Alex himself (his callsign is Maddog). Expect nothing but extreme comedy.
Later.
Oh, 5 dollars to the person who can guess what movie this picture is from. Roark and Brade, you guys will get it for sure.

Today

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Been swamped at work-----standard. I'm working on a bunch of projects: an upcoming trip to Poland to brief the Polish Air Force, an exercise my squadron is doing in Europe and a bunch of other crap. All I've wanted to do when I get home is eat and watch some news or a movie and hit the hay.

I recently watched the movie Roark recommended: Thumbsucker. It was actually pretty good---kind of weird....but I'm sure my generation can identify.

I'm also reading a new book---which I can't seem to find in my house right now. It's called "The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Carvaggio Masterpiece." It's really good....I read about it in an issue of the Economist.

Today at work I flew a pilot from the Croatian Air Force in the back of one of our 2 seat F-16's. Several of them are here on a tour of the base and are interested in the way we run a squadron. It was pretty cool to have the chance to show somebody from another country how we operate/fly the jet in basic maneuvers, etc. This particular pilot is a MiG 21 pilot and is very proficient in that airframe. We had a fun time and I got a few cool Croatian patches out of it.

Well, have to run and do the thing I hate most on earth: LAUNDRY. I was down to dress socks and was actually considering wearing running shorts as underwear beneath my flight suit.

Arrgggg.