Monday, May 28, 2012

Squadron Notes - May 29

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Checking the schedule for tomorrow, there were no flight or simulator activities scheduled, but when I looked at the Squadron Notes, I happened to notice there is a Promotion Ceremony scheduled for a group of Ensigns - Tim included. It's been two years since his graduation from the Naval Academy, and the promotion from Ensign to Lieutenant Junior Grade is automatic after two years in rank. Following Facebook, I have noticed that other 2010 classmates have been getting their single silver bar, so it was just a matter of time. As it turns out, the 2012 Naval Academy graduation just happens to fall tomorrow as well.
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PM SDO CALL EVERYONE ON THE FRONT PAGE.
STUD X'S:   48      IUT X'S:   03    TOTAL SORTIES:   67    OVHD:   00      IPA:   29/36
RESERVISTS:   CAPT YORK   (2)
AUX IP: 
LIMITING FACTOR:   STUDENTS.
MED DWN:   02      LV:   05      TAD:   00    DET:   00   DUTY:   00

0800:   FORM1101-6 FOR 1STLTs GIUNIPERO, GOLD, 2NDLT COWELL, ENS' MATTHAEY AND WORTHINGTON   AT GRND TRNG.
0845:   TACF FLIGHT FOR LT JONES WITH MAJ BIBBY IN THE VT-22 BRIEFING SPACES.
1200-1230: PROMOTION CEREMONY FOR ENS' BROWN, FLETCHER, GUNDERSON, ISLIN, MCAULIFFE, PACKER, ROOKS AND STEINER W/CDR BECK IN READY ROOM. 
1400:   WING OPS MTG FOR LCDR BOWENS IN NAV RM.
1830:   NFR1102 FOR 1STLTs HAYBA, SWANSON, ENS' POLHEMUS, RUTTUM AND SCHROCK AT GRND TRNG.

0600   DUTY DRIVER FOR ENS FICK.   POCs ARE MAJ REINHART, LCDR PROCTOR, CAPTS DALTON, DIETZ, KESHIKAR, 1STLT WICKERSHAM, PAPALE, LTJG DEGRAAF, ENS' BARNES FOR TRANSPORT FROM NQI TO CRP.

NOTE 1:   CROSS COUNTRY PLAYERS - NOTE TURN TIMES PRIOR TO DEPARTURE WITH REGARDS TO EXPIRATION FOR DEPARTURE TIME RTB TO KCRP - NQI WILL BE CLOSED.
CROSS COUNTRY PLAYERS ARE:   LCDR MARLAR, CAPT DIETZ, LTs CHOMBEAU, HOOKE, STYLIANOS, 1STLTs GOLD, HAYBA, SWANSON, ENS' DEVINE AND HUTCHINGS.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Procession - Memorial Day 2012

 
Procession

The pavement passes underneath our feet,
Along with patches and blankets of leaves.
We walk, following Staff Sergeant Adam Dickmyer,
Carried away from the chapel –
A winding funeral procession.

The colors of the red stripes and blue field of stars,
Always clear to see – always far ahead.
The sounds of the drum cadence, 
The songs the band plays –
Muffled, not much louder than the wind
Blowing through the trees.
The soldier’s wife, at the arm of her escort.

For all the times visiting Arlington,
Never having walked the length of the cemetery,
The peacefulness of the place was palpable.
Emotions changed often, 
As the rising and falling hills and swales. 
To the sides, rows of tombstones,
Walking beside histories
Recorded on white marble.

As if in a dream, ahead are the Stars and Stripes.
An undulating sea of dark blue uniforms, 
Trimmed with red and gold.
Bobbing covered heads, 
Most with short-cropped hair.
Coveted blue shoulder braids – the Infantry –
Many a Tomb Guard Badge fixed to right pockets.
Young men's faces looking straight ahead.

Horses drew the caisson to Section 60 –
The resting places for those who gave their lives 
The last nine years.
Now the Casket Team bears its honor – 
their former commander.

Standing close, shoulder-to-shoulder, 
Many sergeants,
The Old Guard, 
Infantrymen, 
Buglers and drummers,
Young and old, different home towns,
At the grave, showing their last respects,
Giving their support –
All brothers, all soldiers.

Distant observers
Volunteer Patriot Guard Riders in their ranks,
Stand watch at a distance,
Showing respect for fallen heroes,
Shielding grieving families from disruptions,
Some from North Carolina,
Adam's home state.

The flag folded,
Twenty-one gun salute fired,
The sound of the lone bugler's taps faded away,
All the solemn on-lookers have dispersed.
The young widow, now alone.
The widow's escort, still standing watch – 
A two star general,
So high a rank for an enlisted soldier, honored.

Where the living stand among the fallen.
The headstones here blend into the rest,
From all our Nation's wars –
Lines of tombstones in the distance,
Marking 300,000 graves across 600 acres,
But this one acre today is the saddest of all.

They walk away after the ceremonies –
150 marched and walked and rode here together,
Now leave at their own pace,
With their dreams, their memories, their thoughts, their fears, their anxiety,
From the place of remembrance for this generation.
A generation of all volunteers,
Like my sons.

Among the many graves that wait,
William Spates.
A former Tomb Guard, like Adam, 
He was killed in Vietnam.
His headstone stands watch

As the sentinel on the Plaza that hour stands his watch –
Walks the mat –
His honor walk for the Unknowns,
As Spates and Adam did in years past.
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Staff Sergeant Adam Dickmyer was killed in Afghanistan October 28, 2010 - he is remembered this Memorial Day. Above are impressions and photographs recorded from Adam's funeral procession at Arlington National Cemetery, November 17, 2010. Previous links remembering Adam can be found by clicking here, and here. Other Memorial Day postings can be found by clicking here, here, and here.


Others like these soldiers walked and worked and lived with those who are remembered in Section 60. Unlike the Veterans of the Vietnam War, they do not have to wait 20 years to have a place to gather and remember their fallen friends. But just as the names inscribed on the wall pile up above your head as you walk down into the earth at the Vietnam Memorial - here the names on the grave markers expand weekly across the acres of green plains and rolling hills of Arlington, in what is called the Field of Honor.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A Small Contribution

Image on a laptop projected to the big screen
Last Friday the Navy, USDA, DOE, and DOT sponsored an Advanced Biofuel Industry Roundtable in Washington, D.C. to help interested companies understand opportunities for building partnerships and finding ways to resource their businesses. There was a good turnout, and so was the feedback from the attendees. I didn't have to speak, but was asked to provide a little bit of staff support for one of the speakers at the last minute. After a quick exchange of emails on the Blackberry, whipping out my MacBook Pro from the briefcase, some quick work on Powerpoint after editing an image in Photoshop, and then a transfer to a flash drive - voila': a big-screen backdrop for the speaker. (note the arrow in the photograph at the left showing the handy work as it appeared on projector's laptop.)

This week there have been major industry announcements by Boeing and United Airlines stating their intentions to promote and utilize renewable aviation biofuels. Not ethanol, but fuel that looks the same, burns in turbine engines, costs the same, but performs better than petroleum-based fuel. USDA thinks its a good idea, too. When reading comments to news reports about aviation biofuels, it is interesting the amount of misinformation that is out there.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Pride - Home Grown, Ireland

Gracious. If I were to use one word to describe the people who handled me during my trip to Ireland, it would be gracious.

There were good amounts of time when I was being picked up and taken to meetings - either short distances in the mornings and evenings, or longer trips to different sites and interviews around the country - when there were opportunities to talk and learn a little bit about my hosts, and the issues that make the Irish Irish.

The history of Ireland is apparent everywhere - old structure, ruins, hedgerow boundaries, and other reminders. I knew of some of the past struggles - the troubles in the northern six counties that remained British after the rest of the island received its independence - but I
A Dublin street scene
wouldn't have imagined how deeply the English rule had been imprinted in their psyche, and the subtle pride of now being a free country - a consistent theme that emerged during our travels together. There wasn't any anger or bitterness of the past - that would not have been gracious - just a matter-of-fact commentary. But I couldn't miss the history that is embedded in buildings and streets and places - particularly in Dublin. I couldn't help but think whether the experience of this relatively fresh independence would have been what the American colonists would had expressed after the same amount of time - maybe not, since in the same amount of time after our independence, we were in the middle of a civil war. It is just that the Irish identity is a couple of millenia older.

Sport also is a significant connection to Irish heritage - just as much a part of their national pride. I was introduced to the two national passions: Gaelic Football and Hurling when asking about the flags I occasionally saw displayed on buildings around different towns - they represent the county teams. After hearing little bits about the games, I was able to recite the similarities with Australia Rules Football, and the differences and similarities compared to field hockey and lacrosse.

Declan, one of my hosts
The late afternoon of my last day in Ireland, the director of one of the research institutes drove me through downtown Dublin and then somewhere near the airport to his daughter's Gaelic Football game. Declan recounted the stories of the places where protests occurred and rebels were jailed - wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” - some of their patriots faced that fate.

As we drove by the stadium at Croke Park - after having caught a glimpse of Kilmainham Jail - I heard the story of British retaliation for earlier killings of informants, but most significantly how the visit a year earlier by Queen Elizabeth and what was considered her remarkable speech. Declan recounted how everyone wondered what the Queen would say in her speech at Dublin Castle during her visit to Ireland - the "Wow" mouthed by the Irish President at the Queen's greeting - a further sign of the walk towards conciliation between the two nations.
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Gaelic Football, Hurling are Irish Passions (excerpt)

Gaelic football and hurling have been arousing Irish passions for a long, long time. Football became popular as early as the 16th century, when teams might have consisted of all the able-bodied men of a town or parish. In those earliest days, the rather unorganized game would begin between the two towns and end when one side had managed to force the ball across a line into the other's territory.

A Gaelic Football football
The modern game plays like a mix of soccer and rugby. Fifteen-player teams battle across a pitch using a round ball slightly smaller than its soccer counterpart. The ball is carried for short distances, and passing is done with a kick or a "hand-pass," the ball struck with a hand or fist. The action is fast and furious, and play is rough. Protective equipment is nonexistent.

Hurling is similar to lacrosse or hockey. It's played on a large pitch with a curved wooden stick (or "hurley") and a small ball (or "sliothar"). It's one of the fastest games afield, and it's not for the faint of heart. Bodies bang, the ball is as hard as a baseball, and the sticks are made of solid ash.

While Gaelic football is an old sport, hurling is ancient. Irish mythology is replete with tales of heroes, such as the legendary warrior Cú Chulainn, who were expert hurlers. Such myths point to a hurling history some 2,000 years old and the sport's prominent place in Irish tradition.

Uprights above the goal
While the games boast ancient roots, their modern history is inseparably linked with the revival of Irish culture and nationalism that occurred in the late 19th century. In 1884, with Ireland under the rule of the
British Crown, a group of Irish nationalists met in County Galway to establish an organization for Irish athletes, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is still the governing body of hurling and Gaelic football (as well as of ladies football and carmogie, a hurling-like sport for women).

Given these nationalist roots, it comes as no surprise that the GAA has always promoted more than just sport. "The Gaelic Athletic Association was a cultural thing," said Keane. "It was created as a direct response to the way in which Irish culture was being eliminated, and they wanted to revive that culture." To accomplish this goal, the organization focused on traditional athletics, but also on other activities. The GAA's official guide includes a mandate to "actively support the Irish language, traditional Irish dancing, music, song, and other aspects of Irish culture."

The GAA is active in all of these areas. It promotes Irish culture in much the same way it does athletics, through a network of clubs throughout the country. Competitions, called Scór, celebrate Irish literature, song, dance, music, and other traditions.

In its early years, the Gaelic games themselves took on political significance in the troubled Ireland of the time.

O'Connell Street
The athletic association developed a strong rural network across Ireland, and many GAA members were involved in events connected with the 1916 Easter Rising. By 1918 the organization was banned by the British government, but the games were still played as an act of Irish defiance.

The game was touched directly by the conflict. After the Irish Republican Army (IRA) killed 11 British officers in Dublin on November 21, 1920, on suspicion of espionage, government troops (the Black and Tans) exacted a reprisal by firing on the crowd at a Gaelic football game at the sport's "cathedral," Croke Park, leaving 12 spectators and one player dead.  (1)

As Ireland's political situation has evolved, its sports have always been a lightning rod for nationalist feeling. Not until a few months ago was a ban lifted that forbade current or former British Army officers from participating in Gaelic athletics.

Brian Handwerk
Updated March 17, 2003
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I have paid attention to a sampling of Irish poetry, but here are a few musical examples from Ireland - traditional and contemporary.

Traditional music choice
While in an Irish gift store across the street from Kilkenny Castle, I browsed for something Irish to remember the trip. I typically try to buy an example of music of the country I visit. My host John suggested this CD as an example of traditional music. Click here to listen to samples of songs by various artists.

Damien Rice
Jan and I typically watch American Idol when it is running. This past week, one of the contestants performed a song by Damien Rice title Volcano. I told Jan that I would buy that song. I looked the artist and song up on line, and as it turned out, Damien Rice is Irish. Click here to watch the song performed by the writer. I post the YouTube link on my Facebook page - my sister-in-law commented that all of his songs are worth purchasing.

Lisa Hannigan
The woman accompanying Rice on Volcano is Lisa Hannigan. She has gone her own way as a solo artist. I read that Rice has commented how he wishes he had his relationship back with Hannigan - the makings of a poetic Irish tragedy. An example of Lisa Hannigan's music can be viewed by clicking here.

The Corrs
Another Irish group that I like are the Corrs. I don't need to mention U2, but a video with the Corrs and Bono can be seen by clicking here.
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(1) I had heard the U2 song Bloody Sunday from a long time back, but had no understanding of its meaning until I put this blog together. The song can be heard clicking here.

(2) The Garden of Remembrance wreath laying, click here.

Friday, May 4, 2012

A Day's Work

Here is a quick exchange today regarding a day at the office in Kingsville, Texas -- T-45 Goshawks flying in formation.

T-45A Goshawks formation
Ensign: Today was like little league of blue angels (1)

Father: Was it impressive? I assume fun and not scary.

Ensign: A little hairy at times, but pretty cool if I can get the hang of it.

Father: That's great. How close to the other planes?

Ensign: doing the barrel roll its about 30 feet, so not super close

Father: Plenty close for a bunch of Ensigns.

Ensign: My lead was actually the commanding officer, so that was cool

Father: Pretty neat.

Ensign: My lead for my solo was the Xo

Father: You are quite the attention magnet.
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(1) Note the absence of punctuation and capital letters as a moniker for the millennial Generation Y Ensign text, while the Baby Boomer Father adheres more closely to the rules of proper composition.