Hitting the slopes at Elmendorf and Eielson
November 20th, 2009 | Uncategorized | Posted by Mike Hoffman
Skiers and snowboarders get off the lift on top of Hillberg Ski Area at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, last year. (AF photo)
Your base might have a golf course, but does it have a ski slope? Airmen at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska and Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, can make that claim.
Both feature small slopes with only a few runs, but what did you expect, Killington or Aspen? We’re talking about the Air Force here. You can’t invest too much on a ski resort and risk stealing away money from the beloved golf courses.
I digress. Both Hillberg Ski Hill at Elmendorf and Iceman Hill at Eielson are busy blowing snow, getting ready to open over the Thanksgiving Day weekend. It’s plenty cold in Alaska, but they still haven’t had enough natural snowfall.
While it might only take a few turns before you reach the bottom of the slope, it looks like the perfect place for beginners or families. The best part is the trip comes cheap. A lift ticket only costs $17 and rentals $20. You can’t find another slope, I don’t care how big, with cheaper rates. Beginners are typically scared away by the steep price tag that comes with a ski trip, but this gives airmen a cheap way to learn.
Elmendorf is trying to attract even more airmen to the hill this season by running a shuttle between Hillberg and the dorms.
The most popular runs, though, might not even be the ski and snowboard slopes. Hillberg’s staff said the tubing runs get the largest crowds, especially on weekends.
“Even if you don’t ski you can come out and enjoy the tubing runs. Some might say they are too old to go tubing but after a few times down you can’t get them off the mountain,” said Raina Panarese, who works at Hillberg.
More photos after the jump.
Retired Master Sgt. Tom Green, who works at Hillberg, is working hard with his staff to get the ski hill ready for another season. (Credit: Michael Hoffman)
A view from the bottom of Hillberg prior to opening day on the slopes. (Credit: Michael Hoffman)
Best Buy comes to the Pentagon
November 19th, 2009 | Uncategorized | Posted by Mike Hoffman
The Best Buy store in Anchorage, Alaska, near Elmendorf Air Force Base. Pictures from the Pentagon store forthcoming.
What’s the buzz inside the Pentagon this morning? The upcoming decision on Afganistan? Psssh. Boring.
A Best Buy store opened up on the second floor of the Pentagon this morning! Now that’s a statement that deserves an exclamation point.
Need to buy a big-screen television on a whim, but don’t have time to leave the office? Those in the Pentagon don’t have to face that conundrum.
That’s right. Rather than force those troops working out of the Pentagon to travel half a mile to the next-closest Best Buy in nearby Pentagon City, the electronics super store just got closer.
Anyone out there visit the store this morning? I would love to hear the feedback.
Air Force Falcons Basketball Preview
November 17th, 2009 | Air Force Academy Uncategorized | Posted by Mike Hoffman
Senior forward Grant Parker (AF photo)
Last season the wheels fell off for Coach Jeff Reynolds’ club. It ended the season on a 17-game losing streak before the Falcons shocked the entire Mountain West Conference by beating Colorado State in the first round of the conference tournament.
This will be a telling third season for Reynolds, a former assistant coach who took over the program when Jeff Bzdelik left to coach the University of Colorado. Bzdelik had led the Falcons to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and the NIT semifinals in 2007. Air Force was hoping Reynolds could keep the program rolling, but it has been in decline ever since. In his first year the team fell to .500 in the conference, and last year it went 0-16 in Mountain West play.
Reynolds now has a full-blown rebuilding project on his hands. The Falcons will experience a youth movement as they lose their top three scorers and more than 50 percent of the offensive output from last year’s team. Not to say that’s necessarily a bad thing when you go winless in conference play, but it also means the other players didn’t have the chops to earn playing time.
Air Force makes nice with Marines
November 10th, 2009 | Uncategorized | Posted by Erik Holmes
Almost a month after causing a flap by posting a video in which a basic military training instructor suggested that airmen are more fit than Marines, it looks like everyone’s all buddy-buddy again.
The Air Force today released a story on its Web site wishing the Marines a happy birthday on the 234th anniversary of the Corps’ founding.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz wrote in the story: “Congratulations to the U.S. Marine Corps on 234 years of service to our great nation. We celebrate the culture that the ‘leathernecks’ embody — honor, courage and commitment. Your current active duty and Reserve warriors, along with those who have formerly worn the Marine Corps uniform with pride, have all truly lived up to the Corps’ sacred motto: ‘Semper Fidelis.’”
I guess Nortie can stop avoiding Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway at those Joint Chiefs meetings.
President Obama’s trip to Elmendorf pushed to Thursday
November 10th, 2009 | Uncategorized | Posted by Mike Hoffman
AF photo
President Obama will not be spending Veteran’s Day at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. Instead, his stop at Elmendorf prior to his trip to Asia was pushed to Thursday. The president will spend Veteran’s Day at Fort Hood, Texas.
Airmen at Elmendorf don’t seem to mind. First, the airmen I spoke to obviously understood why the president wanted to spend some extra time at the base struck by last week’s tragedy. Also, because Obama pushed his trip back a day, many airmen will get Veteran’s Day off. Before, Wednesday was an all hands day for all units.
Design a T-shirt, win a sweet prize
November 5th, 2009 | Uncategorized | Posted by Erik Holmes
The Air Force has launched a new Web site, www.MyAirForceLife.com, to promote the Year of the Air Force Family.
The Web site links to individual base calendars of events, and offers competitions for things like short stories and photography.
The current competition, running through Dec. 20, is to design a T-shirt on the theme of “My Air Force Life.” There are adult and child categories. The winners in both categories will receive an Apple MacBook laptop computer, and the winner in the adult category also will have his or her T-shirt sold in AAFES.
The new Web site launched Nov. 1, the first day of Air Force Family Week, which runs through Nov. 7.
Has the recession changed the tanker race?
November 3rd, 2009 | tanker | Posted by Erik Holmes
Will the recession be a factor in the tanker competition? Here, an artist's rendering of the Northrop-Airbus tanker refueling a pair of Raptors.
The “buy American” argument is emerging in the tanker competition once again.
Reuters is reporting that a group of 40 U.S. lawmakers is asking President Obama to ensure that the new competition to choose the Air Force’s next aerial refueling tanker take into account allegations that the European company Airbus — which has teamed with Northrop to compete against U.S.-based Boeing — has received illegal government subsidies that give it a price advantage.
They also urged that Obama should “use his authority under U.S. law and trade agreements to support U.S. workers,” according to the report.
This was one of the main arguments of the pro-Boeing crowd when the Air Force decided last year to award the tanker contract to the Northrop-Airbus team, a decision the Pentagon ultimately threw out.
The argument seemed a little too protectionist at the time, but I’m wondering if it might gain more momentum this time around. In the face of the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, is it not reasonable that we keep this $35 billion at home and create as many jobs as we can?
Granted, these 40 lawmakers are from states that would benefit from a Boeing win, but does their parochialism necessarily make them wrong?
Why civilians shouldn’t fly…
November 2nd, 2009 | accident | Posted by Erik Holmes
A South African civilian inadvertently ejected himself from a South African air force Pilatus PC-7 Mk II in mid-flight. Oops!
From the News of the Weird department comes this item about a civilian who accidentally ejected himself while riding as a passenger in a South African air force aircraft flown by his buddy, an air force pilot.
The passenger was joy-riding in a Pilatus PC-7 Mk II — similar to a T-6 — which the South Africans use for their aerial demonstration team. He reportedly was trying to brace himself during a maneuver when he accidentally grabbed the wrong lever.
As Homer Simpson would say, “D’oh!”
The man blasted through the aircraft canopy and 320 feet into the air before drifting down below the ejection seat’s parachute.
He suffered no injury — unlike, presumably, the career of his friend and pilot, Capt. Gerhard Lourens.
Why you should be more like Survivor’s JT
November 2nd, 2009 | Chief of Staff | Posted by Mike Hoffman
Courtesy of CBS
We now know where we can find Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz most Thursday nights. Curled up, watching the latest episode of “Survivor,” of course.
I don’t know how FlightLines missed this. Instead of losing an audience in the usual talking points about how the Air Force is “all in” or “fit to fight,” the Air Force’s top general dedicated an entire speech to explain his love for CBS’ survival reality series and his apparent man-crush on recent contestant John Thomas Jr., who Norty affectionately calls JT.
He let the world know how he really felt about the champion of Survivor’s 18th season in a June 16 speech entitled “A Country Boy Can Survive” to a group of the Air Force’s legislative liaisons working in Washington D.C.
Schwartz marveled at JT’s southern accent and his constant use of “sir” and “ma’am.” He took note of how the 24-year-old, who never met a shirtless moment he didn’t like, excelled “in several physical challenges.” Most importantly, though, Norty admired JT for his character, describing it as “a radiant beacon that could simply not be ignored.”
Lately, the Air Force has suffered a crisis of credibility following the service’s multiple problems handling nuclear weapons. In fact, Schwartz started his speech explaining that: “Recent events have demonstrated just how fragile the trust we work so hard to earn and keep is, how tiny deviations in compliance manifest themselves over time, and how they eventually punch a crater in a previously pristine record of performance.”
Cue the typical lines about reinvigorating the nuclear enterprise … right? Nope. Schwartz wanted to build up a man whom he felt his airmen should lean on as an example. A man like “Honest” Abe Lincoln or maybe Gen. Curtis LeMay, the father of the Air Force’s previous steward of nuclear weapons, Strategic Air Command? Wrong again; those reference points are way too dated.
“We need you to be like JT, in a sense, faithfully completing our assigned tasks until the Air Force is universally recognized as the beacon for faithful performance with reliability – and as trustworthy stewards of America’s talent and treasure,” Schwartz declared.
After all, JT, a cattle rancher from a tiny town in Alabama “made an explicit point to never lie during the course of the game. He stated flatly that deceit was not his way. He made clear that, in short, he intended to keep his promises.” As an avid fan, Schwartz knew this was not the “norm.”
“Needless to say, deceit, shifting alliances, and subterfuge are common tactics in the game. Perhaps this reminds some of our own experiences at various points in your career?” Schwartz said.
Even when the going got tough and “JT had been betrayed by his own friends” the cattle rancher kept his word and pitched what Schwartz equated to a “perfect game.”
So, “what can we learn from reality television? Is there any value to these programs that showcase human shortcomings?” [Editor’s note: Yes. If you have eight children, the best thing to do for your family would be to invite cameras into your home and broadcast your eventual divorce to the entire world.]
Nix that. Schwartz would prefer to get all philosophical, undoubtedly leading to future classes at the Squadron Officer School and the NCO Academy called “Survivor: Lessons Learned.”
“I offer that those of us who work in this town, both in and out of uniform, might take one or two lessons to heart. Sometimes it may seem that games like ‘Survivor’ are a microcosm of our larger culture, and in some cases it might even be true, where cheaters prosper and circumstances demand lapses in personal integrity, both tiny and significant. Cases where a person’s word is their bond only as it remains aligned with personal and professional interests. I ask you to consider that if America suffers from a shortage of any commodity, it is a shortage of confidence, faith, and sacred trust … It is up to each of us to take our portion of these concerns off America’s consciousness. The nation has enough on its mind without worrying about the integrity of those who serve in our common defense.”
UPDATE: After consistent prodding from Norty, JT has agreed to lead Global Strike Command. His first order of business is to send his airmen TDY to a deserted island.
Hate reflective belts?
November 1st, 2009 | Air Force Uniforms | Posted by Michelle Tan
At least 5,600 Facebook users do, and they’re using the site to protest the Air Force’s requirement that airmen wear reflective belts during hours of darkness.
The “I Hate Reflective Belts” Facebook group describes itself as a place for members of the Air Force “who see the continued use of reflective belts becoming ridiculous” and has attracted attention in the blogosphere.
“Before I had my reflective belt, I had to look both ways before crossing the street!” wrote one user.
Another wrote: “I’ll be waiting for the day when they bomb me over here and they laugh because it looks like they’ve exterminated a nest full of fireflies.”
And if you’re on Facebook, be sure to check out the photos of airmen mocking the reflective belt, including this…
and this…
