As you all know, I am now RL1. This, ironically, means that I am no longer flying. When I was trying to get RL1 the instructors had an incentive to fly me. Now that I have attained that position, there is no reason for me to fly. In fact, I am simply the lowest rated regular pilot in the company. If someone is not going to fly that person is me. For example, when the aircraft get flown to Jacksonville to be put on ships, I wont be going.

This leaves plenty of time for me to be "initiated" or "hazed" or whatever you might want to call it. The senior warrant officers had the idea that it would be good for morale for the new guys to share the responsibility of carrying a lance at all times. My company - Bravo Company - is known as the "Lancers". I will, therefore, be constantly carrying a 4-foot long, homemade wooden lance in two-week shifts until I become a CW2 in March. I began carrying the lance today. What a joy. It is especially fun to carry when I am doing PT (physical training) such as running.

I have been working on fixing my motorcycle recently. During my last ride I broke the water pump cover, two turn signals, and bent the handlebars. I guess I was supposed to steer around the trees. If any of you are wondering whether I am adopting the lifestyle of a native Tenneseeian, check out the attached picture of me fixing my dirt bike - in my living room!

Its been three weeks since I have posted an update. I spent two of those weeks on "block leave". This was leave that we were all highly encouraged to take in light of the fact that our trip to the desert is not far away.

I spent my first week of block leave in Colorado. I had a great time. I saw many old friends and made a couple of new ones. Among other activities, I played with Chara and Roma, went mountain biking (see attached picture) and, of course, hit the bars in Old Town. My only regret about the week is that I did not get to see everyone I would have liked to have reconnected with in Colorado. Oh well, I will probably be back sometime in 2007.

I spent the second week of block leave in Tennessee. My friend Jay, who I have known since law school came out to visit. We spent our time driving between Chattanooga, Nashville, and Clarksville looking for the best bars and clubs and restaurants. Jay did a respectable job of keeping up with this soldier considering he's a bit out practice - what with being married and all.

I've been back in Clarksville for about a week now. It is always very hard for me to come back to Army life after taking leave. There is nothing like spending a few weeks as a carefree civilian to make me miss parts of the life I gave up when I enlisted way back in November, 2003. Now that I have been back a few days, however, I am getting into the routine again and dont really mind being here. I just wish I was flying.

This has been a week characterized by my attempts to adapt. I am trying to adapt to a culture as well as to a way of flying. The flying is coming a little more easily.

The following comments were directed to me over the past several days at different time, in different contexts but give an example of the issues I face.

"Stop thinking so much."
"You should not cross the street without asking your platoon leader."
"You need a haircut."
"Your T-shirt is the wrong color"
"We all know about your past experience and your age but . . ."

I keep forgetting that, at this point in my army career, independent decision making is not a good thing. Whenever I make a decision for myself someone gets upset. What is worse, they usually seem to believe that I am acting on my own because I think I am "better" than they are. The reality is that free thinking is a hard habit to break.

I am writing this entry at 0217 early Friday morning so please forgive any rambling. I flew from about 1930 until a little after midnight. This was the third night in a row that I flew. I will fly Saturday and Sunday nights also. The instructors are trying to get me up to unit standards as quickly as possible. I am flying well but still have trouble holding a good hover at night with goggles on. The goggles limit my depth perception and field of view. I could tell that this was frustrating my IP tonight almost as much as it was frustrating me.

I should probably give an amusing anecdote at this point but, frankly, I am beat. I am going to bed.

It is funny that, during flight school, the academics were easy. The hard part was "wiggling the sticks." I found last night that the mechanics of flying have come back to me much more quickly than the book work. I had a nice four hour flight entirely under night vision goggles. Moreover, I flew from the left seat. This is not the usual seat from which I fly. Despite the NVG flying from the left seat, I flew well. I felt like I could not, however, remember a single thing I learned in my classwork at Rucker. I answered question after question with a wild guess, a confident (but wrong) answer, or silence. When the flight ended and we were sitting in the pilot office, the IP nicely urged me to "stay in the books". "This should be easy" he added, "you were a lawyer." Without skipping a beat another pilot chimed in: "He must not have been a very good one - look where he is now." I know he was kidding but ouch.

Despite my aeronautical amnesia flying was the best part of my birthday evening. The bad part came after we landed. It turned out that I had been assigned as the "Staff Duty Officer" for the night. That meant that I had to sit from 0300 to 0900 on June 10th at the headquarters building, behind a desk, just in case an emergency occured. This was after arriving at work at 1600 on June 9th to prepare for my flight.

When 0900 arrived I was dragging my tail rotor. I could not go to sleep, however. I sold my motorcycle last week on ebay and purchased a lighter one for trail riding. The buyer was scheduled to arrive the morning of the 10th to pick it up. He arrived as scheduled and I said goodbye to the KLX650, my very first motorcycle. I am already planning a ride on my Suzuki DR Z400S for this weekend. Hopefully I will have some photos to share.