thanks for serving

Havn't wrote in a long time. It is sad how life has consumed me in the past year or so. I miss the desert. I miss that feeling of purpose and being a part of something that mattered.

Before i even returned from the desert, we got the news that my base was one of the many that would be closing. Since that time, those assigned to my unit as well as myself have been stuck in this bizarre custody battle between the military and the politicians.


the reality of the statement.....'you can love the military but they'll never love you back' .............is a slap in the face that continues to sting throughout the painfully slow process of our base closesure.

the selfishness and injustices i've witnessed sicken me at times.

but then that is government i guess.

Now available!!Cbftw's book from amazon.com!!! *click here*

You can order Colby's book online!!!
Click the enevelope at the bottom
to tell all your freinds!!!
My War by Colby Buzzell 

A journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step

scrapbook

Excellent job on the 15 day lube




So i got a few evals recently on a preflt inspection, and on a 15 day lube. All evals were passed with no defects. Not a big deal but On the 15 day lube report the evaluator noted "excellent job on the ball screws".....For some reason the guys in the shop found that funny.

Main landing gear (MLG ) balls screws, are the component in the MLG that is used to extend and retract the MLG. It is actually a large screw turning thru a ballnut that that allows the gear to be extnded and retracted straight up and down in the wheel wells. The components need to stay clean and lubed so they operate properly. Excessive friction can damage your gear rendering you NMC. or could create an emergency....if it gets stuck. The last thing you want is hung gear, or I take ball screws seriously.

And check this shit out! My plane rocks! I think it is cuz her crewchief is awesome. So my plane was flying her tail off last week. Crazy shit trying to juggle the required inspections and maintenance and servicing with the fllying schedule when other planes are breaking left and right and so they are relying on mine to take the other lines.


A while ago the boss made a big deal out of this guys plane flying five lines (missions) in a row without any write ups. No small accomplishment as these are big planes and so there are alot of minor things that can get written up. But the big deal was that the guy who was getting the pat on the back for it, spends more time in the office than on his plane, and well Herks just dont fit inside....'naw mean?!?!?! He thinks he is a better mechanic than me. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and everyone has the right to be wrong. Still, it is human nature to believe what you want to be true, and to manipulate the truth into what you want to believe.

Alpha ones don't make a good crew chief. Preventing preventable writeups does, which for the most parts means alpha ones. Mechanical components break....you cant prevent that. But it is normally with a little warning....so the more u r out on your plane and get to know every nut and bolt....the more you will know her personality and be be able to to catch the small stuff. And the more you do that......the more control you have over when she breaks. Preventative maintenance. You can "rag wrench" the hydraulic leak till the plane is broke somewhere on the road and troops are counting on it, because it is within limits.........

Or you can use the time it is already down for other maintenance to get it fixed....before it is out of limits. Of course sometimes things do occur without warning. But a good crewchief knows their plane and will for the most part break the plane when they want, not let the plane decide when to break or the aircrew. Yes luck has a little to do with it.........but over the long run a good crewchiew will not take back seat to luck.........

So my plane comes back "alpha one" all the time (no writeups). I dont need someone who sits in an office to acknowledge that to know she is a good plane.

However.... The other crewchief (who is better than me....remember) his plane was supposed to fly a late line. Mine was scheduled for the "out and back" to Neverland . But becuz they are flying mine so much lately it is hard to get any maintenance done...... they swapped the tails, so i could quickturn mine to send it back out on the road after that mission.

BUT


Check this, My plane wass getting ready to go and the other crewchief's breaksdown so i have to cut my mission short . Mine comes back and lands 'alpha one' for the fourth time in a row .....takes the other crewchief's mission .....flies to Neverland and back and guess what? No write ups. That makes 6 for my plane. And then i quickturned her and sent her back out and she continued to fly all her missions without writeups untill a new flight eng wrote her up for APU (auxillary power unit) output pressure dropping below limits while starting #3 engine...well it always works right up untill the time it breaks........but,

..... well quickly cranking the engine with airconditioning on, and then again with it off ....verified my hunch. No defect. Air conditioning draws air off the APU, and our starters are pnuematic. #3 engine is the 1st engine we start in the start sequence. When we go to start an engine we hit the start btton which opens the starter control valve allowing air to flow to the starter turbine.....and voila!! She's cranking.....add a lil gas and some flames you just turned jet fuel to noise......

So yeah......there is a reason the book says to start the engines with ac off.......

Burn Her!!

Burn her !!!


waking up at 0300 partly because it is raining and my tent is leaking....partly cuz i set my alarm to hit the gym before work...

A much better idea it seemed before i went to bed...& before the thunderstorms....

so because of the morning person i am not... i drug my unhappy azz out of my bed, & after a quick debate on which is worse....(sleeping in a wet bed or going to the gym)......my motivation won....so i hit snooze and attempted to find a bit of comfort in my crappy little bed in my nice new leaky tent.....and then shortly decided "fuck this" .....so i grabbed my ipod( which isn't actually an ipod but i am brain farting the real name......god i hate that....) and in a few splashes and leaps over some puddles i was at the gym.

I hopped on the treadmill and started to walk for a warmup.... i noticed the annoyinging squish squish sound my shoes made as they hit the rubber treadmill surface....and i noticed everybody else noticing my shoes too as they turned their heads. i felt like a retard, because you are not supposed to wear street shoes to work out at the gym.....and it was kinda hard to be inconspicuous about it.

So i did what any non commissioned officer in the airforce would do.......i pretended i was two. My niece is two and when she gets shy around people she covers hers eyes..

..because if she can't see them......they can't see her......

Well i didn't actually cover my eyes.... but i did not look at them ....therefore they could not see me....

.. there was no way in hell i ran thru thunderstorms and pouring rain at 0300 am to go to the gym to not work out...........so after a quick warmup and a little eye contact aversion.... i started to run. Water squished out with each step as i ran leaving a trail of little footprints as if some invisible man was chasing me ....and i was running away but not getting anywhere....like a bugs bunny cartoon.....(btw please let the record show that bugs bunny kicks azz!)... the thought made me laugh to myself and with that distraction.... i accidentally caught a few evil stares from the conventionally minded who were doubtless appauled at my disregard to the importance of dry shoes......but however lacked the cojones to approach me.....preferring the much more effective (& passive aggressive) management tool ....the dreaded evil stare.......

that made me laugh too

and i continued to run, past the residual sleepiness....past the achy muscles ...past the point where you stop staring at the digital readout....thinking my god will this ever be over..?!?!?!

.......past the point where you stop looking at the digital readout because you feel like maybe it isn't so bad.......past the point where your legs go numb and you begin to feel like u want to run forever and past the point where i should've gotten off the treadmill to get my ass ready for work.

but just a little past, because there was plenty of time left if i hustle.

and so i did.....in fact i hit the showers and i started to walk to work still enjoying the beta endorphins that i wasn't getting from sex....and in the midst of my runners high......feeling very much like running still, i weighed getting sweaty after a fresh shower......with walking to work ...and realized it was the desert and i will be drenched in sweat in half an hour anyway working on the line......so fuck it. I ran. and i got to work 10-15 minutes early, which is standard for my unit. i walked in the breakroom. i am the only girl. So it stands to reason that everybody else is a guy. They are watching porn. i walk out of the breakroom. Most guys would say i am pretty cool........but when i said porn i meant porn......as one guy said..... "the good stuff" and there was .....no flag football there...this was full contact. kinda awkward hanging with the guys who are like brothers ...with their hardons.....no thanks..........not like i care.... but yeah....no thanks

So i try to think of something to do to make it look less obvious that i was avoiding the situation. Outwardly aversion will alert the hecklers instantaneously...and that.....is throwing yourself to the dogs

......so i go check my mail to stall time untill the bosses come in to give the morning briefings..... they will probably turn off the porn then. Sometimes i had mail...sometimes i didn't . so it was hard to keep from looking like i was avoiding them, since the mail place was right across the hangar, and it only took a second to walk there. So i stalled a few minutes before i wandered back to the triple x movie house...our breakroom. The bosses were in there. The porn was still on.

They looked at me kinda funny when i walked in. Probably because there was porn on, and they were not sure what my reaction would be. I thought nothing of it and when the meeting was over I happily went out to the flight line to work. By the time i had gotten in from the line to take a break the porn was off the air so it wasn't a big deal.

This went on for some time until one day my boss pulled me aside and said he wanted to talk to me (my boss was a guy from another unit who i have only seen a few times even still to this day, [ in fact i was one of the few "odd balls" stuck working on this shift as most of the guys from my unit were on night shift. But since this other unit did not have their own engine run qualified people with them....us highly quallified highly motivated individuals got stuck working with these creative nouns instead. ]...lol

So he pulled me aside...i figured he was gonna apologize and ask if the porn bothered me and offer to ban it if i was offended.......well kinda.................

..and by that i mean he actually said to me.......

" Angela, i need to talk to you about your attendence.....you have been showing up to work late, and you need to start getting here on time or i will be forced to take administrative action. there is no excuse for that behavior....."

i was floored.

apparently by getting to work ontime..... he meant skipping my morning workout so i can sleep in and go sit around and slurp fat at the chowhall with the others--& then wait for the bus to drive my happy (and perhaps then fat ) ass to work which will get me there a half an hour early, but hey...it beats walking....and hell , not only do we get to be lazy asshats...we get to hang out and watch porn to boot.

funny though...how my definition of being on time was always being there before it was time to start....which, granted... in the airforce is at least 15 minutes early...but in the airforce reserves is more like 5 minutes early. i was ten to 15 min early....i thought that was on time, (heck some may even go out on a limb and call it early)......and i was fairly certain that at a minimun, being on time was not punishable under the ucmj.

after a brief pause for shock and a quick rebuttal,

the ncoic explained ..."but you have been seen more than once running to work at quarter till......."

With that i wondered if this person had ever done any pt in their life ever....... but his beer gut clarified any suspicians that he might be a triathlete of sorts.....

So ok...... now i lived 1/2 a mile away from work...(the break room specifically)...... so these alleged sitings of said zoomie running to work at quarter till when i am supposed to be there on the hour......hmmmm do the math.......my god if i walked i would still be early....which last time i checked, btw.....is also not ' late'.

His disinterst in my story quickly told me i was not entitled to a side of the story.... unless, of course it was the same as his.....

at that point he gave me a discertation explaining how he outranks me, and then uttered something about insubordination.......

Apparently the ucmj has changed. Defending yourself from wrongful accusation made by those who out rank you is now called insubordination. Damn those sneaky jags....who can keep up?

After impressing me with his keen intellect , so evident in his disertation of rank and insubordination ( yet oddly absent of abusing rank as well as slanderous remarks toward ncos, do i need to continue?!?!?)

anyway...after impressing me with his keen intellect ....

I found his point vaguley remniscent of a movie i'd once seen ....

The Witch: But I'm not a witch I'm not a witch!
Sir Bedevere: But you a dressed like one
The Witch: They dressed me up like this!
Crowd: we didn't! We didn't...
The Witch: And this isn't my nose. It's a false one.
Sir Bedevere: [lifts up her flase nose] Well
Peasant 1: Well, we did do the nose.
Sir Bedevere: The nose?
Peasant 1: And the hat, but she is a witch!
Crowd: Yeah Burn her burn her!
Sir Bedevere: Did you dress her up like this?
Peasant 1: No!
Peasant 3, Peasant 2: No!
Peasant 3: No!
Peasant 1: No!
Peasant 3, Peasant 2: No!
Peasant 1: Yes!
Peasant 2: Yes!
Peasant 1: Yeah a Bit
Peasant 3: A bit!
Peasant 1, Peasant 2: A bit!
Peasant 2: a bit
Peasant 1: But she has got a wart!!!!!!

that time has come and gone.......and oddly as fate would have it.despite my poor attendance for that brief period under their command...i was promoted...and about a year after i had forgotten what an effective creative noun he was....it was brought to my attention that some of the the triatheletes have exemplified thier careers by setting the standard ... and by that i mean they reflected great credit upon themselves and the uniform code of military justice.....and were appropriately rewarded by losing a stripe.........

poetic justice.......or uhhh art imitating life.........



oh .....mp3 player.... yesssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......... :(

i hate that sh!t

Roughneck Nine One by Frank Antenori

Coming Soooooooooooooooooon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*****Click here to Pre-Order****

Roughneck Nine One

by Frank Antenori

A powerful look inside a Special Forces A-Team and its dramatic and controversial battle against a huge opposing force in Iraq.

On April 6th, 2003, twenty-six Green Berets, including those of Sergeant First Class Frank Antenori's Special Forces A-Team (call sign Roughneck Nine One), led a battle against a vastly superior force at a remote crossroads near the village of Debecka, Iraq. The enemy unit had battle tanks and 150 well-trained, well-equipped, and well-commanded soldiers. The Green Berets stopped the enemy advance, then fought them until only a handful of Iraqi survivors finally fled the battlefield.
In the process, Nine One encountered hordes of news media and at the peak of the fight, a US Navy F-14 dropped a 500-pound bomb into the middle of a group of supporting Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, killing and wounding dozens. This is the never-before-told, unsanitized, unedited story of the fight for the crossroads at Debecka, Iraq, and a unique inside look at a Special Forces A-Team as it recruits and organizes, trains for combat, and eventually fights a battle against a huge opposing force in Iraq.

SFC FRANK ANTENORI, U.S. Army (Ret.) joined the Special Forces in 1988. Since then, he has participated in numerous operations in over thirty-four countries and has been awarded numerous decorations and citations, with seven received for combat actions.

HANS HALBERSTADT has authored or co-authored more than fifty books, most on military subjects, especially U.S. special operations forces, armor, and artillery. He served in the U.S. Army as a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam.

I'll be doing the talk show and book signing circuit from 25 May to 15 June promoting the book.The press release is supposed to have a teaser; I'll ask my publisher if I can post it here first to give you guys a taste of what's in store for the rest of the book.Ft Bragg may be where we debut the book on Tues aftercMemorial Day, the day before you can buy it anywhere else. The publicist for the publisher is looking at a couple of other places though so Bragg is not a lock. It will be on the tour though. Also, it looks like we’ll be in Tampa for SOF week 19-23 June giving away free copies to all active duty SOF that want one (while supplies last). I'll put a couple to the side for my fellow Army comrades, because I'm betting those Air Force guys at MacDill, will try to scarf them up.You guys beat me to the punch, I was planning on posting the schedule when I announced the debut of the book, but unfortunately we’re still a couple months out from finalizing everything.

Frank A

Show your support *click on envelope below to email your freinds and spread the word!!!! *

semper fi