Sunday, July 19, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Trains of thought...
Malcolm Gladwell's Blink on the other hand, was quite fascinating. He delves into the inner workings of the brain, specifically how many of our thoughts and actions are contolled by the subconcious. Of particular interest is his thesis that the best decisions are made by concentrating on small amounts of critical information, rather than considering all the facts.He writes about a war game, in which a retired Marine general playing the role of a low-tech rogue middle eastern dictator soundly defeated the Pentagons best and brightest. Gladwell (supported by the general in question Major General Paul van Riper) maintains that the Pentagon suffered because of information overload. Because of all the information technology avalaible to the Pentagons "blue" force, there decisions and movements were slowed down and hampered as a result of the leadership overanalyzing every single decision. MajGen van Riper on the other hand, used a loose command structure in which he pushed many of the critical decsions down to lower level commanders in his enemy "red" force. In the ensuing war game, the red force inflicts critical blows on the simulated Americans, including destroying an aircraft carrier.
All in all Blink is definitely a good read. It is a little thin on substance at times (to be expected of anything on the bestseller lists) but overall enjoyable with some interesting points.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
CQ!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Rough Day...
That afternoon I was scheduled for a backseat ride in the jet. The training rules state that if we are out of the cockpit for more than 30 days (I was at 28) there is a whole list of things we have to do. To avoid that, the squadron gives us backseat rides, so now I'm good for another 30 days. The trouble was, originally I was on the schedule for a flight beginning at about 3pm, then I was switched to one at noon - and no one told me. As luck would have it I ran into the other student in the flight who told me I was flying in the same formation flight as him, 20 minutes before we were supposed to start briefing. I ran home to get my flight gear, scarfed down a couple powerbars from the gas station (I hadn't eaten lunch yet), and got to the brief just in time.
This particular flight was in a stage called "Cruise Formation". I flew in the backseat of a jet with an instructor who lead the 2-plane section. The other student flew in the other jet, maintaining formation off of us. Cruise Forms comes after the student has been flying formation for a while. As the flights progress, the student gets practice going through more and more dynamic maneuvers, culminating in barrel rolls in formation. It looks like this:
Needless to say, this was not the flight to go on having skipped lunch. I never really got sick, but my stomach was letting me know the entire time that it was not enjoying this. The flight ended up with a tailchase, basically a mock dogfight where the student starts about 1000 ft behind us in trail. The instructor puts the plane through a series of maneuvers while the student works the angles and tries to keep up. I had been ridden on one of these before, but not with a Marine Harrier pilot who really enjoys smacking the T-45 around the sky. First he snapped hard right, so hard in fact that my helmet bounced off the canopy - Klonk - and then pulled. We hit 5.5Gs momentarily and even at 280 knots indicated we were on the edge of a stall. The whole aircraft buffeted. I would been having a blast, had it not been for the fact that my intestines were staging an all out mutiny. In the end though I was happy just to make it back to earth without puking, and without hitting the turkey vultures that whizzed by us as we approached the airfield at about 350 knots.
What a day.....
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tangent...
But rather than leave month-long gaps in this web log, I thought I might share a number of the thoughts, ideas, and discoveries that have been flowing through my mind throughout the past few weeks and months. I tend to think a lot. And Ive had a lot of time to think. Hopefully some will gather value from some of these musings. And I hope some will spark discussion. If nothing else it will serve as a public journal to record a few of the multitude of stray ideas and trains of thought that swirl through my brain.
I just finished reading an intriguing book on the history of the CIA, called "Legacy of Ashes." It paints a picture of American foreign policy since WWII that is intriguing and appalling. Some of what is in the book is common knowledge, most of it was new to me. Throughout the cold war the CIA repeatedly meddled in the affairs of foreign governments, fixing elections, sponsoring military coups, even plotting assassinations - and all in the name combating the spread of communism. Some of the real gems include the overthrow of a moderate democratically-elected prime minister of Iran (because he confronted British oil companies that were cheating his country out of millions), as well as the installation and support of two of the 20th centuries most cruel dictators - Joseph Mobutu and Augusto Pinochet. It is staggering the effect that this organization has had, and continues to have, on world events. The overthrow of Iran's prime minister (Mohamed Mossadeq), and the installation of the shah helped to fuel the rise of radical Islam and Ayatollah Khomeni. In fact, the ayatollah was part of one of several groups that the CIA funded to help over throw Mossadeq. The funding and arming of rebel groups in Afghanistan put tremendous pressure on the Soviets, and contributed greatly to the collapse of the Soviet Union. But our subsequent abandonment of the groups we funded left a massive power vacuum - which was filled by a number of wealthy Saudis who moved into the country to buy power and influence over the Muslim mujaheddin. This was the beginning of al-Qaeda. I continue to get the sense that every immoral and unjust action that we ever took as a nation in order to combat our enemies (no matter how heinous they were) is coming back to haunt us.
Ah, it is all fascinating (and terrifying) stuff. And encouragingly, what I know of the conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are finally learning from some of our 20th century foreign policy missteps. Despite what is prevailing public opinion, I think we a starting to get it right. Unfortunately, it is costing us dearly, both in terms of dollars and lives, in the process. I pray that we continue to learn. I desperately want to be part of an American foreign policy machine dedicated to promoting peace, security and freedom throughout the world, and not the opposite.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Colorado!
Navigating at 26000 ft is a challenge. For most of the flight this is what occupied my attention:
In the T-45C we have MFDs (multi-function displays) rather than conventional steam gauges. All the attitude/airspeed information is displayed on the right, navigation/GPS data on the left. If you look closely, you see we were at 26000 ft, doing 363 kts (417 mph) over the ground. The jet can go faster, but we were throttled back to save fuel.
Enroute we stopped at Lubbock Airport for gas:
And finally landed in northeast Denver at Rocky Mountain Metro airport:
On our way to Denver we got a pretty good view of the mountains.
All in all it was a lot of fun. I got to spend time in CO with my aunt & uncle, and grandparents who live nearby. It was a blessing too as I dont get to see them much. The only problem was that I only was there for one night because the Navy needed us back the next day. And with the exception of a few equipment failures (the microphone in my mask quit a couple of times) it was pretty good training as well.
After this comes the FAM stage, where I will learn to fly the jet from the front seat, including the Navy carrier-style landing pattern. Though Im told there will be a bit of a delay. So for now, its back to waiting...