Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches New England Greetings from Sheppard Air Force base

What's up guys and girls???

I figured I'd drop you all a line to let you know I'm still alive Basic training was a hoot, especially considering I'm in better shape than some of the 18 year olds I was in training with Gotta love Playstation.....keeps you fit...(anyone looking to diet should try the Military I lost 17 lbs.)

I'm currently stationed at Sheppard Air Force base here in beautiful TX. From what my Wife Holly has been telling me, it's been cold as hell back home and rainy-no such luck here-it's in the 100's every day. I'm getting into the "nuts and bolts" of the "C Shread" Maintenance apprenticeship-meaning I will be qualified to service/repair/rebulid any jet engine that doesn't have an afterburner. Right now, we're completing teardowns of Pratt&Whitney T33's (engines from A-10 "warthogs"). It's scary how many of my cohorts have little or no mechanical aptitude whatsoever They can't even tell the difference in some cases between a box wrench and an adjustable wrench

I'm currently looking for two things:

1) new housing(My Wife has a stalker who had broken into to our apartment the day before I graduated from Basic, but that's a whole different story)
2) new car (e.g. Subaru WRX, Acura CL or TL Type-S, 1996 Impala SS)

I am currently selling my 1993 Lumina (check classifieds) so let me know if anyone has any leads-E-mail my wife Holly directly, as I have to wait in line here to use the Internet;any and all kind words for her would be appreciated-It's bad enough that I'm gone until August, but it's worse when you have some nutcase who follows you everywhere Charges are filed, they just can't find the guy...

Thanks guys!!

We had like three straight weeks of rain. My commencement speakers said that my class had the rainiest Senior Week that WPI has ever experienced (over half our events were canceled). However it is now 75-80 degrees and sunny, which is beyond perfect weather, with the occasional thunderstorm once a week. This time of spring is easily my favorite season

Glad to hear you were good with basic. I'd never survive there, all the 18 year olds of whom you speak were probably in better shape than me. I'm surprised they're allowing people with no mechanical ability to work on the jets .. you'd think they would be put somewhere more appropriate to their skillset, unless they're apprentices being trained.

Sad about your wife though Hope the situation hasn't been any worse than what you wrote, I can't imagine how it must be.

Yeah, it boggles the mind that they would have those that are totally mechanically inept working on jets-that being said, they can always be washed out for "non-performance of Standard", so at least they can weed out the true idiots.

My Wife's family has her staying there at their house until we can relocate after my tour here is done....at least she's safe

Its nice to hear from you, to know your stateside and the family is ok. If you are deployed overseas we'll be thinking about you.

Its my understanding that after basic training a technician will the learn how to stay alive around the sircraft when its runing, where they gas goes, where the oil goes and be bale to know the difference of a hammer from a wrench and a engine from a hot rock. After that its on the job training. If they can't handle it they get moved to something else.

man that sucks to hear about your wife.
Damn perverts!

It's good to hear you're doing well and enjoying yourself.
Pretty cool that you're showing up the yougin's.
Keep up the good work!

Thanks J-actually, they have a "block" of instruction coming up that has safety parameters to work with various powerplants-Of course , I'm assigned to "heavies" (C-5, B-52, etc), so they have the largest danger zone of them all. And, since I'm the Platoon leader, I get to babysit my charges around the equipment You'd appreciate this Jay, but the P&W powerplant for the C-5 has a HUGE secondary airflow which almost doubles it's thrust-it's also turns it into the worlds biggest vacuum cleaner

My laugh for today was watching the class ahead of mine (they are assigned to B-shread, or turboprops) trying to figure out how to use a torque wrench....oh my god...if it wasn't so sad, it would have been funny.

The only thing that I HATE about this place is you can't choose your roommate!!! Mine is a guy who is about to graduate next week from training. He has a girlfriend that is screwing around on him and constantly calls him at midnight to "discuss" their relationship issues. I've tried talking to him, but he bristles when I suggest that he even put it on vibrate or take his issues elsewhere "This was my room before you came along..." I lost "priveleges" today (i can't wear civilian clothes now) because douchebag decided to not clean his section of our dormroom whihc caused "Negative demerits" to be issued This place is like College with an attitude and marching.

Anyway, thanks Kim for your kind words as well;I'm lucky that Holly is a fighter and was able to get herself away from that jerk before something awful happened Holly and I will be vacationing up in Maine when I get back on Leave-we have to make our obligatory stop at Hampton Beach before going up to Boothbay harbor in ME for two weeks

You guys have any opinion on the following cars?? I am DEFINITELY buying another car when I get out here are the choices I've narrowed down to:
1) SRT-4
2)WRX
3)SE-R Spec V sentra
4) MazdaSpeed Protoge' (quite a few for sale in CT for some reason).

Thoughts?? I'm having Holly call our insurance company to see what price differential each have- I REALLY wanted an M3 or a 5.0L Mustang, but I thought better of each....I couldn't imagine driving either in a foot of snow

Soap in a sock? "I have failed to motivate Private Pyle, so Ladies anytime he f**ks up I will not punish him...I will punish you!!" LOVE that Movie. Actually J some other unit tried that with one of their "problem children"-the guy was covered with bruises (they did it wrong) and they were ALL summarily discharged.

Rouar-I'm trying to stay in the smaller 4 door category, I did think about the Mazda 6, CL Type-S and others (I did test drive a Mazda 6 with my wife-nice car). I'm trying to stay around 15-16k MAX limit. I figured I could find any of the above in good used condition for around 15k.