Cows in the Mist

So much for the Autumn Equinox. Not one-month into the season of Football, the Fall Classic, Thanksgiving and my favorite (Apple Pie) and I found myself driving around in the first daylight snow fall of the season (2000 feet or less ASL) on 12 October. While there had been one previous snowfall it occurred in the middle of the night and left little indication it had come at all. Evidence of its occurrence remains on the ground however, in heavily forested areas facing north (where the sun don’t shine). That said all is well in the north and all is relatively quiet on the western front.

In case you haven’t seen it much on the news the Russian Air Force has been flying expeditionary long range bombers over the Bering Sea recently (dating back to the summer). Apparently they are flexing their muscles. With the polar ice caps not covering as much of the Arctic Ocean as they used to Russia seems to be exploring the possibility of utilizing new shipping lanes and seems intent on keeping those lanes protected through a show of force. More power to them. Their actions could not have come at a better time. While most of the Department of Defense (and America for that matter) has turned a blind eye to activities in the far northwestern portions of our continent most of our facilities (long range radar, power generation, and remote living facilities to name a few) have become extremely degraded and have operated far longer than their expected life span. This is a fact that, until recently, only those individuals charged with their upkeep seemed to really care about. With recent lapses in radar coverage and power supply due to mechanical degradation coupled with increased Russian military activity suddenly all eyes are back on us. We have received more funding recently than in years past to alleviate some of our problems but the overall issue of equipment modernization will exist for the time being. My job, and those I work with (and for) is to ensure the facilities listed above continue to provide the abilities to detect incoming aircraft and missiles, and provide a mean of defense against them. As recently demonstrated by a successful missile engagement, our defense capabilities are 100% mission ready. The infrastructure that supports those assets is what causes some concern. It is my job (for those truly interested) to ensure that we receive as much funding as I can convince the DOD to provide our northwestern defense sector, to prioritize where and how that funding is spent, and to clearly communicate the risks/consequences for not obtaining further funding (not that additional funding is even possible, but the powers that be must be absolutely aware of the potential risks we face should certain things be left unfunded). The sites are as follows: Eareckson Air Station (1 10,000′ emergency divert runway with associated support facilities, cargo receiving/shipping and hangars, 1 massive and very old power plant, 1 ICBM and space object tracking facility, 1 Missile Interceptor Data Terminal, 1 long haul satellite defense communications system, several dorms, 1 dining hall, a gym, 4.5 million gallons of fuel storage tanks, 1 dock (for ocean barges), 1 waste treatment facility, 1 landfill, 1 water treatment plant, and a couple hundred employees) located near the western most point in the Aleutian Islands; 15 Long Range Radar Sites with 1-5 permanently stationed personnel (living quarters, power supply, some have airfields, and other interesting communication devices); and 1 Forward Operating Location at King Salmon (about 400 miles west of Anchorage, a significantly smaller operation than Eareckson, but used as a Fighter Forward area during times of imminent foreign threats). All of these facilities require several hundred thousand to several million dollars in modernization and infrastructure upgrades and the annual operating budget (just to keep the running) is in excess of $70M. Making an abbreviated story even shorter I am responsible for the western defense of our nation from air or space based threats. This job probably has the most responsibility I will see during the remainder of my military career. My flight (or unit) now consists of me (the flight commander) a deputy (a junior Captain coming in two months), 4 civilian installation managers, 2 civilian financial managers, 2 Senior NCO supply/logitics troops, 1 NCO communication/electronics troop, 1 NCO civil engineer, 1 security NCO, 1 meteorology / navigation NCO, and 1 flight chief (Senior NCO) for a total of 15 of us. We also manage contracts that include about 300 contracted personnel.

So back to the changing seasons… Alaska is great, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to resist the call of the wild. Every day I consider taking a day to climb a nearby mountain. There are so many places where you can sit peacefully without any human interruptions and just gaze upon God’s creation in awe and wonder. The world around me is turning darker and colder again, but the peace the stillness brings is a blessing. The neighborhood has already slipped into the silent mode (not the vibrant bustle of activity it is during the summer months). I put my Christmas lights up yesterday (1300 of them). I will put up several hundred more in the ensuing days. I am waiting for drier weather. We were going to drive down to the wildlife refuge but it has been raining since last night (the snow-pack continues to build in the mountains).

Well it’s been a while, but here we go. Isaiah and Josiah are playing baseball this year. Isaiah’s stats are a little easier to calculate since they actually use most of the real baseball rules in his league. The T-ball league Josiah is in doesn’t really make a lot of sense. So far this season Isaiah is 10 for 12 with 6 singles (w/4RBI) 2 doubles (w/2RBI), a triple (w/3RBI), a home run (w/4RBI) slam – total of 13 RBI), 8 runs scored and 2 SO. BA is .833, SP is 1.417. He is doing well at the plate. If he gets a more solid stance, grip, and swing he could be devastating. His fielding (as can be expected) needs a lot of work as it is not instinctual enough for him to know what to do with the ball once he actually gets it.

The wildlife her is great. We saw a couple of cow moose on the drive back from baseball eating along side the road recently and I did see a couple of young black bears playing by Ship Creek on base. I have not seen any bears since but did see my second Fox (while not on Shemya).

The sun has been setting just before midnight recently and on my drive in to work at 0315 a few days ago I could tell that even though it was dark the sky was not really as dark as it got in the winter. By mid June I guess the light nevcer really goes away. Most people are asleep by the time the darkness finally comes and awake long after the sun rises (it seems to rise about 0430). The long daylight periods are not hard to get used to though. The only problem recently has been getting the kids in bed before 2200. Well, I have to go. I’ll talk to you all again soon I hope. My job has been keeping me extremely busy. I am done taking Master’s courses until September though. I am 33% complete with the program and with my promotion board meeting 14 months earlier than anticipated I see no more reason to rush. Just trying to avoid falling further behind in work related activities has me working 50-60 hours per week. I managed to squeeze about 55 hours into what was supposed to be a 4 day week. I had to work on my day off and Elisabeth was fairly upset (with good reason). I guess I view my days off sort of like a lunch break (which I rarely get anyway). The mission comes first and my time off comes when possible. If the DoD got more funding we probably wouldn’t be in such bad shape, but I wouldn’t want a tax increase just to work fewer hours. OK, my kids are quiet, I better go check on things.

Well here we are in February and I have driven home more often this past week in the light than in the dark. It is a nice change. Well, my wife is calling and a baby’s crying. I have to go.

Michael

Well, I finally got around to taking my truck to the dump. Not the truck, but the stuff in the bed. A nice drive with two of my buddies (Isaiah and Daniel) covered a few miles through downtown and then a short trip to the burbs. On the way there we saw a large moose on the side of the highway and a pair of Bald Eagles soaring overhead. The trip went well, we got everything done, and oh, I finished my first Master’s course. The baby is crying, I have to go.

The rogue ambles through the dark, snow covered lanes of Cedar Hollow. His tall and lanky body meandering from house to house, he peers into windows, digs through snow, searching… What is he searching for? For food. The Bull Moose who we will have to name soon has appeared in our neck of the woods (Cedar Hollow) twice in the past few days. He was lingering outside our house yesterday evening as I was leaving the base. Sarah went nuts just watching him dig through the snow directly across the street from our house. The boys all thought it was cool too. I would include a picture, but I did not write down the exact instructions last time I spoke to Marc and could not duplicate what seemed intuitive at the time. I will be sending some pictures over email soon though.

To think I was just complaining about not seeing any moose for a couple weeks. Well this bull and cow gave me quite a lot to look at. It was Sunday morning. I was in the middle of a conversation with a couple little people and my wife when I looked out our large living room window… I immediately ran out the door with my camera and my shoes half way on in jeans and a t-shirt (since it was warmer than 15 degrees above zero). Once I crossed the street and selected my defensive/escape position (since I was about 10 yards from 2 really big animals who may have been a bit on the ornery side due to a significant lack of flora these days) I snapped a few photos. The one I am sending is the best of the three I took. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed taking it. To put it into a medievil perspective I was close enough to successfully hunt them with a spear. I probably would have taken the bull first (although I wouldn’t want to get into a kicking contest with the cow either).

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I have a question for the intellectual readers of this site. Why do we add an “s” when pluralizing carniverous animals but not herbivorous (if that is even a word) animals? For instance, the plurals of moose, deer, elk, and caribou, are moose, deer, elk, and caribou respectively; but the plurals of bear, wolf, wolverine, and cougar are bears, wolves, wolverines, and cougars respectively. I was just curious to know why, but not curious enough to do research on the subject. Anyway, now that I have been instructed on how to add pictures to this site I will be adding a bit more colour (or color for Americans like me) to my posts. Have a great day. Everyday in Alaska is a great day for me!

Well, it’s just after 10:30am and we have had daylight for about an hour already. The short days weren’t really that noticeable. The kids had a very Merry Christmas as did we. We do miss all of you though. I am plugging along in my Master’s Program (1 assignment and 1 midterm graded and still no less than 100%). From now on I’ll refrain from updating my progress until I either finish a class or fail to achieve 100%. I have been contemplating (still) a change in careers. I’ll keep you posted as or if it develops into more than a contemplation. Six more inches of snow fell last night and I just rediscovered or vehicles and drive way (again). The kid’s snow fort is complete (4 walls and one tunnel entrance). I’ll send pictures to those who request them. Next year, if the kids want to help me build one, I might even throw on a roof. Then we might be able to camp igloo style. I haven’t seen a mouse for a couple weeks and am getting antsy to run into the woods. Today however we will be spending the day at the Arctic Oasis on base (a fun place to play for the kids while mommy goes shopping). Gotta go.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas… OK, I’m not dreaming. It’s reality. The snow continues to fall over Anchorage and we already have about 2 feet in our backyard. By the time it is through on this go around we may have 3 feet. I’d be really happy with about 5 feet. Just enough to start tunneling through. If I could get on the roof as easily as I could at the last house we would already have a large pile somewhere (probably the back yard since the front yard is almost all driveway and I have already created a couple of snow berms at least 3 feet deep (4 feet in places). The Christmas Angel and reindeer in the fron yard have been buried. The reindeer is still showing the tips of its antlers and the angel is only waist deep. After tonight that will change significantly. I need to get back outside and shovel the driveway before Elisabeth gets home. This will be my 4th shoveling in 3 days. Good thing she got sick when she did or I would not have been home to take care of this. I have Saturday through Tuesday off and am hoping to get some school work done next week while everyone else is out of the office. So far so good, I have acheived the highest grade in the class on two written essays and one quiz (the only three graded assignments we have done so far – 100% on each). The instructor seems to be a fair guy as well. It is easy to tell when reading assignments who has spent some time researching, thinking and writing and who has not. Well, as I said earlier I need to go, I also need to take care of a couple babies. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

I can’t begin to describe how impossibly beautiful it is here. The way the fog swirls through the snow covered alpine firs as they cling to the edges of jagged moutains below the timberline, how the sun makes the snow covered world glitter like diamonds, how the steam rises off the large rivers when temperatures drop blow 20, or how the smaller rivers churn swiftly beneath the snow covered ice formed at the height of their swells. How the steam escapes the mouth of the moose seen standing at the edge of the trees along a busy street, or just driving up the road through the frozen lowlands and seeing majestic snow covered-sun bathed mountains ahead, behind, and beside you. Pictures alone cannot capture this beauty, nor can the simple words from this simpler man. Just walking outside of town you get the feeling that God Himself has touched this part of the world in ways we can only dream of, and hope and pray for Him to touch the rest of the world as He did here. The view from my back bedroom windows is stunning. I am hoping to have my deck finished by the end of next summer.

Every season here is better than the one before. We arrived in Autumn and it was beautiful. Winter however contains its own beauty and in ways outshines the Fall. Spring I can only imagine gets better than winter, and summer better still as the days grow warm and unimaginably long. When the leaves turn again in late August it will bring more beauty still, getting progressively more stunning as the days shrink into an overpowering dark that stays illumninated from perpetual winter snow. Close your eyes and imagine, but you will not see until you experience Alaska.

If those who read this want me to come back to the lower 48 pray I get promoted to Major. Should that fall through (for whatever reason) I might have to stay here a little longer to explore. This is a fantastic place for older boys to be (it would be hard to leave here if we were not forced to). It will be hard to leave for them and for me. Until such a time I shall enjoy every breath and every view and every eagle that soars through it. Have a great day.

The trip north was fantastic. The only thing that would have made it better is if my kids were all old enough to remeber it. Most of them should be old enough to remember the trip back though. We may be up here until summer of 2010. The USAF just extended officer Permanent Changes of Station from 3 years to 4 years in the CONUS (Continental United States) and allowed liberal use of voluntary extensions in OCONUS (Outside Continental United States) locations. Since my house will probably be worth more in 2010 than 2009 and I really like it up here we will most likely volunteer to stay a year longer.

The tempurature rose above freezing for the first time since late October last night (38 degrees). It was warm enough that I could walk outside in the snow barefoot with my t-shirt and pajama pants on long enough to unload the groceries from the truck. The snow felt pretty good on my feet, although I wouldn’t recommend standing in one place for more than a minute. That never has been a problem for me though.

I haven’t seen the northern lights yet, usually it’s because if I am awake in the middle of the night it’s to take care of a child and I’m way to tired to care much. I think we’d have to drive a little ways north out of the city to get a clear view. I’ve heard they are seen best in mid-winter (January time frame).

I am hoping for more snow. The warm recent warm weather has allowed the snow to become liquid enough to really firm up the 3 foot high foundation on the children’s snow fort. If we get some more snow I will be able to finish it up. I might have enough plywood in the garage to build at least a partial roof. I look forward to weekends where I actually have time to spend outside with them.

I just started my Master’s program in Security Management. I should be completing the program by late winter 2008. So far the course work is relatively easy (most likely because I enjoy the subject and the reading).

We are just about all moved in. We put up the Christmas Tree a couple days ago. Now we just have to find all of our ornaments and other decorations. They are securely packed in boxes in the garage. We just need to determine which boxes. My mother-in-law has decided to return to Colorado. She is now looking for a house but has decided not to ship her stuff right away. So we’ll start taking bids. OK, just kidding. I will have to devise a better way to store her stuff though so we can actually fit one of our trucks in the garage. I might actually start using the attic for storage of smaller items. The battle continues.

We will pick up our family photos from Sears today. I will have to get a letter composed quickly. So much has happened in the past 12 months I can barely begin to think where to start, but I’ll figure something out.

That is all I have time for for now. I hope all of you are well.