MIRAMAR

No, I haven't been accepted to the Naval Fighter Weapons School commonly known as "Top Gun" but I did manage to get a Temporary Assigned Duty at MCAS Miramar (where Top Gun - the movie was filmed) for a month while I wait to start training in Meridian in September.

As far as having a summer vacation as a "grown-up" I think this is probably as close as I'm going to get while being able to gain some solid experience in a Jet squadron and hopefully in a Jet that will help me when I get back to Meridian to learn the T-45C.

For the past month and a half I've been in something of a holding pattern, standing watch for both squadrons in Meridian, basically being an over-qualified night watchman/secretary for 8-12 hours at a time and spending my free time getting settled, dealing with the Admin department as well as a few other "sundry tasks" that have kept me pretty busy.

I've also been to two weddings, one in Crandon, Wisconsin and one back in the great state of Connecticut. Both were really great experiences and a lot of fun. The Wisconsin one was the first wedding I've been of people my age. It was pretty intense, in a good way, that and it was in a fairly fundamentalist Christian church which added to the culture shock of being in the middle of America's Dairyland. Even though the reception was dry and the DJ wasn't allowed to play Bryan Adam's "Summer of 69" because of its inappropriate content.... everyone was really nice and all of us Navy guys who formed my friend Jordan's Sword-Arch had a blast and we.... well we and a few cool locals I met were pretty much the life of the party.

I was in Connecticut last week for my friend Sean's wedding, which was a great chance to see an old friend on a very special occasion as well as catch up with at least one other of my cooler high school friends.

Anyways, back to flight school, because that's what we're all about here. I arrived in San Diego Friday afternoon and was picked up by my grandfather who is being incredibly generous about putting me up in his apartment for the month and even letting me share one of his cars. I can't thank him enough.

At about 4 I headed off to MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station... wait, why did the Navy give that base up again???) Miramar and met up with my contact there, none other than Darien, CT's favorite son, former Postie and the next Blue Angel, Major Chris "Kitty" Collins, USMC. He picked me up at the hangar fence's gate and took me around like the lost child I felt like, dropping off my flight gear, meeting the Executive Officer and then into the wardroom. I ended up arriving on a pretty big day for my foster-squadron, VMFAT-101 (by the way that decoded means... V=fixed wing M= Marine F=fighter A= attack T= training).

In the wardroom, after being handed a beer, I met a good portion of the squadron who were all assembled there for an awards ceremony. Kitty was not only praised, and given a medal, for his excellent service, but also he was being wished farewell as he starts training for the Blue Angels in Pensacola in only a few weeks' time (I think he leaves here before I do). A few other officers were commended and in less than an hour the squadron was off to the O-Club for some "mandatory fun."

The base was sponsoring a "Squadron Appreciation Night" which was like a summer-camp assembly with beer. Every squadron on base was required to be there (including all the guys in the red shirts/flight suits from the TV show "Carrier") and each squadron (composed of pilots ages 25 and up) was required to perform a skit making fun of base life, the military or typically, the other squadrons (usually helicopter guys making fun of jet guys). Our squadron went third, I think, and I was tasked to hold the mike for a Lieutenant Commander who was exceptionally skilled at performing the theme song for "Green Acres" with fart noises from his hands while the rest of the guys sang a song entitled "Miramar Acres".

It was hilarious and we all had a great time. I actually ran into a couple Midshipmen from my squad at the Naval Academy who are here on summer cruise. We all stayed and watched the other squadrons try to match our job until a bunch of jet guys did a skit which really ripped at, pretty much everyone, and then their mascot (a snake, also part of the skit) was tackled by a guy in a Winnie-the-Pooh costume at which point a scuffle broke out, ended by someone of authority and at that point, it was time to go back anyways.

I love my job.