Shoup Airlines

A Certain Moral Declivity

For those who don’t know, I have found myself voluntarily attached to the 640th DASB (Division Air Support Battalion) of the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) of the California Army National Guard. Whew, there’s a mouthful! Anyway, during my latest weekend warrior outing we spent a little time in the “E.S.T. 3000,” a weapons simulator for training infantry that would make any video game player collapse in a heap of ecstasy just at the name of it.

There are nine stations with various weapons, mostly M16s, an M203, an AT-4, and an M249, affectionately known as the “SAW.” All weapons are the real thing but because you’re shooting at a giant movie screen, the weapons fire a “laser,” (said in my best Dr. Evil voice) and then recorded and scored by a computer. The weapons are also attached to air compressors to simulate pretty darn accurate recoils. Let’s just say the 17 year old gal firing the AT-4 got knocked back on her butt! The only downside was the graphics running on the screens. I was expecting something more akin to Xbox type detail, but what we got was a little more N64ish. You guys need to pay a little more in taxes. However, I don’t think a single soul cared as we fired automatic weapons that would jam, need to be reloaded, and so on, until our hearts content or there weren’t any “enemies” left.

To make a long story longer, myself on an M16 and a friend on the SAW next to me apparently caught the attention of the instructor with our scores. We were separated from the group and told to expect a “second evaluation.” Pvt. Morrell smiled knowing we would get to use the sim again; I wasn’t so sure, learning of late, that you cannot assume anything with the Guard. Sure enough, we took a written test! I’ve taken many a test probing the mind, emotional state, personality traits, etc., but never have I completed a test that had so many off the wall questions like the darker “have you ever wanted to eviscerate another human being?” or the just completely insane “are you afraid of teddy bears?” I will never forget that question for the rest of my days.

We later discovered that the test was a focus on morals and human interaction. Why? Because they wanted to see if either one of us had the “abstract” morality to be a sniper. The brass were happy to know that Pvt. Morrell was being trained as an infantry soldier because that can lead to sniper training, they quickly ushered him out of the room. Then the Captain gave me a look I didn’t like. A gaze that said I was the buffet table and he, the third world malnourished child with plate in hand. He was disappointed to hear I was headed for the Blackhawk, for I had scored a “certain moral declivity and societal detachability” on the test. The Captain then went on to assure me his door would always be open if I decided to change career paths or not make it in the helicopter. How does one sleep after being told he or she is disconnected from the world and shows lethal killing abilities?

The Unveiling! (zzzzz)

Ladies and Gentleman, I would like to introduce (reintroduce to some of you) Shoup Airlines. A small outfit that has spanned the nation since 1997 providing instruction, sight seeing, passenger travel, aerobatics, and much more. First, some background.

The airline began with an inaugural flight from Santa Ana to Santa Barbara with four guys who would, unwillingly, become the Chief Officers of the company. They’re not important so we’ll introduce them later. The operation caught some interest and started with some basic flying around the summer and winter holidays, but it was difficult getting a start-up off the ground in Southern California.

So the company packed up and moved….to North Dakota. Rent was cheap, airplanes were ample, and growth had a real potential. SA began to grow quite rapidly adding flight instruction and aerobatics to their passenger flying capabilities. Here’s a little trivia: most don’t even know that there was a small Space Travel department in the works, but was quickly mothballed with costs skyrocketing (pun intended). In 200o, the company realized that it was growing too big for North Dakota and began looking for a larger market.

Someone beat them to the punch. Out of nowhere, another airline swooped in and bought out Shoup early in 2001. ACA absorbed the pilots and transferred them to places like Boston, MA and Dulles, VA. For four years everyone was content, but then the evil empire, who is never happy, changed everything and no one was content. ACA decided to break free and show their true identity. Almost everyone was content again, but the contentment would be short lived.

In the early days of 2005 Independence Air knew they had to shed some extra weight if they wanted to stay aloft. So, in February they set their phasers to kill and locked on anything that moved. Shoup Airlines twitched and was suddenly solo again. Having to sign a ‘no compete on the East Coast’ contract with Independence, SA decided to return to it’s origins and is reopening the doors in sunny Southern California.

We want to make the airline as dynamic and unique as possible, yet keep the company traditions of old. Shoup Airlines is proud to bring back all the original services. We will even be adding some new services soon including an in house maintenance department and a helicopter division. The site itself will be undergoing many changes in the near future, this is just the framework, but we wanted to get the word out. We thank you in advance for your patience. We hope you enjoy your time here. Please feel free to comment, suggest improvements, or even reserve a flight!

Legal note: For those of you scratching your head (this means you, FAA), there is no real Shoup Airlines, never was, never will be. It is just an entity in one guy’s head that was spurned by another guy’s idea. It is a venture that deftly disguises it’s true identity: a blog. Yep! That’s right, it is a blog, a whole blog, and nothing but a blog. Thank you.

Wait, what day is it?

Since I decided to rehash the whole web page/blog/newsletter, whatever they’re calling it these days, I needed to do some research. ‘This shouldn’t take too long,’ I thought. Eight hours later, an arse screaming for air, glazed eyes, and that feeling when you’ve just realized you wasted the better part of the day with nothing to show for it. I did find out about Leta’s latest exploits. You go, girl!

It amazes me that I can spend that much time on the internet and not even notice the time. This cannot be healthy! I don’t want to even fathom how people sit there 24/7 trolling the pages. My butt wouldn’t just revolt, “Gluteus Maximus” would rally all my other appendages and then unleash Hell on my brain. Not good, but I divagate….(look it up)

There are a ton of services out there that provide hosting, domain registration, page design, graphics, links, 001000111010101110111. You get the idea. Really, I just wanted to type shoupairlines.com and smile giddily. Alas, it wasn’t that easy. Three days, countless contracting reading and re-reading, price negotiation, other mind numbing activities and I finally have things set. Gee, now I just have to design the site.

Don’t let this post discourage you from starting your own blog. I just always make things as difficult as possible for myself, and then like to complain on top of that. Blogs are actually quite easy and sometimes free to get up and running. Many companies have simple tutorials and make it as elementary as point and click. I recommend Blogger.