Shoup Airlines

Rumblings

A Super Secret Squirrel let slip yesterday that we should start flight school on the 11th of December. Any takers?

I’m not holding my breath.

It’s All In The Details

The military has a way of using you even when they don’t really have anything for you to do. Because you’re getting paid whether you are actually doing your job or not, the higher ups want to make sure you are doing at least something to earn the pay. These “somethings” are called details. They usually entail jobs around post that no one really wants: roadside clean up, building maintenance, rock painting (I’m dead serious) and traffic control during morning PT to name just a few. There are also some more important ones like the funeral detail for instance. This group travels the Southeast conducting the ceremonies you quite often see in the media. Then there are the community event details which always end up being the better details for obvious reasons.

Last Tuesday was Military Appreciation Day at the Troy Football Game. They needed 100 “volunteers” to watch the game. Waiting for the catch, I found it when told we had to be in uniform, no drinking would be allowed and everyone had to ride a bus up to Troy. There is a catch in every detail. ALWAYS. Then they announced another detail for the game, a small parking control detail. Having done my fair share of those back in the day with Search and Rescue I wasn’t in any hurry to raise my hand. Then my roommate, who just happened to be in charge of this little detail, let me in on the truth. We would be in civies (civilian clothes), drinking would be allowed (the entire day) and we would get all access passes when the detail ended at kickoff. Of course my hand shot up so fast I nearly dislocated my shoulder.

We started the parking control at 1 pm for a game that wouldn’t even start for another five hours. That’s how serious these tailgaters are. Of course, I can’t really say anything, we had our chairs and coolers full of “beverages” as well. Along with two others, I got assigned to a VIP lot right next to the field and forgot just how much fun it was to tell people who thought they were VIPs that they weren’t on the VIP list and couldn’t park there. Watching someone get that frustrated is so pleasurable, especially when you find out later that he is a State Representative.

Once all the cockamamie ended, we got our passes and headed straight for the 20 yard line. Literally. We jumped right into the thick of things with linesmen, coaches, assistants, players, mascots, cheerleaders, ESPN camera crews and photographers. I’ve never gotten such nasty looks from anyone as I did from one of the photographers, and I’ve gotten some nasty looks in my time. He actually felt that I was treading on his territory. Right dude, with my little D80 and you with something like 3 telephoto lenses and a D200. Whatever. Then again…

About midway into the third quarter we were joking about being on ESPN2 which was being broadcast live on the jumbotron. Sure enough we look up just as the camera is panning along the sidelines and you can see all three of us plain as day on The Deuce. Of course, five minutes later some Troy official was strong arming us off the field because our passes weren’t really supposed to allow us on the field. Some bickering ensued for a couple minutes but not wanting to cause a large scene we up and left. To tell you the truth I don’t think any of us were watching the game by then anyway. I couldn’t have even told you the score. I was having too much fun taking photos. I think the final count was above 300 shots, but not to worry, there are only 85 of them up over here. I love my camera.

We couldn’t let the night end there.  We didn’t have to be at formation the next morning so we went and grabbed some dinner waiting for the game to end.  Then we hit the bar/club like John Henry on his last drive.  I think my head finally hit the pillow at 3:30 am.  And when I say hit, I mean slammed. Like a ton of bricks.

Happy Thanksgiving

Some of you are reading this and saying, “wait a minute, you’re a day late!” And to that I say it was a freaking holiday people, lay off! Contrary to popular belief I do have a life outside of the “island,” aka the internet. As the rest of these photos should prove.

My deepest gratitude to the host and hostess for putting on a spectacular spread and even going so far as to provide very comic entertainment throughout the night. Lightweights!