Equipment Issue
Wednesday, 19 February 2003
As always, click a picture for a larger version.
Today we were able to do something exciting! I called up my buddy Lucas (who I know from U of A and is in my class) about 11:00 this morning and reminded him that we could go to get our equipment today, and he was excited. I told him I'd call him back in about 45 minutes so that I could shower and get ready. I called him back and ate some breakfast while he came over. Just as we were about to leave a siren went off on base, followed by a voice through the same speakers. I couldn't make out what the voice was saying though, so I called the Transition Office to find out what it meant. The Lieutenant who answered (whose name I will not put here to spare him the embarrassment) said that we had gone to FPCON Delta (the highest alert level) and that we should go to get our chemical suit and gas masks right away! When somebody tells you that, you don't ask questions, you just go do it, and fast! When we got to the place where the Chem-gear is issued, the secretary told us to call the Transition office. When I called, the same Lieutenant answered and started laughing. I smelled a rat at this point. He had played a rather mean trick on us.
We will get him back.
Anyway, after that charáde, Lucas and I went over to the Equipment Issue room to get our stuff. It was closed for lunch, but the guy there suggested while we wait we go over to the BX to buy our soft ranks.
...so Lucas and I walked over (because it's right next-door) and we heard somebody honking and a short tire chirp. I look over toward the source of the noise and I see that a guy had driven off without taking the gas pump-handle out of his car, so he pulled the hose out of the ground. I was KICKING myself for not having a camera. It was very funny. At the BX, we each bought a few sets of soft ranks (45˘ ea.) and then I got a haircut since we still had some time to kill. I was getting a little shaggy, so that's a good thing. Haircuts here are just $5.50, so I give the girls $8. The barber shop is just inside the BX doors. After that we walked back to the Equipment Issue room where there were already several other guys from our class, some of whom I had already met and others I had not. We waited a few minutes for the shop guys to prepare, and then we went up one at a time to discuss our needs. (You know, like what size boots we wear, if we knew what size flight suit we wanted, etc.) I already knew that stuff, so they got my boots (10 Regular) and a flight suit (42 Long) for me to try on. Everything seemed great, so we went down the list of other things, some of which I tried on and some of which I did not. In the end, here is what I was issued:
| Item # in pic below | Item name | No. Issued | Unit cost | Total cost |
| n/a | Flight Suit (42L) | 3 | $102.85 | $308.55 |
| n/a | Jacket, Winter, Large | 1 | $185.80 | $185.80 |
| n/a | Jacket, Summer, Large | 1 | $185.85 | $185.85 |
| 1 | Nomex undershirt | 2 | $23.55 | $47.10 |
| 1 | Nomex long-johns | 2 | $27.10 | $54.20 |
| 2 | Flight Boots, 10R | 1 | $62.25 | $62.25 |
| 3 | Flight Gloves | 1 | $18.00 | $18.00 |
| 4 | Wool Gloves | 1 | $1.70 | $1.70 |
| 5 | Leather Gloves | 1 | $17.40 | $17.40 |
| 6 | Pile Cap B-9 | 1 | $9.15 | $9.15 |
| 7 | Bag, Helmet | 1 | $16.25 | $16.25 |
| 8 | Flashlight | 1 | $29.28 | $29.28 |
| 9 | Sunglasses | 1 | $17.44 | $17.44 |
| 10 | Checklist Strap | 1 | $1.70 | $1.70 |
| 11 | Computer, Air, Nav | 1 | $29.81 | $29.81 |
| 12 | Plotter-Protractor | 1 | $12.54 | $12.54 |
| 13 | Clipboard, Pilot's | 1 | $5.05 | $5.05 |
| 14 | Flask, pocket | 1 | $2.87 | $2.87 |
| 15 | Hearing protection | 1 | $4.70 | $4.70 |
| 16 | Watch, G-Shock, Casio | 1 | $42.59 | $42.59 |
Total so far: $1052.23. The first of roughly $1,000,000 the US will spend to make me the best pilot in the world.
Note: not pictured above are the flight suits or the jackets. After we left the equipment shop, we went over to the parachute shop, where they SEW THE SOFT RANKS ONTO YOUR FLIGHT SUITS AND JACKETS FOR FREE. Can't beat that, eh? Just one of the many benefits of the Air Force. 24-hour turnaround. Tomorrow afternoon I'll go back to the parachute shop to pick up my stuff.
----------------------
Okay... so it's now Monday, 24 February. Class starts in just 42 hours! After nearly a year of anticipation, it's hard to believe how close it is! On Friday I went and picked up my three bags (flight suits) and my two jackets at the parachute shop after having my soft ranks sewn on. I ordered name tags from Mardon (a patch company that is used by practically the entire military - conveniently located in Tucson, right by Davis-Monthan!) and stopped at the BX (like the base Wal-Mart) to pick up Command Patches. (They're the colorful ones on the left in the picture below.) In this picture you'll see left-to-right my heavy winter jacket, one of the three bags, and the lighter weight spring/autumn jacket. You will also see a mess on my kitchen counter. Ignore that.
This morning we had a "recall," which basically means somebody woke me up at 6:30AM and told me to get my butt into the Transition Office. Recalls are done in the operational Air Force anytime there is a need to have an accounting of all personnel. Today we just did it for practice; I got there in about 30 minutes, which is good because they want a minimum of 35% of personnel to have reported within the first hour. Then we wound up having to sit around for about two hours as the exercise ended at 9AM. So a bunch of us just sat around and BSed. There is a lady that apparently comes by every morning and sells breakfast burritos, so I bought some of them (really small ones!) The only one that was any good was the "egg&cheese" burrito. The other three I got- bacon, ham, and sausage, were all pretty nasty. They don't compare in any way, shape, or form to the perfect Breakfast Burrito available at Nico's Taco Shop in Tucson. Oh I miss those... anyway I digress. After I ate (some) of my burritos, we went into the "bookstore" which is really more of a "book issue" room as we don't PAY for our books... and picked up our texts for the course. I believe the stack weighs something like 20 pounds. I'm not kidding. Here, take a look:
Yep, that's a good 12" high. In there is the T-37 operators manual (the Dash-1), a short survival guide, T-37 Instructor Techniques, the T-37 Need To Know, a packet on land survival, a packet on physical fitness, a 150 page book on aviation weather, and a bunch more stuff I won't get into right now. So that's about it... I'll be studying *some* of that today and tomorrow, and then Wednesday morning at 0630 Columbus AFB Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training class 04-06 will begin! I can't wait!
Last modified: Monday, 24 Feb '03; 12:40PM
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