Major General Rank's Retirement

While in San Antonio, I was able to attend MG Rank's retirement and Change of Command ceremony. The picture above is MG Melissa Rank handing the corp flag over to MG (sel) Kimberly Siniscalchi in a triple change of command ceremony. Below is Col Donnalee Sykes accepting the flag from Col Linda Kisner. Before the flag reached the stage, it was passed through all of the MAJCOM nurse leaders who were lined up around the room.

The retirement ceremony was very beautiful and full of wonderful moments. The US flag was folded by the honor guard and then was passed to nurses who were donned in uniforms that MG Rank had worn over her years as an AF officer from LT to MG. Also her husband and daughter were recognized for their sacrifices over the years. I was very glad to have the opportunity to attend in person.

Here is MG (sel) Siniscalchi during her welcome speech.

San Antonio TX trip

In mid-November I went TDY to SanAntonio TX and Mom, Dad and Rita flew down to spend some time with me. Rita arrived on Tuesday evening and we went out on the town with some friends of mine from my time at Keesler, Kristin and Bunny. We had of course Mexican, (since I knew that Mom and Dad didn't like it and it would be my only chance for authentic Mexician while I was there) and then went out to Durty Nellies Irish Pub. We had a great time singing and catching up. Rita was able to spend some time at the pool as the weather was beautiful (up to 80 during the day) while I was at my conference during the day. the next night we went to "Howl at the Moon" which is a dueling piano bar and had a great time. Met some people from my past here too (although I did not recognize them until they reminded me where I knew them) and also some folks from Philadelphia (the Phillies had just won the World Series!!).

Mom and Dad got into to town on Thurday night and we had another fun time at Durty Nellies. Many of the bars were crowded with waiting lines, so this is why we kept coming back to this place. We did stop in to Coyote Ugly to get Malissa a shirt for her birthday (she "loves" that movie), but no place to sit so we moved on.

Friday and Saturday we spent sight seeing. We rode the trolleys around town, had lunch at the Market Place, Dinner on the River walk (see pictures above of River Walk) and visited the Alamo and the Tower of Americas (kind of like the space needle in Seattle).

Here is Mom, Dad and Rita at a quaint little village on the River Walk where we shopped and browsed. It was a fun couple of days. The flight home was not so good as I missed my flight to Guam from Houston so I added about 4 hours to my flight home and went home via Japan. It was a bit stressful as I had not been able to get in touch with Curt to tell him I missed the flight and couldn't figure out how to use the public phones in Japan--a nice Continental steward allowed me to use his cell phone to call home and leave a message. The overseas airline folks are much nicer that the states. The TSA agents even help you put your stuff on the conveyer belt when you are going through security, and they do it with a smile and hello.

5.1 Earthquake hits Guam

This afternoon about 3:30 pm Guam was hit by a 5.1 earthquake. Curt came running outside, I was picking up the lights from our Halloween celebration, and said "Did you feel our first earthquake?" I evidently did not. The kids were at the mall with friends and when they came home, they validated Curt's claim. I told him he was full of s***. I guess I was the one that was full of s***. Here is the link to our local internet paper.

Check out the reply to the blog. Guam has a proposition on the ballot for legalized gambling, and this island has voted against it several years now.

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20081102/NEWS01/81102014

Go Panthers!!

Here is JT playing at the homecoming football game. It is not a marching band as they only have about 15 members in the band. They really sound good when they play too. They have a wide repetoire of music. They play everything except the Air Force Song. I told the band teacher, Mr. Blaisus, that he needs to get it. The Panthers won their homecoming game against JFK!!

Homecoming Dance

Malissa and Justin get ready for the dance. "The Girls": Malissa, Sara (Malissa's buddy), Leaghan (Brittany's sister), Brittany (Justin's friend) and Kat.

Justin and Brittany:

High School is a fun time. Malissa and Justin recently had their homecoming dance. Malissa went to the dance with the "girls". Justin asked Brittany to the dance and she said yes, if we go as friends. Of course with the high school being down the island about 15 miles away. Curt got a shuttle lined up for them so they all went in one bus down to the dance. A great time was had by all!

Malissa gets promoted

Congratulations to Malissa on her promotion to Seaman Apprentice!!

This is the first year for Malissa in Navy Jr ROTC. She enjoys it greatly and has been learning about military history with a focus on Navy. Her high school is located on the navy base so they sought of own the program. She has PT every week and she has Phys Ed once a week too, so she is getting plenty of exercise.

Meg's visit to Korea

I recently went to Korea for a conference. I left on Sunday morning, October 19th and flew through Norita, Japan to Incheon, Korea. Upon arriving in Incheon, we boarded a bus to Osan Air Force Base. We missed the shuttle that would have taken us directly to the lodging on base, so we decided to take a city bus. We took that to the bus terminal just outside of Osan then took a taxi (it was a walkable distance, but at night and with all of our luggage the $2 cab trip was worth it.

We arrived at the front gate, went through the security and then had to take another taxi to the lodging.

The next morning we started out with a tour of Medical Group at Osan AFB and then one of the Sgt's took us on a drive around tour of the base. After that, we wanted to try to get to Kunson AFB, but the timing would only allow a 2 hour tour. (the last bus out of Kunson was at 1800 and it was a 2.5 hour round trip bus ride. So instead we headed out the gate at Osan and went shopping. This is one of the places that you can barter for "stuff". I got some good deals and got to figure out the conversion rate between $$ and won. If you are curious, it was 1350 won to $1. I bought Malissa a pretty scarf and the price as $30 and I got if for $5. That was the best deal of the trip.

The next day we decided to take the bus back up to Seoul where we would be staying for the conference. We were hoping to take a tour to the DMZ, but the tour needed a minimum of 3 and we were only 2. So instead we took a tour of Seoul. We visited Changdeokgung Palace (see below).

Changdeokgung Palace was built in 1405. It burned down during the Imjin Invasion by the Japanese (1592-1598), but the palace was rebuilt around 1615. It was in good repair and the colors painted on the palace were vibrant and beautiful. The palace was built on the base of a mountain so we got a good workout walking around the entire compound. It has a "secret garden" that at the time was beautiful, because it was early fall so the leaves were changing colors.

After the palace we went to an Amethyst Factory--just a fancy jewelry store that had beautiful selections that were made of what else but amethyst stones. Then we went shopping. We headed to Insadong Alley which translates I was told by our tour guide "Kathy", to antique alley. It had a lot of shops that you could buy Korean good, souvenirs, and such.

Then we headed to Namdaemun Market. This was a big open air market where they were selling lots of different foods. Got to sample some sea weed ( didn't care for it so much--tasted just like you think it might). The one thing we noticed was that on all this food (fresh fish, sea food, fruits and vegetables) there were no flies. Kathy told us they have lots of flies, but if that was Guam, the food would have been covered in flies, they love a party. We didn't get to spend much time here. I would like to return with Curt and the kids so that we could explore more of the city. So the conference started on Wednesday and it kept us pretty busy until Friday. On Friday afternoon we headed out to the War Memorial of Korea. It was pretty cool. Outside there were tanks and airplanes that you could walk through and in. But the neatest thing was the fact that the Korean kids would come up to us and "practice" their English on us. They all said hello and "where are you from" as we were going through the place, the kids would say "Hi Guam" since that is where we said we were from. Even the younger children were trying to talk to us, I really had a great time with them--it was better than the museum itself.

Then we headed home on Friday night--it was a great time!!