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!!

Back on Track

Well it has been a long time since I have updated the blog. I just sent out a few pictures from the kids homecoming dance and Malissa's ROTC pictures on the Email.

The inspection went great and we got an "Excellent" which is a great feat. That weekend (Curt's birthday weekend 12-14 September) we went to one of the hotels downtown called the PIC (Pacific Island Club) and they have a great waterpark. We enjoyed spending 3 days hanging out at the pool sipping "boat drinks" and going down the water slides.

Visit to Talofofo Falls

When we visited Talofofo falls, we took a cable care ride down into the valley where the falls cascade. Malissa, Justin and Sara (Malissa's friend) took the first care and Curt and I followed in the second car. Pretty view and short ride later we were able to view the falls.

This is the view of the top of the falls taken from the cable car on the way down.

Once you get to the bottom, there is a water hole to go swimming. We left our suits and towels up at the top and you only got one round trip cable car ride, so we didn't get wet here (that is, if you don't count the sweat). Being in the valley, it was very buggy (the cable car attendant provided us all with some bug spray prior to our descent). Here you see some folks enjoying the cool water.

While we were down in the valley the kids took a ride on the "monorail" which looked like a few chairs attached a platform with wheels, pulled by a lawnmower sized generator. The weight limit was 180lbs, so Curt and I walked back while the kids took the ride.
Here is a picture of Justin going over the falls on this bridge. Of course he is jumping up and down and trying to scare everyone else.

One of the coolest things about this area, this is the site where a Japanese soldier hid out for 24 years after the end of WWII. The hole was only a few feet wide and about 6 feet below the surface. He was found by some locals and later came back to visit this site after returning to Japan and getting married.

Here is a picture of Curt with is Harley "do rag" feeding the hogs. This is just outside the enterance to the Falls.

Fun was had by all!!

Hunter arrives in Guam

Hunter has finally arrived in Guam. He left Philadelphia on Sunday morning at 0702 and flew to Houston TX and then on to Honolulu HI. He spent almost 24 hours in Honolulu and then boarded a Flight 1 to Agana Guam. He was picked up by the Andersen Pet Lodging and after spending about 36 hours at the kennel, he was allowed to come home.

Hunter seems a little tired, but otherwise he looks great and has been exploring the house. Here is a picture of him outside the house after our after dinner walk. If you look through the palm trees, that is the Pacific Ocean. And the second picture is Hunter in his bed resting after our walk.

Thanks to Aunt Rita for taking such great care of him, I know he appreciated all you did for him and we do too. Thanks to Grandmom and PopPop for getting him to the airport and preparing him for his long journey.

Aunt Rita, Hunter wants to know when he is going to have a pet cousin to visit with when he comes back to the states. I hear there are some lonely pups at the SPCA.

Sound Retreat

Well I don't have any pictures for this, but I had a cool experience yesterday. I got to conduct my first retreat. I took my squadron out to the parade grounds for the 5pm retreat ceremony. For those that are not familiar, this is where we retire the American Flag at the end of the day. I stood in front of a formation of about 50 MDOS personnel. I announced "Sound Retreat" and the honor guard proceeded to prepare to accept the flag. At the end of the bugling of retreat, we prepared for the National Anthem by "presenting arms" (saluting). After the National Anthem, the honor guard folds the flag and presented to me stating, "Ma'am, the flag is secured" I then salute the flag and then they take the flag away.
Moments like this is when you get goose bumps and have a great sense of pride. After the flag leaves the parade grounds, I call "squadron dismissed" and we are off for our long weekend. Cool stuff!!

Underwater pictures

Hello everyone. Here are some pictures from our first snorkel trip. We all got brand new snorkel equipment and headed down the Naval Air Station Guam at GabGab beach and went snorkeling. It took us a little bit to get into the water, but once we were in, we were good. The water temperature is about 83-84 degrees so even mom got right in.

Of course we don't know what kind of fish we are seeing yet, but if you can enlarge these photos, they are pretty cool.
We saw lots of different fish and coral and of course this wasn't the best camera either (one of those $12 underwater jobs), but we had fun with it.

Malissa is having a great time here.
Curt and the kids are going to do the scuba diving class as soon as Curt gets his physical. Mom will wait until after her big inspection to do that. We miss all of our family and friends and I am kind of disappointed that we haven't got many comments--actually except for Mom and Dad, we haven't heard from anyone on the blog. Is it too hard or a hassle to get into, please let us know. Well have a good day and hopefully we can get out and about this weekend too.

Welcome to our Home!

If you come in the front door, we have a small foyer: To the right of the foyer, we have our office/game room set up. Here Malissa takes a break from playing on the computer.If you walk through the door from the foyer and turn right, you will enter the living room and you can see our new flat screen High Definition TV. Not too impressive as we only get 4 HD channels here on Guam. And they don't even have TiVo, so we have several DVD players/recorders set up to record (just like the old VCRs). Such a pain, but at least we don't have to watch commercials when we watch those shows.
Turn to the left and you see our dining room and this is where we have another office set up for Mom so she can do work from home. We do have wireless internet in the house so that we can all get on the internet from our own computers. WE just have to watch those kids don't get on MySpace.
This is the Master bed room, sorry, I didn't make the bed. That big TV on top of the bureau is the one that used to be in the living room, it is big. We have to make a claim for the movers because if you could see my dresser, you would see the big gouge the put in it when they moved it and the bottom of Curt's dresser is broken as well. This is about the only nice furniture and they messed it up.

Here is Malissa's room and she did tidy up a bit before I took this picture.
Here is Justin's room. He has been good about keeping it clean.

If you turn around and look back down the hallway, you see the kitchen in the foreground and the laundry room in the far ground.

Well that is it for the tour. Hope you all can come by and visit sometime. We have plenty of room!

Our House Guest

I told you of our friend and neighbor Doc Martin passing away, we are helping out the family by dog-sitting his dog Brutus. Brutus comes down to stay with us when there are too many people at the house. He is about 6 months old and acts just like a puppy, but he is so big he doesn't know how big he is. He will jump on you like he is a little guy, but as you can see he is a big dude. He has been a lot of fun as we are awaiting our puppy, Hunter to arrive soon. Right now Brutus is with his family, but usually he will come sleep over with us. We enjoy having him!! He is looking forward to meeting Hunter!

Guam Photos

Here is a picture of the beach from the road. To get to the beach we had to drive down the road that curves down the mountain. It was pretty cool.
At the bottom of the hill we saw this sign. Curtis got a kick out of the sign that was pretty explicit and warned folks to be careful. After the sign we went down this dirt road and pulled into a little alcove and found this view:

As we walked down toward the water, we looked to the right and this is what we saw. It is beautiful here. We went snorkeling last weekend and we have pictures that we took that we are getting developed. -- can't wait to show you all.

Take care and talk to you all soon!!