Your SO will be so impressed, unless she sees you watching this instructional video.

I love this place.

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Got it Today.


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Best job on the planet. Wouldn't it be nice to only be right about half the time, and everybody's cool with it?

If I only kept half of the hundreds of aircraft I work every day from colliding...

Hope to go pick up the new DD this afternoon. We'll see how that goes.

Have a good one Gurus!

Funny, that azzhat Bobby Jindal was making fun of Volcano Monitoring.

Science. Who needs it?

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That Stinger hood looks really nice!

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One of my favorites too!

I don't think I have a favorite anymore.

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The '71 obviously looks older style-wise, but it's funny how many people who aren't really into cars think my '88 is only a few years old.

Ignorance is Bliss. Best $6100 I think I ever spent.

Mark


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I do. That was a little harsh on my part. Sorry.

And I didn't mean to sound like I was defending the actions of the azzhat Matt mentioned in his post either, just his right to protest.

After I re-read your post, I guess you were talking specifically about that jerk.

Again, sorry.

I haven't read past this post yet, so the rest of you that may have been torqued over it can take this as a group apology for the mis-understanding.


Mark

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You're kidding, right?

It's 'tard statements like this that shame our war dead.

Nobody gets to choose who's allowed to protest, and over what issues.

You guys crack me up.

Mark

USAF Combat Control Team 1981-85

Gonna be a really long walk through the wilderness for you guys and the rest of the shrinking minority.

Hope you have a big canteen.

Happy St Paddy's Day Gurus!

No Drinkin' and Drivin'. :thumbright:

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If everyone always followed the directions, we wouldn't have much to talk about here, would we?

Glad you're okay.

I'll be driving down to the Pentagon for the ceremony next month. Pretty cool stuff. It's worth the read.

This'll be the 2nd AF Cross for CCTs since OIF/OEF started. The first was awarded posthumously after Operation Anaconda.


JTAC to get Air Force Cross

By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 27, 2009 17:02:02 EST

A Combat Controller (CCT) is set to receive the Air Force Cross, the service’s second highest medal for valor, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz announced Thursday at the Air Force Association’s winter conference.

Schwartz called Staff Sgt. Zachary Rhyner to stand at the beginning of his speech and detailed how the special operations airman called in air strike after air strike despite being wounded during a seven-hour battle in Afghanistan.

Rhyner, a special operations Combat Controller and joint terminal air controller assigned to the 21st Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., was part of an air assault on a high mountain valley in Afghanistan on April 6, 2008.

About 40 U.S. Special Forces troops, including Rhyner and another combat controller, and 100 Afghan commandos were helicoptered onto the valley ridges, where they were attacked by an estimated 200 Taliban fighters. About half the U.S. troops soldiers were wounded, but all survived. Two of the Afghan commandos died.

In an interview with Air Force News Service before he learned he would received the Air Force Cross, Rhyner recalled the battle’s start.

“Initial infiltration began that day with snow on the ground, jagged rocks, a fast-moving river and a cliff,” he said. “There was a 5-foot wall you had to pull yourself up.”

The U.S. and Afghan troops expected to find about 70 insurgents.

“We were caught off guard as 200 enemy fighters approached,” said Staff Sgt. Rob Gutierrez, the Combat Controller with a second team in the battle. “Within 10 minutes, we were ambushed with heavy fire from 50 meters. The teams were split by a river 100 to 200 meters apart, north to south.”

During the first 15 minutes, Rhyner was wounded along with three team members.

“I was pulling security when I got shot in the leg,” he said. “The rounds hit my left thigh and went through my leg and hit another guy in the foot.”

Rhyner remembered the pain and adrenalin.

“There was nowhere to go. I grabbed the wounded guys, but we were trapped by the enemy,” he said. “I was calling in air strikes and firing, while moving the wounded down [the cliff].”

By the end of the battle, Rhyner had called in a total of 4,570 rounds of cannon fire, nine Hellfire missiles, 162 rockets, a dozen 500-pound bombs and one 2,000-pound bomb, while firing his M-4 rifle to protect his team.

“If it wasn't for Zach, I wouldn't be here,” Gutierrez said.

Rhyner will be the third airman to earn the Air Force Cross since 2001. He will receive the medal March 10 at the Pentagon, an Air Force spokesman said.

The two other airmen to earn the Air Force Cross in recent years were awarded the medal posthumously: Senior Airman Jason D. Cunningham, a Pararescueman, and Tech. Sgt. John Chapman, a Combat Controller, who both died in 2002 during the Battle for Roberts Ridge, part of Operation Anaconda.

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I see you found him.

Welcome Aboard!

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Okay. Now I have to go wash my eyes out with soap.

50 something and sunny with clear roads here today so I got up early and drove the '71 thirty miles each way to work and back.

I feel sorry for the folks that have to (or feel they have to) pickle their Corvettes for the winter.

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Pretty Funny.

When the rear bearings went on my '88, one season apart, it was more of a low growling sound. 110k miles or so.

When I replaced them, they looked really horrible. Like they'd been left sitting in rusty water in the back yard for months.

After replacement, the rear end had no noticable noise at all.

Make sure you replace the teflon washers too, and they have to be installed correctly. They can go on one of 2 ways. The right way, and the wrong way.

I didn't on the first one, and got a loud clicking sound every time I put the car in gear.

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