A Visit to the Squadron

We weren't able to do much exploring this past weekend as Dave was on duty and couldn't go far from base. He took me in to the the squadron on Saturday afternoon. In case you'd forgotten, he is with VFA-192, the Super Shit Hot World Famous Golden Dragons, as pictured above.


The walk up to the squadron. All of the different squadrons paint their doors, curbs, and anything else that will hold still with their colors. Ours are Blue and Gold - which also happen to be USNA colors... coincidence??


Golden Dragon Pride begins with Dave. Duh.





Inside the Ready Room. Notice the wall of coffee mugs on the left wall, the row of job-specific chairs on the right, the briefing table with white board to the back, and the all powerful Foose Ball table front and center...



Foose Ball is a big deal in the squadron. We are considering purchasing one to keep up our skills. The Hamiltons would fit in well here.



Special Chairs... Dave's is the one up front, Aircraft Operations Officer... I don't really know what that means, but Dave doesn't either (yet). He will also serve as the Public Affairs Officer (PAO).



And this is proof Japan loves the Golden Dragons: A "Combat Aviation Pilot." (Think GI Joe Action figure.) Made in Japan. Oh what's that? A VFA-192 Golden Dragons seal on it? Hmmm, definitely World Famous. And Super Shit Hot.



Additionally, over the weekend, friend from Kingsville, Laura Moore arrived on Friday afternoon. On Saturday night, we went out to eat with the Moores and the Smiths. We went to the nearest authentic sushi restaurant. It was very traditional, and super delicious. And very affordable. We finished the night with a drink at the O'Club. On Sunday, we began calling about for a car. We made an offer, and will be buying a 1997 Honda Logo with 73,000 miles for (get ready) $1,000. We will still have to pay the weight tax due in April and insurance. But it will be a good car and hopefully we can sell it for close to the same in December so we won't loose much money on it.

In other news, this week we have been attending AOB/ICR: Area Orientation Briefing/Inter-Cultural Relations. This week-long program is designed to introduce Japan to everyone. Monday we had representatives from every -- EVERY -- office on base come speak to us about what they offer. The most shocking one: The Commissary sells groceries, and the Food Court sells food - OH MY GOSH, I never would have figured that out... But there was really a lot of good information passed around. Today we talked about culture shock, and how to pronounce Japanese words... We even learned how to write our name in Kanji and traditional script. Pretty nifty!

All for now.