User talk:Ewsraven

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and ask your question there. Again, welcome! — BQZip01 — talk 15:41, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
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AFSOC?
I noticed your contributions to various AFSOC related pages. By those edits, I assume you were involved in the MC-130s? — BQZip01 — talk 15:41, 9 December 2007 (UTC)


 * You are doing fine. The only thing I would watch is adding stuff to pages without citations. I know a lot of that stuff to be 100% true and I'm not going to challenge it. That said, Wikipedia rules state you must have a source for everything except common sense stuff ("water is wet", "the sky is blue", etc.) Anyone who wants can remove anything not cited, though usually they should add a template, wait 3 months, and then delete unless it violates other rules. Just watch out and don't try and force something that violates WP:NOR.
 * Furthermore, I suggest reading WP:V, WP:MoS, and WP:IAR for more info on edits.
 * If you want a laugh/insight as to me, read my user page by clicking my name. — BQZip01 —  talk 06:49, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * BQZip here (logging in at work causes the computer to crash). I'm at work on my lunch break and I figured I'd drop you a line. To be involved in Eagle Claw is very impressive. I've read a lot on the subject and talked with people who were involved. Were you involved in Credible Sport at all? That modification would have been one badass bird. Personally, I'd have loved to see the faces of the bad guys involved had the rescue (either one) been successful.
 * Sir, the Americans are gone!
 * What? How?
 * You're not going to believe this, but...
 * BTW, have you heard the nickname for the Combat Spear? I personally love it: the Combat Wombat.
 * Anyways welcome to Wikipedia. Look forward to chatting with you in the future. — BQZip01 —  talk 17:58, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Wow. Lots of good information there. IMHO, it will happen someday in the next 50 years. Regimes that are oppressive tend to do so until their people turn on them or they are crushed from the outside. The only hope for those regimes to last is to control almost everything that their countrymen learn. If there is an outside influence of any kind, the truth will get through.
 * IMHO, North Korea is a perfect example of a regime that can last, but will eventually fall apart internally if they don't do something rash with their military first. Iran is one that will eventually push the West/Israel too far (diplomatically, militarily, economically, etc) and there will be a war. China will continue to be a world power, but will not reach its full potential (they could easily become the next sole world superpower) until they move away from a communistic government and allow free speech.
 * BTW, you can just reply here and I'll read it. Since I created your talk page (I was the first to post), it is automatically in my watchlist. — BQZip01 —  talk 131.44.121.252 (talk) 20:43, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the tip, BQZip. Interesting, but from my first days at Hurlburt (BTW, I attended tech school at Keesler along with some Iranian officers also learning electronic warfare - ironic), we discussed the Soviet threat, and none of us could imagine that the evil empire would last in the face of information and goods that were surely being smuggled in and disseminated. We always figured the people would rise up in revolution from the inability of the repressive regime to deliver the kinds of goods that the west routinely enjoyed. I agree with your statement about outside influences. Score one for capitalism. I hope the need for freedom overcomes the cruel grip of Islamofascism in the mideast.
 * Interesting bio on your user page. We share more than a common military heritage, I suspect our politics are also similar. I also share you're disdain for incorrect use of the language. : )
 * I look forward to learning the wiki mark-up language.Ewsraven (talk) 22:21, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
 * IT'S "YOUR" GENIUS!!!
 * ok, deep breaths...you can get through this 
 * I was an Exec for a few years and my father was an O-6...I have little patience for people who can't handle the basics of the English language. Eye am knot saying its sew easy too ewes, but ewe should no and bee able two identify the write words in the language yore using two make it as simple as possible two read (spell chequers do knot catch everything!). — BQZip01 —  talk 131.44.121.252 (talk) 22:43, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Ditto BQ and Amen. Got a good LOL out of that. I was always amazed at the inability of coworkers in high-tech military fields and the civilian (albeit government, as I worked for Treasury) IT world to be able to write grammatically correct English. People tend to write like they talk, which ain't even close. An intensive tech writing course would probably cure most of them. I'm the kind of reader who spots every mistake, and wish I could get paid for every one I find.
 * BTW, Wombat is cool. I wonder how common Spear is, I used to work in another program that ended with Spear.Ewsraven (talk) 02:35, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Connections
I still have some connections at Hurby. What do you want/need? — BQZip01 — talk 00:03, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I have some unclassified paperwork related to Eagle Claw that I would like to see placed with a museum or organization that maintains historical documentation for the mission, if such a thing exists. It is unique and represents a specialized system I was involved with, mainly a pallet with several Navy sonobuoy launchers mounted on it that never got used. I think that system may have been discarded/junked, since I was given the paperwork and told to do whatever I wanted with it. The last time I saw the system was out by the red ball area with some other old equipment (more specifically, it was an area where the EWS shop kept some older equipment).
 * The system has historical significance, and I wonder if anyone ever thought to store it or keep it rather than junk it. The EWS shop may know, or the Component Repair Squadron historian (if they have one). I was the only one involved with this system, though initially an electrician was also involved.
 * I can supply more info if necessary.Old Crow (talk) 01:41, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I'd contact the 1st SOW or AFSOC historian. If they don't want it, contact one of the units. They are always looking for stuff in their display cases. If they don't want it, it could be donated to the Armament museum. Just my two cents. — BQZip01 —  talk 01:46, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Probably only worth it if the actual system was saved, but I'll check. Thanks.Old Crow (talk) 02:11, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Blocks?
Old Crow (talk) 00:59, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Merge discussion for Types of gestures
An article that you have been involved in editing, Types of gestures, has been proposed for a merge with another article. If you are interested in the merge discussion, please participate by going, and adding your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. Cnilep (talk) 19:18, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Regarding Iranian military presence at Keesler AFB summer of 1976
I was attending USAF radio school there (304x4) from April-Aug of 1976 after completing Basic Training at Lackland AFB, and was now reflecting decades later about how we passed those formations of Iranian military during our own AFTC squadron's march to school after morning formations from the Triangle. So I did a Google on it and lo and behold you were there just shortly after I was. You must of kept a good journal to remember all those facts in your article! I went on to be stationed at Offutt AFB just south of Omaha, SAC HQ. I was assigned to AFCS (Air Force Communications Service) in support of SAC. I worked for a short time on the flight line at Offutt (coldest mid-winter whipping wind I ever experienced) maintaining the radio gear up in the control tower (no elevator and had to haul up and back down this heavy yellow suitcase sized RF generator), and SP handheld radios. Then I was transferred to the SAC HQ Underground Command Post beneath Bldg 501, in a small shop adjacent to the command post proper. We maintained two Collins R-390A receivers which were patched into the base telephone lines and tuned to the WWV UTC time hack broadcast out of Ft. Collins Colorado. Back then when you wanted the exact time you just made a phone call and listened to our R-390As. Also we had a Collins KW-1 1Kw transmitter which fed an antenna that popped up from the rooftop of SAC HQ. It was for emergency communications after an attack, if we still were around to command anything. Oh yeah, remember the little loop antennas on top all the power poles on base? Those were for confirmation that we no longer existed. We maintained the PA system of the command post, and controlled the synchronized playback of the audio taped portion of the public command post balcony tour presentations which were conducted two or three times a day. Highlights of my time there, visits by then president Jimmy Carter, Lt. Ohura from Star Trek, the annual air shows (Thunderbirds and Blue Angels) and a broadcast live from the command post by CBS's 60 Minutes. Also watching the RAF Vulcan bomber almost float in on landing approach from the west at sundown, that was always a pretty sight to see.

I became a hobbyist computer user during that time at Offutt AFB, attending meetings of the Omaha hobbyist computer club. I purchased a TRS-80 Level II and a book on BASIC Level II ROM and Zilog Z-80 assembly language, subscribed to 80Micro, and started having fun. A cohort of mine that worked in an adjacent shop (who maintained the main display screen projection system of the command post, very archaic by today's standards but complex back then, it actually developed slides of photographic film on a roll that had been exposed to text displayed from computer output video monitor, then rolled them in front of a very bright projection lamp and lens for display on the big screens, all seconds from the punch of a button by an officer at the consoles below) had shelled out a goodly sum of money for an Apple II, so I also got an experience of twiddling Motorola 6502 assembly code. One fun thing we did was have a computer chess match between my TRS-80 and his Apple II, down in the shop, using a chess program available then for both platforms called Sargon-II. My TRS-80 lost. The military at that time was still pretty much in the dark ages computer-wise, and integrated circuits were just starting to appear. Lots of the electronics were unplug-able printed circuit boards with discrete transistors soldered on them. That was digital back then. Things changed quickly in the next 10 years.

I made a very bad decision in 1980 to return to civilian life after my first enlistment expired, the main reason was a civilian job that I had previously was available for me again, since I enlisted in the Air Force during a layoff in 1975. Other reasons were the retraction of any re-enlistment bonus for my AFSC (because there were too many of us), and being assigned to West Germany to fix backpack radios in NATO field exercises. This was after getting promoted to E-5 in under four years. Foxhole diving wasn't that appealing to me. I then worked for that civilian company until 1995 when I was laid off for good following the NAFTA trade agreement and a merger with another company that was very interested in moving their production labor to Mexico. What followed was four years as an electrician at a paper mill, then six years as a "mechtrician" (I coined that word while I worked there) at a forging foundry. In 2004 my 20 year marriage went sour, the wife moved out and filed divorce papers on me in October of that year, and in January 2005 I started showing symptoms scarily similar to multiple sclerosis, but turned out to be caused by compression of the spinal cord in my neck by a "bone spur". I had surgery for that in March 2005, was off work for three months, the first month with my head fixed immobile 24/7 in a brace. Back to work in June, but although the damage done to my spinal cord was stopped from getting worse, it was irreversible. It seriously limited my ability to function at my job (climbing ladders and such), and in August 2005 my employer laid me and another employee off citing "over-manning" in maintenance. Six months later they were advertising in the paper to hire again for my job. Needless to say 2005 was the worst year of my life (divorce, disability, and job loss within a six month span of time) but I got through it and got a job as a security guard at a nearby pork slaughtering plant. They fired me three years later. It's been no job since. So I kick myself every time I think about 1980 and how I should have stayed in the military, or re-enlisted again before it was too late. And I envy you having re-entered the military after 15 months, I wish I had also done that while I had the chance. It was a smart move on your part I think.

50.82.113.250 (talk) 01:53, 4 October 2012 (UTC)