BlackFive

In a service as rich in tradition as the Navy is, it is customary to “pipe aboard” new officers to the ship. So, without further ado, Bos’n, dust off your pipe, have Airman Schmuckatelli lay to the quarterdeck with his little hammer and let’s hear “piping the side”  and 4 bongs of the ship’s bell!

Of course, as a naval aviator, we usually eschew such formality and do the welcome aboard at the O’Club with copious amounts of beer and munchies while making our hands go “zoom zoom” and telling lies about flying.

My 30-second bio? F-14 Tomcat radar intercept officer from back when the Soviet Union was a big, bad bully (dating myself, I know, and as anyone who has dated me knows, that is not necessarily rainbows and lollipops). Currently wearing navy khaki again during the work week while on an extended recall to active duty in the Washington DC area. I hang my garrison cap (more…colorful…names for our head gear shall remain in O’Club conversation) at the Navy Annex at Anacostia , which is located on the south side of the Anacostia River, adjacent to Bolling Air Force Base. In the big scheme of things Anacostia is a quantum leap in the quality of life, both work and personal, from where I used to drag my usual-contractor backside, that being the multi-sided, large military-related office building on the banks of the Potomac.  

In my other blog life I run the Instapinch where you can generally find the occasional sea story about life as a ancient-aviator-mariner (of a Tomcat sort) and a few other things that the occasionally-on-strike Muse deems worth of posting.

Many thanks to Matt for offering this opportunity  – hopefully I’ll be able to add to the discussion, perhaps provoke a few of my own, and with any luck (and a full bag of gas) generally contribute to the excellence that Blackfive has come to be known for.

Fight’s on!