Fourth of July

We hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! We both spent our Fourth in Mexico Beach, enjoying the beach and the local festivities!

Since we last wrote, Kalen has finished his academic block of Air Battle Manager training, this was the first big section of his training. While waiting for his second block of training to begin, Kalen has been spending a lot of time golfing and working out as well as expanding his horizons on YouTube...oh, and doing a little work at his training squadron! The last weekend in June Kalen was able to take a day of leave and head up to Montgomery, Alabama to visit Jenna at ASBC. Again, he was able to work on his golf swing while Jenna was in class! He will begin his next block of training on July 20th, he will be learning how to direct fighter aircraft! This will hopefully include a ride on a F-15 Eagle (fighter airplane)!

Jenna is still at ASBC (Air and Space Basic Course) at the Air University in Montgomery, Alabama. She spent her first week in the field, at a facility that simulates a deployed environment. Even getting issued a M-4 (weapon)! However, the last few weeks have been spent in class at the college learning about theory, doctrine, operations and strategy of the Air Force. She only has two more weeks, one including a large test and another in the field.

After ASBC, Jenna will be heading up to Oklahoma City to begin work in the 552nd Maintenance Operations Squadron. This squadron supports the AWACS, the planes Kalen will soon be flying on! Jenna will spend 6 weeks in Oklahoma before heading to Wichita Falls, Texas for more school!

Again, we hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!!

Kalen & Jenna

E-3 Sentry AWACS

Recent News

Not much new to report since the last posting.  I am still enjoying my training and will be finishing up the "console familiarization" portion of the course tomorrow.  It is difficult but we still find time to have fun too.

Mom and Dad and Jenna were here visiting last weekend.  It was nice to have everyone here at once.  We did a lot of beach combing, and even saw someone catch a shark off the pier!  We also had some great food, and enjoyed a tour of the base and the 325th Air Control Squadron.

Jenna is finally in Alabama, and should be receiving her first paycheck shortly!  She spent most of last week sleeping in a tent for some psuedo-deployment training.  So far she is having a lot of fun there, and the best part is that we can see each other on the weekends!  

It has been very hot here lately and might even get to 100 degrees this week.  I don't enjoy the heat and humidity here much, but it sure beats 30 below zero!  Hope everyone is doing well, check back in a couple weeks for more!

Jenna Coming to Town!

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd check in and write a little something about what's been going on lately.  First of all, Jenna is coming to visit for a couple weeks here in Florida!  We are both very exciting to see one another again after being apart for about 2 months.  We plan on spending the long weekend doing some shopping and spending some time outdoors.

I just finished my third academic test today for Air Battle Management school.  The course is split up into 5 different blocks.  Right now we are in the academic block (Block 1) where we have 5 of our 8 tests for the 9 month course (one test each week for the first 5 weeks).  There is a lot of material to memorize, but so far the workload hasn't been more than I am used to.  Most of the time we only have classroom lessons until around noon and then they set us free for the rest of the day so we only end up at "work" for about 4 or 5 hours each day.  Thank you taxpayers!

Anyways, that's about all that has been going on lately.  I enjoy being in Florida, and the base is great.  We see F-15s, F-16s, and F-22s fly over everyday.  It is like having our own private airshow.  Hope everyone is doing well.  I will try to write again in a couple weeks!  

Kalen

Recent Events!

Hi everyone,

Since I last wrote I have been very busy.  First off, I graduated ASBC (Aerospace Basic Course) on April 17th and was awarded exceptional performer at the end of the course.  After that it was on the road to Florida.  I arrived here the same day and began the long process of getting settled in.  The first thing I needed to do was check in to my new job.  I am currently assigned to the 325th Air Control Squadron at Tyndall AFB, FL.  After completing a long checklist of inprocessing items, I finally started class this past Tuesday.  

Unfortunately I sliced my left middle finger while cutting a potato on Wednesday evening and received 6 stitches in my hand.  It was certainly an exciting evening!

I love my apartment in Mexico Beach - I walk down to the beach just about every day.  It is only about 3 blocks from the front door of my apartment to beach access!  I bought a few pieces of furniture for my apartment including a desk, couch, and bed.  I am enjoying my first venture into adulthood so far.

Recently I've been studying materials for class a lot and hanging out with my new classmates.  They all have interesting stories to tell and lots of neat experiences.  One was a navigator on an LC-130 ski plane that flew to Antarctica regularly!  I have learned a lot so far.   Just in case anyone is interested here is my new mailing address:

3706 Hwy 98 Unit 303

Mexico Beach, FL 32456 (32410 for UPS packages)

I would love to hear from you.  Give me a call, email me, or send me a letter anytime.  Hope everyone is enjoying the Spring weather!  

Cheers!

Kalen

Happy Easter!

Hello Everyone!

I know it has been a long time since my last post, but I've been very busy with ASBC and all that goes along with it.  I am currently preparing for my last exam this Tuesday, and I am anxiously awaiting our graduation this Friday morning.  It has been a long 6 weeks, but well worth it at the same time.

After ASBC, I'll be moving on to my next location which is Tyndall AFB.  A couple weeks ago Jenna and I went apartment hunting in the area.  We managed to find a wonderful apartment in Mexico Beach Florida.  It is only a couple blocks from the beach!  The town is very quiet and has a lot of small town charm with a relaxed beach atmosphere.  I am really looking forward to living so close to the beach and experiencing all that goes along with the beach atmosphere.

While in Montgomery, I've been enjoying some of the local eating establishments and even took in a Montgomery Biscuits baseball game.  I can't say that Montgomery is my favorite place in the world, but the base is very nice and I've met some great people.  I will try to have Jenna post some pictures along with this posting of my new apartment.  If any of you would like to visit, just give me a call - I have plenty of space!

I hope you all had a spectacular Easter and are enjoying the Spring weather.  I'll try to post again soon.

Kalen

Red River Flood

Since returning from visiting Kalen at ASBC, I have been dealing with icestorms, lots of snow and the flooding Red River! As of right now the University of North Dakota has been closed until Tuesday to allow students to help prepare for the flood. Right now, the river is pretty bad down in Fargo, being the Red flows north all of that water is going to be heading to Grand Forks later this week.

Last night, I went down town to look at the Red. This is the Sorlie Bridge (on Demers Ave), it was closed down yesterday morning. Across the river, the dikes have been put up and are being depended on to protect the town up to 60 feet of flooding. As of today, we are almost up to 50 feet and have been expected to crest around 54 feet next week. That was prior to getting almost a foot of snow in the last 48 hours!!

In a few minutes I will be going to help sandbag and hopefully work on building some dikes with a couple of guys from Air Force ROTC. Grand Forks is currently filling up as many sandbags as possible, because it is below freezing we can't put build the bags up because they will freeze. The city is working on having sandbagging go 24 hours a day, and have already set up a shelter at the Alerus Center. We have also been asked to try to conserve water over the next few days(which has been loaded with chlorine already to insure that it is safe to drink, yuck!)

My apartment is a ways away from the river, so I am not too worried about any flooding (even though I am on the bottom floor). Luckily, I have my parents pickup truck so if I need to leave town I will be able to pack up and head north to get around the river!

This is another picture from downtown. It is a marker along the Greenway that was built following the 1997 record flooding. The top line is where the river crested 13 years ago, we are expected to get close to passing that record this year. About half of the tower is already under water!

Please pray for this area, I am sure it is going to get much worse for Fargo and possibly Grand Forks.

Jenna

ASBC So Far...

It has been a long time since my last post, but I have been so busy since I arrived here at Maxwell AFB. So far my time here has been great. I've managed to play a few rounds of golf, take a trip to Georgia, and check out some of the local eating establishments.

Our days here are very busy. Usually we start class at 0730 and finish at 1630 (4:30). Since my job for my flight (think of a flight as a team) is the Academic Officer, I am responsible for making sure my flight has the materials they need to pass one of our two academic tests. That means I often have a lot of homework.

We do a lot of fun things here too. My favorite is a game called Icarus. The game involves a lot of strategy, and is kind of like dodgeball. It is based on a lot of the principles of airpower. My position on the field is Offensive Counter Air. That means I have to go into "enemy" territory and try to knock their cones down while their "Defensive Counter Air" throws "ordnance" (dodgeballs) at me to send me to the "Graveyard". Anyways, it is a really fun game, and our flight won our first campaign yesterday.

We also play some wargames on the computer that are a lot like video games. THey are also very fun. I got my first paycheck yesterday. It is nice to finally have some money now!

That's about all I have for now. I'll try to post on here more often if I get some time.