In the UK (Finally...)

I finally made it to Lakenheath! I know it has taken some time for me to update this thing but in my defense I have had very little down time and very limited access to the public internet in the last 2 weeks. However, I will do my best to play a little catch-up on the last week or so of COT. When I get some time, I will add some pictures as well.

Lets see...the last week of COT was pretty laid back. Most of it focused on parade practice and out-processing. We actually watched a lot of movies during the day in our flight room when there was nothing else to do to pass the time. The last Friday was graduation day. Heather came to campus that morning & got to see where I had been spending the previous 5 weeks. She met some of my flight-mates and then saw me march 50 people around the parade field for about 20 minutes. Then, everything was over!

We spent the weekend in New Orleans in a hotel right off of Canal street. Most of the time, we just walked around the French Quarter, did a lot of people watching, and a lot of eating. The food was fantastic and live music was everywhere. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend. On Monday morning, we drove back to San Antonio. On Tuesday, I unpacked, did laundry, and re-packed. On Wednesday, I got on a plane to come to the UK.

Traveling here was a bit chaotic. My flight from San Antonio to Dallas was delayed almost 3 hours due to weather north of the metroplex. This caused me to miss my original flight from DFW to London. I managed to catch the last flight out of Dallas that night, but we arrived in London so much later than planned I was unable to catch the military shuttle from Heathrow to Lakenheath. This meant my only option was to hail a cab oustside the airport. A 300 pound cab fare ensued. Whats more, the poor cabbie's credit-card machine kept rejecting my card. In the end, 2 majors and a captain from the base legal office had to drive to an atm and loan me the cash to pay off the cabbie. It was a fun way to meet people from the office for the first time. Fortunately, all the travel costs are fully reimbursable. That was my Thursday.

On Friday, I went into the office and starting getting my life set-up. Everyone from legal is helpful and welcoming. One of our Captains drove me around the base. At one point, we had to drive across a taxi-way for the planes here and we ended up waiting on 2 F-15s to pass us by. Watching sitting there watching the F-15's taxi by is when it hit me, wow...I am in the Air Force.

Because our base mission is to maintain operational readiness for an F-15 squadron, and our office is right next to the flight-line, approximately 20 time a day we hear them flying by. It becomes so loud, you have to stop talking in the court room for 30 or 40 seconds because nobody will hear you. Everyone says it gets old real quickly but I still think it is pretty cool.

So, that brings me to today. Last night, a guy from our office offered to bring me to his house in Cambridge this weekend so I wasn't stuck on base with nothing to do. We met up with another JAG who works at RAF Mildenhall. This is definitely a fun town and London is only 40 minutes away. I think this is where Heather & I will put down our roots for the next 3 years.

That should bring me up to speed. As soon as I get a chance, I will try to get some pictures posted up here. Until then, I will update this site as soon as I can get regular access to the internet!