Flight Pundit

If one has not given everything, one has given nothing.
Georges Guynemer

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Back in 2002 I was released from the company I worked at for almost five years. This is in part because of the economy after 9/11, and in part because I had a very large issue with the president of the company. I was leading an office and building out a 20,000 square foot facility for hosting large corporate back end systems (SAP, Oracle, e-commerce, etc…) I was responsible for the project while the rest of the company was on the east coast. Shortly after opening the facility and closing two major accounts I was released for personality conflicts and a lack of leadership (the president) and the state of the economy.

While I was let go in some very hard times work was easy to find, I dug ditches (really) and did some odd technical consulting jobs here and there and was not taking any unemployment. I moved to Chicago for a position that did not workout over the summer for five months. I then moved back to Colorado last September.

My old company was acquired last year and recently the president was terminated with more respect than he deserved. I have been approached on the topic of coming back and relocating back to Phoenix. I really loved the job of designing, developing, selling, and delivering business solutions to companies across the country. It was never a dull moment.

I was based in Yuma for years while I was in the Corps and have several friends living in Phoenix still. I do like Arizona but also love Colorado.

I hate making big decisions…there have been to many of them lately…

Life goes in craZy ways.

With the current company and a lot of very large changes coming our way (lots of unknowns) would you stay or would you work for a smaller company where the work is a known and the possible impact on the growth might be huge. What would you do and why? I am just trying to vent my thoughts to help me make my decision better and I like many points of view.

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Pushing good taste to its limits, the Vermont Teddy Bear company releases another controversial bear.

This is why Corporate America is evil….
also this shows that Capitalism is wrong and bad for America.
This is why the government should own all corporations…


Update: Gordon has another picture that shows how the medical system should be socialized to make sure we can take care of people with major problems.

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I got this from Raven at “And Rightly So’. She has an elegant way with words.

Update: One day I will be a better writer.

Who are you? How am I?

A. First, recommend to me:
1. A movie:
2. A book:
3. A musical artist, song, or album:

B. Next, ask me three questions, no more, no less. Ask me anything you want. (Blunt and crude answers are likely)

C. Then, I want you to go to your blog, copy and paste this allowing your friends to ask you anything they want!

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Is this the face of the Democratic Party?

I live in Colorado and I listen to the left & right perspective on Caplis and Silverman on 630 KHOW in the afternoon.

Caplis and Silverman both spent some time on the CU campus to bring to light to this issue.
They have some of the best information on what the far left democratic party faithful are teaching in the higher education in America.
Go check out all of information and see what the liberal left is like….

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While pursuing some new sites I found this account of action in Iraq in 2003 at Scuttlebutt & Small Chow
If you want to find some history from the mouths of the people that made it this is a great site to check into.

Centered Again

As I sat in the ditch long to road, the dirt covered sweat dripped down my face and pooled in a small fold in my flak jacket. To someone looking at my face, they could have easily mistaken it for a tear shed for my fellow Marines, bloody, maimed, or in body bags.

My uniform was already soaked with sweat and I had surrendered to the choking heat, the biting insects, and extreme fatigue. It had been days, since I had slept more then two or three hours and my stomach was pained from hunger. I looked forward to my only ration of the day. As I drank from my canteen, the water, warmed by the heat of the day, only moistened by mouth, leaving me still thirsty. A small red ant struggled to gain entry through my boot’s drain hole. I didn’t have the heart to kill it. I brushed it aside and continued to scan to right flank of our position.

The sky seemed the deepest cobalt blue with only a whisper of white clouds dotting the horizon. My eyes looked over the earthen dikes to a small mud hut surrounded by palm trees; tops swaying in the gentle breeze. The locals were working away in the fields, oblivious of our presence. They ripped their crops from the ground by hand, as if to punish the earth for their life. This penance, unchanged seemingly forever.

This surreal scene would only be interrupted by the occasional mixing of friendly and enemy gunfire. The locals would pause and check to see if the fire was close. Realizing it was more of an inconvenience then a danger, they continued their labor. How did they survive this seemingly endless war?

As I watched the living painting before me, in my mind, I could hear “For What it is Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. I had listened to that song so many times before leaving for Vietnam, it was etched in my mind. There was no fear in my soul. I had prepared myself for death, knowing that I could not fail my fellow Marines. I recalled Staff Sergeant Cawley, who had been killed just a few days before. He was a noble man, always positive…always professional…always there for others. I quickly was brought back to the here and now by the sound of a grenade explosion in the distance. As I sat waiting for the order to move out, I listened to the distant sounds of the locals’ catlike language; it centered me again.

—– The smell, the taste, the feel, the very landscape … for a moment it was 1968, and I was in Vietnam … then abruptly I was snapped back to the present, 35 years later, to Iraq … at war once more in a hostile country: I had come full circle.

This is a Great American.

CWO5 Tomka has served in three wars. In Vietnam (1968-1969) he served as an infantryman with 3d Battalion 4th Marines and was twice wounded. During the Gulf War (1990-1991), he was with 3d Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO), assigned to 1st ANGLICO and saw action near Al Wafra and along the coastal highway invasion into Kuwait City. He was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat “V.” His reserve unit was activated shortly after September 11th 2001, and served in Global War on Terrorism (2002) as a quick reaction force. In January 2003, his unit was transferred to the command of the 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Regiment and he saw combat during the liberation of Iraq (2003).

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We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower

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