Retired from IBM in 2018 after a 20-year second career. I was a Project Manager and Quality Assurance Practitioner. This was a nice work-at-home job after years of traveling to customer sites, both government and commercial. This travel included virtually living in Denver and Boulder, CO, for two and a half years working IBM projects at the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service respectively. During my 20 years at IBM I also worked projects at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Between USAF retirement and IBM, I worked at TRW for 5 years as a defense contractor in the Aerospace and Defense Segment. Interesting work, but decided to move on to new challenges in the private sector.
Retired from the USAF in 1994 and have lived in Virginia ever since. Initially settled in Centreville, VA after USAF retirement, but that area became far to crowded for my family's taste. We moved south to the small rural town of Stuarts Draft, VA in the Shenandoah Vally in 2003. Now live on three acres of land with plenty of elbow room and a great view of the surrounding farmland and watershed.
Civil War battlefields are all around us within easy driving distance. Some of them are: Appomattox, Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, Manassas, New Market, The Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Fredricksburg, Brandy Station, Culpepper, Lynchburg, and Waynesboro. Gettysburg National Battlefield Park is about 2.5 hours to the north of us along I-81. The list goes on. A dream come true for a Civil War buff like me.
I'm an avid collector of stuff, to include challenge coins, military patches, shot glasses, beer steins and mugs, Mort Kunsler Civil War art, and Star Trek memorabilia. Lately, I've been collecting hats and caps related to my military experiences. Collections include 300+ beer steins, 135 challenge coins, and patches from every state police force in all 50 states.
Other Comments:
I'm a founding Member of the Eddie's Airplane Patch Desert Rats Group. Group consists of 116 former USAF Security Policemen who served with the 6510th Security Police Squadron at Edwards AFB, CA during the 1970's. Group has been active for over 16 years.
Members of the group served at Edwards AFB (fondly referred to as "Eddie's") during times when the base had no gates or fences, patrolling over 300,000 acres and dealing with vehicle traffic open to everyone. Group also participated in the arrival of the first B-1 bombers and the overland move of the first space shuttle "Enterprise" from Palmdale to the NASA Complex on Edwards. Group also supported space shuttle testing and operational flights that landed at Edwards, namely "Columbia" and "Challenger."
We held our first reunion in over 30 years in Colorado Springs, CO in 2007 and our second reunion at Edwards AFB, CA in 2009. Our third reunion was held in San Antonio, TX in 2011. Our fourth reunion was held in Las Vegas, NV in 2013. Reunion #5 occurred in 2015 in Orlando, FL. Our 6th Reunion was held in Dayton, OH in October, 2017, which will include a visit to the National Museum of the Air Force. Our most recent reunions were held in Tucson, AZ in 2019 and in Charleston, SC in 2021. In the past, the group has attended baseball games in Kansas City, Chicago, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Denver. We met for our 5th consecutive New Year's celebration in San Antonio, TX, to ring in 2017. For New Year's 2018, we met in Las Vegas, NV. In 2019 and 2020, we met in San Antonio, TX. We have not met the last two years due to the pandemic.
Adversary tactics instructor at the SAC Tactics School, Nellis AFB, NV.
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B-1 Lancer Details
Aircraft/Missile Information
Model Rockwell / Boeing B-1B Lancer Length 146.00 ft | 44.50 m Width 137.14 ft | 41.80 m Height 34.12 ft | 10.40 m Engine(s) 4 x General Electric F-101-GE-102 turbofan engines generating 30,780lbs of thrust each. Empty Weight 192,001 lbs | 87,090 kg MTOW 477,596 lbs | 216,634 kg Max Speed 825 mph | 1,328 km/h | 717 kts Max Range 7,456 miles | 12,000 km Ceiling 50,000 ft | 15,240 m | 9.5 miles Climb Rate Not Available Hardpoints 0 Armament 24 x GBU-31 GPS-aided JDAM 24 x BLU-109 penetrating bombs 24 x Mk-84 2,000-pound general purpose bombs 8 x Mk-85 naval mines 84 x Mk-82 500-pound general purpose bombs 84 x Mk-62 500-pound naval mines 30 x CBU-87 cluster munitions 30 x CBU-89 cluster munitions 30 x CBU-97 cluster munitions 30 x CBU-103 WCMD 30 x CBU-104 WCMD 30 x CBU-105 WCMD 24 x AGM-69A SRAM-A short range attack missiles 24 x AGM-158 JASSMs 12 x AGM-154 JSOWs 12 x B-28 freefall nuclear bombs 12 x B-43 freefall nuclear bombs 24 x B-61 freefall thermonuclear bombs 24 x B-83 freefall thermonuclear bombs 28 x B-93 freefall nuclear bombs 8 x AGM-86B ALCM (internal on rotary launcher) 12 x ALCM (external underwing launchers) Accommodations 4 Operators the United States of America