Family Jet Photos - Fall 2018

Most families of fighter pilots have yearly photo sessions with the husband's mistress... oh, did I say mistress? I meant jet.

Meet the F-22 Raptor, my husband's mistress. He spends more time with her than with the family, or so it seems.

We tried getting some great family photos to commemorate him joining his first active fighter squadron, no longer in training... but it didn't go so well.

The sun was shining bright. The wind was blowing SO hard. Jets were flying overhead. It was LOUD. The first couple photos are okay. I think they'd be better if the sun wasn't SO bright right on us, but it's not like we could move the jet. The photographer was shooting families all day in 15 minute increments, so this is what we had to work with.

Maybe next year will turn out better. We'll see!

At least the girls are cute, even when one is pouty and mad (she declared, "I all done with pictures!") and the other one won't sit/stand still for a single second. Maybe one day they'll pose for someone other than me so I can be in nice photos with them.

Dan's F-22 Raptor B Course Graduation

Hey there! Remember me?! If not... I don't blame you. It has been MONTHS. What can I say? Life has been extremely busy. A lot has happened since I last blogged in May... including surviving two of Dan's TDYs, his B Course graduation, a trip to Orlando, moving across the county, a Space A trip to San Diego, both girls' birthdays, and buying a house. Phew.

Anyway, I'm here today to chat about Dan's F-22 Raptor B Course graduation way back at the end of August. If you remember, he started B Course in January of this year. It was a nine month training course with a short TDY to Atlanta for the Lockheed Martin SIMS, a two week TDY to Savannah to fly with a bunch of other jets, and SO much craziness. This was undoubtedly the toughest nine months of our life together so far.

Dan pulled a LOT of 12 hours days. A lot. There were many days each week that Dan would leave before the girls woke up in the morning and would get home after they went to bed. It was so difficult when they (especially Annabelle) just wanted to see him... but somehow, we made it through! (But not without a lot of tears from the toddler... and me.)

There were a few hooked flights. There were lots of maintenance issues and jet availability issues. There were SO many weather issues. BUT, despite it all, my stud of a husband completed the B Course and is officially an F-22 Raptor pilot in the world's greatest Air Force! (But I'll be so happy to never go through this season of life again. Ha!)


Out of the 14 pilots in Dan's class, a whopping 13 of them had a spouse or significant other! These ladies GOT ME THROUGH. I seriously don't think I would have made it to the other side in one piece without the help of them. I am SO happy that many of us are still together at Langley - six of us, to be exact! (And soon to be seven, now that another is coming up from the squadron at Tyndall!)

This is what I got Dan for his graduation. It's a hand painted Raptor on a sectional chart of Tyndall AFB. I got him the same thing with a T-6 and a T-38 on the Sheppard AFB sectional chart for his ENJJPT graduation, so I wanted this to match it for his "I Love Me" room. If you're married to a pilot, you know the room I'm talking about.

Now that I'm back, I'll be back MUCH sooner than last time with a new post! I have four more to write about immediately to catch up before the year is over. See ya soon!

B Course Half Way Update

I can't believe B Course is already about half way over. It seems like we just arrived in Florida, and now we *might* be getting ready to move again! We should find out around the end of this month (I'll believe it when I see it - ha!) if we are staying here at Tyndall AFB or moving to Langley AFB in Virginia, Hickam AFB in Hawaii, or Elmendorf AFB in Alaska.

Dan started B Course at the beginning of January, and he will graduate toward the end of August. He is really enjoying flying, but it is an exremely heavy workload. He is gone ALL DAY most days. If he flies in the afternoon, he isn't home until at least 7:00 but usually more like 8:00 or 8:30.

If he isn't flying, he's doing simulators or in class. He is ALWAYS busy. It's a good busy for him, but the girls and I wish he had a bit more time at home.

We love watching him from the front yard. If we know when he's taking off, we go outside and watch, and it is just really awesome knowing it's him up there! (See video at the end of this post for the view we have all the time!)

Dan has been able to take off with the afterburner a few times and always comes home so excited telling me about how amazing that is. He's also been able to refuel mid-air several times. To do that, they hook up with a KC-135 tanker. I'm hoping someday I'll be able to go on a spouse flight on the tanker and watch him refuel. Some squadrons do that, and I have my fingers crossed!

Time is flying by. I know how badly Dan wants to finish B Course and be a part of the "real" Air Force finally - he'll be deployable soon after, and with the way things are currently going in a certain part of the world, that makes me pretty uneasy... but it's what he's been training to do for what feels like forever!

Here's how cool his job is - and it's great being able to watch!



Do you have any questions about pilot wife life? Or B Course? In general? I'd be happy to answer - just drop me a comment or send me an email!

First Flight in the F-22 Raptor!

On Thursday, February 22nd, 2018, Dan got to take the F-22 Raptor up in the air for the very first time! If you want to skip all the chatter, be sure to watch the one minute video of him taking off... it's at the very end of this post!

All flights are solo since it's a single seat jet, and let's just say I was terrified out of my mind. A friend took me up to the tower at Tyndall AFB (another pilot in Dan's class) so I could watch him take off, so luckily he was able to explain everything to me as it was happening.

As nervous as I was (and still am every day that he flies), I know he was more than prepared for this after all the simulated flights he's "flown" from the ground.

He had a blast and did well! He has since conquered a few phases of B Course and even refueled in the air with a tanker! So cool!

This is probably the neatest photo we have together - I'm obvious... but my stud of a husband is in that jet taxiing behind me! SO COOL.

Since it's been a while since I've given an Air Force life update, I'll write a separate post about that soon. It's hard to believe he's already about half way through B Course! 

First Day of F-22 Raptor B Course!

At the beginning of January, Dan FINALLY started B Course for the F-22 Raptor! This had been a long time coming, since he found out this is what he'd be flying last June at drop night! There are only two classes per year for the Raptor, though, and the last one started in July before he had completed IFF or Water Survival.

This is going to be a grueling nine months for him as he completes academics (now) and simulator training before finally flying the jet (probably in March) for the first time! Oh, and since it's a single seat jet, he'll be flying it completely solo for his very first (and every) flight! Ahh! I am going to be in panic mode that day, but hopefully I'll be able to go out and watch him take off!

Anyway, send good vibes for his training these next nine months and for my parenting ability for our two sweet girls since I'll be alone with them a lot of the time while he's busy training and studying!

(and in case you don't know what a Raptor looks like... here's one!)

Our 3rd PCS in 3 Years

Mid-December, when sweet baby Josephine was just two weeks old, we gathered what we'd need for two weeks and moved out of our home in Texas and into the TLF at Sheppard Air Force Base. We needed to get all of our belonging packed up and moved out so we could clean the house for our new tenants.

This is the first time we did not do a DITY move. In fact, we had people do almost everything for us, aside from Dan finishing up his home renovations - which turned out awesome, by the way, but that's a post for another day!

We had the movers pack and load up the truck, and we even hired someone to deep clean the house and another to clean the carpets - all things we've typically done ourselves. That just wasn't feasible with a toddler AND a newborn, though. Overall, our experience with the military moving us went much smoother that we imagined, but we still like that extra payout from DITY moves.

Half way through our TLF stay, the water heater leaked all over the laundry room, and we were forced to move into one of the MUCH older units across base. Lame. But it worked out okay... it was just a huge hassle to pack up all of our things (you have a LOT of stuff when you have two young kids, so I'm not exaggerating the hassle here), especially when we had plans to meet some people for dinner at a specific time. Yikes. That is a day I don't want to re-live.

Finally, we made it out of Texas, though, and started our trek to Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida. Thank goodness for our camper because we were able to sleep in it each night instead of moving all of our stuff to a different hotel room each night. It was also nice for discretely nursing Josephine along the way. We could stop anywhere, and I'd just get in there with her and not have to worry about using one of our covers (that we actually LOVE, by the way, but we were still learning our breastfeeding relationship at this point - remember, she was VERY young still!)

On day one, we made it to Louisiana and spent the night. On day two, we drove through the rest of Louisiana and all of Mississippi and stayed in Alabama. We made it into Florida on the third day, had lunch with some friends along the way, and then made it to our home! It was late, and our stuff wouldn't be delivered until the next morning, so we actually parked our camper at the Fam Camp at Tyndall and stayed in it for one last night.

The next morning, our household goods arrived! (Quick - I know! It helps that it wasn't peak PCS season... and it also meant that we skipped our New Orleans adventure we had planned because they called and said it'd be there on Monday morning, and if we weren't there, it'd go into storage... that meant we'd be waiting for our bed (and more importantly, Annabelle's bed!), and it would have another opportunity to get lost or damaged... so we said okay and hightailed it to Florida, skipping our time in New Orleans.)

I really like our new home. We're just renting for the time being since B Course is only a nine month training. If we end up staying at Tyndall after he graduates, we'll want to buy somewhere in this area... but this house is totally great for what we need right now! And it's in the closest neighborhood to base (which is still a 15 minute commute for Dan each day... the city is weird).

I can't say that we're in love with Panama City... it's very different from what we assumed... BUT we're going to give it a fighting chance before we make that decision since the weather has been SO COLD (worse than it's been in 28 years, in fact, according to the news), and we haven't had time to go do anything fun... so we'll blame the "blegh" feeling on that for now and hope we end up enjoying it more once it warms up!

Now we wait to find out if we will be staying at Tyndall for Dan's follow-on flying assignment or if we'll be moving again this fall. We will put in our request in a couple months and find out hopefully sometime in May or June. He graduates in August and goes to SERE after that, so we'd be moving in October or so if we do!

ENJJPT Drop Night Recap AKA My Husband is a Stud!

We found out on Friday night what Lieutenant Lovemuffin will be flying for his Air Force career, and he was selected to fly the F-22 Raptor! Pretty badass. If you remember my last post about drop night looming over us, you'll recall that the F-22 was at the top of his list, so we are definitely pleased. (There's a video of the moment we found at at the very end of this post - check it out!)

We'll be moving to sunny Florida... Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, to be exact. We don't have dates yet, but we're assuming we'll head that way sometime this fall. He still has three weeks of UPT left, followed by another trip to the Centrifuge in San Antonio, a few months of IFF (Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals) here at Sheppard, and then SERE (survival training) up in Washington state all before we can head that way. We're hoping to get there and get settled before Baby Cookie #2 makes his or her appearance, but we'll see what happens.

Here's the video! This video is VERY dark (sorry!), but turn up the volume - it shows the moment Dan caught the inflatable shark and found out what plane he was assigned to! The person who jumps up to the left is me... hahaha! I shot out of my seat when he yelled, "RAPTOR!!!" Such an amazing, fun night last night for ENJJPT Class 17-06's Drop Night! A moment we will NEVER forget! (PS - their class is called SharkNATO, hence the inflatable sharks and Hawaiian themed shirts!)