Spartyka Nation Wounded Warrior 5K Run

The runners waiting to start

At the moment I'm in an NCO school at Ft Eustis, Virginia.  On of my classmates found out that Spartyka Nation was running a benefit 5k run for the Wounded Warrior Project at Virginia Beach this weekend, and we decided to go.  As it turns out one of our group had been assisted by the WWP, so there was a personal element to the trip.  Virginia Beach, while a major tourist attraction, is no stranger to the military with a strong Naval presence at nearby Norfolk, Oceana and Little Creek as well as nearby Ft Eustis and Langley Air Force Base.  With those kinds of neighbors, it's not surprising there was a good turn out even though it was a little cool.

Everyone evened out by the turnaround point

The run itself was an out and back along the boardwalk which made for a nice running surface.  It was the typical gaggle at the start, but within a couple of minutes everyone was sorted out and running at whatever their comfortable pace was.  It was a pleasant run, and a great way to get off post and get a little fresh air. 

The group of us from class

For information on similar events check out http://www.spartykanation.com and http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.

Long Distance - the next best thing to being there...

Front to back - PSL-54, M-21, M-24 and M-40A1

Last year Remington announced that as part of the replacement program for the M-24 sniper rifle, they would be rebuilding the turn ins using new and turn in parts for a reconditioned rifle, which then would be sold to qualified buyers.  The first group was for graduates of military sniper courses only.  The current group is for active duty, reserve and National Guard.  Yeah, that would be me, among others.  The group opened up in September of last year, and my rifle arrived yesterday (though a proper FFL transfer process, thank you.)  To celebrate I decided a group picture would be in order.  While I have nowhere near the collection that the Castle has, I'm proud of what I have managed to piece together.

More after the break

Faces of the Guard - Maintenance Test Pilot

Maintenance Test Pilot

Preparing to do ground tests and vibration checks after an engine upgrade. 

Olympus E-PL1 / 17mm at f11, 1/160 and ISO 200.  FL-36R flash camera left in RC mode manual at 1/8 power.

Faces of the Guard - Mod Team

Mod Team member upgrades some wiring

While we do quite a bit of work on our birds, most of the bigger projects are done at an Army depot level maintenance facility.  There are some exceptions to this.  We are currently upgrading some of our A model Blackhawks to A+ models with bigger engines.  The Army calls them A+'s, we call the Frankenhawks.  We actually like them quite a bit, the power of the newer models without the extra weight.  While we can swap the engines and make most of the changes necessary, this requires some new wiring to be installed.  OK, we could probably do that as well, but we had some depot level guys come out and due it for us.  Much easier.  For us, at least.  Those tubes hanging down in the back ground are only what connects the pilots controls to the rotor, so yeah it's kind of a major hassle to get at everything.

Faces of the Guard - Crew chief

SGT Tommy

Sgt Tommy is a two tour Iraq veteran, first as a gunner then as a crew chief.  Here he pauses for a photograph while performing the daily inspection on one of the Blackhawks assigned to Arizona.

Faces of the Guard - Flight Medic

SSG T

Meet Staff Sergeant T.  T deployed as a medic attached to an infantry unit in Iraq for OIF 3.  She spent that year with them doing convoy escort, searches, and whatever else the infantry unit was assigned.  She returned from a tour in Afghanistan as a Flight Medic last year, so she has her OEF medal as well. She also has been awarded her Combat Action Badge.  It  really doesn't get much more front line than that.