What the who now?

The moment you’ve all been waiting for (almost), I’ve decided that I’m probably not going to receive any more letter for my netbook contest.  The results are definitely a surprise to me.

Over the course of the contest, I received more than 400 unique page views, I was retweeted more than 15 times, including by some contest specific accounts, the post was shared on Facebook a couple of times, it was even written about on other popular blogs.

I received 7 qualifying entries.

7 people took the time to sit down and write a quick letter about why they thought they deserved a more than $350 laptop.  I guess the reason I was so surprised by this response was because of the prize.  I’m not talking about a $50 gift card or something like that, we’re talking about a computer.

I’ve decided to forgo the voting process and just pick a winner myself.  I’m going to re-read all of the letters this week and select a winner no later than March 6th.  The winner will be posted here – the only catch – I expect the winner to take a picture with their shiny new netbook when it arrives and email it to me.

Today at 0600 local Hawaii time, the Hawaii Wing of the Civil Air Patrol – the Civilian Auxiliary of the Air Force – launched 9 Cessna aircraft to initiate tsunami warnings for the islands of Hawaii.

This is a critical mission for the Hawaii wing, they are tasked with being ready to launch within 1 hour of being alerted and according to an article on the Civil Air Patrol media site, they were able to meet that goal.  Hawaii Wing Commander Col. Roger Caires said “I am proud of our members, they again met the standard of being ready to launch within one hour.”

Hawaii News Now posted this article with a really good video of Civil Air Patrol crews in action.

As more information comes in regarding the Civil Air Patrol response, I will keep you updated.

The Air Force is providing key airlift capabilities in response to the disaster in Haiti, this is all being handled by Air Mobility Command and the Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott Air Force Base.  One of the main hubs, operating these airlift mission is Charleston Air Force Base.  While the majority of the cargo is being picked up at other locations, they are tasking many of the flights in and out of Haiti right now.  This includes just about every type of airlift “tail” the Air Force has at it’s disposal.  I spent the day touring Charleston Air Force Base yesterday – they had C-130’s, C-17’s and C-5’s parked on their flight line, along with civilian heavy airlift 747’s. (more…)

The Air Force Medical Service is engaged in support of the mission in Haiti and has been since the first 24 hours of operation. Col Mark Mavity, Chief of Medical Readiness for the Air Force Surgeon General, says that the currently, the Air Force Medical Service has between 40 and 50 personnel on the ground in supporting a large inter-service and inter-agency operation. Over the last 10 years, the AFMS has developed a fast, lean deployment strategy when it comes to disasters and other field medical situations. They have done this using their EMEDS systems. (more…)

I had the opportunity to speak to Colonel Bradley G. Butz who is the Vice Commander of the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Wing, based at Langley Air Force Base, Va.  Col Butz briefed us on the use of the RQ-4 Global Hawk in support of the relief efforts in Haiti.  Yesterday, the Global Hawk launched from Beale Air Force Base in California and made its way to it operating area over Haiti.  Once there, it spent approximately 14 hours on station capturing around 700 images in total.  All images will be made unclassified and distributed to anyone who needs the, he has indicated that they will be made available on the “unclassified internet”.  At the end of its duty day yesterday, the Global Hawk returned to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, where it will remain until it has completed this mission.  Once it has been released, it will continue on to the middle east to support the ongoing conflicts there. (more…)

The United States Air Force has pulled out all the stops in an effort to support the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti.  Among some of the things they are doing and arguably one of the most critical efforts of the relief in general, is controlling the airspace in and around Haiti and, most importantly, the Port Au Prince Airport.  Currently Air Force combat controllers are providing the air traffic control for all traffic in and out of Haiti.

Another critical part of the overall relief effort is the transportation of all of the items necessary to support the ongoing relief operations.  Air Force Air Mobility Command is currently providing several of its C-17 and C-130 aircraft along with a number of its personnel to support this mission.  You can read all about the full effort of AMC and the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center here. (more…)

I know you’re all going to be surprised, but I’m having a Twitter contest.

Now that you’ve picked yourself up off the floor, it’s not what you would think of as a traditional Twitter contest.  I don’t care if you follow me, you don’t have to re-tweet something (although I’d appreciate it if you would, I’d love a lot of entries), all I want you to do is write me a letter and send it to me in the mail.

Here’s the contest:

1. Write me a letter explaining why you should win the prize (listed below)
2. The letter has to be hand written or typed on a typewriter
3. You have to include a return address (this is where I will ship the prize)
4. You also have to include your Twitter ID so I can congratulate you on Twitter for being the winner
5. The contest will begin today and all letters must be postmarked no later than February 4th

(more…)

Facebook has become a primary means of communicating with customers.  Everything from deals and discounts to “crisis communications” like store closings and apologies.  Brands big and small have a presence on Facebook and they all use that presence in a variety of ways.  Lately I’ve been hearing all kinds of tips for brands on Facebook, I’m going to give you my suggestions based on my experiences.  As with everything on this blog, these are simply my opinions, they aren’t going to work for everyone, but they are what are working for me. (more…)

My trip to the 129th Rescue Wing was filled with a lot of exciting and awe inspiring moments.  Not the least of which was my flight with the 130th Rescue Squadron.  The purpose of the flight was general training and to practice infil./exfil. of a Pararescue Jumper on a 4-wheeler.  I was pretty excited that I was going to be able to witness all of this first hand.  This was going to be a night flight with night vision goggles.  It included a number of low level (500ft AGL), lights out 10 mile approaches and I can say with complete certainty, that without the NVG, you would not have been able to make the field, let alone land on it. (more…)

Back in November, I had the opportunity to visit the great people of the 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Field in California.  The wing includes a number of units, the ones I’m going to tell you about are the 129th Rescue Squadron, the 130th Rescue Squadron and the 131st Rescue Squadron.  The intention of my visit was to showcase the great work that some of Air Force’s elite units are doing, both at home and abroad.  While I was on the trip, I met members of each of these units and had a chance to take a flight on an MC-130P Combat Shadow, where we practiced some exciting night flying maneuvers including (a first for me) 500ft AGL night approaches from 10 miles.

Because I learned so much about each of these units, I’m going to break each one into a separate post, beginning with the 130th Rescue Squadron and my flight on the MC-130P.  I’ll be adding a new post each week beginning today.

Have you had an experience with any of these units?  Have you had a chance to fly in a C-130 of any kind?  Leave your story in the comments.