My call sign is Tine Tine

It was Lady Redhawk day yesterday and I got to spend a glorious five hours without the baby. No bottles, no crying, no dirty diapers. Don't get me wrong... I just relished the break is all. Dave's squadron VT-21 has one day a year where they invite the wives/girlfriends of the pilots and pilots in training to come and check out exactly what it is their husbands/boyfriends do each day. It's like a take your wife to work day. The attire for us was our man's flight suit with a patch made for us that included our call sign. A call sign is somewhat of a nickname given to you after you are a winged Aviator. It is usually something unflattering like 'WUNA' (world's ugliest Naval Aviator) or 'Chunks' if one happens to throw up during a flight. Think 'Maverick' in Top Gun. Dave's call sign is 'Krammer' because his hair bears a resemblance of said character on Seinfeld. Instead of wings of gold that Naval Aviator's have on their name patches we got the Southwest Airlines heart with wings least we forget that we aren't actually winged Aviators. Just a side note here: flight suits are incredibly unflattering and very hot to wear. They are made of inflammable, hot as hell material. I am not one to sweat a lot but I did my fair share even with the tiny pinholes they provide you in the armpits of the suits for 'ventilation' . Add how hot it is here in South Texas and a long sleeved, long legged flight suit plus the G-suit over the flight suit - you feel compassion for the strapping men who wear them day in and day out.

Here is a picture of us and some of the husbands. The jet they fly is the T-45 and is behind us. Dave was kind enough to stay at home with Brenden so he isn't in the picture.
The next picture is me with some of the G-suit on. The G-suit is a gravity suit that puffs up a bladder on your legs and groin so that blood doesn't pool in your legs when you are feeling the effect of gravity flying so fast. They are supposed to help keep the blood up in your head so you don't pass out. Nice huh?


Tom Cruise eat your heart out.

The white zigzag lines on the canopy on the picture below are explosives designed to blow off the canopy in case one needs to eject.. We were definitely told not to pull on the stripped handle sitting quaintly between our legs.

One great part of the day involved us getting to go into the flight simulators. Think of a big IMAX theater with a cockpit of a jet. The image projected all around you is whatever training mission they want you to try. The guys were nice enough to have us try landing the jet on an aircraft carrier. Something very hard to do even if you know how to fly. Needless to say I won't write how miserable we all were at the task but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. I sort of made it onto the carrier before I skidded off the side and crashed into the water. I guess I will be keeping my day job.