Day 3: Albuquerque to Salt Lake City

Woke up in Albuquerque and hit Kirtland Air Force Base, my old stomping grounds. I was a shark in the pool and ran another 4.5 for some great cardio. A quick word on exercising out West: the weather's so great, the scenery's so awesome and the pace of life is just right that I find the West the perfect place to get outside and run. New York really doesn't size up on that end (although I still love NY).

At the same time, while I love New York and the pace of life here, I'm truly inspired by the West. Moreso than any other place I lived, New Mexico is my favorite place to press the reset button. More on this when I do my post-trip wrapup.

After leaving base, I met up with some of my old base colleagues and then had lunch with loyal morganobrien.com fanatic, Celena Soto. Man, I worked with some terrific folks.

After lunch, it was time to head back to Salt Lake. The GPS took me on a little different route than I would have figured, I didn't take I-40 but 550. A cool part of that route was that I drove through Bloomfield, which has some tie to the Derby winner. I hear that New Mexico is thrilled about Mine That Bird. From there, it was a scenic drive into Utah.

After driving through Moab, which appears to be an awesome mountain town, I came upon Arches National Park. This time, I got a picture of myself in front of the sign, but I have to admit that I didn't get the shot on my first try:


12th time's the charm!

After Arches, I had a couple hundred miles to Salt Lake...piece of cake, right? It was right up until I was about 150 yards from my exit (about 5 miles from the airport) when the flashing lights appeared in my rearview. Man, I was so close--I'd driven more than 600 miles. I was so close. I was exhausted. I had a little work to do before going to bed. I just wanted to get to my hotel. Alas, it wasn't to be.

I was told I was going 90 in a 65! Damn you, Infiniti FX and your 303 horsepower!!!

The officer was nice, however he brought me back a ticket for 76 in a 65 (which honestly did me a favor, and I appreciate it). But before I signed the ticket, the following exchange occurred:

Me: Would it have helped if I told you my brother was a cop?

Officer: (pulls back the ticket) Where's his jurisdiction?

Me: Fairfax.

Officer: Virginia?

Me: Yes.

Officer: (handing me a the ticket) 90 in a 65, I can't let that go. My wife and kids drive these roads.

END SCENE

Hey, I can't begrudge the guy, that's a fair point. I'm just glad he didn't ask about the contents of the Fiji water bottles on the floor of the passengers side. To tell the truth, didn't even put a dent into my overall awesome time. Just the cost of doing business out West, I guess.

Miles Traveled: 621

Daily wrapup

States visited: 3

Trip Stats

Total Miles Traveled: 1921
Total States Visited: 5
Total National Parks: 2

Remembering Lindsey

Last weekend, an important anniversary came and went, and I was remiss in not mentioning it in this space. Three years ago, my pal Lindsey Patterson passed away totally unexpectedly. In the military, where way too many young, healthy folks are called to their maker before their time, this was a total stomach punch in that she succumbed to a fast-acting freak illness. I only had the opportunity to know Lindsey for a short time while we were junior officers stationed together at Kirtland, but I still feel her impact in my life on a daily basis.

Besides being a lovely, kind and incredibly fit person, Lindsey never hesitated to tell me that she appreciated my sense of humor (which, I’ll admit, sometimes ventures into the odd if not absurd). After she went to a Def Leppard concert in Albuquerque, I always used to ask her, “What has nine arms and sucks?” At Lindsey’s memorial service, we closed with Pour Some Sugar on Me. I still kind of wince when I remember that, but I like to think that she was looking down and laughing when the song rocked the base chapel.


Lindsey Patterson, 11-08-78 to 03-08-06

At a time in my life when things were tough at work, Lindsey’s appreciation resonated then and continues to resonate. When I get people to laugh nowadays, I can’t help but think of her and hope that my joking around somehow, in some small way, pays tribute to her life. I miss my friend.

Another Kirtland Airman Makes (bad) News

If I recall correctly, there were about 25,000 people that showed up for work or lived on Kirtland Air Force base each day. That's a good-sized state college. However, recent actions make it a campus I'd be hesitant about allowing my kids attend. A location dedicated to protecting Americans has to do better.

In the past few years, there have been an alarming number of instances involving the dumbassery of our Airmen. And I'm not talking about the run-of-the-mill drunk driving that you'd find at any college.

No, Kirtland has posted a spotty track record of late, with death, drugs and Christian Bale. But leave it to an Airman from the vaunted and highly respected377th Medical Group to raise the bar.

In New Mexico, an Airman is Arrested in the Killing of a Man on Lower Greenville
By Robert Wilonsky in Crime and Punishment
Tuesday, Feb. 24 2009 @ 9:17AM

The Associated Press reports this morning that a man has been arrested in the death of Marlon Alfaro, the 23-year-old from Irving who was beaten and run over in a Lower Greenville Avenue club's parking lot on January 25. Dallas police and a certain Barking Dog had speculated in a KXAS-Channel 5 story that Alfaro's murder, which took place after an argument turned into an altercation, was gang-related.

Which makes 23-year-old Frank Farias an unlikely suspect: Since August 2006, he's been a member of the 377th Medical Support Squadron out of Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he's being held till he's extradited to Dallas to face first-degree murder charges following his arrest on Friday. (link)

This morning, Opie and Anthony discussed on their program how gang members are now serving in the armed forces to improve their skill at small arms tactics. If Farias is guilty and if this was gang-related (two huge 'ifs'), this is another huge black eye for both the military and the base.

I've written extensively about the elevated level of expectation for how men and women in uniform must carry themselves. With this in mind, regardless of the extent of Farias' alleged involvement, gang activity is on the military's radar. I know we screened for at the processing station (Our medical folks at the MEPS were looking for tattoos, criminal history).

After our young military members join up, this must an area we must continue to show vigilance in ensuring that this problem does not grow worse.

Morgan O'Brien's WiGO 02.20.09

Fort Lewis Update
An update to a story we posted earlier this week. Our thoughts are with the family of Leah King, who died on Fort Lewis earlier this week in what appears to be a drug-related incident.

Unfortunately, without even knowing the details, I would have bet that the events that lead to her death played out just like this. Young GIs plus High School Girls too often equals trouble.

Girl in Fort Lewis incident is being released from hospital
By Seattle Times staff
A 16-year-old girl was being released from Madigan Army Medical Center today, after she was admitted early Sunday when she was found unconscious in a Fort Lewis barracks, a hospital spokesperson said this afternoon.

Another 16-year-old with her, Leah King, died Sunday in the case authorities say is drug-related. (link)

Young kids make stupid mistakes (just ask A-Rod). And when military members make mistakes, they're going to be magnified because we're called to adhere to a higher standard. We're supposed to be protectors and if people are to feel safe anywhere, it should be when they're in the company of our armed forces.

Speaking of protectors failing to protect...

Ex-airman guilty in wrong-way crash
Deal limits jail sentence

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A former airman from Kirtland Air Force Base admitted in court Thursday that she drove drunk two years ago and rammed head-on into another driver on Interstate 25.

Danielle Best, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of great bodily injury by DWI, a third-degree felony.

In February 2007 Best crashed her pickup truck into a small car near Gibson Boulevard critically injuring Michael Hauser.

Best will be sentenced on March 23. The district attorney and the defense agreed she would receive no more than 18 months in jail. (link)

18 months...wow. God bless New Mexico's stringent drunk driving laws!

I distinctly remember a couple of things about this case. First, I was so happy not to be working at Kirtland when this happened. Second, the event happened on Mardi Gras, and I'm told that Best was wearing her beads when she critically injured Hauser. Finally, I remember that this came in a bunch of other drunk-driving related incidents (2, IIRC) surrounding Kirtland airmen.

And finally, in other Kirtland related news.

Welcome to the Desert

How sad it must have been for BG Voldemort to be separated from his loved ones and serving overseas during the holidays. However, I have to point out that a week-long trip to desert garden spots on the arm of a 4-star does not a war veteran make.

Oh, and Valentine's Day shouldn't really count as a holiday:


There he is on the left...only 7 years late to the party!

Gee, I'd really love to hear his war stories upon his triumphant return. We'll keep an eye out for the inevitable editorial in Hanscom's paper.

As always, with my greatest respect,
xOxO
Morgan

Morgan O'Brien's WiGO 01.22.08

May or may not have been getting his haircut Wednesday

I was searching for something to write about today, and was going to write about the obnoxious guy that showed up at the barber shop when I was getting my post-military wig lopped off. The guy's material wasn't that good--he looked like Uncle Teddy from Rescue Me and kept saying stuff like, "If sheep could cook, I would marry one," in his really loud, NY accent. I don't even know what that means.

Anyway, I have a cure for writer's block: thank God for the Air Force:

First is the case of Micah Henry, a former Kirtland Airman that just pleaded guilty to killing two folks:

Ex-Kirtland airman pleads guilty in DWI case
The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A former Kirtland Air Force Base airman accused of killing two people in what police say was a drunken driving crash has pleaded guilty to two charges of vehicular homicide.

Micah Henry, 24, entered his pleas Wednesday.

He will be sentenced in March. He faces up to 12 years in prison for the 2008 New Year’s crash. (link)

Only 12 years? All I can say is that it's a shame Henry didn't end up in Nassau County. Maybe we should ship Kathleen Rice to Albuquerque...


Send Her to Albuquerque!

An excerpt from an interview "60 Minutes" reporter Bob Simon conducted with Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice:

SIMON: Why did Heidgen fit as a murder case?

RICE: The statute under which he was charged required us to prove that, through his actions, he had a completely depraved indifference to human life. ... His actions made the deaths of Katie Flynn and Stanley Rabinowitz inevitable. It was as inevitable as taking a gun and firing it at an individual who's standing 5 feet away from you.

SIMON: You really believe that?

RICE: I do believe that. I do.

Source: "60 Minutes" transcript

And then there's this terrifying news:

Retirees, reservists to be tapped for empty jobs
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer

The Air Force is turning to retirees and reservists to fill 1,600 empty flying and staff positions — a strategy that could eventually have 58-year-old lieutenant colonels flying alongside officers half their age.

If you are a retired rated officer or a rated officer on traditional reserve status, the Air Force wants you back on active-duty status to fly or serve in staff positions for up to four years.

For retired officers, the program is open to aviators who retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel or below and will not be older than 60 when their service starts.

(link)

As it looks, I'm safe for now but I'll continue to keep my antenna up. If they start looking for stud PAO's that are only a couple years removed from service, well then the race is on, Gen. Schwartz.

As always, With my greatest respect,
xOxO
Morgan

Kirtland: People are Strange

No one here gets out alive

I finally got around to watching the 1991 Oliver Stone pic The Doors over the weekend, and wanted to learn more about young Jim Morrison's time in New Mexico (where he had the transformational moment where he saw the Indian dying on the side of the road between Albuquerque and Santa Fe).

Much to my surprise, it turns out that Jim Morrison's dad, George, was Admiral George Morrison, who was one of the fastest movers in the history of the Navy to flag rank. And get this--Morrison was STATIONED AT KIRTLAND. I knew we should have had kids while we were stationed there.

George Morrison, the Times obituary tells us, was an instructor for secret nuclear-weapons projects in Albuquerque following World War II.

And that's how Albuquerque came to be the fleeting home of our own poete maudit -- not once, but twice.

Nearly 21 years ago, the Albuquerque Journal's own Toby Smith visited the Morrison's home at 8912 Candelaria NE (in an article titled "Jim Morrison Slept Here" in the Journal's now-defunct Impact magazine).

Jim Morrison lived in Albuquerque for two years, 1955 to 1957, when he was 12 to 14 years old, and he attended Monroe and Wilson middle schools, while his father was executive officer of the Naval Special Weapons Facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, according to Smith's sleuthing.

It was George Morrison's second stop in Albuquerque, the first time in the late `40s, and according to online biographical material, Jim Morrison was 4 or 5 years old when the family was here -- and it was here that his sister, Anne Robin, was born in 1947.
(More here, courtesy ABQ Journal)

Love cannot save you from your own fate

How freaking cool is that? I'm not even a Doors fan, but the cache tied to living mere blocks from one of the Lizard King's childhood homes is certainly not lost on me.

Unfortunately, it also turns out that Admiral Morrison past away last month, marking the passing of yet another member of the Greatest Generation and conquering heroes of World War II.

After taking part in operations in the Aleutians and the central Pacific, Mr. Morrison took flight training in Pensacola, Fla., and flew combat missions over Wake Island and Honshu, Japan, in the last year of World War II. After the war, he was an instructor for secret nuclear-weapons projects in Albuquerque. During the Korean War, he was assigned to the joint operations center in Seoul, earning a Bronze Star for his part in combat operations against North Korean and Chinese forces.

Mr. Morrison took command of the Bon Homme Richard in 1963 and in 1967 was promoted to the rank of rear admiral. In 1972 he became commander in chief of naval forces in the Marianas, which included some of the same islands he had bombed as a pilot during World War II, and where he organized relief efforts for nearly 100,000 Vietnamese refugees sent to Guam in 1975. It was an assignment he called the most satisfying of his career.

Rest in peace, Admiral.


Father of the Lizard King

Kirtland + Weed = Fun with kids

No commentary necessary:

Employees cited for pot at Kirtland daycare

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 30, 2008 15:57:22 EDT

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. — The Shandiin Child Development Center at Kirtland Air Force Base has been temporarily closed after three employees were cited for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Col. Michael Duvall, 377th Air Base Wing commander, and representatives from the National Nuclear Security Administration Service Center decided to temporarily suspended operations at the child-care center after the workers were cited Tuesday.
(more here)

Support a Great Cause

Our friends at AFBlues.com are honoring the memory of our fallen comrade, SSgt. Chris Frost, with a phenomenal commemorative coin, the proceeds from which will go to support Frost's young  children,  Mitchell and Mackenzie.  More from AFBlues:

The whole thing is antique silver, and has a shiny coat of epoxy that only covers the inner circles, which is unique. The front side features, in all his comic glory, Chris, smiling like he often did and wearing the exact same uniform he does in the strip. At the top, contained within a black ring, his rank and name are represened, with staff stripes on either side. At about the 8, 6 and 4 o’clock positions, respectively, it says “Father,” “Son” and “Friend.”

Flip it over, and the black ring has been replaced by a blue one filled with stars. Inside, each branch of military service currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is represented, and an American flag at half-staff pays neverending tribute beneath the following inscription:

“Forged in the memory of United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Christopher Frost and all others who are called home before they leave the war.”

You can put this coin in your collection and be proud of the fact that you helped two young children know how much their father meant to his brothers and sisters in arms, or those he fought to keep free

Buy the coin/make the donation here.

I had the honor of serving with Chris at Kirtland, and had a lot of fun with his dry sense of humor.  Frost was a Hell of a guy, a fantastic NCO and a good friend and it was heart-wrenching to learn of his way-too-soon demise.  More on his story here.

Don't Drink the Water!!!

Sometimes, the headline and the lead paragraph don't jive:

Kirtland water deemed safe despite fuel leak

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer Posted : Wednesday Jul 16, 2008 11:01:31 EDT

Between six to 18 inches of jet fuel floats on top of the water table beneath Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M, and has spread to nearby Albuquerque due to leakage from a corroded underground fuel pipe (continued).

Now I am a gambling man, and that's one sentence that's going to make me walk past the water fountain and become a Poland Spring man, especially when I read this:

If ingested, a blend of water and jet fuel would be toxic and even trace amounts could cause cancer, said Michael Jess, a professor at the University of Nebraska’s Water Center.

Admittedly Dr. Jess is from Nebraska. You know what the 'N' on their helmet stands for? 'Nowledge. LOL, give me those ribs...

I must give credit to Col. Robert "Junior" Suminsby, who actually did a heck of a job communicating the facts. He's got some strong crisis communications chops:

“We knew the first question was going to be: What are you going to do about it?” Suminsby said. “Until we secured the funding for the additional wells and the remediation effort we didn’t have an answer for that question.”

That's the 100 percent correct answer, which was much better said than the initial base message:

"We decided it was better not to scare people right away."

Not to give him a free pass, Junior did provide one cringeworthy line:

“There’s an old saying out here that whiskey's for drinking and water is for fighting so we expected a certain amount of controversy on this,” Suminsby said.

As an expert on being an Air Force wiseass, take it from me, Junior, there's a time and a place for humor: and a potentially tainted water supply is not the time to break out the cowboy diplomacy.

In conclusion, I bet you can guess who I would love blame this all on...if I could only make the facts fit the case. Rest assured, I'll remain vigilant as I pursue the smoking gun...DEVELOPING...

Breaking the Century Mark

Dear Readers,

Yesterday we reached a major milestone, surpassing 100 posts on this, my passion project. I want to thank the dozens of you that take the time to read this and hope that we grow together as we strive for 1,000 posts! If you keep reading, I'll continue my unabashed commitment to celebrating the First Amendment.

Now as I continue to develop and refine www.morganobrien.com, I do harbor one gripe. I wish that folks would quit ducking interview requests. Like this person (who will remain unnamed), from Kirtland Air Force Base that received an email from me on June 30 and proceeded to check out the site without ever so much as acknowledging my request. I'm beginning to take this personally.



Undaunted, I remain steadfast. God bless you, dear readers and God Bless the U.S. of A (and the Yankees).

Yours,
Morgan

Interesting Blog Post

Take a look at this:

THANKS FOR THE CALL COLONEL - WELL MAYBE NOT

If true, this is very thought provoking. (I'm talking about Col. Robert "Junior" Suminsby calling a blogger on a Sunday morning to discuss a post. ) As a disclaimer, I served under Col. Suminsby at Kirtland, and found him to be a first-class man and excellent leader although I never got a read on how he thought of me (I imagine the waters were muddied by he whose name shall not be mentioned, Col. Voldemort) .

I've certainly thought about this, and like Bruce, I'm an Air Force vet who truly values freedom. However, career officers that have made it to the top echelons have a taste of unchecked power--at least within their commands. Enter the Internet, which represents a whole new ballgame.

Some leaders have had the opportunity to get away with things in the past that now might not fly in the egalitarian world of the blogosphere. The connectivity, anonymity and equanimity of the Internet now opens up these men and women to criticism never before seen.

Clever E-3's that have access to Web site and a DD-214 in hand can turn around and find an audience while critiquing their former leadership without fear of NJP or retribution. While I haven't done much searching, I think I'll take a look at AF blogs in the coming days to see what's been said about Moseley and Wynne. And I bet that one Colonel at Sheppard is probably being ripped to shreds...you know the one I'm writing about.

I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing--although folks tend to turn the Internet into a giant smear fest, and I hope things don't devolve too quickly. As long as some attention is paid to journalistic standards and a strict adherance to applicable libel laws is maintained, this just might work.

I'm beginning to think that my blog will continue to cross into the blue, covering Air Force issues. In doing so, I'll be interested in seeing how this new world progresses. With this in mind, I recognize that it's always easier to tear things down than to build them up. One pledge I'd like to make here is that I'll always sign my name to my posts, and will always seek opportunities for praise and avoid negativity at all costs (well, unless I'm writing about Col. Voldemort).

That said, my purpose in posting this is more about the thought-provoking nature of this alleged incident, and not to critique anyone's actions.

And Bruce, thanks for serving. You fought for the First Amendment and certainly have earned the right to enjoy it. Keep writing.