Assisting with Army Deployment

Last night, I assisted an American Red Cross team in seeing off a group of 1st BCT, 3rd ID soldiers from Fort Stewart off on their deployment to Iraq. Guy McDonald, K4GTM picked me up around 8 PM and we went over to the Truscott terminal at Hunter AAF. The team served coffee, hot chocolate, and tea for the soldiers as they ate a meal, manifested, and prepared for departure. As they boarded the aircraft, the Red Cross team and the USO saw them off with good words of thanks. It was cold and windy last night, but it was a good way to spend an evening.

I brought along my my BC396 and an earphone; it was helpful to be able to listen to Hunter Tower and Base Ops, Hunter Trans Alert, and the DOL folks. Keeping an ear on their radio traffic helped us keep up with what was going on and when things would be happening. I think we were better prepared as a result.

Two things struck me last night. First I was struck by how young many of the these soldiers are. No doubt many of these were on their first deployment (assumed from the lack of unit patches on many left shoulders). I'm not exactly old, but many of these men and women seemed to be just kids. Second, I was struck by just how many female soldiers there were. One of the units on last night's flight was an MP unit and I'll bet the ratio of female to male soliders was close to 50/50. I would be really interested in seeing figures on how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars compare to previous wars and confilicts in the overall ratio of females to males serving.

Godspeed and Best Wishes to all of the Service People that are deployed or are deploying to our many committments overseas.

Mac McCormick III

GPS Navigation Device

I've enjoyed using the Google Map App for Blackberry so much that I finally decided to put a GPS Navigtation Device in the car. I stumbled across a Garmin Nuvi 255W on sale at Sam's Club last week and picked it up. I used it over the last few days, even using it to navigate from Brunswick to home here in Savannah.

I'm not very experienced with these units, but it seems to be a fairly simple and straightforward device. It is easy to program and simple to read. I also like that it disables most of the menus while you are driving, thus eliminating some distraction to driving. It has day and night display modes; the background goes dark at night to protect night vision. I noticed a few discrepancies, particularly in areas where there has been construction. One area that stands out is the Golden Isles Parkway/Cate Rd. area in Glynn County. I downloaded an updated map (free of charge when registering the unit online) today that seems to have fixed a lot, but until I get back out on the road it will be hard to tell.

Mac McCormick III

Speed Performance Awards Ballot

Here's my ballot for the SpeedTV Speed Performance Awards:

Oops: Oops indicates that a mistake or error has been made. Of the choices, only 3 of the 5 to me qualify as a mistake or error. Steven Wallace at Montreal wasn't a mistake, it was simply an example of a lack of experience racing in the rain. Earnhardt Jr. at Daytona wasn't a mistake or error either, Earnhardt Jr. spun Vickers on purpose. That leaves the McLaren fuel error, Briscoe at Motegi, and Latvala rolling down the mountain. While the fire and rolling down a mountain are certainly spectacular, I voted for Briscoe at Motegi because Briscoe's mistake there at a massive impact on his season; had he not crashed there, he would likely have been the IRL champion.

Biggest Hit: All six crashes in this category were spectacular and several of the cars where comprehensively destroyed. In the end, my vote goes to Scott Sharp in the Acura at Road Atlanta in honor of what his crew was able to do in a day: build a new car and get the team in the race that weekend!

Best Move: I'm not sure that it really qualifies as "Best Move" because there weren't very many good moves in the Indy 500 this year, but I'll vote for Castroneves at Indy. What he did at Indy after being out of the car for the first part of the season and having no off season testing/practice was truly impressive.

Best Finish: the two NASCAR finishes smack of blocking and I hate blocking so I can't vote for either of them. Ashley Force Hood's win was a milestone, but as a finish, was it really all that spectacular? That leaves Rossi/Lorenzo, Bergmeister/Magnussen, and Briscoe/Dixon. Out of those three it is really a tough choice because all three are thrillers. My vote goes to Briscoe/Dixon because they were wheel to wheel for the whole last lap, not just a turn or two (but all three are deserving of the win!).

Temper, Temper: Easy choice here: Scott Pruett. I've lost a lot of respect for Pruett over the last few seasons. Pruett blew his top over something that he would have done himself; I just love to watch the pot call the kettle black. In Pruett's world, if he lays the bumper to someone it is racing, if the bumper is laid to him it is unfair.

Biggest Upset: It was a tough choice between Justin Wilson and Coyne Racing at Watkins Glen and Jenson Button and Brawn winning the F1 World Championship. Given the fact that Button and Brawn won the F1 World Championship a season after the former Honda team were also-rans, I had to vote for them.

Best Rivalry: Peugeot flat outperformed Audi this year. Reed/Stewart and Hamlin/Keselowski were at times downright nasty. That left Dixon/Schumacher and Haga/Spies. In the end I went with Haga/Spies.

Biggest Comeback: I've got to go with Jorge Lorenzo at Laguna Seca. To get thrown off the bike like he did and be injured, then to race the next day - that guy deserves the ironman award!

Rookie of the Year: Franchitti and Stewart-Haas rookies? Really? Hardly. To boot, the choice they label as Franchitti is Brawn in F1! I still wouldn't consider Brawn as rookies because they have 2 veteran drivers and a veteran owner/team-boss. Kliegerman did a great job, but what Spies did in World Superbike was special.

Mac McCormick III

Mozilla Firefox

This isn't really radio related, so I didn't include it in my post about the National Weather Service Trip over on the "Monitoring Post." The computers at NWS Charleston weren't using Internet Explorer, they were using the Mozilla Firefox browser. The Firefox browser seemed to have some pretty good features; one of my favorites was to the ability to create panes within a browser window and have multiple sites up within one window or tab. Over the weekend I downloaded and installed Firefox on my home machine to try out. I found that it interfaces with the version of Norton I use just like IE does. I find that sites also load much quicker in Firefox than they do on IE.

In addition to downloading and installing Firefox on the home computer, I have also done the same on my netbook and set it as the default browser on both machines.

Mac McCormick III

Racing Ramblings

Miscellaneous stuff that has come to mind while reading recent racing headlines:

• Earnhardt Jr. Voted Most Popular Driver Again. It almost baffles my mind that a driver who has not accomplished much and finished 25th in points as his teammates finishd 1, 2, and 3 wins the popularity contest. I realize that popularity has nothing to do with results but I don't have to understand it.
• Jimmy Johnson to race in the 24 Hours of Daytona with Gainsco again. I'm happy to see this. I have to admit that Johnson is not one of my favorite drivers but you can't deny his skills in a racing car. I would love to see him in an ALMS GT or Prototype car to see what he could do some serious high tech equipment.
• British Touring Car Championship and the Australian V8 Supercars will be shown on Speed TV this winter! I love the touring cars and the V8 Supercars. Watch the V8 Supercars and learn where Marcos Ambrose came from; those guys make NASCAR look like a bunch of wimps when it comes to wheel to wheel racing; they make racing a Full Contact Sport.
• The DTM and Japanese Super GT series could race together in the future. Now this is interesting. Exciting racing in both series with some interesing machines; I'd love to see that if it could get on US TV.
• Andretti Autosport. Andretti Autosport has hired Tom Anderson as VP of Racing Operations. Anderson was running the Fernandez team in ALMS before they closed down and has a stellar history in American Open Wheel Racing. This could be the shot in the arm that Andretti's team needs. Also, Ryan Hunter Reay is in the running for a seat at Andretti Autosport. They need to hire him pronto; I think he would do a good job in proper equipment and he brings solid sponsorship from Izod. He's also one of the more high profile American open wheel racers.

Mac McCormick III