Letters From Far Away

Sometime last year, while poking around the Woodland farm, Peter found a box full of letters that our dad sent to Grandma and Grandpa.  He wrote them while he was away serving in the Army during the Vietnam War and with the Peace Corps a few years later.  The letters give the impression that it was more like "serving time in the Army" and "on [a very frugal] vacation with the Peace Corps".


Reading through them, they remind me of the give-and-take that comes with email correspondence.  On one hand, the letters require several days between responses (that's +1 for email if you're keeping score).  On the other hand, there's no way to grasp the mood of the writer beyond the words themselves.
There's also little things that stand out, like the Hotel Granada's letterhead on the paper.  It gives a nostalgic air to the letter, and couldn't be reproduced in an email.

The letters are available through Google Docs.  If you would, please help me transcribe them into digital text files, either using Google Docs or whatever text editor you have at home.  Then just name your file to match the PDF that's there now and upload it to the same place.  Thanks ahead of time!

FNG Cooper Langley

Here are a few shots of FNG Cooper Langley in his JET PILOT costume.  Jessica & Peter gave it to him for his birthday, and it even has real patches from Pete's last deployment, squadron insignias, his name badge, shoulder stripes, and an american flag.  Jess, you're the best!

Of course, the first thing Cooper said was "Wow! Look at all the zippers - and pockets to put candy in!"  He then asked to put his helmet on.  I think there's also an oxygen mask and goggles in the line-up for Halloween night.  Should be a fun look!

Yup, he thinks he's pretty cool!

Baby nieces born October 12, 2010!

Two beautiful baby girls, healthy as can be!

...oh yeah, and Peter cried!

Flyboy Updates

        Sorry I haven't written you in a while.  But I just wanted to give you a quick update before I become a daddy.  I am just enjoying my day off.  Fridays are "no-fly" days out here.  It doesn't mean "no work" just no flying.  I had some meetings earlier today and some training, and the maintainers do a lot of maintenance on the planes.  So everyone stays busy.  However, it's slower paced and I have time to relax.  I am actually writing this email in my stateroom with my head phones plugged in listening to some music.  It helps me escape for a little while.
        Anyway, so there were big plans for today: the ship was supposed to have a "swim call"  For a couple hours, they were going to lower the elevators in the hangar bay and let people swim within a couple hundred feet of the ship!  Unfortunately, the winds picke dup and the seas were too high, and it was too risky to swim.  I was disappointed.  Not too many people can say they've swam in the North Arabian sea more that 100 miles off shore!  I was a little nervous to swimg though.  Over the past week, they have been training all our security forces to stand the "shark watch"  I think they are armed guards who are supposed to be force protection and security, but the nick name for these guys has been "the shark patrol", and they are supposed to fire their guns at the sharks when they try to eat us!! Yikes!  Oh well, it didn't happen.  Maybe next deployment . . .
        Also, last week we had a nice visitor to the ship.  Jessica Simpson was on a tour to meet and greet troops as part of her tour with the USO.  She stopped on the ship for about 24 hours.  She was supposed to put on a small concert in the hangar bay last week, and it was going to be aired on PBS on thanksgiving eve, but she didn't show.  I was in the crowd and we started joking around that "maybe she ate some of the food and got sick".  As it turned out, she really did get sick!! Poor girl was vomiting all night and didn't feel well at all.  What a bummer.  But she did get to sign a few autographs and sat in one of the Super Hornets.
        Other than that things are going well.  I am very excited for the arrival of my little ones!  Can you believe that Jessica is going to pop in four days!!  Speaking of "popping" I have a funny story about aviator lingo to share with you:
        So instead of everyone asking me "when is your wife due" in fighter pilot talk we usually ask the question "when does your wife pickle"  To give you some background I have to explain the word pickle.  When we are doing a bombing mission, we always talk about pressing that Air-to-Ground weapon release switch (actually it's more like a button as opposed to a switch)  And instead of calling it that big word, pilots refer to that switch as the "pickle" switch.  And used as a verb, when dropping bombs, we refer to it as "pickling" a bomb.  So when a pilot asks me if jessica had the baby yet, he asks "has she Pickled yet"  Pretty silly huh?  Anyway, I can't wait for her to pickle . . . . i am so excited!
        I also just found out that I am being nominated for a "first tour fighter pilot of the year award"  I don't know the official name of the award, but it's given by the association of naval aviators, and it is in honor of George Bush senior.  I was flattered to hear the news today, and honored that my squadron would submit my name for that type of award.
OK, that's all.  I know I didn't talk about work stuff, but it's better that way.  I will fill you in on all the stuff that went on out here on another date.  Right now I am just trying to get through, and do my job and make it home safely.
I love you guys and miss you too.  Any updates?  Any news?  I would love to hear from you guys!


Love, 
the daddy-to-be, 
Peter

Proud daddy-to-be

Are these booties allowed on the flight deck?