It's Not All Bad...

Colonel’s Blog, 8 November 2024…

Hey Y’all!

Good afternoon and happy Fast-jet Friday!  The fast jet today is the Mighty-Mighty F-15E in my favorite pose.  It’s a hard photo to capture, but is an amazing view of just how much of a warhorse it is!  Much more about this below.  Well…it rained.  I mean it really rained.  Within 48 hours, it rained somewhere around 15 inches.  I couldn’t keep up with the rain gauge so I’m not sure how much exactly.  It was 13 inches to our southwest and over 20 inches to our northeast so I’m guessing around 15 for us.  We spent some time in our innermost room as tornadoes danced around us Monday night during the worst of the storms.  The ensuing flooding didn’t do any real damage here on the farm, so far I’ve only seen one fence that needs mending due to the water pushing a downed tree into it.  We were without power for about 15 hours, in the lead up to Shelley’s surgery Tuesday morning.  I was able to get a generator going before we left to go vote and make our way to the surgery center.  The surgery went very well.  The Dr. reconstructed her ACL, cleaned up some arthritis, and snipped a flap of meniscus that was torn.  He decided the MCL was healing well on its own and didn’t need additional help.  We’re at recovery day 3 which is supposed to be the worst pain but she is managing with Tylenol and Motrin.  She showered yesterday and the incisions look good.  Physical therapy starts next week.  She is partial weight bearing and gentle bending for about 6 weeks.  On to the farm…the last remaining guilt had 4 piglets the day after the downpours while Shelley was in surgery.  Makaylah and my parents did everything they could, to include bringing piglets to the house to clean and warm them, but by Wednesday morning, all of the new piglets were dead.  Obviously not the results we were hoping for, but the mud and cool weather were just too much for the young piglets. Never the ones to miss an opportunity for a meal, the 4 piglets from the last guilt to farrow quickly moved in and adopted the new mom who was full of colostrum and she was happy to have them.  We removed 12 piglets from their moms, castrated the males, and put them in the weaning pen.  No more “roving motorcycle gang” of piglets like in the top photo!  While castrating, I had to euthanize one of the 4 little piglets as its seemingly enlarged testicle turned out to be an intestinal hernia, which was not survivable.  Final tally of this round of farrowing from 5 females is 20 surviving piglets.  From a business perspective, that’s about our break-even point for the cost of feeding the breeders or just buying feeder piglets.  The advantage is that we have an amazing bloodline of Berkshires going and we know the pork is going to be very good.  The last farm update this week is that we moved the new layers out of the brooder and into a chick-shaw where they will spend a couple days before letting them out in a small yard.  In about 5-6 weeks they will join the rest of the layers as we move them all into the garden area for the winter.  The last pic is of our milk cow, Happy’s calf Mary, happily eating hay, a full member of the beef herd now.  As I scrolled Facebook yesterday, the folks from Lakenheath village (the small town outside RAF Lakenheath, where Hannah is stationed) said they heard a group of F-15Es taking off early in the morning and I knew something was up.

While sipping coffee Thursday morning, not long after I saw the post from the folks at Lakenheath, I received a text from a great friend that said he met Hannah at her jet as she landed at an undisclosed location in the desert of the Middle East.  He gave her a big hug and welcomed her to her new home for the next few months.  We knew she was scheduled to deploy soon but didn’t know when or to where.  We know she will be there for somewhere around 6 months, missing all of the year’s end holidays with her husband, who had all of his leave requests denied and will be unable to return to the States for the holidays.  I’ll get this out right here, I don’t like this side of things.  I am used to being the one on that side.  It’s normally me who is in the cockpit, flying combat missions, while loved ones worry without any real information to ease their concerns.  On that side, every day is the same.  For Hannah, every day for the next 6 months will be Thursday, because that is the day she arrived.  When deployed, everyday is a work day.  No day is different from the next or the one before.  She has her watch set to Zulu time, the time referenced by all of the air tasking orders.  She will be on the really early morning train, taking off before sunrise for 8 hour missions.  Sleep happens when it must, wake happens when it must, meals are what the dining hall serves when you happen to get there.  During my last deployment, I flew mostly at night which meant I was waking up and ready for breakfast when the clock said it was time for the “supper” meal.  I normally had salad and ranch dressing for my first meal of the day.  So, while I can deeply understand what she is experiencing, it is of no solace as I unroll hay for the beef herd here in the Ozarks knowing she is flying combat missions in the Middle East.  What I do know is that she is a VERY good pilot and that is a great thing when your ass is on the line every day.  One thing that made my time deployed better was the “care packages” I received from friends and family.  It is a really weird mental space when you are flying combat where your job is to kill people and break their things and their job is to kill you and protect their things, all the while you know that life is just happening back home…like normal everyday stuff is still happening.  When I opened a care package, it made me remember.  It reminded me that it’s not all bad.  Even when I received really random things, like an elementary school drawing that said “thank you for our freedom” from a kid I didn’t know in a school I’d never heard of, it was an amazing reminder.  If you have the ability, we have folks deployed that would love to hear from you.  Send them something (NOT alcohol—they will actually get in serious trouble—trust me, I know).  Send a snack, or a card, or your favorite holiday treat, anything really.  If you prefer, Amazon delivers most things to APO addresses. I know Hannah will be glad to share with her squadron if you overwhelm her.  Help me remind Hannah that real life is still here.  It’s not all bad.

Hannah Slayton

332 AEW/492EFS

Unit 61811

APO, AE  09321-1811

Cheers!

Psycho & Shelley