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Hey All-
Well Terri and I had a
wonderful Holiday over Christmas and New Years. It was a very busy two
weeks where I had a "few days" off from work (This was back in
December). Check out the Terri and mine's Web page at http://home.att.net/~bretandterri/ and
get all the updates and new web pages. I would have had the pages up and
running a little sooner, but Microsoft's Front Page really
bites ... lots of debugging is involved. I had some small problems, but
hopefully most things (and links) work now.
The web page drops off
at New years Day, but since then, Terri has been in a leading role at the
local Fort Bend County Community Theater. The play is called
"Murder By The Book". It is a non-Agatha Christi murder
mystery in which Terri may or may not be the killer. She won't tell me
and she ripped the last page out of the script she lays around the house.
However, a group of us are going to see it Feb 15th. If anyone in the
Houston area wants to go we got discounts tickets!
Terri's next movie
appearance will be "Beyond The Prairie" showing on CBS March 17th.
I know most of you will be drinking green beer that night, so be sure to set
your VCR. This was filmed over a year ago and took this long to finally
air. She doesn't have a speaking part in this one, but she portrays a
1880's era mother of THREE children ages 8, 10 and 12!
And me? I am still
writing web pages for everyone (see Favorites on our web page).
I took a few friends on
a short car ride the other day. We needed to be somewhere 20 minutes
away, 10 minutes ago. I was determine to still get there on time (in
Bret & Terri terms, that's 30 min late). Below are the passenger reactions
from the view of the In-Dash Camera....
DRIVING WITH BRET!!!
Everything is OK
as everyone gets in the car.
 However,
things soon get very bad!
Hope you enjoyed the
little "Joke" ;-)
Hey All: Well Terri and hope everyone had a merry X-Mas. It's been a very, very hectic December for us both, but now we are enjoying our 11 days off until I go back to work in the new year. Terri and I traveled up to Mt. Pleasant to see my parents and now we are heading back Houston for X-Mas with the Sabols. We'll have a couple of Post-Christmas get-togethers for those of you in Houston over the holidays. Again, Terri and I just wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hope all of your wishes come true and you got lots of goodies. Sincerely,
Hey All: Here is the photo from Thanksgiving 2001. You know, a lot of people say that Terri and her family look a lot alike, but I never saw the resemblance. But I guess we see what we want to see (hee-hee).
Click here to link to Thanksgiving details page
Hey All-
To see more about this trip, Click here to go to the Road Trip Mass E-mail special site
Hey All: Well it has been awhile since I last sent a mass e-mail out. Things finally slowed down enough since 9-11. As some of you may not have heard, I was one of the "lucky" few that was Activated back into the Air Force again. (Just when I thought I was out, they puuuuull me back in!) My brother-in-law called to wake me up a concerned about a plane hitting the WTC. I turned on the TV to see the plane hit in what I thought was a replay. I couldn't understand why Rob was chattering in a very loud yelling manner. After about a minute, I figured out it was the 2nd that hit live! Wow. I wasn't scheduled to go to work until 11am as we were to start night flying training for the next two weeks, but I went in immediately. It didn't seem real until I saw the 2nd tower collapse. (I only heard about the 1st collapse on radio on the way to work). Now just to brag, as GW in Airforce One (AF1) headed to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, It was our jets that scrambled from Ellington, met up with AF1, landed and took off with him there and at Omaha, NE, and continued armed escort back to Washington. No other fighters provided escort to AF1 the entire trip until joined by the DC Guard during his final approach to Andrews AFB in Maryland. We are the bomb!!! And don’t worry that I am revealing secret info ... even Peter Jennings did a live report from Ellington about our role in guarding the president who was a former pilot in this Unit. So for three weeks straight since that faithful day, I joined my other Brethren around the world for 14+ hour days. However, I am now back on regular 9 hour shifts and I have my weekends off. I hope to keep it that way for awhile. So life has turned back to pretty much normal. Terri and I attended a wedding a week ago. (Congratulations Fabien and Danielle!). Then Terri and her Dad headed to New Jersey on the 11th. Included in their plans was a visit to ground zero to offer their prayers to all those lost. On a lighter note, we have an open call to a paintball match next Saturday 20th. Lots-O-Fun and little black whelps are abundant. It is a bi-annual event put on by our group here in Houston. And in case things get really hairy for "my" team, I have two F-16s from my unit standing by to drop NAPALM … if needed. But if anyone wants to come out and play, let me know!!! Speaking of F-16s, the next day is the annual air show here at Ellington Field. My unit has a courtesy tent with snacks and chairs on the "Front Row" of the flight line for unobstructed fantastic viewing of the show. I'll also take anyone to the F-16 simulator back in my building for virtual strafing of bin Laden camps. But if anyone wants to come out and play, let me know!!! Anyway, hope things are going well for everyone else and keep letting us hear from ya’ll.
The men and women of the Presidential Airlift Group are grateful for the timely, professional support of the 147FW on 11 September 2001. Departing Sarasota, Florida it became obvious to the crew of Air Force One (AF-1) that additional support would be needed to ensure the safe airlift of the President and his senior staff. Within minutes of the request, Houston Center advised AF-1 that there were fast moving aircraft approaching from the six-o-clock position. The approaching aircraft identified themselves as Cowry 45 flight (Houston/Ellington Air National Guard).....what a relief! From the moment of the rejoin, these professionals identified targets and continued to protect AF-1 until she was safely on the ground. During the crew's brief stay at Offutt Air Force Base, the commander of AF-1 received a comprehensive tactical brief from the pilots of Cowry 45 flight. The briefing included F-16 capabilities, standard intercept procedures, and a discussion of potential threats entering the Washington, DC area. The aviation expertise and professional dedication of the Ellington pilots had a direct contribution to the safe transportation of the President of the United States during the national emergency on 11 September 2001. Due to AF-1's short-notice departure from Offutt AFB, Cowry 45 flight was unable to depart with AF-1. The commander of AF-1 had other fighter units available to support him, but he chose to maneuver the aircraft to allow the Cowry 45 to catch up and provide him the escort he had become accustomed to. Low on fuel, the flight maneuvered into position to support the landing of AF-1 at Andrews AFB. The precision in which the the 147FW executed its mission on 11 September is characteristic of the superb support that AF-1 has received over the years from the Houston Ellington Air National Guard. Many a US President has parked on the Houston guard's ramp and been treated to superior service and the dedication of this unit's airmen. It is only fitting that when the going got tough, the unit that saved the day was the 147FW from the Texas Air National Guard! Thank You,
Hey Everyone: I saw this (courtesy of Bob) and couldn't resist sending it to ya'll. This will count to my one joke-a-week which I haven't sent for 19 weeks. Enjoy. Bret
A lot of you have been responding that I am just being a whinny about how hard I work and believe I take too many vacations. Well that just isn't so. In fact, I put in a lot of my expertise when I worked my 2.3 hours last week into a very important project. It is used to help our managers make that time critical important decision. I have attached it to this e-mail. After reviewing it, I am sure you all will agree that I deserved this vacation. :-) See ya'll in a few weeks.
Hey Everyone: Well, after a week back from our east coast trip and 5 straight days of back-breaking work back at unit, Terri decided that I needed another vacation, so she is taking me to AFRICA!!! We leave on Tuesday, July 31st for three weeks, 5 days. We can't wait to see all the Lions, tigers, and bears ... what's that Terri, oh ... she said "Oh, myyyy!" We are staying at times on the Sarenghatti (sp?) range in tents, no bathrooms, with gorillas and guerillas. Our stint also includes a climb up most of Kilimanjaro mountain. Our trip also includes a 3 day stay in Amsterdam on our way back from Africa, which coincidentally, will be during my birthday. I got Terri really excited about a great shopping area in the middle of Amsterdam called the RED LIGHT District, which I assume is similar to our own K-Mart BLUE LIGHT Special here in the states. She plans to wait and get my B-Day present there. By the way, I will be ... cough, yucc, uhhh. twenthir__.t... couuuugh......years old. So I am quite excited ;-) Anyway, we may or may not have access to our e-mail on our trip. Some of the places we are staying obviously have the connections, but they may not have public access. But if we can, we will send updates! Well everyone take care and we will try to be careful ourselves. Catch ya'll in a month. Bret & Terri
Hey All: I was just in Dallas this weekend and couldn't believe the gas prices. They have really gone up. I took a picture with my camera. Take a look.
Hey All: Well the time has come. Today, I completed all course academics and requirements in the Air Force Intel course! All that is left now is to do is graduate next week (and pack). After which, I will be returning to Houston for the summer. It has been a long and grueling 8 months, but it does seem strange that I will soon no longer have San Angelo in my daily life. I will miss it! (at least until it fads from view of my rearview mirror :-) Of course I will not go quietly as a final set of long drives are ahead of me in the next 6 days. This weekend I will be driving to Dallas to a wedding rehearsal dinner, then across East Texas to my Godson's 5th B-day party, then back to Dallas for the wedding, then celebrate Terri and mine's 18 month anniversary via a special dinner in Dallas, drive back to San Angelo, rent a U-Haul, load it, attend a graduation (my own), and finally on to HOUSTON!!! Unfortunately, Terri and I won't be able to see those of you in Dallas, unless your at the wedding. I usually always try to make time to visit when in the area, but this will be one craaaaaazy weekend. Luckily, I will be taking a week off before heading back to work and just in time for yet another military exercise :-( Oh well, attached are some cool pixs of the last 6 weeks. Enjoy! Catch Ya later,
Hey All: It's been awhile since I have written. The pace of my classes in San Angelo finally peaked last week and now I am looking forward to a more relaxed remainder of the two months I have left before returning to Houston and my beautiful wonderful wife. A lot has happen this year, but it would be too much to recite, so I will start from two weekends ago. On March 1st, NASA was ferrying the space shuttle 'Columbia' on a modified 747 to KSC and chose to refuel at Dyess AFB in Abilene, TX. However, bad weather kept it at the base over that weekend. So I rounded up a few friends and we drove to Dyess to get a close look (A 90 minute drive from San Angelo). A lot of people were there to take a look, but everyone was kept about 500 yards away. Still an impressive site even at that distance. However, I noticed that three people were walking around the 747/Shuttle being given a tour. I asked the security police how to get our own tour, but they said none were given and that one of the three was an NASA employee. So when they got back over to our side, I asked the NASA guy if we could get a tour. He was a little hesitant, but did so anyway. So we got up close and personal with the shuttle ... WOW! The NASA employee was actually an Air Force 2nd Lieutenant on a three year assignment with the shuttle ferrying program. The people he was showing around before was his family who drove down from Dallas. So he actually gave us the tour during his free time. Great guy. This most recent weekend, I drove to Longview, TX, for Shannon Rose's wedding. Unfortunately, Terri couldn't make it as she was very busy with her own classes in Houston, so I badgered Meredith into going with me as my substitute date. However, it was a great wedding. I also got to visit with my parents, grandmother, and an Uncle as Mt. Pleasant is very close to Longview. Dad's Llama is growing very rapidly. I was able to send Dad, who is a corporate pilot, and Glenda off as they flew some executives out of Mt. Pleasant's International Airport :-) Lastly, in making the most of any trip I take, I stopped in Dallas on the way back to San Angelo to have dinner with Barbara and Adam. Unfortunately, they had to endure through all the pictures I took with the new digital camera I bought last weekend. It's like a slide show in your hand. Well, expect more later. I Hope to have ski pictures next week as everyone send them in. I still haven't developed my own pictures. Bret
Hey Everyone: Well it has been a long time since I have sent out a mass e-mail :-) In fact, I have been so busy that I haven't written an e-mail with more than 2 lines since November. In case some of you didn't know, I changed positions in the Air Force and have been attending the USAF Officer Intelligence School since September. I am kept so busy with studying, preparing briefings, message traffic prep, that I find little time to socialize via E-Mail lately. Worse thing about this school is that we have to do all our course work in a secure building. So I have been routinely spending late nights till 11pm working/studying/preparing for the next days material briefs. However, I am now past the halfway point and will finish in late May. I have been traveling back and forth between Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas (where all Air Force Intel schools are located) and Houston. I have gone nearly every weekend since December. I know every mile of the 6-hour drive ... intimately. However, it has all been worth it as I get to be with Terri ;-) In fact, Terri took a couple of days off from teaching last week and spent the weekend with me here in San Angelo. She thought it was a 'nice' area of Texas. But as 'nice' as it is, I can't wait to get out of here. Once I graduate from this course in May, I will be returning to my unit in Houston. However, in August, Terri and I are planning a big trip with some friends to Tanzania (Africa located below Kenya) for a two week trip in the Sarhingetti (sp?) range. As a bonus, on our way back we will be stopping over a couple of days in Amsterdam. My reward for being away from home for 9-months. Well I just wanted to let everyone know I was still alive. I have been working on our web site when I have time, so hopefully it will be ready soon. Catch ya'll later. Bret Below is a picture of Terri and I at Olive Garden in Sugar Land back in October. Sorry, we haven't scanned in any pictures since then ... remember, I have been too busy :-)
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