SpaceX Inspirations

SpaceX launched a two-astronaut crew yesterday, on a mission to dock with the International Space Station. It was the first human spaceflight launch from the US in almost ten years. It was exciting and inspiring.

This is the first of several posts inspired by SpaceX that will tie back to data strategies in healthcare, and my lessons learned inside a startup company that raised $500M in venture capital funding. SpaceX raised $500M in new funding, in March 2020, bringing their total to about $4B.

Half of my United States Air Force and TRW (now Northrop Grumman) career was spent in Space Operations. My teams were involved in eight different satellite systems, in one form or another. The missions of these satellite systems included photographic, electronic, and signals intelligence; space-based sensors; and communications relay. The DSCS III satellite system, posted below, was one of those eight. Those same teams were also involved in Space Shuttle operations-- tracking the launch and mission, and supporting flight operations as one of several alternate emergency landing sites.

All of this early-career Space Operations experience had a profound impact on how I've approached data strategies in healthcare. Conceptually, monitoring the health of patients and monitoring the health of satellites has many overlaps.

Defense Satellite Communications System III

Spirituality and Children

This post is a combination of a book review and thoughts about how to raise our children with a sense of spirituality in a way that still allows them the freedom to find spirituality or religion on their own.

I’ve read more great books and watched more great documentaries this year than any year in my life. 2019 was a great year for learning. I plan on the same for 2020.

Laure and I are trying to figure out how and to what degree we expose our kids to spirituality, philosophy, and religion. "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion" by Sam Harris, is one of the best modern (post-1950) philosophy books that I’ve ever read (2nd Fire: A Fresh Approach to Healing, by Bruce Relly, father to friend Tristan Relly is another). I credit Dr. Paul Pixler, professor of philosophy at Ft Lewis College, for opening my mind to philosophy and changing the course of my life. If I could’ve made any money at it, I would have been a philosopher theologian. (See the irony in that? True philosophers and theologians don’t value money.:-)

We want to raise our kids with a sense of spirituality, for reasons described below. Even though Harris' book is written as an atheist philosopher, I believe everyone who belongs to a religion would be a better member of their religion by reading and learning from this book. The author has a great academic background with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stanford and a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA, plus “time in the real world” exploring philosophy and theology. The oversimplified summary of his message is this: Spirituality resides in each of us… in the purity of our consciousness and conscience, and the only barrier to experiencing that purity is our ego. Our ego, which is the flip side on the coin of insecurity, stands in the way of our pure spirituality. If you think about figures of influence like Jesus, Buddha, and Lao Tzu, they epitomized a completely ego-free consciousness, which enabled their ultimate manifestation of spirituality.

Our mom, Ruby Aveline Sanders, was a Christian of various flavors-- Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal. As kids, we were raised the same, but rarely going to church. For the most part, we were Two Holiday Methodists… Christmas and Easter services. When you boil it down, Mom’s religion and philosophy of life was based on a 1926 book (revised in 1938) by Ernest Holmes, “The Science of Mind: A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life.” Mom’s wonderful influence on her children and many friends beyond our family, is embodied in her interpretation and practice of that book.

Which leads me to this: How do we raise our kids with a sense of spirituality? Maybe the right question is, why do we raise our kids with a sense of spirituality? Here are the Why’s that resonate with me… we’ll figure out the How, later.

The Anchor of No Matter What: Spirituality, whether internal or through external religion, provides an anchor during life’s troubled waters. No matter what life throws at you, you can anchor to the center of your spirit, you can weather the storm, and emerge better and stronger. Each storm thereafter becomes easier. Your confidence, peace, and comfort grow with each storm. No matter how alone you might feel at times, you can always return to the companionship of your spirit…the purity and peace of your consciousness.

Three Good Tears: A sense of spirituality is the force behind the tears of empathy you cry when you watch a nurse caring for a dying baby as if it were hers. It’s the force behind the tears of joy you cry when you see the smiles of achievement and self-esteem at the Special Olympics. It’s the force behind the tears of gratitude you cry in the silence of a forest during a snowstorm… or the tears you shed when you thank your best friend for being your best friend. These three types of good tears can wash away life’s tears of sorrow and heartache. I want our kids to experience all of this, the juices of humanity. In my observation, the true atheists of the world rarely shed these good tears—or tears of any kind. Paint me judgmental, but devout atheists are missing some of the best experiences of humanity—of our short time on this planet. It’s a bland and benign life, in my eyes.

How do we expose Anna and Luke to spirituality in a way that also allows them to find their own answers? What day-to-day things do we do, planting the seeds of their spiritual growth, which they can harvest when they feel the time is right?

There you have it. If you’ve managed to read this far, I’d love to hear from you, how your parents approached this topic, and, if you have kids, how you’ve approached it for them.

Remembering Veterans Day, Again

For the sake of Anna and Luke, I wanted to capture these pictures and comments:

These are a pictures of their Grandad Amos Doyle Sanders' World War II unit, somewhere in France:





This is their Grandad and Grandma Ruby Sanders, soon after WWII, in Germany.



Far left is their Uncle Gene, my brother, saying goodbye to his girlfriend. His best friend, Jimmy Robinson, is going with him; saying goodbye to his girlfriend, too. They are leaving Durango on the bus behind them in 1962, joining the Air Force. Gene would be killed in an accident shortly after, while working on aircraft maintenance equipment. It was devastating to Mom and Dad; the loss of their second child, both to tragic accidents.



This is me, standing in front of one of our Looking Glass aircraft. That was a fun, intense, meaningful part of my career. I had two roles on the aircraft... Airborne Launch Control Officer, responsible for turning the keys to launch all 1,000 US nuclear ICBMs; and Airborne Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence Officer, responsible for all the data and information technology associated with the mission of the Looking Glass. It was a very complicated network of systems and data, spanning those on the aircraft, the major command centers on the ground, and the space-based assets. Very challenging and fun.



This is me, on the aircraft, standing in front of the nuclear launch control panel, giving a briefing and tour of the aircraft to a visiting Colonel. I remember him being a very nice, very smart guy.

The Beauty of Making Your Bed

This post is for my kids to read someday, but others might find this lifehack helpful, too.

As bizarre as it sounds, the Air Force Officers' Candidate School turned bed making into a peaceful event for me that's lasted to this day. 

When I make my bed in the morning, I turn it into a moment of quiet prayer and meditation, giving thanks for my warm bed and home, the fact that I'm awake for another day; giving thanks to the wonderful partner and kids (with bad dreams) who share it with me-- when so many people have none of that. I don't rush when I make it. I go slowly and thoughtfully, feeling the texture, smoothing the wrinkles, making it a piece of art, like a sculpture of sheets, pillows, and blankets. I set my prayerful intentions for the day, asking for help, and hoping that I stay connected to guidance from the Mighty Spirit.

The Air Force OCS was a mind-game. It was basically psychological warping with purpose, by design. You could approach bed making with dread, which I did, just waiting for the upperclassmen to find the smallest flaw and tear it apart. But, after a week of that I was like, "OK, I'm going to take a completely different approach to this, otherwise, I'll lose my mind and go postal on this process." It worked.

As my sisters can attest, making my bed when I was growing up was not one of my strong points; e.g., I started sleeping in a sleeping bag on top of my bed in the 6th grade so I didn't have to make it. Very efficient. :-)

Nuclear Adventure in former Soviet Union

Came across this, searching old files today. I jumped the chain of command by contacting Sen Orrin Hatch with this, but it worked.

In 1992, I was working for TRW, on contract to NSA, involved in nuclear weapons security. When the Soviet Union collapsed, their control of nuclear weapons in places like Kazakhstan started to crumble, so the race was on between the good guys and bad guys to reach those nuclear assets first. Since our TRW team was involved with securing US nuclear assets, I figured we could do the same in the former Soviet bloc, so contacted Senator Hatch directly and did a little "marketing." Long story short, Project Sapphire (Google it) ensued two years later. Healthcare has never been quite the same level of... adventure. But it'll do for now. :-)

Father's Day 2019

For our kids who didn't have the benefit of ever knowing their grandfather... #fathersday

Dad taught me things in life that profoundly impacted my career...how to swing from dead serious to a prankster joke in the same conversation; the fun thrill of adventure and exploring; paying early attention to emerging details that otherwise tend to be dismissed; how to solve a serious problem when you're on the backside of a thousand acres with no tools or help... and that common sense really is common sense and don't let anyone talk you out of it.

This is Chief, The Wonder Horse. Strong, fast, and smart. He was not quite 2 yrs old in this picture, taken at the Durango Fairgrounds around 1971. Dad LOVED this horse. They were inseparable... until a British fellow, who was new to horsemanship, offered Dad $1,000 for him, which was a bunch of money in those days. Dad sold Chief and, I think, always regretted it.

Musings About Life's Purpose from Yellowstone

"Spiritual (or immaterial) inequity is now as great a problem as material inequity, perhaps even greater. People have enough to live, but nothing to live for. They have the means, but no meaning." --Robert Fogel, Nobel laureate

How many times a day are you genuinely fascinated?

What empathetic causes, greater than yourself, do you passionately live for?

For many years, my causes were the mission of national defense and security; better and more affordable healthcare; and Mom...to do my best to give her a sweeter life that would somehow make up for the many tragedies and hardships that she endured.

When Mom passed away it left a big gap in my sense of purpose... And then we were blessed with Anna and Luke and my sense of deep purpose returned. But I want to raise them in the context of purpose and cause that is larger than our family. It can't be religion and the promised Glory of Trumpets in a Gold Plated Afterlife. Ultimately, that's a selfish motive anyway.

It has to be in the here and now of this life.

Sunday morning musings in Yellowstone. 🤟😊

Nuclear and Healthcare Decision Making

Nuclear warfare operations was my data-driven decision making environment before the healthcare phase of my career. It was all about recognizing false positives, false negatives, real time surveillance, predictive analytics, risk assessment, pre-planned protocols to follow in various situations, and determining which of those protocols was best to mitigate the risk without making the situation worse, avoiding adverse events where the consequences were immeasurable... all of that conceptual framework overlaps precisely with healthcare decision making.

Below is a link to a news article and video about my past life in nuclear operations. I was the airborne command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) officer, as well as one of two members of the battle staff who were responsible for "turning keys" and launching all 1,000 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) if the ground command and control systems and crews were destroyed and unable to fulfill this responsibility.

On Board the "Doomsday Plane" That Can Wage Nuclear War

Anna's Interesting Choice of Books

These are the five books that our 4-year old daughter, Anna regularly pulls from our bookshelves to "read." Why she chooses them, I don't know, but there's probably something significantly symbolic about it. Mom gave me The Bible. The Quran, Book of Mormon, and Daily Thoughts and Prayers (Vendanta Hindu), were given to me by dear friends whose different religious beliefs influence and make me a better person by their role model. The Statistics text is from Laure's masters degree. To me, it symbolizes the uncertainty in all religions in their attempts to explain humankind's existence in the Universe. We can only approximate our understanding.

Why does Anna choose these books? Is it just random?  It will be interesting to see her life unfold.

Working on START

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was a bilateral treaty between the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on the reduction and limitation of strategic nuclear weapons. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994. While working for TRW, I was on contract with the National Security Agency to conduct a threat analysis on the US nuclear command and control system, as a consequence of START.

Below is a thank you letter from NSA for our team's contributions to START. Ron Gault, my dearest friend and companion, who was my boss at the time, was the reason we landed the assignment. It was one of the most fun, interesting, challenging, and meaningful periods of my life, and I got to do it with my best friend. It doesn't get any better than that.

Our Violent Society

On Feb 14, Valentine's Day, a 19-year old man entered a Florida high school and randomly murdered 17 students and teachers.

Every opinion needs to come towards the middle for the sake of our children and country. Tighter gun control alone won’t solve the problem, but it will help. Gun buyback programs alone won’t solve the problem, but they will help. Stopping the production of and patronizing violent movies, video games, and TV shows won’t solve the problem alone, but it will help. Putting more counselors and social workers in classrooms to identify and mitigate high risk students won’t solve the problem alone, but it will help. Increasing the physical security and presence of armed security in our schools, churches, and other public gatherings won’t solve the problem alone, but it will help. Publicly emphasizing the importance of Golden Rule civility and better parenting won’t solve the problem alone, but it will help. We need a national campaign comprised of political, corporate, and religious leadership. It needs to be organized now. It needs to stay active and work on this problem for the next 10 years. We need a leader.

#saveourchildren

Thanks to Ron Gault and Bob Bloss

Endless thanks for these two men in my life. Bob Bloss, on the left, was Ron Gault's and my boss at TRW during the hay-day of the company. And during its hay-day, TRW was pretty amazing. I was exposed to and learned more in those 7 years of working with Ron and Bob than most people would see in three lifetimes. I was lucky to work with them at TRW, surrounded by engineers and scientists that made my Fort Lewis College academic pedigree look like... well... Fort Lewis College.  Bob let us do just about anything, as long as it brought in new business and revenue and we didn't create an international incident. And so we did do just about anything.

A partial list of projects: White hat (good guy) attacks and threats against the US nuclear command and control system, from the President to the warhead. Risk assessment of the Hanford Nuclear Waste Site. Software testing and validation for the Peacekeeper and Minuteman ICBM launch control and targeting programs; and the Predator drone. Forensic analysis of the accidental detonation of a Peacekeeper rocket motor during maintenance. Supported the START Treaty. Supported the Project Sapphire to safely secure former Soviet nuclear weapons. Designed and developed the worlds largest data warehouse at the time, used for management and maintenance of nuclear ICBMs. Designed the Strategic Execution Decision Aid for the President and other National Command Authorities. White hack attacks and threat assessment of computerized US voting systems. We built a team around artificial intelligence technology when it was barely emerging, and applied it to all sorts of problems, including healthcare imagery such as x-rays and ultrasounds. Bob let me start a healthcare line of business, which included a research grant for the application of cognitive technology (AI) to healthcare. That grant funding went to Jerome Soller when Jerome was still a PhD student.

So, I owe Ron and Bob my healthcare career... should I thank them or blame them? :-) In any case, I love them. Profoundly wonderful influence on me and more than best friends to this day.

Sage Advice & Coincidences

Our Aunt Harriet Pyle Manuel wrote this to me in my high school graduation card. I didn't get it back then, but I learned to get it as I grew older. I pay attention to it in my personal and professional life. There is truth and beauty in it.

"There are meaningless coincidences in life and there are meaningful coincidences in life. Your heart will know the difference if you listen to it. The meaningful coincidences are God's milestones, telling you that you are on the right path. Watch for those milestones. Be worried when you don't see them; be at peace when you do see them, and stay on that path." 

Veterans Day Reflections: Military vs Healthcare Career

A shout out to all my friends and family who served... especially my Dad and brother.

Sheesh, what a youngster in this picture. I was a first Lieutenant... about 1986, 26 years old in this picture, giving a briefing and tour of the Looking Glass Airborne Command Post to a Colonel. It looks like I was wearing an "Alert Crew" badge, which means that I was on a week-long assignment, staying at the crew quarters in the alert facility at Offut Air Force Base. At the time of this picture, there was a Looking Glass aircraft that was constantly airborne with a battle staff crew, and an alert crew on the ground, waiting to go airborne in case of national emergency, or the airborne command post needed immediate relief.

The Air Force gave a few of us the responsibility for "turning keys" that could launch all 1,000 nuclear ICBMs, plus, the responsibility for communicating the Presidential Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) for launching nuclear bombers and submarines, too. And, if that wasn't enough, we were also responsible for reconstitution of the US government in a post-nuclear world, based on anyone who survived. I exited the Air Force a few years later and went to work for TRW. The work we did with NSA was, no exaggeration, straight out of Clancy novels, and even better, thanks to Ron Gault. We were doing very important and cool sh*t to keep the bad guys away from nuclear weapons.

There is nothing that compares to the intensity of responsibility that you experience in the military. Healthcare is a form of mission-based service. It has been interesting, occasionally fulfilling, quite a bit less dangerous... but also incredibly frustrating and frequently boring in comparison. I keep talking about leaving healthcare and going back into the military/national intelligence world, but Laure says "No way. We have babies." 

Aim High. Fly, Fight, Win.

A CIO's Life: The Ups and Downs

That's the moon shining down on a moored sailboat, owned by Red Sail in the Cayman Islands. I forwarded it to them and they used it for their Christmas card that year. Camera was a plain old Backberry phone.

Taken at 3 am on a sleepless and troubling night, this scene was profoundly meaningful and spiritual to me. The timing in life was perfect. It calmed the waters of my heart.

I'd been living in the Caymans alone for about three months. What's not to love about that, right? 😳 Well, my first day on the job, in September, as CIO for the national health system, was greeted by a computer virus outbreak that disabled every computer in the organization, including every computer used in clinical patient care. In November, when I took this picture, many of us were still working 18 hour days to recover from the disaster. I'd never solved a problem like this before, in my 25-year IT career. Every single computer was infected and inoperable. One of our public health nurses was in the emergency meeting of our executive team to deal with the problem. She made a passing comment about reacting to public health outbreaks-- isolating infected patients and treating them one at a time. That prompted the same thought in my head... the only way to solve this problem was to disconnect every single computer from the network, and treat each one before reintroducing it to the "public" from isolation. There were 2,200 infected computers and it took an average of 90 minutes to treat and repair each one.

Exhausted, but not able to sleep, I walked out to the beach, wondering if I'd made the right choice by taking this new job. This scene was my answer.

Thank you Mighty Creator.

 💜

The Death of Risk, Adventure, and Accountability in Our Lives

This article, entitled, "23 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do", prompted me to pause and think. Here are the 23 things that the article advocates:

Play with fireworks
Hammer a nail
Stick your arm out a car window
Jump off a cliff
Use a bow and arrow
Cook a meal
Climb a tree
Roughhouse
Go sledding
Drive a car
Burn things with a magnifying glass
Walk or ride a bike to school
Shoot a gun
Stand on a roof
Squash a penny on a railroad track
Sword fight with sticks
Shoot a slingshot
Explorer a construction site
Use a pocket knife
Climb a rope
Ride your bike off a ramp
Make a fire
Explore a tunnel

Give my Mom and Dad credit for letting me do all 23 of these, and many more. For example, two blocks from our house was the boundary of forest and wilderness and BLM land that covered over 21,000 square miles. But starting in the 6th grade, 12 years old, Jim Dunlap, Chris Rossmiller and I would don our canvas backpacks loaded with canvas tents and sleeping bags, and cans of beans, and we would walk into that forest to camp and explore for the weekend. We weighed less than the packs. Going backpacking in that expansive forest was adventure and risk enough, but our adventures and shenanigans once inside that forest were the real risks.

That was only a small part of the many things our parents allowed... like building a ski jump off of the roof in the 5th grade. (I need to write more of these stories down for Anna and Luke.)

Despite having lost two of their beloved six children to tragic accidents, they let me, the youngest of those six, lead a life that my personality required. They could have easily hovered and overprotected me, but they let me be me. Now as a parent, I cannot imagine the courage and faith that they possessed to do that... you can be sure that they talked about it and had sleepless nights about it... but I'm endlessly grateful that they did. God bless them, both. 💚❤

Parents today almost can't allow for this sort of upbringing, for fear of being condemned, sued, or arrested. We live in a messed-up time now, where we try to reduce all risks in life, no matter how unlikely, and we'll pass laws to make sure you do. Thanks to lawyers who stoke and thrive on irrational fear, and to people who, if they suffer an accident or injury, blame everyone else, or reach for a cell phone and call for a helicopter to evacuate them when they should've been better prepared and conditioned in the first place. Had Jim, Chris, or me become lost or injured, our parents would not have been condemned by the local community in Durango, or threatened with arrest for child endangerment. They would have been supported for allowing that way of life. That was the norm.

I'm going to try my best to give Anna and Luke the freedom to be who they need to be. It wont' be easy because, to some degree, I've been conditioned and softened by the society we live in, too. To hell with that. 😀:-)

Russian Nuclear Subs Prowling Again

This article in the Washington Post describes the increased presence of Russian nuclear-armed submarines off the coast of the US, reflecting the same levels of presence that occurred during the height of the Cold War. With the decay of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s, all of us hoped and thought that the Cold War is over. So much for hope. The Russians and Putin are right back in the same game, and maybe worse.

Before every Looking Glass mission, our intelligence briefing would include the status of Soviet nuclear-armed submarines and their locations. Typically, there were 3-4 that would lurk a few hundred miles off the East Coast. In those positions, they could strike Washington DC and New York City in 4 mins. Meaning, we had very little time to assess, decide, and react if under attack. After the Air Force, I spent two years as a civilian consultant to the Pentagon, working for TRW, studying this scenario and developing the policies, procedures, plans and computer-aided decision support systems to support it. Before this project, there was a tendency for US decision makers to overreact, guaranteeing nuclear escalation. It's all downhill to the end of the world after that.

Communicating During and After Nuclear Exchange

There is an intricate, complex network of redundant methods for communicating during the pre-, trans-, and post attack period of a nuclear war. As the Airborne C3I Officer aboard Looking Glass, it was my team's responsibility for managing this network and communicating over it.

One of those networks is associated with High Frequency (HF) radio communications. Here's a summary of that network, pasted below from here.

United States Air Force High Frequency Global Communications System (HFGCS)

(Updated 2014)

HFGCS History

HFGCS used to be GHFS.

GHFS (Global High Frequency System) began on 1 June 1992, when it
was created out of two earlier HF networks, the GIANT TALK used
by the Strategic Air Command, and the Global Command and Control
System (GCCS), used by the rest of the Air Force.  This change
reflected the reorganization of the Air Force following the end of
the cold war, with SAC becoming part of United States Strategic
Command (STRATCOM), TAC becoming the Air Combat Command (ACC), and
MAC becoming the Air Mobility Command (AMC; call sign "Reach").

GHFS became HF-GCS in 2003, on completion of the multiyear equipment
upgrade called SCOPE COMMAND, and nearly all control was moved to
Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Current HFGCS stations consist
of a receiver site, a transmitter site, and a control system. These
are extremely configurable and flexible, and they can be operated
remotely, locally, or any combinations of both.

Emission can be USB voice, Automatic Link Establishment (ALE), or
data modem. Most traffic on the main channels is voice, though a
large number of other channels exist for ALE autoscan.

At some point HF-GCS lost its hyphen, and now it's just HFGCS. The
station list, schedules, and procedures used to appear in an
unclassified flight manual, but this document has since become
secret.

More recently, in 2013, the ground stations for the most part have
stopped identifying broadcasts with their locations. This reflects
the full "lights out" automation of the system, and its extreme
flexibility. Usually, the identity of the specific transmitter
is no longer particularly relevant.

Currently, broadcasts are identified with "MAINSAIL." This is the
long-time group call sign for all ground stations. Similarly,
mobiles calling MAINSAIL can be regarded as a CQ to any ground
station.


Other HFGCS Facts

At one time, HFGCS was listed as providing the following services:
 Unclassified phone patches
 Message relay
 Mission following
 EAM broadcasts
 Data modem services
 Emergency assistance
 MIJI reports (Meaconing, Intrusion, Jamming, Interference)

RTTY has not been supported for several years now.

Phone patch traffic is down on this net, though a lot of it has
moved to MARS channel 13927 kHz USB. An ALE autodialer used to be
provided on 9025 kHz. Its status is unknown.

Remaining HFGCS Patches or long conversations can still be moved
to discrete frequencies, to free up the net.

Most traffic is EAM broadcasts. This stands for Emergency Action
Message, though very few are really national emergencies. EAMs have
the distinctive preamble of their first six characters and "Stand
By." The latter prosign reflects the high traffic precedence of
these coded military orders or bulletins, which exceeds most other
non-override traffic except for in-flight emergencies. Other
users are expected to stand by when one is in progress. This also
explains why EAMs don't listen first. They just start up.

SKYKING messages are special EAM, Emergency Action Messages,
presumably the nuclear go/no-go codes.  Urgent ones are repeated
three or four times, instead of the usual two.  SKYKING is a group
callsign for units in the Single Integrated Operation Plan (SIOP)
for strategic operations." "Do not answer" is the standard procedure
for self-authenticating broadcasts, meaning that recipients don't
need to give away their positions or existence by challenging the
traffic.

The distinctive touch-tone beeps (DTMF tones) are still on occasion
heard at the end of transmissions. These are left over from Giant
Talk, and they may eventually be replaced by another system. These
beeps key and unkey remote transmitters. The echoes heard are both
propagation delays and/or the result of slow landlines or satellites
linking the distant sites. Usually, it's the second one, because
the delays are too long for even the longest terrestrial paths.

One Giant Talk holdover is 6761 kHz USB, the old SAC night primary.
It is now used as an air-to-air channel. Though it's not technically
part of HFGCS, it is still used for coordinating in-flight refueling.

The status of 10780 kHz, the onetime backup at Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station, is unknown. There are reports that this radio asset
has been moved or dismantled.

From the start, HFGCS was intended for multi-service use.  It replaced
US Navy's Fleet HICOM (High Command), which phased out and is now
dead, though its frequencies are occasionally used for other purposes.
One also hears US Army vessels (yes, the Army has a "navy"). HFGCS
services are also available to any allies or other units authorized
by the US Department of Defense (DoD).

Finally, this leaves 6761, the former SAC night primary, as an
air-to-air channel.  Though it's not technically part of HFGCS, it is
still used for coordinating in-flight refueling.

At one time, the full information on HFGCS was available to the public
in the DoD FLIP (Flight Information Publications). These publications
have since been classified as sensitive, and at present they are
available in digital files to authorized users only.

Therefore, anything you see on the Internet is probably dated. The full
schedule has been removed from this web site, in order to prevent error
propagation.


HFGCS Lexicon:

A---            US Army callsign, usually a troop boat or terminal
AR              Aerial Refueling, usually with a track number
AUTODIN         Automated Digital Network
Block time      Final arrival time, when plane is in the blocks
Class A, B      Refers to explosive on board
CNCS            Centralized Network Control Station (Andrews)
DSN             Defense Switched Network, old "Autovon"
DV              Distinguished Visitor
FL              Flight level (altitude when higher up)
Hazmat          Hazardous cargo
IFE             Inflight emergency, as declared by pilot
IR              Instrument Route; aerial training routes
M&W             Morale and Welfare (patch)
MAINSAIL        General call: Any ground station this net
METRO           Base weather office
NIPRNET         Non-Secret Internet Protocol Routing Network
Offload         Fuel, in pounds
Pallets         Cargo
Pax             Passengers
PIREP           Pilot Report; weather observation with standard items
REACH           Standing callsign: any AMC flight.  Followed by
                tail or mission number, or a special code.
RON             Remain Over Night (crew needs place to sleep)
RTB             Return To Base, mission aborted
SAM             Special Air Mission (VIP)
SCOPE           System Capable Of Planned Expansion
SIPRNET         Secure Internet Protocol Routing Network
SKYBIRD         Group callsign: all STRATCOM assets on net
SKYKING         Group callsign: all SIOP assets on net



ALL FOLLOWING INFORMATION REFLECTS THE LAST PUBLIC PUBLICATION. NO
CLASSIFIED MATERIAL WAS DIVULGED IN PREPARING THIS DOCUMENT!


PRIMARY FREQUENCIES (kHz USB)

4724.0 6739.0 8992.0 11175.0 13200.0 15016.0

8992 and 11175 are 24-hour. Lower ones are used for traffic at
night, higher ones in the day time. EAM can be simulcast on any
of these.


USAF HFGCS STATION LIST
(Some may have closed)

Andersen Air Base             Guam (ALE: GUA)
Andrews Air Force Base        MD (ALE: ADW)
Ascension Island AF           S Atlantic (ALE: HAW)
Croughton AB                  UK (ALE: CRO)
Diego Garcia NS               Indian Ocean (ALE: JDG)
Elmendorf AFB                 AK (ALE: AED)
Falklands?                    S. Atlantic Ocean (ALE: MPA)
Hickam AFB                    HI (ALE: HIK)
Keflavik NAS                  Iceland (ALE: IKF)
Lajes AB                      Azores (ALE: PLA)
McClellan AF                  CA (ALE: MCC)
Offutt AFB                    NE (ALE: OFF)
Salinas                       PR (ALE: JNR; Voice: "Puerto Rico")
Sigonella NAS                 Sicily (ALE: ICZ)
Yokota AB                     Japan (ALE: JTY)

McClellan was known as "West Coast" for a time, but right before
everything went to MAINSAIL, it had gone back to the McClellan
name. The old base was closed under BRAC, but some air ops remain
at the site.  The SCOPE COMMAND radios are a separate activity
anyway.

Thoughts on Veterans' Day, Nov 11, 2016

I was too young to fully grasp this event-- not quite 3 1/2 years old-- but I do remember when our family was notified, in Japan. It's the earliest memory I have as a child.

It was in early in the morning. We were in the kitchen. Dad was sitting at the kitchen table. I crawled into his lap-- he was wearing a white t-shirt, his face cradled in his hands, sobbing. I was trying to make him feel better, not fully understanding why he was crying so hard.

Election of Donald Trump 2016

Again, this is a post that is intended primarily for our children, Anna and Luke, as a record of events and thoughts in their father's life that they might find interesting.

Closing thoughts on this weird day, Nov 9, 2016:

I voted for Hillary because Trump behaved in a way that was counter to every fiber of my upbringing. My Dad was a die-hard Reagan fan when Reagan was governor of California. Dad died before Reagan was elected President. That would have been a big moment. Mom followed Dad's lead when it came to politics, but after he died, she followed her own path of independence. Party didn't matter to her anymore. Morals and ethics mattered and she hated Trump because of that, before it was easy. Dad would have hated him because he was vile and crude to women, including his daughters...and because he was a city dude from New York, when dude meant dude.

I feel no remorse for Hillary's loss. I didn't like her anyway. She is the prototype career politician that is corrupting our political system and the very culture of the United States. And I can't mourn for someone who can't even beat Donald Trump. Dirtiest vote of my life.

I'm shocked by the people whom I know dearly and claim family values, yet feel no sense of guilt or filth from voting for Trump and celebrating him like a god damn hero. The hypocrisy kills me. I sure wish I could see a little more, "Trump sucks, but not as bad as Hillary", from you. I could understand that.

I want Mother Nature to know, if She starts getting even more trashed... And I want my gay, lesbian, Muslim, Black, and immigrant friends to know... if the shit hits the fan, I'll be there with you, joined by millions of others. You don't even have to call.

But here we are... and I'm going to pray and hope that Trump is the agent of good change that we need in American politics. I absolutely want him to be a great President for all of us. I absolutely want him to help Make America Great Again. Rather than wring our hands and expect him to be a demagogue, let's expect him to be great. Let's see if his ego can deliver on the brags.

G'night.