Be Prepared.

One of those old phrases that was beaten into my head. Be prepared. What is prepared? Is prepared having an umbrella at the ready for when it rains? Because if that's prepared I am anything but...So what is prepared? People always tell you to "Be Prepared" after something happens. Katrina...Be Prepared. Ice storms...Be Prepared. How many of you are prepared? Hell, I don't even own an umbrella!!!

But I can share with you my experience when I was (gasp) prepared. Using knowledge that I learned long ago and somehow was able to retain and then recall amidst all the other useless junk I have piled on top of it. It's called a lashing and it's actually relatively simple to do, but it turns out I am the only person in my Flight that knows how to do it. Kinda surprising actually, since my flight has an Army prior enlisted member who served in Bosnia in 1992, two other Air Force prior enlisted members, two Air Force Academy graduates, and an "Intelligence" officer. So how was it I was the only person who knew how to tie a lashing and a clove hitch?

Well I guess that’s why I get paid the big bucks...and about a decade before this fateful day I managed to pay attention in Boy Scouts when I was being taught the infamous "lashing" and "clove hitch." To be fair...I actually forgot the name of the clove hitch, had to Google it, but I did remember how to tie the darn thing...so I still claim credit.

Now I am not trying to pawn myself off as the hero here...but lets be honest...I totally am. If it was not for my quick thinking, courage under fire, and sheer awesomeness my Flight would not have been able to traverse the obstacle we were presented with.

(And for any Boy Scouts who are reading this you will notice in the 3rd picture the positioning of all three logs...I scooted the middle log into the correct position after the picture had been taken to correctly walk up the tripod.)