AMP'ed Up: the rest of the story

Merry Christmas, World. I recently came back from a 2 week trip to San Antonio for the Aircraft Mishap Investigation and Prevention course, and while there, I was able to spin in the centrifuge again, and this time... passed. Easily. I was so excited. Hitting the gym and drinking a Monster beforehand did the trick. This was one of my most trying accomplishments in life. So now I'll be able to fly in the F-16 without restrictions. And I'm going to have to remove the centrifuge video. Air Force doesn't want them posted. But just email me if you want to check it out.


So now I'll go all the way back to August/September and finish the story from my previous post. Above is a photo from a mass casualty exercise. Mulage, broken armored vehicles, smoke, and war sounds all made it more life-like. Fun times. During that time, I was in the gym, trying to bulk up as much as possible before spinning in the centrifuge. I was doing calf raises with lots of weight (because you want to max out with few reps). Anyways while doing this, I noticed a funny feeling in my right ankle, but didn't think to much of it. The next day, when putting on my socks, I saw that a pin/screw was raising the skin over my right lateral ankle (I had hardware put in my ankle a year and a half ago after breaking it). So with all the weight I was pushing, a screw had back itself out from the bone. Now the skin was tented, raised about 0.5cm.

The problem was that I was supposed to start my Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) training in a couple days. They ending up pulling me out of the training, because hiking all over the back woods with boots on could've broke the skin over the screw, and provided a path for infections to the bone. That would be trouble. So they sent me home back to Korea. I was sad that I didn't get to do the SERE with all the friends I had made at AMP. They were the best part of my stay. We had so many good times, eating out, partying, tubing down the river, and seeing the sites of San Antonio. I miss you guys!


I had surgery back in Korea, taking the hardware out. I worked in the clinic while waiting for the skin to heal up. Then in October, I went back to San Antonio for SERE. It's 5 days living in the woods. They give you a pack with supplies, and there's a limited list of items that you can bring yourself, but no food. The first 3 days was simulated survival in friendly territory. So we had big fires, smoked beef, caught some fish to eat, killed a couple live rabbits for a stew, and generally had it pretty good, all the while learning techniques of survival and evasion. The last 2 days were actual evasion, sneaking around, trying to reach certain points using the map and compass. Overall the worst things included
1. The cold. Unusually cold nights for Texas. Near freezing and below freezing every night. And we only had 2 blankets.
2. The hunger. On average, we had one meal and one snack each day. The smoked beef was amazing though.
3. Eating a huge white grub. We're required to overcome food aversion, so we get to eat bugs. Yay.
4. Nearly failing the course because I missed the pickup time. I had the meeting time wrong.
5. Trying to sneak through thick, dry brush in a quiet fashion. SO SLOW!

Here's a photo of me after I got back to Uncle Gordon and Aunt Elida's. Some of the peripheral camo stuff I didn't put back on though.

AMP'ed up, Part 1: The Centrifuge

So I finally finished my Aerospace Medicine Primary course (AMP). This is the course for training flight surgeons in the Air Force. They also have a separate residency program that goes for 2-3 years, but AMP is the starter course for new dudes like me. It starts with 4 weeks worth of powerpoint lectures put into Computer Based Training (CBT); I completed this when I first went to Korea. Then I went to San Antonio, Texas, for more hands-on training for 6 weeks (which included lots of more powerpoints as well).

Highlights included the centrifuge where they spin you like mad in a simulated cockpit on the arm of this machine, that looks like this.

This let you experience high "g" forces, which included 9 g's for 15 seconds. Let me tell you, this is like nothing you've ever experienced, and I've been on tons of rollercoasters and whatnot. One of my friends described it in a great way: it's like the hand of God is pushing you down, and flinging you across the universe. Everyone HATES this feeling, and I did too at first, but I got used to it.

So a little education in g forces. These forces usually press straight down on you, which causes pooling of blood in the vasculature of your lower extremities. Soon no blood reaches your heart. To combat this, you do anti-G straining maneuvers (AGSM), which includes flexing your whole lower body with all your strength, and doing a valsalva (taking a deep breath, and forcefully exhaling against a closed epiglottis). Both of these assist by creating pressures that force blood back up into your head. This usually allows you to tolerate these high g's and not pass out.

Well..... not so for me. Despite doing all this, I still GLOC'ed (general loss of consciousness) with the 9 g's for 15 seconds. And this is quite an experience. Most of the time, I didn't totally GLOC. I would lose my eyesight, lose control of my muscles and slump over, but I was still conscious of this, like I'd be, "Woah, this is weeeeeeiiiird". Thinking this in my head of course, because I couldn't speak since I had no motor control. See this for yourself. Here's an attempt at 15 seconds of 9 g's. You can hear the coach's voice over the intercom.



To finish this part up, I tried the the centrifuge 4 times (most people needed only 1-2 times to pass), and I still couldn't pass the section needed in order to fly in F-16's without restrictions. I'll still be able to fly in them, but just can't do hardcore air combat flights. I think there's something wrong with my heart, like it can't kickstart to warp speed. I'll be trying again in December when I go back to San Antonio for my Aircraft Mishap Investigation training.

Another quick highlight, Big Louie's Pizza... check it out! And it tasted good too.

A little more on Seoul

Sorry for such a boring blog for lack of posts. I'll try to catch up.

So Seoul is awesome. Love it. Glad I'm going to be there for at least at year. It's a big city (about the size of LA), and like Los Angeles, it doesn't have a downtown downtown. Instead it has lots of cool areas in the city, like a young professional area, expat area, university area, etc. Unlike LA, it has an excellent and cheap public transportation system which goes all the way to my base. The above pic is the Samsung Jong-Ro Building, Hanging Glass Façade.

The Wild, Wild West

So here's a short overdue entry about my roadtrip from Dayton to Seattle. First night was Chicago, but my clutch cable snapped a bit south of Chicago. Luckily USAA roadside assistance came to my rescue. At the time, I didn't know what went wrong, so I had it towed to the Evolution specialists at AMS in Chicago. They squeezed me into their very busy schedule with some extra money. That place is amazing. I got to see their shop's car, which is the most powerful Evo in the world as far as I know with over 1000 crank horsepower from the Evo's four cylinders. It's faster than almost all stock supercars. Anyways my brother Tom met me in Chicago, and we stayed at my friend Derek's place near downtown Chicago. So I was a good place for my car to break down.


We drove through the Badlands in South Dakota, which is a detour you must take if you're driving through the area.
We got there at a good time.

The beauty inspires Tom to do what he needs to do.

Another must see in South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore. Cool place.

And yes, I wore the same clothes the whole way.

Base Exercise

We are doing a base exercise this week. Pretty much we pretend we're at war. I'm on the Initial Response Team, where a tech, an ambulance driver, and myself go out into the field to pick up the injured. My first run out was a mass casualty of 7 men. The fire department was supposed to organize the scene before I got there, but I ended up having to run the program myself. Lots learned from the experience, but I did well considering it was my first.

We have to wear our chem warfare jacket and pants all the time, and every once and a while don out gas masks. It gets really hot with all this, a flak vest, doctor vest, ulitilty belt, helmet and so on. We're not allowed to go off base or shop for anything including food, but we're allow to go home to sleep, which in the real situation, we'd sleep in the hospital.

I don't have TB

Good news. My PPD came back negative, so I did not contract latent tuberculosis while I was in India. Some of the doctors there thought I probably contracted it, as about half of our patients had TB, and some had very active diseases. Often people don't show any symptoms when they first contract TB. It just holes up until it sees an ideal time to attack.

Songtan & Seoul

Still busy here, but no longer suffering without linens. I got a couple chances this weekend to go off base: to the strip outside the gate in Songtan and Seoul. The strip here is quite a trip: bars, clubs, restaurants, stores, and so on -- all catered to the airmen here. The local beer Hite is good and only $3 a bottle. It's less than a mile from my apartment (which is right next to the hospital I work at).
Seoul is 1 1/2 hours by the train/subway. It costs about a dollar each way. 45 minutes away when you drive. A local friend showed me around, which made it relaxed and easy. Seoul is huge and has everything you could want. Traffic and the sidewalks weren't too busy, but it was a Sunday, which most Koreans have off from work. About 1/3 are Christian. The English speaking church service I went to reminded me of my church when I was in highschool. Kind of 90's vinyard style.

Accomplished and not

Got smallpox and anthrax vaccines
Obtained chemical warfare gear and flight suit
Bought groceries
Bunches of boring items....

To do:
Buy bedding
Get a phone
Call family
Get Korean driver's lisence
Find someone in the apartment building that will share wi-fi with me
Finish my computer based aerospace medicine training
etc. etc. etc.

Drinking from the fire hydrant

Sheesh, sheesh, sheesh... I've got stacks of paperwork to fill out, checklists of things to do, equipment to get, commanders and pilots to meet, tests to take, and over 80 hours of computer-based training. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed, but luckily I have 2 weeks to get it all accomplished. Not only am I jumping into the specialty of Aerospace Medicine, but also leaping into the Air Force and their millions of acronyms, forms, procedures, and headaches. This is going to be a sweet job, but I've got an extremely steep learning curve.

I don't have much time to do much else. Like I still have no bed sheets. So I slept on the couch in my clothes with a towel for a sheet.... didn't work well. Little did I know, but even when you turn "off" your A/C, the Air Force still deems it fit to blast in A/C air from somewhere. I tried closing the vents, so hopefully tonight will be warmer. And tomorrow, I'll get my sheets. I don't have any food in the house (and the hospital doesn't have a cafeteria). I have no car to go out and purchase any of this stuff. Plus I have no internet, telephone, or cell phone coverage. So I'm at the library, trying to catch up on things... Well, enough of the complaining. It'll be a good year.

Well, I'm in Korea now, but this blogger website is in Korean, and I can't figure out how to switch it to English. Let's see if I can guess which is the "Publish" button...

Seoul is way expensive!

My mom just informed me that Seoul is the 3rd most expensive city in the world for Americans to live in. Considering housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, Seoul is 22% more expensive than New York City. Only Moscow (#1) and London (#2) were more expensive. But I'm not too worried, because the only areas eating my bills will be transportation (gas over there is nearly $6.50 per gallon), food, and entertainment. Clothes over there are CHEAP.
Here's the original article.

Viagra

I read they caught the "viagra spammer". I've also noticed an absence of viagra spam in my spambox now. Amazing that one guy can have such an effect over the whole world. He hijacked bunches of computers, and turned them into "zombies" that worked for him. I guess he's being charged with identity theft or something like that. Now only if they can catch some of these new ones that are coming out. It doesn't bother me too much, because GMail's filters do an awesome job putting them all in my spambox.

Sponsor kids!

Everyone must sponsor a kid. One of the best ways to give to the needy or to invest in the future is to give to kids. They're innocent yet suffering; just born into unfortunate circumstances. By giving them education, nutrition, and healthcare, you are making a huge difference for the rest of their life. You will also keep them out of worse situations. For example, kids are sometimes sold into slavery by a family that cannot afford to feed them, believing the kid would receive better care. Sponsorship can eliminate this!

What's a good way to give? Compassion International. It is highly rated by independent organizations such BBB Wise Giving Alliance which concluded that "Compassion International Inc. (CI) meets the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability" and Charity Navigator which gave Compassion its highest rating of 4 stars.

It costs just $1 a day ($32 a month), and it goes so far. I've visited 2 sponsorship sites, and the difference in these kids lives is amazing. Here's an article about one of my visits and a highlight of my life.

Me in the news. http://www.llu.edu/news/today/nov2003/sm.html

Such a sweet experience.

And for y'all that believe in the Bible, may I remind you our responsibility to widows and orphans.

Googling Andrew Barnett

So guess what... when you search "Andrew Barnett" on google, you get "Andrew Barnett, M.D."'s website! Sweet, I'm number one! Wait... this isn't me

Andrew Barnett, M.D. 's website

Hope this doesn't cause problems down the road. I can just imagine, meeting someone, whether it be a patient or a date, and they decided to google me later. Boy will they be surprised.
I also found out that Andrew Barnett is a wigmaker and a culinary coffee authority. Well, I have roasted my own coffee in the past. I bought a few pounds of green coffee in Ethiopia, roasted them on the stove at home, and served it right up, super fresh.

F-16's !!!

I just found out I'm being assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron at Osan Air Base, South Korea. I'll be working with F-16 pilots, and I'm excited, hoping I'll get some good flight time with them. The F-16 has a 2-seat trainer, which I could ride shotgun. Hopefully Osan has at least one of these. The F-16 was my favorite fighter when a kid. I wanted to be a fighter pilot till my eyes went bad in Junior High.

Taj Mahal

First the highlight of the trip: the Taj. The Taj Majal is a tomb/memorial a king make for his wife that died in childbirth. Many call it the most magnificent monument built out of love.


Actually it's built out of pure marble, not love. As you can see, it shines white in the sun. I guess it used to be even whiter, and because they noticed a color change, India outlawed all industry that produces air pollution in the town of the Taj Mahal, Aggra.

The architecture is Persian, not Indian. This and many other monuments in Northwest India were made when the Persians ruled India several hundred years ago, like 1300's or something.


And it's more amazing that just the architecture. When you get close, you can see precious stoned inlaid into the marble making ornate designs. They have similar pieces of marble with inlayed stones for sale as souvenirs, and just a circle with a 2 foot diameter cost over $100.

I looks deceptively large, but in reality, it is a single room tomb. I always thought it was some huge palace, but when you walk in, it's just one moderate size room with 2 caskets (the King was buried with his wife when he died).


Another amazing thing is the lack of development around this wonder of the world. It sits on a river, and right across the river is an orchard, not some high-end hotel to take advantage of the magnificent view.

How to save the world by making people furious...

How can we...

lower our national debt?
fight global warming?
lessen our dependence on foreign oil?
decrease the amount of traffic?
trim our nation's waistlines?
help people make friends with strangers?
create thriving downtowns in our cities?
slow urban sprawl?

Raise gas prices!

By increasing gas taxes, we could raise money to either eliminate vehicle registration fees, pay off our debts, etc. People would drive less, which would decrease oil consumption and emissions. People would walk/bike more, bettering their health. People would carpool and use public transportation more, helping our individualistic nation become more communal. Cities would become even more popular with housing that is next to work/dining/shopping/entertainment/etc. European cities have such charm, not only because they are so old, but because people actually work, live, eat, and relax there. Fewer people would be rushing into newly developed suburbs in order to have their personal 1/2 acre of grass they have to water to keep alive.

It bugs me so much when people complain about the gas prices, when they are very low compared to the rest of the world. Even though I have 2 high performance cars that run on high octane gas, when the prices go up, I am secretly happy inside. I don't have much of a commute now, but I'm sure I'd feel the same if I did.

Now I know this isn't going to happen. Too many people are nearsighted and don't see the benefits of higher gas prices or gas taxes. No officials have the balls to commit political suicide and implement these taxes now. But I just had to write this, and hope people start thinking and talking it up.

I know this is something that has to happen gradually, or else we would destroy certain industries.

Please leave comments.

del.icio.us links

I added some coolio links I've found over the past few months. They're down over there ---->. The internet is freakin' amazing. Or maybe I should say people are freakin' amazing! Through this thing called the internet we can benefit from the creative talent of millions. Check out the design blogs like TheCoolHunter and Electro^plankton. Comment to this post if any of these links blew your mind.

Next Year

So the Air Force has given me orders for my assignment next year: Osan Air Base, South Korea. I'm excited about this trip for many reasons.
1. It's only a year. I'm pretty sure I'll like it, but even if I don't, I'm there for only a year, and then I can either do residency or continue as a flight surgeon.
2. I get an assignment preferece for the following year. Since Korea is/was an
"undesirable" remote assignment, the Air Force lets you choose your next assignment: residency, Hawawii, Europe, California, etc.
3. It's near Seoul, a BIG hoppin' metropolis. I'm excited to get out of Dayton and getting someplace with more young people, style, events, etc.
4. It's in Asia. I love Asian people and food. And I'll easily be able to visit Japan. Singapore, Thailand, and New Zealand will also be close.
5. F-16s are assigned there; that means I'll have an extremely good chance to fly some in this sweet fighter jet.
But here's the kicker. The Air Force just notified me 2 days ago that they assigned too many flight surgeons to Osan, and so now either me or some other dude have to be reassigned!!! The only spots left are Guam (a desolate tropical island) and Misawa (on the Northern tip of Japan). Both I REALLY don't want to spend 2 years at. So please pray for me, that I won't get reassigned.

Eating Live Octopus in Korea

So I'm moving to South Korea on July 7th. I'll be near Seoul. You'll have one year to visit me there, or if you want, we can meet up in Japan.

January

I hate writing. So excuse my delay in entries into this blog. So January was a good month. Spent my first in Whistler with my brothers and some of my best friends. We stayed right in Whistler Village and got 2 feet of snow while we were there. I love Whistler, and I've told people before, I think it's my favorite place on earth. Year round beauty and fun.
Next I went to Loma Linda for an anesthesia elective for 3 weeks. Again, awesome time: good friends, good weather, and working in anesthesia, which I love. Even though it took Step 3 while there, and studied a lot for it (because I may have to reapply for the residency match at a later date), I enjoyed my time.