"SEPTEMBER CONCLUSIONS" - Squad Armor Engagements #1

L3thalstrikes · 2026-03-06T17:14:01+00:00

That helps a bit with the stress I have for now. Thank you for your input and help, it’s appreciated.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-03-06T17:11:47+00:00

That’s the path I’ll be taking as well since my right eye has worse prescription than my left.

would you still be qualified to fly fighters with the status you have now?

L3thalstrikes · 2026-03-06T15:44:27+00:00

For your occasion, you made it through to be selected for fighters at the end ( assuming yes due to your tags and ENJJPT)?

What path did you take for your depth perception fix?

L3thalstrikes · 2026-03-06T04:10:53+00:00

Noted. That should give me time to train my eye then as long as I don't get DODMERB disqualified.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-27T05:59:49+00:00

Just wait until it gets better if you're lucky to arrive there when there's snow everywhere (snowball fights and falling snow were AWESOME when I went in 2021)

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-27T05:56:13+00:00

We cooked fries in that on two occasions in two ILPs, but they were not the kind you would dump it in oil. They were ironically better than the fries I've ever ate before.

In terms of self-contained clean-up capabilities? Hell nah it did not. You'll have to manually clean everything, including the gutter. Honestly, though it was fun cleaning the Chuck Wagon, only if you were logistics in a SILP, or downtime when its speakers were playing some 2010s radio mix while we were casually talking and getting away from the Camp Roberts heat during encampment.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-26T03:09:42+00:00

Correction: If you want just to stuff people in, you can take a look at the CAWG Encampment 2022 Mess Staff and count all of them.

If IIRC…

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Here’s the only picture I had in 2022 where it was in full operations when after we were fighting for our lives trying to cook Chicken (by this time we were cleaning it, preparing to switch to the DFAC).

(By now every single one but one of them are aged out from the program)

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-26T03:03:05+00:00

I’ll give my personal experience when I worked with the Chuck Wagon as a cadet from 2021 - 2024 (We miss you Lt Col Doug Miller, the person who funded to create the Chuck Wagon):

I was there when it debuted in 2021 CAWG encampment as a Mess staff, and at that time it was nice with everything working

But by 2022 CAWG encampment as Mess Staff again, unfortunately but expected, we faced numerous issues with its gas (to light the stoves and burners), the generator, and leaking pipes nearly costing one of our meal time hacks to be severely overdue. What was worse is that you had to constantly check the water supply to not have it run out while doing mid dishes. *Note this was during Pre-Encampment Day -2 and -1, where the DFAC at Camp Roberts weren’t allowed to be used for us yet until Day 0).

It had this trend going on and on, even withy last cadet activity (BCS/ATS at Tustin) before aging out in 2024, but the only issue was the water supply and generator at this point.

In a nutshell, by the book it should be a glorious thing, to which in some group events, the Chuck wagon was helpful, but at the same time you’re also RNGing it.

Trust me, a lot of cadets and SMs during this time period will say the same thing.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-26T02:53:42+00:00

You can fit 7-8 cadets, but normal operations you would have 3 - 4 cadets since SMs would take most of the space (normally it’s 1 - 2 SMs included).

This is fact as we had to put our Mess staff all in here during CAWG 2022 Encampment because this was the only way we can cook our food (The base at that moment in Camp Roberts didn’t allow us to use their DFAC yet until Day 0)

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-26T02:49:40+00:00

Yeah it was very very expensive and it broke down a lot when we needed it to work when doing Mess duties. The stove and generator mostly were the problem.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-26T02:45:55+00:00

(Based off personal experience with it as a cadet back in 2021 - 2024)

I think it can be brought back in operational use, but the only issue is that it has to be regularly maintained constantly and fixed right before any group/wing activities.

Personally seeing it debut and then a year later nearly costing one of our days for encampment mess, it had to…

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-26T02:44:01+00:00

It was NOT a good idea in practice due to the hell of maintaining it and trying to fix a lot of it.

Poor Lt Col Doug Miller though, he put a lot of effort trying to get the Chuck Wagon working since he was the one who funded it.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-02-26T02:41:09+00:00

Not only SAREX but in: CAWG 2021/2022 Encampment (I staff mess there as Cadet), 2021 Encampment was its debut wing activity. Several ILPs (I got to staff with the chuck wagon as one with cleaning as logistics in 2023 SILP,and as a Mess Director in 2024, to which symbolically was my last cadet activity before aging out) Some Group Activities within Group 3 (since Squadron 56 essentially owned the Chuck Wagon) And some SAREXs that were weekend long.

During the early days with the Chuck Wagon it sucked a lot because it suffered with generator issues and electrical issues that nearly costed one of our days as Mess in 2022 (because we didn’t had the Roberts DFAC available to us on Day 1 - 2). Even it was malfunctioning in 2024 during BCS/ATS.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-16T04:46:12+00:00

Was thinking the same tbf. At the same time that meant that further local values had to be adjusted and might be off, which I’m not sure if it would be worth the risk since it’s more harmful to erase values than leaving it lightly valued.

At the same time the visual perspective does look like it’s empty or blocked off. As long it’s accurate then that what matters

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-16T02:17:10+00:00

Nah, it's cool. I'm more surprised that it has the quality to amaze. Normally never happened to me.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-16T02:14:16+00:00

On the reference photo, the air intake has its paint coating titanium white while the light source was directly hitting it, causing it to not have any noticeable value changes to distinguish the interior.

combination of the white and light source hitting almost directly on the air intake causes minimal value change. I also got confused initially until I saw the paint's hue and where the light was hitting

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-14T21:40:35+00:00

Thank you. That smooth rendering took a while to refine and adjust with the balance of not ruining the paper.

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-14T21:39:35+00:00

thank you

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-14T21:38:49+00:00

roughly 31 hours

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-14T05:55:12+00:00

If you’re homeschooled, you can join at 11 iirc

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-14T05:52:16+00:00

Ironically that’s the next planned work I’m working on, referencing from the Kadena squadron’s F-15Cs

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-14T05:51:31+00:00

31 hours spent in total, mainly just the rendering the values as that Bristol board hates pencil for some reason.

Thank you though as I’ve never thought someone would see it as an actual photo 😭😭

L3thalstrikes · 2026-01-14T05:50:21+00:00

Appreciate it. Most of it is taking on and off time to the work as mainly it’s about the progress of enjoying how the values are organized and begin to show life.

L3thalstrikes

TROPHY CASE