djMot

I am so sorry to announce that we have lost another member TheLastColdBeer (Jim Brophy). I had not seen him in game for quite awhile and texting him  I never received any response. The last time he had been seen in the server was December 21st.  Having a bad feeling since he was a staple of our COD2 group of players I looked up his name on line and sadly found the attached obituary.  
Jim was always so much fun to play against and it has always been people like him that kept me coming back for more. He always had a upbeat and fun demeanor about him while playing. 
I know he was going through a lot over the last year with the passing of his brother, he had been making trips from his house in Illinois  to Texas to take care of his brothers estate and personal affairs.  
Jim had also lost his wife years earlier Lori Brophy who passed in 2016.  
Jim will be greatly missed by all of us that have played with him for years.  Sadly this
leaves another hole in our clan that can never be filled. 

Have a great birthday!!!  

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday!!!! everyone!!!

Happy Birthday and have a great day
 

Happy Birthday all

Happy Birthday!🎂 

Happy birthday
 
 
 
 
 

Happy Birthday & Happy Holidays.

Damn.  I probably can't unsee that.  🤣

12 in of rain hear , no riding to day  .  You all have a great Day  . FragOn!

Unless your a Wife of a Plumber , Hee , Hee.

Love the Frank-en-stein getup!  I will forever picture you that way while we're gaming, lol.

Hi All ; DunksFrag here , this is my first post   ,  I joined XI  October 4th 2023  ,  I'm a retired  Plumbing Contractor , I love Harleys , and  Cars  ,  other thiings I do is Fishing ,  Playing at Xtremeidiots and meeting a  fun group of XI Clan Members and guest , feel free in game to chat with me  , but help me to keep it short , not to interfere with the gaming . See you soon , DunksFrags

Old Settler's Park in Burlington, ND was a quaint little city RV park that I had almost all to myself for the few days I was there.  It's just a short hop, skip, and jump from Minot and perhaps one of the best kept secrets for places to stay when traveling through the area.  50/30/20amp power, shared water spigots, and a kind of rustic but clean restroom with a shower.


 

The sense of sadness I have over this picture is palpable.  This is the dorm where I lived while stationed at the 786th Radar Squadron, Minot Air Force Station, North Dakota.  I risked my life, literally, on this day to get to my room which was on the second floor.  The face of the building you are seeing faces south.  My room was the last three windows on the second floor on the north side of the building in the north west corner.  At that end of the building, the floor had rotted through and I could see down to the first floor.  See the antenna tripod on the roof?  That actually belongs to me.  I mounted it up there in January of 1978 at 0°F with a -10°F windchill, and then installed a HyGain Penetrator CB antenna on it; I couldn't believe they let me do it, but honestly I don't think they had a clue what I was proposing.  Still, they didn't say a word once it went up.  Picture in a moment.  I could talk to anyone with a CB for as far as the eye could see.  My view was the spectacular and unobstructed expanse of the North Dakota plains.  I was a member of the site fire team, and the projectionist for our little makeshift movie theater.  When officially on duty, I was a part of the team that maintained the most bad-ass early warning search radar system in all of North Dakota, and only a handful of them in the world.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life and something that gives me incredible pride.
Now the entire site is in such complete decay that I just want to cry.  You can go home, but you can never go home.  This will be the topic of an upcoming video.
 

 
Back in the day.  For me, that was 1977 - 1979.  The site operated with many other radar systems from April 1953 - July 1979.  I left in September 1979.
The mighty AN/FPS-27A Aircraft Control and Early Warning Search Radar (4 stories) and its companion AN/FPS-26A Heigh Finder radar (2 stories).

The Tranquility Base CB base station antenna, a HyGain Penetrator omni-directional 22' mast with four 9' radials.
Steampunk.  The site was heated by massive steam boilers and there were above-ground steam lines running everywhere.  A curious juxtaposition of old school steampunk and the once state of the art cold war early warning AN/FPS-27A tech.  

All that remains of the once-mighty AN/FPS-27A (Verizon operates the new cell tower west of the remains of the radar towers).

Ha.  I'm an idiot.  Told you all I'd post here as well as my other social media and then promptly forgot to crosspost here.  So let me catch you up.
My YouTube channel is a couple of weeks behind where I am now.  This is common for vanlife channels.  The video I'm working on now has 2 hours of raw footage.  That's uncommon, but unsurprising given the subject of the video - my return to a now abandoned USAF Early Warning radar site where I was stationed in the late '70s.  But you can imagine how even half that amount of raw footage can be a challenge to make into something watch-worthy.
So anyway, this is the most current video on my channel, and I'll post some pics of what's been happening in the meantime, too.
 

This video hit today, Friday, September 27, 2024.
 

Ha.  I'm an idiot.  Told you all I'd post here as well as my other social media and then promptly forgot to crosspost here.  So let me catch you up.
My YouTube channel is a couple of weeks behind where I am now.  This is common for vanlife channels.  The video I'm working on now has 2 hours of raw footage.  That's uncommon, but unsurprising given the subject of the video - my return to a now abandoned USAF Early Warning radar site where I was stationed in the late '70s.  But you can imagine how even half that amount of raw footage can be a challenge to make into something watch-worthy.
So anyway, this is the most current video on my channel, and I'll post some pics of what's been happening in the meantime, too.
 

The sense of sadness I have over this picture is palpable.  This is the dorm where I lived while stationed at the 786th Radar Squadron, Minot Air Force Station, North Dakota.  I risked my life, literally, on this day to get to my room which was on the second floor.  The face of the building you are seeing faces south.  My room was the last three windows on the second floor on the north side of the building in the north west corner.  At that end of the building, the floor had rotted through and I could see down to the first floor.  See the antenna tripod on the roof?  That actually belongs to me.  I mounted it up there in January of 1978 at 0°F with a -10°F windchill, and then installed a HyGain Penetrator CB antenna on it; I couldn't believe they let me do it, but honestly I don't think they had a clue what I was proposing.  Still, they didn't say a word once it went up.  Picture in a moment.  I could talk to anyone with a CB for as far as the eye could see.  My view was the spectacular and unobstructed expanse of the North Dakota plains.  I was a member of the site fire team, and the projectionist for our little makeshift movie theater.  When officially on duty, I was a part of the team that maintained the most bad-ass early warning search radar system in all of North Dakota, and only a handful of them in the world.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life and something that gives me incredible pride.
Now the entire site is in such complete decay that I just want to cry.  You can go home, but you can never go home.  This will be the topic of an upcoming video.
 

 
Back in the day.  For me, that was 1977 - 1979.  The site operated with many other radar systems from April 1953 - July 1979.  I left in September 1979.
The mighty AN/FPS-27A Aircraft Control and Early Warning Search Radar (4 stories) and its companion AN/FPS-26A Heigh Finder radar (2 stories).

The Tranquility Base CB base station antenna, a HyGain Penetrator omni-directional 22' mast with four 9' radials.
Steampunk.  The site was heated by massive steam boilers and there were above-ground steam lines running everywhere.  A curious juxtaposition of old school steampunk and the once state of the art cold war early warning AN/FPS-27A tech.  

All that remains of the once-mighty AN/FPS-27A (Verizon operates the new cell tower west of the remains of the radar towers).

Awesome stuff @Gatorgirl and I headed out west next year for a two week trip with our Camaro crew. Road to sun, Glacier park. Yellowstone and other places.. Thank you for Sharing.

Thanks for sharing, be safe have a great time, meet interesting people, be the tumbleweed we all wanna be.