bedlamsbard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bedlamsbard) wrote2007-07-09 04:51 pm
bedlamsbard) wrote2007-07-09 04:51 pm
Entry tags:
the air force, deals with the devil, the F-22 Raptor, and Holloman AFB
Ah, the week of a thousand LJ entries begins. *girds loins*
I'm working on this story for class -- our ten-page final project -- tentatively called "Now Let the Fire Bathe Us", about a woman who (and I mentioned this briefly before) accidentally sells her soul to the devil in return for bringing her husband back from the dead. Her husband, a captain with the Air Force, was recently killed in Iraq, and because I'm an idiot, this requires me to sit around and stare at Wikipedia and say things like, "But what plane was he flying?" and "Okay, there's the F-15 Eagle and the F-22 Raptor, both of which are currently active. But which plane was he flying?" and "Screw this, he's flying the Raptor because it's shiny and new and damn cool. Also, the Air Force can yell at him for wrecking a really expensive aircraft."
*looks at Wikipedia some more*
...or there's always the F-16 Fighting Falcon. WHAT THE HELL. That wasn't there three hours ago! *hyperventilates* Okay. No, it was, it was just labeled under "multirole" rather than "fighter" like the Eagle and the Raptor. No, damn it, he's keeping the Raptor, even though it's a little bit ahead of its time.
Okay, well, anyway, the Raptor just made it out as an active combat aircraft -- 2005 -- and it looks like the only squadron that flies them that flew them in combat is stationed in Japan right now, which will clearly not work for the purposes of this story. What other squadrons are flying F-22s currently? Well, they're all stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, which doesn't really work for me. But there are three other squadrons that are scheduled to switch over from the F-15 to the F-22, so let's use one of those. No idea if they're in Iraq right now, since they're not on Wikipedia, but they're based out of Elmendorf AFB (Alaska), Hickam AFB (Hawaii), and Holloman AFB (New Mexico). Well, the first two don't work for various reasons, but the third one is close to perfect.
A little more research, and I have Holloman being six miles from Alamogordo, New Mexico, which happens to be the site where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Cool! I pull up Google Maps to see if there are any obvious crossroads between Holloman and Alamogordo.
No. Crossroads. DEATH.
At this point, I said, "Screw realism," and started making shit up. Hell, the story's already got the devil in it, who cares if the road names are right? I just did all that research to make sure Josh Browder was flying the right goddamn plane and to figure out where the hell this story is set, anyway. I was hoping for Colorado, but I'll settle for New Mexico. Lots of creepy things in New Mexico.
Now I just have to make the devil subtly evil. BE SUBTLY EVIL, DAMN YOU. Because with the initial story, I was told my devil was kitsch and cliched, so I'm trying to compensate by making him an All-American eyecandy high school football player. Thus, the subtly evil part.
I'm working on this story for class -- our ten-page final project -- tentatively called "Now Let the Fire Bathe Us", about a woman who (and I mentioned this briefly before) accidentally sells her soul to the devil in return for bringing her husband back from the dead. Her husband, a captain with the Air Force, was recently killed in Iraq, and because I'm an idiot, this requires me to sit around and stare at Wikipedia and say things like, "But what plane was he flying?" and "Okay, there's the F-15 Eagle and the F-22 Raptor, both of which are currently active. But which plane was he flying?" and "Screw this, he's flying the Raptor because it's shiny and new and damn cool. Also, the Air Force can yell at him for wrecking a really expensive aircraft."
*looks at Wikipedia some more*
...or there's always the F-16 Fighting Falcon. WHAT THE HELL. That wasn't there three hours ago! *hyperventilates* Okay. No, it was, it was just labeled under "multirole" rather than "fighter" like the Eagle and the Raptor. No, damn it, he's keeping the Raptor, even though it's a little bit ahead of its time.
Okay, well, anyway, the Raptor just made it out as an active combat aircraft -- 2005 -- and it looks like the only squadron that flies them that flew them in combat is stationed in Japan right now, which will clearly not work for the purposes of this story. What other squadrons are flying F-22s currently? Well, they're all stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, which doesn't really work for me. But there are three other squadrons that are scheduled to switch over from the F-15 to the F-22, so let's use one of those. No idea if they're in Iraq right now, since they're not on Wikipedia, but they're based out of Elmendorf AFB (Alaska), Hickam AFB (Hawaii), and Holloman AFB (New Mexico). Well, the first two don't work for various reasons, but the third one is close to perfect.
A little more research, and I have Holloman being six miles from Alamogordo, New Mexico, which happens to be the site where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Cool! I pull up Google Maps to see if there are any obvious crossroads between Holloman and Alamogordo.
No. Crossroads. DEATH.
At this point, I said, "Screw realism," and started making shit up. Hell, the story's already got the devil in it, who cares if the road names are right? I just did all that research to make sure Josh Browder was flying the right goddamn plane and to figure out where the hell this story is set, anyway. I was hoping for Colorado, but I'll settle for New Mexico. Lots of creepy things in New Mexico.
Now I just have to make the devil subtly evil. BE SUBTLY EVIL, DAMN YOU. Because with the initial story, I was told my devil was kitsch and cliched, so I'm trying to compensate by making him an All-American eyecandy high school football player. Thus, the subtly evil part.