IYAOYAS

WHAT DOES THIS TITLE MEAN?!?

If you really want to know, read on!

And if you already know, read on anyway!

As a Marine, my primary MOS (my job) was an aviation ordnance technician.

To put it in "Barney terms", I basically did maintenance on weapons systems for aircraft (aircraft guns, missile launchers, bomb racks, weapons support equipment, etc.).

I also assembled and configured bombs and rockets for aircraft.

There's LCpl me building inert bombs in Alaska.

MK82's (High Explosive, 500lbs bombs)

More cool things that explode on trailers prepped to take out to the aircraft.

 

Assembling 2.75in rockets.

So before you put the rockets into the rocket pods, you have to untape the fins of the rockets.

It's crucial that you keep your hands at least wrapped around the fins so that they don't pop open.

Otherwise, it's a pain in the butt to try an manually close the fins so that you can slide them into the rocket pods.

Usually, if you pop some fins, you owe everyone on that build that day a beer.

Yeah...

I owed everyone a beer that day.

Rocket Crew in Yuma at Desert Talon exercise.

Clockwise from top left:

My ordnance tattoo, photo of my guys and me coming home from Iraq at a bar in the airport at Bangor, Maine, photo of me building inert bombs, photo of me and some friends in Iraq.

People are always surprised to find out I have giant ordnance wings on my back :)

Air force ordnance guys and me standing gate guard in Iraq (this was just coming on shift so we didn't have all our gear on yet...in case anyone is wondering why).

Not to hate on the air force or anything, because I love y'all.... 

But, they pretty much sat in the shade for the entire 24 hour post while the two Marines on post with them stood out in the blistering sun (140 degrees in August) checking ID's into the ASP....

JUST SAYIN'....NOT HATIN'....(just a little)

 They were friendly though....just not really ready for combat....or anything else for that matter...

They weren't issued rounds for the weapons before coming into country, so we had to lend them rounds out of our weapons to stand post....

I was fortunate enough to get to work on both fighter jets (F-18's) and attack helicopters (Hueys and Cobras).

Sound pretty cool, huh?

Can ya see why being a stay at home mom sometimes seems a little...dull?

So today is the birthday of Marine Corps aviation ordnance!

92 YEARS OF POPULATION AND LANDSCAPE CONTROL!

And our motto...

I.Y.A.O.Y.A.S.

If You Ain't Ordnance, You Ain't Sh**!

 So Happy 92nd Birthday to all my fellow badass Ordnancemen out there!

I'll have a tall one for y'all today!