Ernestoed on my parade

I'd been meaning to drive down to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to see the Wright Brothers Memorial down there, but we got pretty busy the last few weeks, so El Plan Grande was to go sometime this last week, when the workload subsided a bit. I'm kicking myself for forgetting it Kitty Hawk was so close (less than two hours); I had several opportunities earlier in the course to take an afternoon and head down there, but unfortunately, even though I had carved out enough time today, with Ernesto spinning up the coast and N. Carolina getting nine inches of rain yesterday, I was worried about getting stuck somewhere. So I stayed here and sulked.

For our last activity as a class, one of our classmates set up a tour at the Allied Command Transformation NATO headquarters, the second-largest NATO HQ in the world, right here on the Naval base. It was somewhat interesting (and always fascinating to see someone in another country's uniform -- today a German naval officer -- give a briefing in broken English), but we had really hit a Givadam Wall earlier in the week after a long written Final exam. We had lunch at the NATO cafeteria, and I had the "NATO Club sandwich."

"Why is called a 'NATO' club sandwich?" Lt Col Nelson asks.

I replied, "Because it includes Turkey."

Bar Har Har!