Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 04, 2012

…and keggers.

Depends on the FOB….

And they’re MY birds. The flight crews just borrow them and break them.

Orion

Try to avoid patrinizing. (sic)

A female captain and I, a lowly sp-5 were informed we could not fraternize any more. I played the piano and she played the flute, the musical instrument, in the day room after work.

I had the longest short timers calendar going. One thousand’ four hundred, sixty one days, using 3×5 cards hung on four paperclips.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Met good people everywhere.Also met jerks.

“I’ll be out of this in 4000 days..Are you a lifer?…No, I’m Vietnamese.

sororities? yeah. but the hazing is a bitch. and you can’t talk about the initiation, especially if it concerns a senior officer. and no medals, just scars for life.

I’m sure it was unintentional that GT was effectively commenting on the total system failure called public education.

If it weren’t for cold weather…my bones, etc…I’d be in Canada.And yeah, I did my time, and the people…except for the unfragged jerks that wanted their ticket punched on their service records for “commanding an SF outfit” and got better people killed…were FINE. Better than I could appreciate at the time.

And yeah, if I could run I could probably do a better job now, except I guess we drive to work now. Which is why so many guys get killed, but you know…lobbyists persuaded the leg generals in the Pantygone to buy LOTS of vehicles.

If you’ve got a dead kid…I weep with you, but blame the military-industrials and their bribes. You know, Republicans and their billionaire buddies…

I was Army serving on an A.F. Base. 24 on, 48 off for cooks. Life would have been good if they would have just let me do my job and forget all the rest of the military BS.

Actually, I don’t think you can still go to Canada and not come back — Canada (under pressure from the US) won’t have you, and they’ll turn you back over to the US government..For that matter, at one point I casually investigated retiring to Canada, and reading up on the requirements for extended (much less permanent) residence was daunting.

I was in all male units most of the time. Fraternization was hardly mentioned. Nowadays, it’s trickier.

Orion: YES they were “our” birds, NOT the “pilots”.

The blond has just been talking to the Air Force already, and wants to compare. One of my high school friends went A.F. when I went in Army. One of my daughter’s friends is married to an Air Force guy. The A.F. hasn’t changed much in 40 years, they still have the beer, air conditioning, and lots of stripes on their “pretty” uniforms so the feel more “spoiled and important”.

Which: the A-10 is the most aggressive and effective bird in their inventory, but lacks “sex appeal”, so is being phased out, to provide drones, or “piloted” aircraft designed to get within 100 miles of the target and launch a missile.

B-52s didn’t provide very “specific” support. We got very good close support from Marine pilots in ’Nam (THANKS GUYS!), maybe because we also backed up their guys on the ground with our “vibrating rotating deathtraps”, so there was a closer interaction?

Not that it matters very much, but I think the official definition of PDA is public display of affection. A personal display of affection kind of sounds like playing with yours— oh, never mind.

As a former Marine, I feel there is something to be said for this statement from a former Army officer: “You can serve in the military, or you can serve in the Air Force, but not both.”

How would lil’ Blondie know of ANYTHING military or events relating to it? Teens don’t watch or read anything relating to national or military as they’re more in tune with ‘Hollywood Happenings’-type shows. I still keep my old AF uniformin the hall closet with its one row of ribbons attached, butI’ve had occasion to go to an AF Base recently only to see two-stripers decorated like a 22-year combat POW vet.I check my military supply catalog, only to find that ‘Bus Drivers’ can get a ribbon for just about any accomplishment just keeping their nose clean and face shaven while passing ‘paper/computerized tests’ for advancement.I shoulda stayed in the Army, but visiting Korea was enough for me and I didn’t want to be a job-hopping Hammer Operator the rest of my life…‘The Draft’ blew very cold back in those days.

Be careful what you say… Although I might, as an old Army man( emphasis on OLD )who had the privilege to serve in a split unit of Marine Recon and Army Special Forces, agree with you. There are certain others ( Can you say GuardSgt ?) who won’t.Their refrain might be: "You can always tell a Marine. You just can’t tell them much! "Semper Fi, mate!

@GuardSgt;I could tell you’re of the ‘old school’ but my uniform will be 50 years old Sept 30, back when promotions were tight.. Word came down that a new unit was being formed by ‘prior-servicemen’ (read: Army or Marines) and would we like to join an outfit going to Southeast Asia? 5 friends joined, I was not chosen for ‘physical’ reasons,(glasses) and off they went.. 2 came back in body bags.That’s when the fun began in ‘Southeast Asia’ but only officially 3 years later.It still bothers me when I see something about Special Opswherever.. All we were trying to do was live until a better job came along. But we “solemly swore……………”

A major “upgrade” for the A-10 is electronics and “pilot upgrade” so they TOO can control drones!!! WTF????

I’m also “intimately familiar” with B-52s and arclight. Being in the middle of one is “disconcerting”.

It is, and always WILL BE, better, and sounder practice, to actually ID a target, and take it out, than to scatter death like rain, and hope you hit the gutter with at least one drop. This is especially true in insurgencies, where “good” and “bad” guys are hard enough to identify through a rifle scope, let alone a satellite image, or thermal image.

BTW, while I was in the Cav, and “Apocalypse” had one scene setup to glamorize the Cav, there is nothing to love about the “smell of napalm in the morning”, especially when it’s landing TOO CLOSE for “comfort” to YOU! But, even that said, another thank you to the close, very close, air support of our friend in the Marine Corps (3/67), and his smokey old F-4, If I could ever find you, a beer would be the least I could treat you to!!

Yeah, for me it would have been Iceland, but I shouldn’t have done Vietnam.

“Us Americans”? So what are we? Yeah, it really sounds like you honor our service. But it still sounds better than the cop who arrested me for protesting the war. He told me he wished I had been killed over there.

dtroutma – That looks suspiciously like the sexy nose of a ’Hook poking into your avatar there…am I correct?

Paulproteus – Who the heck are you? The Zip at the end says Michigan…

Orion

Only problem – it is reality.My H.S. class had a straight-A Blonde girl. Once she grouped up with her BFFs, she turned into BlondBimbo – oppressor of the socially inept and uber-critic of the fashion ignorant. It’s my understanding that she took her intelligence and went into advertising. (This from someone who was taking college credit trigonometry and calculus in H.S. – what a waste).

An A10 pilot in Vietnam joked that the A10 was the only fixed-wing aircraft that gets bird strikes from behind.