Subject: If you are looking for a fight...
From: "Helomech"
Date: 7/7/03 3:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
.. .
(ArtKramr) wrote:

There has been some talk of men who wanted combat but due to "timing" or
"luck"
they missed out. Well if you are in a unit that won't get into the fight,
just
try this. Go to your CO and say," Sir, I hear the 344th is moving out to
the
ETO. I want to go with them. Here is my transfer request. Please sign
it". He
will immediately. After he signs it walk it through and you will go into
battle
with the 344th. Or of course you can just keep a low profille , keep your
mouth
shut, do nothing, then for the rest of your life you can always say " I
wanted
combat but timing and luck kept me out" and see if you can live with
that.

Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Sorry, Art, but you're talking about a time and process that has been
long gone. There's lots of procedure to get a transfer and it hasn't
been approved at the local commander level since WW II.

Even if one could simply get a hand-carried, personal choice
assignment approved by a local commander to switch to a deploying
unit, it would take considerable time and money to get the individual
operationally qualified to perform effectively with the organization.
Time that a unit doesn't have when they are enroute to battle.

I sympathize with your point of view that if someone really wants to
get into the battle they can take the initiative, but it doesn't
happen the way you describe and hasn't since 1964 when I entered
active duty.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (ret)
***"When Thunder Rolled:
*** An F-105 Pilot Over N. Vietnam"
*** from Smithsonian Books
ISBN: 1588341038



Sorry Ed, but yeah that kind of thing DOES still happen.
(In the Guard it does, anyway).

When the 24th Med was getting ready to activate and go to Bosnia in 1999, I
volunteered to go. They transferred me the next day.

In the Army Guard it is not unusual at all, to see some people bail out of
units being called up, and many others stepping up and volunteering to go.
Of course transfers go up the chain of command, but they do happen very fast
(hours verses days).

Usually there are more people wanting to go, than there are positions to
fill, or that is my experience over the last ten years.

Helomech




That's just the way I remember it. Think maybe they should stick the Air
Force back into the Army so we can have the Army Air Corps again? (grin)

Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer