"Bob Crawford" wrote in message
oups.com...
Matt,

His (Neil Gould) original post listed 2 statements (each containing
unfortunately 2 clauses), namely:

"[...]
I had no idea of the significance of the flyby, and would never have
insulted such a fine and respectful display had I known.
[...]
I served in the U.S. Navy and am a Vietnam veteran.
"

He then asked "Anyone else have trouble reconciling these two
statements?"

I believe that your paraphrasing of his question is incorrect and
inaccurate.
Subsequent posts by Neil (i.e. "What does that have to do with the
question at hand: what Vet wouldn't
know the significance of a flyby formation???") further support that
contention.

Hopefully that's clear enough for you.

Okay! What I took his two statements in conflict to mean was "Navy" and
"Vietnam vet".

My bad!

Yet, as a few others have pointed out, unless you're into aviation in some
way, the Missing Man Formation would be totally meaningless, regardless of
what non-aviation branch you were in.

To them, it's just a bunch of planes flying close together.