General Patton on Lieutenant Kerry

On Mon, 2 Feb 2004 17:04:07 -0500, "George Z. Bush"
wrote:


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
.. .


Without nit picking too much, why don't we use the past tense in talking
about
the ratings held by the Bush family. Daddy's expired when he was demobilized
at the end of WWII, and Junior's expired when he deliberately failed to update
his flight physical. Just one small difference.

Don't know about yours, but my wings don't expire, whether I get a
physical or not. Neither does my similar, but not as highly valued FAA
license. They are lifetime awards. The currency of a flight physical
merely enables me to exercise the privileges. No expirations.

Gee, as if I didn't know that. I didn't say that anybody's wings expired.....I
was talking about the recipient's entitlement to pilot military aircraft. Your
privileges expire when your physical expires.....but you already knew that, and
I'm surprised that you felt so insecure as to feel obliged to parse my meaning
when at least 99 of every 100 former military pilots could figure out exactly
what I was talking about from the words I used.

I think your statement was "'past tense when talking about the ratings
held". My rating as a pilot hasn't expired, nor my FAA license. Your
statement was quite clear.

When you leave active duty, whether your physical is current or not,
you lose the "entitlement to pilot military aircraft". I can't walk
out to the flight line at Buckley, even with a current physical and
strap on an F-16.

I think the parsing is coming from your side. And, piloting military
aircraft isn't an "entitlement." It's an earned privilege.



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8