THE PILOT WHO WOULDN'T FLY

"George Z. Bush" wrote in message
...

snip


If I was an F-102 pilot who was hot to trot, I think I might have
volunteered to
transition into one of the birds actively used in the shooting war, like
the
F-105, or whatever equipment they were then using for top covers.

Demonstrating once again your complete and utter lack of touch with reality.
He was an ANG pilot, trained to fly an aircraft assigned to the unit he was
in. You don't just up and decide, "Hey, I think I'll become a (F-100, F-86,
etc.) pilot tomorrow!" In order for him to transition, he'd have had to have
found another unit with a pilot vacancy (getting harder to come by at the
time due to the fallout of former active duty pilots), transferred to said
unit, and then gone through the transition training program. Now quickly,
what were the ONLY two ANG combat aircraft types that were deployed to
Vietnam and surrounding environs? That's right--the F-100 and the...F-102!
Gee, that latter mount was the one that GWB was flying, and the one for
which he VOLUNTEERED (since you are apparnetly having a difficult time
understanding that FACT) to fly in PALACE ALERT...



So, follow the thread, contribute relevantly, get your facts straight,
and reduce the level of your personal agenda.

Would you care to comment on his submission of a "volunteer for o/s duty"
statement when he knew or should have known that he had insufficient
flying time
in the bird to be favorably considered?

How was he to know that? Why did they offer these new guys the chance to
volunteer while they were still in the training pipeline if their
participation was already irrevocably ruled out? H'mmm?

All he had to do was to ask around, and
he'd have learned that they wanted people with more hours than he had.

Then you would no doubt have hammered him for NOT volunteering...oh, that's
right, you have done that ANYWAY. Looks like GWB was in a "damned if he did,
damned if he didn't" conundrum in your view.

Excuse
me if I conclude that he was just going through the motions but I can't
think
of any other reason for volunteering for something you know you're not
going to
get.

How do you know he knew he was not going to be selected? Do you think he was
clairvoyant, and should have been able to devine that in the end, yes, they
did have enough more experienced volunteers come forward so they would not
have to use the less experienced personnel? Do you think that just MAYBE the
ANG/USAF asked for volunteers straight out of the training pipeline because
they were not sure they would continue to get enough more experienced
personnel to support PALACE ALERT rotations, nor were they aware that the
program itself would end within a year or so?


If I haven't got my facts right, please do straighten me out,

We have been--you just continue to listen to the facts.

since you seem to
think you know everything there is to know about his flying career. On
the
subject of relevent, if you try hard, I think you'll have to admit that
the
subject of this thread, which may well have started out as one about one
of
Kramer's mates, also fits our current President like a glove. It seemed
relevent to me when I saw it.

Well, since your view of the actual situation is so wrapped up in your own
fantasies instead of the actual factual events that occured, that is little
surprise.


As for my personal agenda, I don't have one that I'm aware of

ROFLOL! Give us a break; if you can't 'fess up to holding a grudge against
GWB that forces you to go to the lengths you have gone to (refusing to
acknowledge that he did volunteer, refusing to understand that he was indeed
flying one of the two models of fighter that the ANG sent into the theater,
etc.), then your integrity problem is even greater than I thought, 'cause
you are deceiving yourself in addition to everyone else.

Brooks

and so don't know
what level it's at or is supposed to be at. If you happen to run across
it,
would you mind sending me a copy? I seem to have misplaced mine.

George Z.






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