Rumsfeld and flying

On 07 Mar 2004 04:38:28 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

Subject: Rumsfeld and flying
From: Buzzer
Date: 3/6/04 8:31 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

On 07 Mar 2004 03:25:15 GMT, (BUFDRVR) wrote:

I find it interesting that Rumsfeld
was an instructor who had never been to combat.

It's hard for me to believe that you cannot conceptualize that not everyone
during times of combat operations sees action. I've got several good friends
who, through no fault of their own, have exactly *zero* combat hours. These
guys would have jumped on a jet for England or Diego Garcia in a heart beat,
but it wasn't thier job. What was there job? They were teaching brand new
navigators and co-pilots how to operate the B-52, a critical job considering
the drastic under manning we had (and have) in the B-52. You need to get it
out
of your thick head that what you were doing on a daily basis was the most
important job in the history of the world and anyone who wasn't doing it was
a
slackard.

I know I'm wasting my time here....why do I bother?

Your good friends were a bunch of slackers. Everyone knows all you
have to do is volunteer for combat and off you go. An even worse
situation is if an instructor doesn't have combat time all the
trainees will not respect them.
The more I think about it I wonder if the combat veterans in WWII
pulled a reverse Vietnam war situation. When they returned home they
spit on the civilians that stayed stateside doing useless things like
building Arts aircraft, building bombs and ammo, ect..?


You are not far wrong. Most of those who built our planes and ammo were woman
and old men and high school kids. Damn few who could go to war stayed behind,

Did any of your relatives stay behind in WWII Art?
Did they all see combat?
How many of your relatives served during the Civil War, and wars after
that? All of them in combat?

And when we all came back and found that someone our age got a deferment for
any reason other than physical we did nott ake kindly to them But those were
different times with obviously different standards.

Really Art it isn't much different today. It is still the I was in
combat and you weren't from the Korean war, Vietnam, etc. I believe
it is one of the reasons veterans can't get together and present a
united front like AARP and the senior citizens. One of the reasons the
goverment can walk all over veterans and retired military and get away
with it..

And when we all came back and found that someone our age got a deferment
for
any reason other than physical we did nott ake kindly to them But those
were
different times with obviously different standards.

Really Art it isn't much different today.

Well, I won't speak for the other services, but in the USAF, the guys/gals left
behind aren't treated any differently than those who went. The only minor
difference is the guys who went have a few more tales to tell at the bar. Why
would I possibly look down upon a guy who didn't go to combat through no fault
of his own? I missed out on DESERT STRIKE in 1996 because I was home on leave
and it was a "come as you are" operation that was 80 hours from notification to
weapons launch. Was it my fault I missed out? No, just bad timing. In 1998 I
was also a victim of poor timing. I had just returned from upgrading to
aircraft commander in November and by mid-December I was *nearly* finished with
mission qualification training.....when Clinton ordered Operation DESERT FOX.
Once again, through no fault of my own, 75% of my squadron picked up and left
for the Indian Ocean. Not only did the guys who go not look down on me when
they got back, they made a point not to discuss the operation around me because
they knew it had killed me not to go. Since then, I haven't missed a combat
operation involving BUFFs and don't think any less of those who have.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"