An Officer.......

But now *this* example goes totally against your "three rules of
officership."

Backpedaling now, are we?

Steve Swartz

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: An Officer.......
From: (QDurham)
Date: 2/24/04 10:32 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Let me give you another example. We show up at our plane before a
mission. I
do
the mandatory pre-flight inspection and find that the arming wires in
the
bomb
bay are poorly isntalled. I turn to one of the gunners and say, "Sgt.
Get
in
that jeep and go to the ammo dump and get an ordnance man our here to
reinstall these arming wires properly." He says," I don't know sir, they
don't
look all that bad to me.. And it is a long way to the dump.And those
ordnance
guys really get ****ed if you bug them like that. Why don't we just fly
the
mission. It will probably be OK".

Now that never happened. But if it did that gunner wouild be removed
from
our
crew. We wouldn't have him fly with us on Willie the Wolf. He would
probably
be
removed form the base never to be seen again. And when you inquired
about
what
happened to him, no one would seem to know. What do you think happened
to
him?
Any idea?

Want some more examples?

.

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Art, you are so damn right. Been there. Done that. Preflight
Pensacola.
You
are so correct. Sic 'em!

Quent



On our crew any order given by our pilot was immediately carried out
without
question. He was a good pilot and a good leader and knew what he was
doing.
There were times when we came home from missions with battle damage and S
/Sgt
Greigo engineer giunner (tail) would be up all night working with the crew
chief on the repairs. In the morning we would ask Greigo if Willie was ok.
If
he said no, we wouldn't fly her no matter what the crew chief said. If he
gave
us a thumbs up we would haveWillie in the air that day. So we worked
together
as a crew. But no member of our crew ever once did anything less than
follow
orders as they were given. It was the way we were trained and it was the
way we
flew. And we did it with pride and professionalism.

Once the breakout was made British and Canadian troops
advanced just as quickly as anyone else.

According to the last book I read ("Operation Cobra" by Bill Yenne
ISBN:0-7434-5882-6) there really was no "break out" in the north and the
Canucks and British didn't move anywhere near as fast as the US First or Third
Armies. At one point, Third Army was advancing *90 miles* a day. Many of the
reasons the Canuck/Brit advance were slower, you've already mentioned.


BUFDRVR

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

You would have ytaken ithe bomb on the mision even though you knew you
couldn't hit a damn thing with i? Remember we risked our lives to get that
bomb over the target in the heavily defended Ruhr valley. If you
wouwd have taken that bad bomb, I dont think you had the stuff to make it
on
our crew.

With your CEP, it wouldn't have made a difference, in fact that weapon may have
been *closer* than any other due to compensating errors.


BUFDRVR

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

"SIr, I know its bent but not too baldy it;ll be ok". I said, "
get thaa bomb out of here, get bacl to the Bomb dump and bring us a
replacement
in good condition NOW"

I've no doubt that those were your exact words, I've also no doubt that you
were screaming them at him. I wonder why you couldn't have tried the following;
"I know you've been bustin' your back all night sarge, but our target for today
is XX factory in the Ruhr and its pretty well defended, I'd sure hate to get
all the way their and basically throw 1 of my 8 weapons away". (Violating Rule
#3 of Art Kramer's "Great officer rules"-explaining). Chances are the Sgt.
would have agreed with your assesment, headed back to the bomb dump and brought
you the newest, cleanest weapon there.

I blew. "get, get you ass back
and bring me a good bomb or I'll have your ass in the stockade".

Violating BUFDRVR's #1 "Great officer rules" by losing your composure in front
of a subordinate.


BUFDRVR

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

"BUFDRVR" wrote

Violating BUFDRVR's #1 "Great officer rules" by losing your composure in front
of a subordinate.

I was at the PX today buying a soda-pop and a car magazine, waiting in line. There
was two cashiers, so I positioned myself to get the first one that opened. Stupid me,
this African-American one-stripe gomer shot past my port side, and took-up position
on the now opened cashier. The cashier, who was about as shocked as I was, told
the guy that I was next, and not him!

Now, in my old days, he would have been bleeding on the floor right after he zipped
on by, but through counseling and worship, I remarked to the cashier, that I was
proud to stand aside for our new General.

Everyone laughed, and we all went on our way. No ambulance or MP's were
needed :-)