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#51
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"Kevin Brooks" wrote:
Since you still apparently have the use of your typing fingers, the obvious answer to that is, "Not very." Brooks Well done... (...my stomach!...my stomach!!...) -- -Gord. |
#52
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"George Z. Bush" wrote I could provide a list of people who fit that bill who come from both sides of the aisle and, I, like you, have a problem with them. BTW, as a sub-category, I gather that you don't have a problem with military people who one way or the other avoided the possibility of serving in a combat theater? Mr. Rumsfeld might find his name on my list there, not because he never got there, but rather because he didn't try when he could have as opposed to how hawkish and war-like he became subsequently when he was quite safely entrenched behind a desk in Washington, D. C. or a Naval Reserve outfit in the Washington suburbs. There is a whole group of then-active duty fighter pilots who did not participate in Desert Storm. Let us look at one of those pilots. This person is running for Congressman in 2004. It is public knowledge that candidate Joe Cool served in the Air Force from 1986-1992 as an F-16 pilot. Indeed, he served with distinction, often earning top scores in competition. He left the Air Force in 1992 to pursue a political career, rising from city council to being the leading Republican candidate in his state. On leaving active duty, he was transferred to the Inactive Reserves. He is strong on defense issues, and it will be a tight race. The subject of his 'combat record' comes up. It is leaked by the opposition party that candidate Joe Cool, while having served honorably, failed to actually fly any missions during the biggest military action of his time, Desert Storm. This was a was in which most of the Air Force participated, indeed 8 out of 10 pilots in the theater to which he was assigned (USAFE), went and fought. After the war, after the shooting stopped, he flew a few 'support missions' over northern Iraq before leaving active duty. Why did Joe Cool not fly alongside his brothers? After all, he was a fully qualified F-16 pilot, a senior O-3. Flight lead, squadron safety officer. Why was he not flying missions over Iraq when there were other pilots being targeted with SAM's and AAA, some of them even being shot down? How can he be so hawkish now, when previously he avoided combat? Why was he performing such safe, mundane desk duties as squadron safety officer when other pilots were being shot down? Was there some influence by a family benefactor to keep him out of combat? Or maybe something more sinister? He *is* a stockholder in Exxon and Halliburton, after all. Or maybe, the reason he didn't fly combat in Desert Storm was because no one else from his base did either. He was stationed at Ramstein AB, Germany at the time, and the 86FW (F-16 C/D), unique among USAFE fighter Wings, sent zero aircraft and pilots to fly in Desert Storm. The pilots were *****ed*. But somebody had to stay behind and 'guard Europe'. You don't always get to choose/volunteer, and the needs of the military outweigh... Pete Capt. Joe Cool is obviously a fictional character. Ramstein is not. |
#53
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Kevin Brooks wrote:
"ArtKramr" wrote in message You are not far wrong. Most of those who built our planes and ammo were woman and old men and high school kids. No, they were not. That may be *your* twisted perception of reality, but it is no more correct than your recent ludicrous pronouncements about the National Guard during WWII. "In 1944 there were 104,450,000 people over 14. Of that total 65,140,000 were in the labor force either as workers or in the military and 38,590,000 were not in the labor force (down less than 4 million from 1940). There were 46,520,000 males in the labor force including the military, of whom 35,460,000 were in the civilian workforce and 19,170,000 women in the civilian workforce." www.ndu.edu/inss/McNair/mcnair50/m50c13n.html The male civilian workforce vastly outnumbered the women workforce (about two to one), and the fact of the matter is that the majority of those males would have had to have fallen into the age group which would have been eligable for military service (if not the draft). Like my old Scoutmaster, a skilled machinist prior to the war. Born in 1916, he was given a draft deferment because he was considered essential to war production, as he was working for Douglas (and later North American) building tooling jigs for DC-3s and then B-25s. In 1945 as a/c production was winding down, his deferment was removed. He was in basic when the bomb was dropped, and then spent his service time in the army of occupation in Germany. But even there, the Army was smart enough to take advantage of his skills rather than just sticking him in the infantry or some other unskilled position; they assigned him to an ordnance company, where he maintained and repaired weapons until he was demobilized a year or so later. Numerous other job categories were exempt or deferred, such as most merchant seamen -- see http://www.usmm.org/draft.html Here's a list of classifications I was able to find: 1A: fit for general active military service. 1B: fit for limited military service. 1C: member of the armed forces. 1D: students fit for general military service. 1E: students fit for limited military service. IIA: deferred for critical civilian work/occupational deferment. IIIA: deferred due to dependents. IVA: already served in the armed forces. another site states: age deferred. IVB: deferred by law, i. e. draft officials. IVC: enemy alien, i. e.: Japanese-American citizens IVD: ministers IVE: conscientious objector IVF: physically, mentally, or morally unfit for service. Presumably my scoutmaster would have been classified IIA, then reclassified 1A in 1945. Guy |
#54
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"D. Strang" wrote in message news:bSx2c.10362$m4.4748@okepread03... | "BUFDRVR" wrote | | 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. | | I used to fly with a navigator who had .5 combat hours. He got it on the way | to Thailand in a C-141 during the Vietnam war. | | It's just phenomenal the amount of **** in Art's brain. | | Being an Instructor has very little to do with combat. Many combat vets | take awhile before they can become effective teachers. They tend to be | perfectionists, and are used to crews who are their peers. Once back at | the training center, the pace and mistakes cause them to wash students | out. We had one guy who washed his first three students out, and the | board reinstated all of them with a new instructor. The bad instructor | was sent packing. | | OK guys, I've been following this discussion (and others) for a while now. I've noticed a fair amount of frustration in both sides of the argument that's drifting into personal invective. Can we all remember that Art is one of us, he's a regular here ? Whether you agree with him or not, perhaps we can all treat him with the respect due to any senior citizen, any veteran and any gentleman that we meet somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to call a spade a spade when some no-name coward chucks **** at someone here, for no real reason, but some of the comments that have been flying around in this discussion, simply show no respect. I guess I'd like us to seperate what he's saying from who is sayng it and treat Art with a little more courtesy, as is his due. In turn, Art can take a deeper breath and do the same. Thank you gentlemen Dave Kearton |
#55
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Subject: Rumsfeld and flying
From: Guy Alcala Date: 3/6/04 9:59 PM Pacific Presumably my scoutmaster would have been classified IIA, then reclassified 1A in 1945. Guy If you have to be classified 1a, 1945 is a good time for it. Arthur Kramer 344th BG 494th BS England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer |
#56
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Subject: Rumsfeld and flying
From: "Pete" Date: 3/6/04 9:51 PM Pacific Standard Time Message-id: wLy2c.2040$iy.1385@fe2 You don't always get to choose/volunteer, and the needs of the military outweigh... The Marines who stormed the beaches of the pacific got what they volunteered for., The airborne that held Bastogne got what they volunteered for. The Air Corps that took devastating losses over Berlin and Ploesti got what they volunteered for., The Suubmariners got what they volunteered for. Maybe some of those who didn't volunteer didn't try hard enough. Think that is a possibility? Arthur Kramer 344th BG 494th BS England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer |
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"ArtKramr" wrote The Marines who stormed the beaches of the pacific got what they volunteered for., The airborne that held Bastogne got what they volunteered for. The Air Corps that took devastating losses over Berlin and Ploesti got what they volunteered for., The Suubmariners got what they volunteered for. Maybe some of those who didn't volunteer didn't try hard enough. Think that is a possibility? Not in the situation I laid, out, no. Higher HQ says go, you go. If they say stay here and do other stuff, that's what you do. You follow orders. There is no AF Form or procedure called "I want to go" except for going on active duty in the first place. The wing in question was the only one in USAFE to not send any jets/pilots/maintainers. There was no question of 'volunteering'. We were already on active duty. And we *all* wanted to go. Similarly, not everyone on active duty during Vietnam saw action in SEA. There was still a mission several thousand miles away in Germany/England/Holland/Korea/Japan to handle. Pete |
#58
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ArtKramr wrote:
Subject: Rumsfeld and flying From: Guy Alcala Date: 3/6/04 9:59 PM Pacific Presumably my scoutmaster would have been classified IIA, then reclassified 1A in 1945. Guy If you have to be classified 1a, 1945 is a good time for it. Sure was, although they didn't know that at the time. He would have undoubtably wound up going to Japan if the war hadn't ended, although he still would have been in ordnance or a similar field where his skills were required. Guy |
#59
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In article ,
Guy Alcala wrote: Kevin Brooks wrote: "ArtKramr" wrote in message You are not far wrong. Most of those who built our planes and ammo were woman and old men and high school kids. No, they were not. That may be *your* twisted perception of reality, but it is no more correct than your recent ludicrous pronouncements about the National Guard during WWII. "In 1944 there were 104,450,000 people over 14. Of that total 65,140,000 were in the labor force either as workers or in the military and 38,590,000 were not in the labor force (down less than 4 million from 1940). There were 46,520,000 males in the labor force including the military, of whom 35,460,000 were in the civilian workforce and 19,170,000 women in the civilian workforce." www.ndu.edu/inss/McNair/mcnair50/m50c13n.html The male civilian workforce vastly outnumbered the women workforce (about two to one), and the fact of the matter is that the majority of those males would have had to have fallen into the age group which would have been eligable for military service (if not the draft). Like my old Scoutmaster, a skilled machinist prior to the war. Born in 1916, he was given a draft deferment because he was considered essential to war production, as he was working for Douglas (and later North American) building tooling jigs for DC-3s and then B-25s. In 1945 as a/c production was winding down, his deferment was removed. He was in basic when the bomb was dropped, and then spent his service time in the army of occupation in Germany. But even there, the Army was smart enough to take advantage of his skills rather than just sticking him in the infantry or some other unskilled position; they assigned him to an ordnance company, where he maintained and repaired weapons until he was demobilized a year or so later. Numerous other job categories were exempt or deferred, such as most merchant seamen -- see http://www.usmm.org/draft.html Here's a list of classifications I was able to find: 1A: fit for general active military service. 1B: fit for limited military service. 1C: member of the armed forces. 1D: students fit for general military service. 1E: students fit for limited military service. 1O: conscientious objector [refused to serve on religious/moral grounds] 1AO: "conscientious cooperator" [would serve as medic, etc.]* IIA: deferred for critical civilian work/occupational deferment. IIIA: deferred due to dependents. IVA: already served in the armed forces. another site states: age deferred. IVB: deferred by law, i. e. draft officials. IVC: enemy alien, i. e.: Japanese-American citizens IVD: ministers IVE: conscientious objector IVF: physically, mentally, or morally unfit for service. * at least one MOH recipient was 1AO; Desmond T. Doss, in Okinawa. |
#60
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Kevin Brooks wrote:
"George Z. Bush" wrote in message ... "Ed Rasimus" wrote in message ... On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 16:38:43 -0500, "George Z. Bush" wrote: If you will return to my comments, you will see that I never in any way found fault with the fact that he was able to and did in fact pursue a complete military career in the Reserve forces right up through retirement. However, snide remarks about red herrings aside, this'd be the appropriate place to repeat my question. Are you suggesting that a Navy 0-4 or 0-5 on flying status during the period from say 1968 through 1975, who is as gung ho a warrior as our present Sec/Def obviously is, could not have found a way to make a more direct contribution to our war effort in Viet Nam if he had wanted to than by staying current in the active Reserves? That suggestion is insulting to the numerous Reserve and ANG fliers who managed to find their way into active units committed to prosecuting that war, some of whom were undoubtedly in your own unit at one time or another. So, S2F pilots are a critical resource and a Navy reservist who is serving in Congress should resign his seat, request activation and go drone around the boat. That simply doesn't make sense. He resigned his Congressional seat in 1969, so amend my time span to read from 1969 through 1975. Did you mean to say "drone around the boat" or was that just a figure of speech or slip of the tongue? Are you suggesting that our Senator from Arizona ended up in the Hanoi Hilton, along with numerous other Navy pilots, because they got lost shooting touch and go's off their carriers? Characterizing their contributions as "droning around the boat" is a put down, and I hope you didn't really intend it that way. Uhmm..that Senator from Arizona was not flying S2F's, either, was he? Nobody said anything about specific equipment qualifications. We all are aware, or should be, that people transitioned from one type of equipment to another quite commonly, as the needs of the services demanded. ......Ed's point stands, while you are heading off in another direction. Funny, I had the impression that you were the one wandering off in another direction. If you can serve in Congress and still meet Reserve qualifications you are both contributing to the nation and helping the defense establishment. Can't see how that's any sort of strike against the man. I concede that, so let's limit the discussion to when he was no longer a Congressman. And pray tell how, if he *was* still in a flight status (I don't think he was--USNR types often give up their primary specialty when they leave active duty and enter into the reserve realm due to their location, or the lack of reserve billets in their particular specialty; my brother-in-law left active duty as a submariner and served his reserve career out without ever again doing any duty on a sub), how would he have been able to get an active duty tour in Vietnam (or environs) flying an aircraft that was not essential to the war effort, protecting against a North Vietnamese threat that did not exist (i.e., they had no submarines for him to hunt)? But, we can certainly find a lot of SecDefs on both sides of the political spectrum without ANY spit-shined brogans in their closet--dare I mention Les Aspin, Robert Strange McNamara, Robert Cohen, etc? Talk about red herrings. I see you're not reluctant to toss a few around when it suits your purpose. By way of comparison, how many of those you just mentioned were Reserve or ANG fliers on flying status during whatever wars they were involved in supervising? That would be a valid comparison.....what you just did was toss our a bunch of apples and dared us to compare them with an orange. Not the same thing, and you know it. My point was that if we are setting criteria for SecDefs, we should acknowledge that a lot of folks held the job with absolutely no military experience at all. None of those I just mentioned were Reserve or ANG fliers, which was precisely my point. We are not setting criteria for SecDefs....we are talking about one in particular who's quite hawkish these days but apparently was far from that in those days. AAMOF, if you look into what others have reported of comments made by Nixon and members of his staff about Rumsfeld, they apparently considered him far too dovish in those days to suit their tastes. Having served his active duty committment, and then going on to serve the rest of his career in the USNR, makes his somehow "far from hawkish"? That is an illogical statement. It returns to the issue about whether there is a relationship between active and reserve component service, between officer and enlisted service, between peacetime and wartime service, between combat and combat support service, between home base and deployed service, etc. etc. Well, maybe that's what you want to use as a basis for arguing, but I'm not in the mood for fish tonight, so I guess I'll pass. Why? You have already strongly inferred that his prior active duty service, coupled with his subsequent reserve service, is somehow lacking. So why not have the balls to jump all of the way into the water and say it? I don't recall that I made any kind of point about it piquing my curiosity. What of it? Is it not permitted for some reason? In plain English, some Nixon staffers (if not Nixon himself) considered him a dove during the war while the shooting was going on, and now he's clearly a hawk and running the show. The dichotomy certainly does interest me, not to mention the timing of the change. Some people got to see the elephant and some didn't. I was there involuntarily the first time and got to see more of it than many, but not as much as some. I was voluntarily there the second time, but will quite honestly tell you that it wasn't about patriotism. I've got no problem with people who served but didn't get to go downtown. Am I out of line asking, then, how you feel about the criticism of Kerry over his service in the theater, very often from people who weren't anywhere near Viet Nam when the shooting was going on? Any defense for his contributions, whatever they were? Or doesn't that count as downtown? Kerry's personal service, and the manner in which he obtained his early return from his combat tour, would never have been a subject of discussion had not he himself tried to impugn the Guard service of the current President. When he did that, he opened the door to the questions of just how he received not one, not two, but three seperate flesh wounds, That'd be three more than the President, or anybody half a world away, got. .....and how he actively worked to secure his own early return from the theater under a Navy rule that stated an individual who had suffered three wounds of *any* severity level could be returned from the theater, "after consideration of his physical classification for duty and on an individual basis". It was not a hard-set three wounds and you are out policy. Now how does that wording apply to a guy who suffered a grand total of what, one or two lost duty days for *one* of his three wounds? He satisfied the published rotation requirements. Anybody who thought they were too generous did a disservice to his fellow servicemen by failing to bring it up at the time. .....Not to mention the question of whether or not Kerry himself actually performed any reserve duty after his later (again early) release from active duty. As to his contributions...is that what you call his testifying that US troops were conducting widespread atrocities (using a speech drafted by RFK's former speechwriter, no less, and based upon the since discredited, and Jane Fonda sponsored, "Winter Soldier Investigation" "testimony") and criminal acts, accusations which were never validated even after further investigation by the services? Never heard of My Lai, I guess. I remember reading stories in the press at the time about GIs cutting off the ears of dead VC for mementos. As for his testimony, he testified only as to so-called atrocities that he had heard other servicemen testify to under oath, along with his personally taking part in free fire zone operations, which he considered to be an atrocity. As for reserve duty after his early release, I don't remember it being questioned.....I imagine he did about the same as Bush did when he got out of the Texas ANG early. .....I do have a problem with people who aggressively avoided any kind of service, I could provide a list of people who fit that bill who come from both sides of the aisle and, I, like you, have a problem with them. BTW, as a sub-category, I gather that you don't have a problem with military people who one way or the other avoided the possibility of serving in a combat theater? Mr. Rumsfeld might find his name on my list there, not because he never got there, but rather because he didn't try when he could have as opposed to how hawkish and war-like he became subsequently when he was quite safely entrenched behind a desk in Washington, D. C. or a Naval Reserve outfit in the Washington suburbs. By then he was a reservist who had already done his turn in the active duty barrel. You get no points for that attack. That doesn't matter in the least, since that is precisely the point.....that he could have even as a reservist but didn't. Becoming a hawk isn't hard when you know that you won't have to expose yourself to the potentially painful possibility of having to pay the price. .....with people who undermined their brothers-in-arms, I think we can admit to a difference of opinion there. I don't consider people who attempted to shut down a war that apparently could not be won as undermining their brothers-in-arm when, in fact, they were only attempting to save the lives of those of their brethren still engaged in a losing war. I wasn't one of them at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight, I can see where I was wrong and they were right. Whoah. Firstly, Kerry's conversion to raving anti-Vietnam critic came only after he found he needed an "issue" that would get him some publicity--read BG Burkett's "Stolen Valor", published (1998) well before the current political campaign began: "Kerry did not return from Vietnam a radical antiwar activist. Friends said that when Kerry first began talking about running for office, he was not visibly agitated about the Vietnam War. "I thought of him as a rather normal vet," a friend said to a reporter, "glad to be out but not terribly uptight about the war." Another acquaintance who talked to Kerry about his political ambitions called him "a very charismatic fellow looking for a good issue." Given his flip-flop on the medals-tossing issue ("They weren't really mine"), this adds up to a man with political ambitions who jumped on the VVAW bandwagon as a way of getting himself recognized, not because he came home with a burning ambition to get US troops out of Vietnam. Had the latter been his objective, why did he resort to making unsubstantiated claims about widespread atrocities? I don't think the claims he made were unsubstantiated, since they were all based on sworn tesitimony of returned servicemen who had either participated in those activities or had observed others doing those things. As for it being widespread, I think that would be your characterization of it, not his. Show me a transcript where he's quoted as saying that everybody was doing that sort of stuff. I don't think one exists, but take a stab at it if you think it's worth the effort. ....And why did he have that speechwriter draft his testimony? I don't know why he would do that, if in fact he did. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure that what he said would be accurate, and not colored by the emotional strain of giving such testimony. .......and with people who claim to be something that they are not. (Those aren't all the same person in any of my statements.) And there's another category of people whose names would fill our list and who come from both sides of the aisle. Is there any point in pursuing that? George Z. |
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