On 3 Jul 2003 07:52:33 -0700, (Kevin Brooks)
wrote:

I recall watching an interview of a US fighter pilot who served in the
ETO. He remarked as to how he had once returned from a mission in a
rather surly mood and sanpped at his eager crewchief that the aircraft
was not even clean. I watched this old vet crying outloud as he then
recounted going out the next morning and finding his crewchief
standing beside a spotless and completely rubbed down P-51 (IIRC), and
seeing the man's hands chapped and bleeding from his efforts over the
course of that apparently winter night. He said he decided then that
he had been a fool and to never again belittle the efforts of those
guys who supported him. Too bad that Art never learned that lesson.

Thanks for those examples. Most of the veterans I have spoken to or
interviewed seemed well in touch with the greater human issues
involved in war, and it's rare to find ones with such axes to grind on
then-unborn generations sixty years on. It probably doesn't merit
such attention, but it is fascinating to see how Art returns to the
same hobby horses, five years on. Only now the "wannabes" have
expanded from civilian warbird restorers to become anybody who
disagrees with his arrogant and egotistical dismissals of everybody
else who fought before him or elsewhere in the same war effort.

I've been reading and posting to this group intermittantly over the
same period, and I've seen him do it before, but it seems his
reflexive hostility is getting worse. He has previously (albeit
infrequently) made qualifications between his experience and that of
others. I'm fairly certain he avoids publically recognising when his
reaction has been appropriate or inaccurate, which takes me back to
the troll position.

Beside that, his impugning my motives for posting evidence of my
relative's experiences in the war which contradicted his assertions,
and his hypocrisy over the use of written records, are simply petty.

Mind you, on that level, if you look hard enough, you can find some
really special contradictions:

"What you read may be more accurate." - Art Kramer, 30 April 1998.

Almost worth a new signature file, I think. But enough of the
playground games for now.

Gavin Bailey


--

"...this level of misinformation suggests some Americans may be
avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance."
- 'Poll shows errors in beliefs on Iraq, 9/11'
The Charlotte Observer, 20th June 2003