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Bush and I in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from 1970 to 1971. (my title)
COL. WILLIAM CAMPENNI (retired) open public letter to Washington Times | 8/24/2004 | A Navy Vet

Posted on 08/24/2004 3:06:29 PM PDT by A Navy Vet

Letters to the Editor

'Bush and I were lieutenants'
George Bush and I were lieutenants and pilots in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), Texas Air National Guard (ANG) from 1970 to 1971. We had the same flight and squadron commanders (Maj. William Harris and Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, both now deceased). While we were not part of the same social circle outside the base, we were in the same fraternity of fighter pilots, and proudly wore the same squadron patch.

It is quite frustrating to hear the daily cacophony from the left and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, et al., about Lt. Bush escaping his military responsibilities by hiding in the Texas ANG. In the Air Guard during the Vietnam War, you were always subject to call-up, as many Air National Guardsmen are finding out today. If the 111th FIS and Lt. Bush did not go to Vietnam, blame President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, not lowly Lt. Bush. They deliberately avoided use of the Guard and Reserves for domestic political calculations, knowing that a draftee only stirred up the concerns of one family, while a call-up got a whole community's attention.

The mission of the 147th Fighter Group and its subordinate 111th FIS, Texas ANG, and the airplane it possessed, the F-102, was air defense. It was focused on defending the continental United States from Soviet nuclear bombers. The F-102 could not drop bombs and would have been useless in Vietnam. A pilot program using ANG volunteer pilots in F-102s (called Palace Alert) was scrapped quickly after the airplane proved to be unsuitable to the war effort. Ironically, Lt. Bush did inquire about this program but was advised by an ANG supervisor (Maj. Maurice Udell, retired) that he did not have the desired experience (500 hours) at the time and that the program was winding down and not accepting more volunteers.

If you check the 111th FIS records of 1970-72 and any other ANG squadron, you will find other pilots excused for career obligations and conflicts. The Bush excusal in 1972 was further facilitated by a change in the unit's mission, from an operational fighter squadron to a training squadron with a new airplane, the F-101, which required that more pilots be available for full-time instructor duty rather than part-time traditional reservists with outside employment.

The winding down of the Vietnam War in 1971 provided a flood of exiting active-duty pilots for these instructor jobs, making part-timers like Lt. Bush and me somewhat superfluous. There was a huge glut of pilots in the Air Force in 1972, and with no cockpits available to put them in, many were shoved into nonflying desk jobs. Any pilot could have left the Air Force or the Air Guard with ease after 1972 before his commitment was up because there just wasn't room for all of them anymore.

Sadly, few of today's partisan pundits know anything about the environment of service in the Reserves in the 1970s. The image of a reservist at that time is of one who joined, went off for six months' basic training, then came back and drilled weekly or monthly at home, with two weeks of "summer camp." With the knowledge that Mr. Johnson and Mr. McNamara were not going to call out the Reserves, it did become a place of refuge for many wanting to avoid Vietnam.

There was one big exception to this abusive use of the Guard to avoid the draft, and that was for those who wanted to fly, as pilots or crew members. Because of the training required, signing up for this duty meant up to 2½ years of active duty for training alone, plus a high probability of mobilization. A fighter-pilot candidate selected by the Guard (such as Lt. Bush and me) would be spending the next two years on active duty going through basic training (six weeks), flight training (one year), survival training (two weeks) and combat crew training for his aircraft (six to nine months), followed by local checkout (up to three more months) before he was even deemed combat-ready. Because the draft was just two years, you sure weren't getting out of duty being an Air Guard pilot. If the unit to which you were going back was an F-100, you were mobilized for Vietnam. Avoiding service? Yeah, tell that to those guys.

The Bush critics do not comprehend the dangers of fighter aviation at any time or place, in Vietnam or at home, when they say other such pilots were risking their lives or even dying while Lt. Bush was in Texas. Our Texas ANG unit lost several planes right there in Houston during Lt. Bush's tenure, with fatalities. Just strapping on one of those obsolescing F-102s was risking one's life.

Critics such as Mr. Kerry (who served in Vietnam, you know), Terry McAuliffe and Michael Moore (neither of whom served anywhere) say Lt. Bush abandoned his assignment as a jet fighter pilot without explanation or authorization and was AWOL from the Alabama Air Guard.

Well, as for abandoning his assignment, this is untrue. Lt. Bush was excused for a period to take employment in Florida for a congressman and later in Alabama for a Senate campaign.

Excusals for employment were common then and are now in the Air Guard, as pilots frequently are in career transitions, and most commanders (as I later was) are flexible in letting their charges take care of career affairs until they return or transfer to another unit near their new employment. Sometimes they will transfer temporarily to another unit to keep them on the active list until they can return home. The receiving unit often has little use for a transitory member, especially in a high-skills category like a pilot, because those slots usually are filled and, if not filled, would require extensive conversion training of up to six months, an unlikely option for a temporary hire.

As a commander, I would put such "visitors" in some minor administrative post until they went back home. There even were a few instances when I was unaware that they were on my roster because the paperwork often lagged. Today, I can't even recall their names. If a Lt. Bush came into my unit to "pull drills" for a couple of months, I wouldn't be too involved with him because I would have a lot more important things on my table keeping the unit combat ready.

Another frequent charge is that, as a member of the Texas ANG, Lt. Bush twice ignored or disobeyed lawful orders, first by refusing to report for a required physical in the year when drug testing first became part of the exam, and second by failing to report for duty at the disciplinary unit in Colorado to which he had been ordered. Well, here are the facts:

First, there is no instance of Lt. Bush disobeying lawful orders in reporting for a physical, as none would be given. Pilots are scheduled for their annual flight physicals in their birth month during that month's weekend drill assembly — the only time the clinic is open. In the Reserves, it is not uncommon to miss this deadline by a month or so for a variety of reasons: The clinic is closed that month for special training; the individual is out of town on civilian business; etc.

If so, the pilot is grounded temporarily until he completes the physical. Also, the formal drug testing program was not instituted by the Air Force until the 1980s and is done randomly by lot, not as a special part of a flight physical, when one easily could abstain from drug use because of its date certain. Blood work is done, but to ensure a healthy pilot, not confront a drug user.

Second, there was no such thing as a "disciplinary unit in Colorado" to which Lt. Bush had been ordered. The Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver is a repository of the paperwork for those no longer assigned to a specific unit, such as retirees and transferees. Mine is there now, so I guess I'm "being disciplined." These "disciplinary units" just don't exist. Any discipline, if required, is handled within the local squadron, group or wing, administratively or judicially. Had there been such an infraction or court-martial action, there would be a record and a reflection in Lt. Bush's performance review and personnel folder. None exists, as was confirmed in The Washington Post in 2000.

Finally, the Kerrys, Moores and McAuliffes are casting a terrible slander on those who served in the Guard, then and now. My Guard career parallels Lt. Bush's, except that I stayed on for 33 years. As a guardsman, I even got to serve in two campaigns. In the Cold War, the air defense of the United States was borne primarily by the Air National Guard, by such people as Lt. Bush and me and a lot of others. Six of those with whom I served in those years never made their 30th birthdays because they died in crashes flying air-defense missions.

While most of America was sleeping and Mr. Kerry was playing antiwar games with Hanoi Jane Fonda, we were answering 3 a.m. scrambles for who knows what inbound threat over the Canadian subarctic, the cold North Atlantic and the shark-filled Gulf of Mexico. We were the pathfinders in showing that the Guard and Reserves could become reliable members of the first team in the total force, so proudly evidenced today in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It didn't happen by accident. It happened because back at the nadir of Guard fortunes in the early '70s, a lot of volunteer guardsman showed they were ready and able to accept the responsibilities of soldier and citizen — then and now. Lt. Bush was a kid whose congressman father encouraged him to serve in the Air National Guard. We served proudly in the Guard. Would that Mr. Kerry encourage his children and the children of his colleague senators and congressmen to serve now in the Guard.

In the fighter-pilot world, we have a phrase we use when things are starting to get out of hand and it's time to stop and reset before disaster strikes. We say, "Knock it off." So, Mr. Kerry and your friends who want to slander the Guard: Knock it off.

COL. WILLIAM CAMPENNI (retired)
U.S. Air Force/Air National Guard
Herndon, Va.5


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: airnationalguard; ang; bush; bushmilitaryrecord; campenni; gwb2004; tang
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To: A Navy Vet
"those aging aircraft were death traps"

That they were!  Most everything the National Guard had was hand-me-downs.  Many of our aircraft had mishaps due to age and the relative lack of proper maintenance.  I helped to fight an onboard fire once myself on an ANG aircraft.  Looking back, fear never entered my mind.  Panic was close, but being prior active duty before joining the Guard, and having well trained veterans among us, saved the day.  The guys with no prior service were nearly useless.

Still, the condition of National Guard equipment was not an issue during this period.  National Guard recruiters had no qualms in telling potential members they wouldn't have to worry about Viet Nam.  That's the way it was.  It would have been better if National Guard slots had been reserved for active duty veterans only.

That whole war stunk.  Not the men that served their country.  The government running the war was the source of the stink.

101 posted on 08/24/2004 5:47:34 PM PDT by backtothestreets
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To: dixiechick2000

I knew you would! ; ) If I could, I'd be a NASCAR mama, too!


102 posted on 08/24/2004 5:48:03 PM PDT by annyokie (Now with 20% More Infidel!)
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To: CyberAnt
But .. just because the AIRCRAFT was originally assigned to NY doesn't mean the AIRCRAFT stayed in NY.

You're not suggesting that the Texas ANG flew a jet with New York on it?

103 posted on 08/24/2004 5:50:32 PM PDT by Doe Eyes
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To: annyokie
Ain't nuthin' in the world like it.
You should give it a try.
You would NOT believe the rush.
BTW, it is a nondiscriminatory sport.
I finished first in my class of 12.
Three were pro off-road racers.
It was a hoot!
104 posted on 08/24/2004 5:52:46 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (President Bush is a mensch in cowboy boots.)
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To: Hollywoodghost
I rememer hearing that one of his nick names was "Data Boy". He appears to have been a font of arcane albeit sometimes useful information. He was and is no dummy and has in fact used the perception that he's "not all that bright" to out flank opponents throughout his political career.

I'd suspect he's used this strategy at least since his high school days at Andover where he became familiar with and developed a deep dislike for eastern elitist snobs. The fact that he's now running against a pampered overbearing pseudointellectual stuff shirt yankee is actually high irony. Personally I expect he will smilingly mop the floor with Kerry in the debates.

105 posted on 08/24/2004 5:53:16 PM PDT by katana (That'll be the day)
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To: dixiechick2000

btt


106 posted on 08/24/2004 5:53:29 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (Donate to the Swifties, once again serving the nation selflessly)
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To: katana

I remember how to spell "remember" but forgot to use spell check.


107 posted on 08/24/2004 5:54:25 PM PDT by katana (That'll be the day)
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To: A Navy Vet

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040210-082910-8424r.htm

Letters to the Editor




'Bush and I were lieutenants'
George Bush and I were lieutenants and pilots in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), Texas Air National Guard (ANG) from 1970 to 1971. We had the same flight and squadron commanders (Maj. William Harris and Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, both now deceased). While we were not part of the same social circle outside the base, we were in the same fraternity of fighter pilots, and proudly wore the same squadron patch.
It is quite frustrating to hear the daily cacophony from the left and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, et al., about Lt. Bush escaping his military responsibilities by hiding in the Texas ANG. In the Air Guard during the Vietnam War, you were always subject to call-up, as many Air National Guardsmen are finding out today. If the 111th FIS and Lt. Bush did not go to Vietnam, blame President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, not lowly Lt. Bush. They deliberately avoided use of the Guard and Reserves for domestic political calculations, knowing that a draftee only stirred up the concerns of one family, while a call-up got a whole community's attention.
The mission of the 147th Fighter Group and its subordinate 111th FIS, Texas ANG, and the airplane it possessed, the F-102, was air defense. It was focused on defending the continental United States from Soviet nuclear bombers. The F-102 could not drop bombs and would have been useless in Vietnam. A pilot program using ANG volunteer pilots in F-102s (called Palace Alert) was scrapped quickly after the airplane proved to be unsuitable to the war effort. Ironically, Lt. Bush did inquire about this program but was advised by an ANG supervisor (Maj. Maurice Udell, retired) that he did not have the desired experience (500 hours) at the time and that the program was winding down and not accepting more volunteers.
If you check the 111th FIS records of 1970-72 and any other ANG squadron, you will find other pilots excused for career obligations and conflicts. The Bush excusal in 1972 was further facilitated by a change in the unit's mission, from an operational fighter squadron to a training squadron with a new airplane, the F-101, which required that more pilots be available for full-time instructor duty rather than part-time traditional reservists with outside employment.
The winding down of the Vietnam War in 1971 provided a flood of exiting active-duty pilots for these instructor jobs, making part-timers like Lt. Bush and me somewhat superfluous. There was a huge glut of pilots in the Air Force in 1972, and with no cockpits available to put them in, many were shoved into nonflying desk jobs. Any pilot could have left the Air Force or the Air Guard with ease after 1972 before his commitment was up because there just wasn't room for all of them anymore.
Sadly, few of today's partisan pundits know anything about the environment of service in the Reserves in the 1970s. The image of a reservist at that time is of one who joined, went off for six months' basic training, then came back and drilled weekly or monthly at home, with two weeks of "summer camp." With the knowledge that Mr. Johnson and Mr. McNamara were not going to call out the Reserves, it did become a place of refuge for many wanting to avoid Vietnam.
There was one big exception to this abusive use of the Guard to avoid the draft, and that was for those who wanted to fly, as pilots or crew members. Because of the training required, signing up for this duty meant up to 2½ years of active duty for training alone, plus a high probability of mobilization. A fighter-pilot candidate selected by the Guard (such as Lt. Bush and me) would be spending the next two years on active duty going through basic training (six weeks), flight training (one year), survival training (two weeks) and combat crew training for his aircraft (six to nine months), followed by local checkout (up to three more months) before he was even deemed combat-ready. Because the draft was just two years, you sure weren't getting out of duty being an Air Guard pilot. If the unit to which you were going back was an F-100, you were mobilized for Vietnam. Avoiding service? Yeah, tell that to those guys.
The Bush critics do not comprehend the dangers of fighter aviation at any time or place, in Vietnam or at home, when they say other such pilots were risking their lives or even dying while Lt. Bush was in Texas. Our Texas ANG unit lost several planes right there in Houston during Lt. Bush's tenure, with fatalities. Just strapping on one of those obsolescing F-102s was risking one's life.
Critics such as Mr. Kerry (who served in Vietnam, you know), Terry McAuliffe and Michael Moore (neither of whom served anywhere) say Lt. Bush abandoned his assignment as a jet fighter pilot without explanation or authorization and was AWOL from the Alabama Air Guard.
Well, as for abandoning his assignment, this is untrue. Lt. Bush was excused for a period to take employment in Florida for a congressman and later in Alabama for a Senate campaign.
Excusals for employment were common then and are now in the Air Guard, as pilots frequently are in career transitions, and most commanders (as I later was) are flexible in letting their charges take care of career affairs until they return or transfer to another unit near their new employment. Sometimes they will transfer temporarily to another unit to keep them on the active list until they can return home. The receiving unit often has little use for a transitory member, especially in a high-skills category like a pilot, because those slots usually are filled and, if not filled, would require extensive conversion training of up to six months, an unlikely option for a temporary hire.
As a commander, I would put such "visitors" in some minor administrative post until they went back home. There even were a few instances when I was unaware that they were on my roster because the paperwork often lagged. Today, I can't even recall their names. If a Lt. Bush came into my unit to "pull drills" for a couple of months, I wouldn't be too involved with him because I would have a lot more important things on my table keeping the unit combat ready.
Another frequent charge is that, as a member of the Texas ANG, Lt. Bush twice ignored or disobeyed lawful orders, first by refusing to report for a required physical in the year when drug testing first became part of the exam, and second by failing to report for duty at the disciplinary unit in Colorado to which he had been ordered. Well, here are the facts:
First, there is no instance of Lt. Bush disobeying lawful orders in reporting for a physical, as none would be given. Pilots are scheduled for their annual flight physicals in their birth month during that month's weekend drill assembly — the only time the clinic is open. In the Reserves, it is not uncommon to miss this deadline by a month or so for a variety of reasons: The clinic is closed that month for special training; the individual is out of town on civilian business; etc.
If so, the pilot is grounded temporarily until he completes the physical. Also, the formal drug testing program was not instituted by the Air Force until the 1980s and is done randomly by lot, not as a special part of a flight physical, when one easily could abstain from drug use because of its date certain. Blood work is done, but to ensure a healthy pilot, not confront a drug user.
Second, there was no such thing as a "disciplinary unit in Colorado" to which Lt. Bush had been ordered. The Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver is a repository of the paperwork for those no longer assigned to a specific unit, such as retirees and transferees. Mine is there now, so I guess I'm "being disciplined." These "disciplinary units" just don't exist. Any discipline, if required, is handled within the local squadron, group or wing, administratively or judicially. Had there been such an infraction or court-martial action, there would be a record and a reflection in Lt. Bush's performance review and personnel folder. None exists, as was confirmed in The Washington Post in 2000.
Finally, the Kerrys, Moores and McAuliffes are casting a terrible slander on those who served in the Guard, then and now. My Guard career parallels Lt. Bush's, except that I stayed on for 33 years. As a guardsman, I even got to serve in two campaigns. In the Cold War, the air defense of the United States was borne primarily by the Air National Guard, by such people as Lt. Bush and me and a lot of others. Six of those with whom I served in those years never made their 30th birthdays because they died in crashes flying air-defense missions.
While most of America was sleeping and Mr. Kerry was playing antiwar games with Hanoi Jane Fonda, we were answering 3 a.m. scrambles for who knows what inbound threat over the Canadian subarctic, the cold North Atlantic and the shark-filled Gulf of Mexico. We were the pathfinders in showing that the Guard and Reserves could become reliable members of the first team in the total force, so proudly evidenced today in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It didn't happen by accident. It happened because back at the nadir of Guard fortunes in the early '70s, a lot of volunteer guardsman showed they were ready and able to accept the responsibilities of soldier and citizen — then and now. Lt. Bush was a kid whose congressman father encouraged him to serve in the Air National Guard. We served proudly in the Guard. Would that Mr. Kerry encourage his children and the children of his colleague senators and congressmen to serve now in the Guard.
In the fighter-pilot world, we have a phrase we use when things are starting to get out of hand and it's time to stop and reset before disaster strikes. We say, "Knock it off." So, Mr. Kerry and your friends who want to slander the Guard: Knock it off.

COL. WILLIAM CAMPENNI (retired)
U.S. Air Force/Air National Guard
Herndon, Va.5


108 posted on 08/24/2004 5:54:50 PM PDT by dennisw (Allah FUBAR!)
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To: dixiechick2000

The last time I did a "don't try this at home" drive was almost 20 years ago when I was selling Mazdas and the turbo RX-7 came out and I got to drive it on an open course. Oh! Awesome!


109 posted on 08/24/2004 6:03:49 PM PDT by annyokie (Now with 20% More Infidel!)
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To: backtothestreets; All

[Yes, character is an issue, but the whole Viet Nam War legacy is one of the most venomous in our history.

As I stated, "Only GW Bush knows what was on his mind during this period".  If I go just on my wartime experiences, he's in the same pot as Kerry.  I'm far to the right of GW Bush, and even further from Kerry.  It's time to discuss present day issues]
...................................
(1) Screw your "wartime experiences". The Nat'l. Guard has always been considered an essential training/emergency arm of our country's defense & an honorable choice for military service. People join the other branches of service for a variety of less than heroic reasons--to travel, get a free college education, escape a shotgun wedding, etc. I'm sick of hearing the Guard put down & its members accused of being cowards. As one of the posted articles points out, we were at the height of the Cold War in the late 60s-early 70s, the Doomsday Clock was at a minute or two til midnight, we lived in constant awareness of the possibility of nuclear war--not to mention the race riots/Kent State/1968 Chicago Dem convention, etc. etc. etc.. The National Guard was no place to hide out.
(2) Yes indeed VN is THE most venemous legacy in our history & I for one think it's time to lance that boil & reassess what really happened. The Swiftees have finally wrestled the microphone away from the crowd that's held it for 40 years & now the libs want us to forget the whole thing & "move on". Not so fast; lots of people have been waiting a long time to be heard.


110 posted on 08/24/2004 6:25:36 PM PDT by GaretGarrett
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To: A Navy Vet
We USAF boys and girls are equally cocky. If you need an ICBM dropped on a spot 12,000 miles away, a bomb dropped down an air shaft, precision air support, or a pilot rescued from behind enemy lines, call us at the air conditioned O'Club. Someone is bound to be sober enough to fly.

"Death from Above."

111 posted on 08/24/2004 6:36:17 PM PDT by CholeraJoe ("I'm wanna find your Inner Child and kick it's little A$$. Get over it.")
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To: Doe Eyes

As a "part-timer" why should he care what was stenciled on the aircraft as long as it was sound mechanically.

I don't know .. but it just seems to me people are trying to make an issue out of nothing. The war was winding down and the F-102 was being pulled out of service. Why wouldn't the military be moving planes around ..??


112 posted on 08/24/2004 6:37:00 PM PDT by CyberAnt (President Bush: Nov 2004 - is an Election for the Soul of America)
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To: Travis McGee

That was a part of the point of my posting the article.


113 posted on 08/24/2004 6:47:22 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (www.swiftvets.com)
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To: backtothestreets

Thanks for the info.


114 posted on 08/24/2004 6:49:57 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (www.swiftvets.com)
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To: A Navy Vet

Kudos to this gentleman for coming forward.


115 posted on 08/24/2004 6:51:59 PM PDT by Ciexyz ("FR, best viewed with a budgie on hand")
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To: Vineyard; Travis McGee

Your post is the best summary of the entire Bush/Kerry/Vietnam/campaign2000 that I have seen. I wish every voter could read it. Would you consider submitting it to a large newspaper as a letter or op-ed?


116 posted on 08/24/2004 7:02:14 PM PDT by maica (BIG Media is not mainstream. We are right. They are left, not center.)
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To: A Navy Vet
Knock it off, Lurch!!!!!!

Thanks, Rodg.... GREAT letter. I've saved it to wave to liberals. Rumor has it that this will be the next big Kerry campaign--against Dubya's ANG service (again). Lurched is pi$$ed off that someone DARED to attack him, he really thinks it's Bush, so he thinks he can and should get even. I think he's close to snapping.

Thank you for the ammunition! And knock it off, Lurch!

117 posted on 08/24/2004 7:02:35 PM PDT by Alas Babylon!
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To: SBprone

We military pilots practice that look a lot during flight training -- have to pass the "wiseass pilot (actually, it is "wiseass military aviator") look practical exam before they'll give us our wings.

Brutal stuff!

Can't have no pansies in military cockpits, don'tchaknow?

And there are multiple tests along the way:

"Wiseass aviation officer candidate"
"Wiseass primary flight student"
"Wiseass basic flight student"
"Wiseass advanced flight student"
"Wiseass military aviator" ("wiseass pilot")


118 posted on 08/24/2004 7:02:42 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: CholeraJoe
"We USAF boys and girls are equally cocky"

So I've heard from my Naval Aviator shipmates. In fact, you are even more arrogant, 'cause you consider yourselves the TRUE flyers from old Army Air Corp days, Naval Top Gun runway shifting notwithstanding...heh,heh.

Death From Above!!! Plus, Air Force fighter jockeys forever! Just make sure those g's don't keep you from ejecting!

119 posted on 08/24/2004 7:05:18 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (www.swiftvets.com)
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To: katana

I'd suspect he's used this strategy at least since his high school days at Andover where he became familiar with and developed a deep dislike for eastern elitist snobs.

&&&&

I agree that he was tested when he went to prep school and did not "apologixe" for acting like a Texan. He got the measure of the elitists then and just like judo learned how to use their "superiority" against them.


His blood was every bit as blue as theirs, but he did not let it turn him into a snob.


120 posted on 08/24/2004 7:08:05 PM PDT by maica (BIG Media is not mainstream. We are right. They are left, not center.)
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