You really ARE a pathetic pencil-pushing weenie, aren’t you!
“You really ARE a pathetic pencil-pushing weenie, aren’t you!”
Ignoring - for the moment - the matchless possibilities Mr Rogers has created to craft witty responses, one cannot help but notice that he isn’t familiar with the historical research of either I.B. Holley Jr or Richard P. Hallion (and I’m not taking odds as to whether the forum at large has heard of either).
I met both: MGen Holley when he was still a serving USAFR O-10, and Dr Hallion when he was USAF’s official historian. It was my privilege to engage in more than one conversation with the latter (honesty compels me to admit that neither conveyed any penetrating insight not available to anyone who cared to read their published works).
I could be coy, but it’s not worth the effort. Suffice to say that both these pencil-pushers stand high on any list of influential thinkers when it comes to air power.
If Mr Rogers had read anything they wrote, he would know that “fighter pilot” is a technical specialty, born of the primitive state of aeronautical design and the limitations on powerplant capabilities prevailing in 1915.
Fighter pilots are not a subclass of semi-divine beings ordained by the Almighty to rule over USAF, nor other armed service depts. They are not uniquely talented (outside the cockpit), not particularly insightful, nor are they morally more worthy than us lesser mortals.
I do give them credit for conning others into falling down and worshiping.
What they truly excel at is going the extra mile, in being sneaky, underhanded pests.