Aw, c'mon, Ed; give some credit to those folks who spent hours and
days in the ballistic missile holes. I would argue that what they did
on alert had more to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union than
anything we fighter pilots ever did. My last USAF assignment was with
the Ballistic Missile Office at Norton AFB (since shut down). I'm
authorized to wear the pocket rocket (and did) because of my time
there. I didn't feel that I deserved it, since I had never sat in the
hole, but I wore it anyway to show support to the folks that did. I
thank God that I got to see the sky most times that I did my job,
unlike the folks in the holes. And thank God that the SAC missileers
never got to shoot theirs.

Jim Thomas


Ed Rasimus wrote in message . ..

And the missile badge, predecessor of the current generation fixation
with a badge for every specialty. Gotta look real close to see if the
brightly nickle-plated escutcheon is personnel, finance, food
services, JAG, or civil engineers.

For a while at Nellis we wanted to all wear missileer badges--only we
were going to wear them horizontally just below our wings. SAC's
missiles pointed upward, ours fired horizontally. We actually got to
shoot ours.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8