UW Students Honor Pappy Boyington After All...

On Sat, 8 Apr 2006 23:12:05 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

In some respects, this memorial is more inclusive than the proposed one,
since it honors ALL Medal of Honor recipients. So I think that's a good
thing.

Well, it honors all MOH recipients from the University, men and women,
young and old, dead and alive.... So how many MOH recipients d'you
suppose there are among University of Washington alumni?

Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email: usenet AT danford DOT net

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Agreed. They slithered around the issue in a way that satisfies
everyone...and no one.

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.

If only that were true. Alas, our world isn't the way the Peace Corps
recruiters promise.

BTW: I saw you were quoted in the current Flight Journal article about
America's plan to preemptively attack Japan in WWII. I'm curious: What
did you think of that article?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Cub Driver" usenet AT danford DOT net wrote in message
...
Well, it honors all MOH recipients from the University, men and women,
young and old, dead and alive.... So how many MOH recipients d'you
suppose there are among University of Washington alumni?

I don't know. I should, because I believe the number was mentioned in the
press. I think it's on the order of a dozen or two, but I could be
misremembering.

And yes, when I wrote "ALL" I simply meant all of those from UW.

Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Yes, it's a cop-out IMHO. Presumably, there was a reason to single out
Boyington in the first place. One of the other silly objections was "aren't
there enough memorials honoring old, dead white guys already?" By making
the memorial more inclusive, they dodged that one too ("look, we're honoring
the medal, not the race").

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.

Hard to say what they believe. They obviously have the usual idealistic
view of the world that people that age usually have. Personally, I don't
worry about it too much...that idealistic view comes in handy in a variety
of other ways. If it means that occasionally there's a silly dust-up like
this, c'est la vie.

Pete