Major McSally takes command :)

Ahh, those were the days. The development of the "Combat Crew" badge
to provide dignity to the non-combatants in the holes of the great
American prairies.

I would think you'de be glad the missileers were "non-combatants" throughout
their history.

Never saw one on an aircrew uniform at least in the
Unified commands.

You only wore them on your blues, and if I remember right, I saw at least one
aircrew member with blues on wearing it.

And the missile badge, predecessor of the current generation fixation
with a badge for every specialty.

Its a good thing you're not in today Ed, even the "lowly missileers" wear
flight suits. For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone cares what the
hell anyone else is wearing.....

SAC's
missiles pointed upward, ours fired horizontally. We actually got to
shoot ours.

You wouldn't be typing this if SAC got to shoot theirs.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"

"BUFDRVR" wrote in message
You wouldn't be typing this if SAC got to shoot theirs.


BUFDRVR

It is always a truism, that those who couldn't hack it and be in SAC were
the most vociferous in their criticism.

BUFDRVR wrote:
SAC's missiles pointed upward, ours fired horizontally. We
actually got to shoot ours.

You wouldn't be typing this if SAC got to shoot theirs.



What's that old squadron song? "Will I Go Boom Today"?



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN


http://www.mortimerschnerd.com

From: "Mortimer Schnerd, RN"


BUFDRVR wrote:
SAC's missiles pointed upward, ours fired horizontally. We
actually got to shoot ours.

You wouldn't be typing this if SAC got to shoot theirs.



What's that old squadron song? "Will I Go Boom Today"?


Mortimer Schnerd, RN

The song to which you refer was popular in Macdill in the 1940s to 1960s.

"Will you go boom today? Will you go boom today? We lost one yesterday, it
landed in the bay."

The song varies by aircraft type.

There was a song about the B-36 sung to the tune of Battle Hymn of the
Republic:

"The B-36 it flies at forty thousand feet, the B-36 flies at forty thousand
feet. THe B-36 it flies at forty thousand feet, but it only has a teensy,
weensy bomb."

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

On Thu, 06 May 2004 14:54:45 -0600, Ed Rasimus
wrote:

For a while at Nellis we wanted to all wear missileer badges--only we
were going to wear them horizontally just below our wings.

Fighter pilots do like to get into trouble on their days off, don't
they?


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! blog www.vivabush.org

Cub Driver wrote:
Fighter pilots do like to get into trouble on their days off, don't
they?

Heh. Not that I was ever a fighter pilot, but...

I do remember foindly the time I got thrown out of an Air
Farce O-Club because a particularly stuffy general took a
disliking to my and my buds' Scarves, Flying, Field
Expedient, Type I ( an appropriate length of toilet paper,
wrapped round our necks). Hell, everyone else in the
place had a scarf on at Happy Hour, and at least our
zoombags showed some sign of having been worn to fly
that day.



Jeff

On Fri, 7 May 2004 06:39:09 -0600, "Jeff Crowell"
wrote:

Cub Driver wrote:
Fighter pilots do like to get into trouble on their days off, don't
they?

Heh. Not that I was ever a fighter pilot, but...

I do remember foindly the time I got thrown out of an Air
Farce O-Club because a particularly stuffy general took a
disliking to my and my buds' Scarves, Flying, Field
Expedient, Type I ( an appropriate length of toilet paper,
wrapped round our necks). Hell, everyone else in the
place had a scarf on at Happy Hour, and at least our
zoombags showed some sign of having been worn to fly
that day.

I recall one of the waning days of my mediocre aviation career,
dropping into Nellis for a weekend X-C. Head to the Q for a quick
douche, don the finest civvies, splash a bit of "sure-****" on the
face so's I smell delightful and head to the bar.

Sure enough the place is Friday night packed with intrepid aviators
and that pleasant by-product of Top Gun "The Movie", the Fighter-Pilot
Groupie!

A few toddys and I strike up a conversation with an attractive young
prospect who seems amenable to dinner and possibly some post-prandial
activities. When I invite her out, she looks and says, "but you aren't
a pilot."

I reply that most assuredly I am--possibly the best and undoubtedly
the most combat experienced aviator in the room.

She says, "no you're not. You're not wearing a flight suit."

So much for the rewards for being clean and well-groomed in a fighter
pilot bar.



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

On Fri, 07 May 2004 05:20:57 -0400, Cub Driver wrote:

On Thu, 06 May 2004 14:54:45 -0600, Ed Rasimus
wrote:

For a while at Nellis we wanted to all wear missileer badges--only we
were going to wear them horizontally just below our wings.

Fighter pilots do like to get into trouble on their days off, don't
they?


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

They must, they certainly do it with an amazing degree of regularity :-)
Being a pilot and being in "hack" were nearly synonymous!!

Al Minyard

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

On 9 May 2004 22:58:30 -0700, (Jim Thomas)
wrote:

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

I always give credit where credit is due. The missileers did the job
assigned them with professionalism and skill. My comments on the badge
were in the nature of humor and not a disparagement of their efforts.

That being said, however, I'll disagree with your contention that
strategic missiles did more to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union
than the tactical forces and the continued development and application
of weapons that demonstrated conclusively the superiority of American
technology, training and innovation. The collapse of Soviet client
forces and the inability of Soviet doctrine to counter or even compete
effectively led to the collapse.

Sitting and waiting with a deterrent force kept the peace, but it also
insured a stalemate. Demonstrating over the years that SA-2, 3, 4, 6,
7, 9, 11, 12, 13, etc. etc. couldn't protect against American airpower
and that MiG-17, 19, 21, 23, 27, 29 and AA-2,, etc etc, couldn't
counter US fighters, the armor couldn't shoot, scoot and communicate
as did ours and the maneuver elements of the ground forces couldn't
integrate and coordinate at the level of our tactical forces, and the
Navy couldn't project and sustain operations globally as ours could,
etc. etc. That's what led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Snapping your fingers will keep the elephants away, if they aren't
coming anyway. Going where the elephant lives and kicking him in the
balls will get him to move out of the region.



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