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Well, good news, Fehrenbach told The AP he is is being allowed to retire on 1 Oct... Aviator Fighting DADT Discharge to Retire Apparently he was notified in January that his request to retire with his rank and benefits intact was granted. The dude had nine Air Medals, and never "told" so there should have never been a case against him under DADT. I'm glad it all worked out for him! Cheers! M2

So you're recommmending fun by putting on my scarf, loading up my pockets to give away my useless CC coins for "excellence", and heading to the all ranks club for a fun round of crud with a bunch of shoe clerks...sounds awesome dude. For my cramps I prefer booze and a good thai massage. As I implied, the real tradition is slippig away. The sadder part is that most people don't even realize it as they slide happily along doing CBT's and snapping on their reflective belts (or handing out coins.)

"Challange" coins are a nice tradition. I still carry my 18FS "###### Tyranny in all its Guises" coin with my MR date engraved on it wherever I go. But the "commanders" coins are another stupid waste of money. Everytime I get one I feel like a bellboy who just got tipped 50 cents. Whatever happened to a sincere thank you and a handshake? I don't need the Cracker Jack prize.

Jake Herring passed away today. He was 89. He was raised on a tobacco and hog farm in nowhere North Carolina. He was drafted into the Army Air Corps, later Army Air Forces, trained in electronics and the then top-secret world of radar. Assigned to a signal aircraft warning battalion, he shipped out for Australia, then on to New Guinea. He did combat landings on the islands of New Britain and Biak (first wave of troops on this one), where he operated as part of an early warning net, using a vacuum-tubed 1st generation ground radar that broke down into two duece and half and a jeep loads. The gas-fired generator put out a blue flame exhaust that drew Japanese snipers multiple times. Moving on to the Phillippines, he finished out the war there assisting in one radar-controlled confirmed P-61 kill on a Betty bomber, returning to the North Carolina farm at the end of the war. Later, he walked a US Postal mail route, about 18 miles per day for nearly twenty years. He had a voice like a country-fied Richard Burton; pure joy to hear a story told in that voice. Godspeed, Uncle Dick, godspeed.

Is it possible he was referring to the USS Oklahoma City? It was in Japan for all of the '70s. Not a battleship, but I'll try to give someone the benefit of the doubt before calling them out.

I think I've seen double digits before, but that's pretty funny. I added a minus as well.