MKopack

I spent a couple of years at the old Torrejon AB where the 401st TFW was a tenant unit on the Spanish AF base, and reading this isn't really a big surprise. It's how the Spaniards treat the Spaniards as well. Mike

Somehow I can see new bag nametags for use downrange coming from this...

It's worth it to check out the Buzz Aldrin Basass page, just to see him 'discussing' his moon landing with a conspiracy nut documentary director. One of my favorites though is Joseph Kittinger:

Thanks for the donation! Probably no luck involved on my part - all I have to do is sit in the chair. Sort of like basic training, but with Irish beer... It's the first time I've done something like this, maybe I need to get a Baseops temporary tattoo for the side of my head? Mike

Not sure if this should go under WTF, or as a new topic (or if it should even be posted - Mods, feel free...) and I wasn't even drinking (heavily) when I decided to sign up, but: Let's get bald for kids with cancer! You heard it right - I'm shaving my head in solidarity with children who have cancer and typically lose their hair during treatment. When you're already ugly, bald can't be much of a step down, but it is for kids with cancer. Please join me in Raleigh, NC at the Hibernian Pub (I'll but the first pint) on 27 Feb at the 'shaving chair', or support me and the kids by making a donation at the link below. Mike's St. Baldrick's Page In the US, more children die of childhood cancer than any other disease. Please make a donation - $5, $10, whatever you can - on my behalf to support childhood cancer research, so that all children diagnosed with cancer will have a better chance for a cure - and a chance to keep their own hair.

I agree, I'm looking forward to it more than I have any other book. My Christmas present to myself this year, came in the mail on Monday from the estate auction. Not really worth anything much as hat pins, but a lot more to me knowing from whose hat they came. I also really recommend "Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler's Wehrmacht" by Bob Dorr and Thomas Jones. It's the story of the 365th Fighter Group as they fought their way across Europe - think 'Band of Brothers', but with P-47 Thunderbolts. Very well written, puts you not only in the cockpit strafing at prop height, but on the ramp with the maintainers as they struggle to rebuild what came home from the missions for the next 'go'. Mike

"If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law." - Winston Churchill All of us who serve and have served, and have deployed downrange are adults - enlisted and officer - despite how we might occasionally act (if we're not, that's an entirely different problem...) We've got to give people some freedom to be adults, or they'll act, well, as they're treated. That's where we need "leadership" versus "management". Leadership builds pride, management builds contempt - or at least a lack of respect... I'm now in the corporate world and I see it every day. When Robin Olds grew his mustache as the 8th TFW Commander, it made a purposeful statement to all those in his command that he was willing to "let some of the small stuff" slide in order to keep everyone's eye, and their 'buy-in', on the real mission - to draw everyone together, to build a team. I've been fortunate enough to know quite a few people who served at Ubon at that time - from Phantom pilots, and flightline maintainers, to SP's and base support personnel - and to a person, I think they would have followed him anywhere without even a question. That's a big reason that the Wolfpack was the most successful unit in the theater at the time. Where would he have fallen on the reflective belts and the other questions here in this thread? I don't know, but I'm willing to bet that if he directed his people to wear reflective belts in the shower, there wouldn't have been much of an argument. That is leadership and that is respect. Is there anyone in leadership at the 'Deid willing to grow a mustache to build that kind of pride and teamwork today?

Two years in Spain made me all but impervious to rum, can drink it like water. I like Sailor Jerry's as well (although I'm spending time on the Appleton Estate tonight...) Scotch - Laphroaig