If a lifetime can be likened to a day, then this is Happy Hour!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Things That Make Ya Go "Hmmmm"
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From the AFA’s Daily Report… “Not Your Father’s Air Force” Department:
A Shower for Every Mobility Airman: Air Mobility Command officials say the construction of new dormitories for single airmen at Dover AFB, Del., MacDill AFB, Fla., and Scott AFB, Ill., is expected to be completed before 2010. These dorms are being built to the new "Dorms-4-Airmen" standard, meaning each airman will have his own bedroom and bathroom in a quad-bedroom set-up that otherwise features a common living room, kitchen, and washer and dryer. "This is a higher standard than previous [dormitory] configurations that didn't provide either a private room or a private bath, or both," said Anthony DeSimone, AMC's chief of integrating planning. The new kitchen set up will make it easier for airmen to prepare their own meals as opposed to having to eat in a dining hall or off base. And the dorm common areas will offer cyber cafes and recreation areas with amenities like pool tables, dartboards, and big-screen TVs. In addition to the new dorms, AMC also plans to renovate existing ones, with improvements including new furnishings, upgraded heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, and new cyber cafes and exercise rooms. (Scott report by Desiree Mahr)
No word if there’ll be maid service… but I wouldn’t bet against that.
Further… There’s SO much to say about this, and SO many approaches one could use to say it. The first thing that hit my mind falls into the “I walked two miles to school every day, barefoot in the snow, and it was uphill both ways” category. I spent a few years living in the barracks dorms (sorry; lost my head there) during my career, even after I married (remote tours, TDYs, etc.). I always had a room mate or two, and we always shared a common latrine (dang. Lost it again!) bath. Always… at least until I hit the senior NCO ranks. I ate in the chow dining hall (why does this keep happening?) and I did my laundry in Laundromats run by the Exchange, there were no “free” washers and dryers (except at remote sites). I can’t comment on big-screen teevees and cyber cafés, for what should be obvious reasons. We usually had one wonky color teevee in our day room, albeit with flesh tones more commonly associated with psychedelic drugs. And so it went…
Finally… Here’s one other approach I thought about taking: “Eatcher HEARTS out, Navy!”
Today’s Pic: SN2’s living quarters aboard ship in the way-back. What ya see is SN2 in his “quarters” aboard the USS Rodney King M Davis. Sam was a full Lieutenant at the time, or the equivalent of an Air Force captain (O-3). I don’t have pics of how the Navy’s enlisted swine live, unfortunately. You may draw your own conclusions, based upon how their ossifers live. The junior ossifers on Davis lived three to a room and shared a common head. (See... I can speak "Navy!")
> Finally… Here’s one other approach I thought about > taking: “Eatcher HEARTS out, Navy!”
This kind of thing is exactly why I ended up in the Air Force, rather than one of the other services. My Uncle Chick, who retired from USAF after 20 years, learned of my half-baked plan to join the Army or the Navy, and he pulled me aside to advise me to join the Air Force instead, because "they have much better living quarters and they treat their people better."
Which seemed to be true, in both cases. Thanks, Uncle Chick!
Lori: I was always destined for the AF... it's in the blood, ya know (which doesn't explain SN2 now, does it?). But your point is well-taken... Good On Your Uncle Chick!
Buck, I can tell you how they "stack" them in the Enlisted berthing compartments. In that same space your SN2 enjoyed (in this picture) they would have 12 to 15 Enlisted berths. They would be stacked three high and would be maybe 30 inches between the stacks. The "racks" (beds for the crabs out there) would be called "coffin" lockers which were thicker than the ones in this picture. That extra space was used as a locker to keep your personal belongings including your cloths, uniforms and any personal stuff.
I lived on two different Aircraft Carriers making 5 deployments to the Med in them and the best quarters I ever got was a small room that had 12 of us in there with a TV room in the next space over. But I have lived in a berthing compartment that held over 200 men stacked as I have described all sharing a very large head (the largest head on the ship).
My SN2 that is a Marine recently completed a deployment aboard the USS Tarawa (an LHA or Helicopter Carrier) and he says they were stacked four high. Which scares me, but then he got off in Kuwait for some fun and games, USMC style (cue the gun fire sounds).
I had no such fun in the Navy, but I did have the added benefit of working outdoors - the Flight Deck!!
wow. I just...couldn't do that. too clausterphobic! The Navy guy (can't remember his name/rank/etc) who led our tour the other day said that sleeping in their racks was akin to sleeping in a coffin (and they referred to them as such)...ack!
I took a picture of Jesse in a "coffin" for jr. officers on board the Lexington. I guess they are better than hammocks. I think Air Force might be the way to go.
When I told my Dad back in the day that I was thinking about joining the service, but couldn't decide between Army and Air Force, he told me to go with the Air Force. He was career Army (33 years)...:)
Jimmy: I've seen the enlisted berthing areas on frigates and DDGs, but declined to take photos because I didn't want to invade the guys' privacy. Which is a left-handed way of saying "I feel your pain," LOL!
I understand the uniqueness of, and the pride that comes with, being a part of flight ops on a carrier, but you guys certainly had to make "quality of life" sacrifices. I salute you for that... and your Marine son, too!
Lou: USAF **IS** the way to go!
Christina: That's kinda different... about your Dad. But I'm thinking he had his little girl's best interests at heart, which tend to override organizational pride.
About enlisted Navy, I was one, and while I didn't make it a career, it was indeed formative.
For L-division on USS California (CGN-36):
Picture a twelve-man berthing (Navy talk for bedroom or dorm or barracks) about the size of the living portion of El Casa Movile. That's 1-6 on the left, a 2 long by 3 high array, 7-12 on the right as a mirror, maybe two feet between them. Coffin racks, as has been described.
There was also a "lounge area" with a TV mounted up high (on which we saw the last Challenger launch to give you the time period) and card table just forward, about thrice the size of the cockpit portion of your rig.
The four top racks were premium, as nobody was above, just pipes and electrical chases-- good places to put your more... private stuff, and only one guy below you.
Since usually half of the division was either on watch, working, both, or on leave, this was an amazingly quiet berthing. Quite luxurious it was, compared to the neighboring berthing containing Radiomen and other "topsiders" which had about 50 racks. That berthing and we shared a head (I understand you know what that means) of four each of showers, stalls and uprights.
L-Division on a CGN of this type (can't speak for CVNs or the Long Beach) was made up of "Engineering Laboratory Technicians" or ELTs-- a special kind of Machinist Mate (MM) trained in radiological controls and water chemistry, as well as mechanical operation of the nuclear power plants.
All of us "Nukes" (the other MMs, the Electician's Mates and reactor operating Electronics Technicians had had upwards of two and a half years of training and had left boot as E-3 by contract. Therefore, a dilligent student (and the Navy had ways of making us dilligent) was a petty officer third class (lowest NCO at the time) by the time he went to sea. A key privilege for that was no mess-cranking (assisting the mess decks and wardroom with menial duties). Also, someone of the Seaman ranks in the other berthing had to clean the head. There was some resentment.
I would, however, say that my time in the schools and training (with the exception of boot) were similar to the Air Force "dorms." Nuke School was four of us in a room with a Motel-6-like bathroom. Prototype (not exactly a simulator, more of a mockup) training at the Naval Reactors Facility at INEL was four of us renting a house in Ammon, ID.
Your SN2, in a three-high berth is new to me. I never saw a Lieutenant's "quarters" like that. Only the 'JGs and Ensigns lived three to a compartment. But FFGs are pretty small compared to the CGNs.
By the way, the goat locker (Chiefs, or E-7 to 9) had berthings like your JOs, i.e. two-high, but with about 10 to a compartment.
Bob: Thanks for your input, and it really serves to illustrate the point for my silly-vilian readers (no slight intended, it's ol' mil-slang, that).
Apropos of nothing... SN2 was an MM when he was enlisted and serving on a boomer (home-ported in Charleston). He spent his entire first cruise "cranking" and came away from that experience with nothing much good to say about the Navy. I also think that first cruise gave him the incentive to cross over from the E-side to the O-side.
Wow, how about that about SN2! A-gang or a M-div? If M-div, then he's also a Nuke. And if a Nuke, and they made him crank, he was probably also constantly training on the S8G (I'm assuming it was a Trident). That'd make sense for Tubers. Every Nicky New Guy would be a PO.
I toured the USS Florida when it visited Daytona, about an hour from Nuke School. Amazing deadly machine, but someone's gotta cut the vegetables.
He was an A-Ganger, Bob. If you look closely at his pic back on 10/08, you'll see he still wears his dolphins... even though they're silver. And his Expedition proudly sports a "silver dolphins" front license plate, too. There are some things in life you remain proud of... until your dieing day.
Ah. S5W (sub, 5th design, Westinghouse) power plant and Poseidon missiles. Bad assumption I made there. I didn't take into account SN2's "Mustangness." (A Mustang in at least Navy terms is a formerly enlisted officer.)
Amazing he-- your son-- was on a museum piece. I forget how time flies. My ship (also decommissioned in 1999 or so) was used as the backdrop photo for the ASROC (anti-submarine rocket) display at the NAM, at least until the attack of 9/11/01 caused the temporary move of the museum off KAFB. I cannot confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on the California. Really, I don't know... but that display?
I know I told you this before: The NAM is being moved from Old Town ABQ to the corner of Eubank and Southern, just outside KAFB's gates. Progress is happening. USAF angle: tomorrow is a parade of many displays too big for Old Town. Namely, they are moving the B-52 and B-29. I wondered how they'd do it. They broke them down into many parts. The parade is happening when road closures will cause the least disruption to traffic.
I'll see if I can find some pix around here you might be interested in. So cool about that sail, and the fact that SN2 wears his dolphins. His pride is clearly magnified by yours!
Welp, hope you're enjoying the football. Time for SDSU @ UNM.
Wow... that was a long time ago. My last digs were (literally) twice the size of the stateroom on the DAVIS. Then again, I was a Department Head (Engineer on a CG), and not a Division Officer on a FFG.
I'll admit the quality of life in the Air Force is, by nearly every measure, far better than the quality of life in the Navy. But the opportunities for leadership (read challenges) and unique experiences (like living more than a year of my life underwater) are far better in the Navy... If I had it to do over again, I'd choose the Navy every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
It's hard to believe that nukes would send an E4 to messcook but of course they must since every nuke graduate is a pushbutton 3rd.
I know how much this grated on my MMFN who got to mess crank twice due to the fact that push button nuke failures were pushed to the forward deployed non-accompanied MIDEASTFOR flagship. It really grated on them that some pencil necked geeks were exempted from mess cranking simply because they went nuke, busted out but retained the crow when they were shipped to the fleet.
Spent the evening reviewing the B32 and B36. Those were USAAF planes that took their crews into the war environment. Sheesh, only bunks for 6? What were they thinking. Those planes had 15 and 20 man crews!
Still and all, I get a kick out of the USAF where up to 96% of them never serve at the hazard of their lives and can only bitch and moan about 3 month overseas tours. Yeah, the USAF looks after its personnel but that's probably because the boredom of back to back expeditionary ops to Guam or Diego Garcia would kill them in droves without swimming pools, plasma tv's, rooms of their own and weekly massages.
Like I said in a comment below the 10/8 post, I think that's pretty cool that you wear your 'Phins below your SW patch. Is that a requirement or an option?
CHENG on a CG? Also cool. TICONDEROGA class with gas turbines? Wouldn't it be nice to power those with high-temperature gas reactors, bringing back the CGN, but with a gas-turbine?
Bob: I saw the score of the UNM - SDSU game this morning and was wondering if you watched the whole game. That was about as big a blow-out score as I've EVER seen! The rest of your comment was interesting, as well. When's the projected opening date for the new NAM?
Curtis: Thanks for dropping by and adding to the conversation.
Sam sez: If I had it to do over again, I'd choose the Navy every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I respect that and wouldn't expect you to feel any other way... even if you ARE misguided. At least you acknowledged reality in your statements preceding the quoted bits. ;-)
Re: SDSU @ UNM, uh, yeah I watched it, kinda over my shoulder while reading other things and such, after I did the math roughly at the end of the first quarter. I like to see the scenery and commentary on national TV. The Mountain (DirecTV channel 616) stuck with it the whole way.
The sign in front of the new N.A.M. construction site says, "Opening Fall '08." Well here we are. Not gonna happen. The skeleton is built, walls on, wrapped in yellow Tyvek vapor barrier. Some displays are on their way, as mentioned above. I'll snap a JPEG tomorrow and send it to you (I drive by it every workday). When it DOES open, it'll be bigger, better, faster, stronger! B-52, B29, nuclear Howitzer, various and sundry rockets, pro'ly a theatre showing "Ten Seconds that Shook the World" every hour. Displays about nuclear medicine and natural radioactivity also.
But whatever politically correct spin the new museum has, I'll know its true purpose: Forever (I hope) archiving the history of the ongoing war (nuclear?), your sons as active participants, you a veteran of it. Really, how will this period in history be viewed 100 or 1000 years hence, when all of us alive in the middle of it are long gone?
I'll see if I can get you a firmer date on the opening of the new N.A.M.
“Pushbutton.” Well I haven’t heard that term in about 25 years. I don’t know the history of that word in this context. I would suspect “pushbutton” means “automatic” as in “just push the button and it happens.”
I think you mean by that, Curtis, “undeserved” or “unearned.”
E-3 at the end of bootcamp was by contract, a contract that said “sign up (for at least six years) to be a Nuke and we’ll make you an E-3 if you finish bootcamp.” E-4 was by proper completion of the MM3 exams and getting better scores than the rest of the MMFNs and “strikers.” Thankyouverymuch.
Finally… Here’s one other approach I thought about taking: “Eatcher HEARTS out, Navy!”
I should show that to my kids, who think it's horrible that they share rooms. LOL!
ReplyDelete> Finally… Here’s one other approach I thought about
ReplyDelete> taking: “Eatcher HEARTS out, Navy!”
This kind of thing is exactly why I ended up in the Air Force, rather than one of the other services. My Uncle Chick, who retired from USAF after 20 years, learned of my half-baked plan to join the Army or the Navy, and he pulled me aside to advise me to join the Air Force instead, because "they have much better living quarters and they treat their people better."
Which seemed to be true, in both cases. Thanks, Uncle Chick!
Jenny: You should!
ReplyDeleteLori: I was always destined for the AF... it's in the blood, ya know (which doesn't explain SN2 now, does it?). But your point is well-taken... Good On Your Uncle Chick!
Buck,
ReplyDeleteI can tell you how they "stack" them in the Enlisted berthing compartments. In that same space your SN2 enjoyed (in this picture) they would have 12 to 15 Enlisted berths. They would be stacked three high and would be maybe 30 inches between the stacks. The "racks" (beds for the crabs out there) would be called "coffin" lockers which were thicker than the ones in this picture. That extra space was used as a locker to keep your personal belongings including your cloths, uniforms and any personal stuff.
I lived on two different Aircraft Carriers making 5 deployments to the Med in them and the best quarters I ever got was a small room that had 12 of us in there with a TV room in the next space over. But I have lived in a berthing compartment that held over 200 men stacked as I have described all sharing a very large head (the largest head on the ship).
My SN2 that is a Marine recently completed a deployment aboard the USS Tarawa (an LHA or Helicopter Carrier) and he says they were stacked four high. Which scares me, but then he got off in Kuwait for some fun and games, USMC style (cue the gun fire sounds).
I had no such fun in the Navy, but I did have the added benefit of working outdoors - the Flight Deck!!
BT: Jimmy T sends.
wow. I just...couldn't do that. too clausterphobic! The Navy guy (can't remember his name/rank/etc) who led our tour the other day said that sleeping in their racks was akin to sleeping in a coffin (and they referred to them as such)...ack!
ReplyDeleteI took a picture of Jesse in a "coffin" for jr. officers on board the Lexington. I guess they are better than hammocks. I think Air Force might be the way to go.
ReplyDeleteWhen I told my Dad back in the day that I was thinking about joining the service, but couldn't decide between Army and Air Force, he told me to go with the Air Force. He was career Army (33 years)...:)
ReplyDeleteJimmy: I've seen the enlisted berthing areas on frigates and DDGs, but declined to take photos because I didn't want to invade the guys' privacy. Which is a left-handed way of saying "I feel your pain," LOL!
ReplyDeleteI understand the uniqueness of, and the pride that comes with, being a part of flight ops on a carrier, but you guys certainly had to make "quality of life" sacrifices. I salute you for that... and your Marine son, too!
Lou: USAF **IS** the way to go!
Christina: That's kinda different... about your Dad. But I'm thinking he had his little girl's best interests at heart, which tend to override organizational pride.
About enlisted Navy, I was one, and while I didn't make it a career, it was indeed formative.
ReplyDeleteFor L-division on USS California (CGN-36):
Picture a twelve-man berthing (Navy talk for bedroom or dorm or barracks) about the size of the living portion of El Casa Movile. That's 1-6 on the left, a 2 long by 3 high array, 7-12 on the right as a mirror, maybe two feet between them. Coffin racks, as has been described.
There was also a "lounge area" with a TV mounted up high (on which we saw the last Challenger launch to give you the time period) and card table just forward, about thrice the size of the cockpit portion of your rig.
The four top racks were premium, as nobody was above, just pipes and electrical chases-- good places to put your more... private stuff, and only one guy below you.
Since usually half of the division was either on watch, working, both, or on leave, this was an amazingly quiet berthing. Quite luxurious it was, compared to the neighboring berthing containing Radiomen and other "topsiders" which had about 50 racks. That berthing and we shared a head (I understand you know what that means) of four each of showers, stalls and uprights.
L-Division on a CGN of this type (can't speak for CVNs or the Long Beach) was made up of "Engineering Laboratory Technicians" or ELTs-- a special kind of Machinist Mate (MM) trained in radiological controls and water chemistry, as well as mechanical operation of the nuclear power plants.
All of us "Nukes" (the other MMs, the Electician's Mates and reactor operating Electronics Technicians had had upwards of two and a half years of training and had left boot as E-3 by contract. Therefore, a dilligent student (and the Navy had ways of making us dilligent) was a petty officer third class (lowest NCO at the time) by the time he went to sea. A key privilege for that was no mess-cranking (assisting the mess decks and wardroom with menial duties). Also, someone of the Seaman ranks in the other berthing had to clean the head. There was some resentment.
I would, however, say that my time in the schools and training (with the exception of boot) were similar to the Air Force "dorms." Nuke School was four of us in a room with a Motel-6-like bathroom. Prototype (not exactly a simulator, more of a mockup) training at the Naval Reactors Facility at INEL was four of us renting a house in Ammon, ID.
Your SN2, in a three-high berth is new to me. I never saw a Lieutenant's "quarters" like that. Only the 'JGs and Ensigns lived three to a compartment. But FFGs are pretty small compared to the CGNs.
By the way, the goat locker (Chiefs, or E-7 to 9) had berthings like your JOs, i.e. two-high, but with about 10 to a compartment.
Oops, I should have italicized "Challenger" to show the same deference and properness afforded Navy vessels. No slight intended.
ReplyDeleteBob: Thanks for your input, and it really serves to illustrate the point for my silly-vilian readers (no slight intended, it's ol' mil-slang, that).
ReplyDeleteApropos of nothing... SN2 was an MM when he was enlisted and serving on a boomer (home-ported in Charleston). He spent his entire first cruise "cranking" and came away from that experience with nothing much good to say about the Navy. I also think that first cruise gave him the incentive to cross over from the E-side to the O-side.
Wow, how about that about SN2! A-gang or a M-div? If M-div, then he's also a Nuke. And if a Nuke, and they made him crank, he was probably also constantly training on the S8G (I'm assuming it was a Trident). That'd make sense for Tubers. Every Nicky New Guy would be a PO.
ReplyDeleteI toured the USS Florida when it visited Daytona, about an hour from Nuke School. Amazing deadly machine, but someone's gotta cut the vegetables.
He was an A-Ganger, Bob. If you look closely at his pic back on 10/08, you'll see he still wears his dolphins... even though they're silver. And his Expedition proudly sports a "silver dolphins" front license plate, too. There are some things in life you remain proud of... until your dieing day.
ReplyDeleteOops! Forgot! SN2 was on the USS James K Polk, and I'm sure if that was a Trident boat... or not. I only get so far with this Navy stuff, ya know. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf you chase that Wiki link, you'll find the sail of the Polk is on display at the National Atomic Museum... right in your backyard.
Ah. S5W (sub, 5th design, Westinghouse) power plant and Poseidon missiles. Bad assumption I made there. I didn't take into account SN2's "Mustangness." (A Mustang in at least Navy terms is a formerly enlisted officer.)
ReplyDeleteAmazing he-- your son-- was on a museum piece. I forget how time flies. My ship (also decommissioned in 1999 or so) was used as the backdrop photo for the ASROC (anti-submarine rocket) display at the NAM, at least until the attack of 9/11/01 caused the temporary move of the museum off KAFB. I cannot confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on the California. Really, I don't know... but that display?
I know I told you this before: The NAM is being moved from Old Town ABQ to the corner of Eubank and Southern, just outside KAFB's gates. Progress is happening. USAF angle: tomorrow is a parade of many displays too big for Old Town. Namely, they are moving the B-52 and B-29. I wondered how they'd do it. They broke them down into many parts. The parade is happening when road closures will cause the least disruption to traffic.
I'll see if I can find some pix around here you might be interested in. So cool about that sail, and the fact that SN2 wears his dolphins. His pride is clearly magnified by yours!
Welp, hope you're enjoying the football. Time for SDSU @ UNM.
Wow... that was a long time ago. My last digs were (literally) twice the size of the stateroom on the DAVIS. Then again, I was a Department Head (Engineer on a CG), and not a Division Officer on a FFG.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit the quality of life in the Air Force is, by nearly every measure, far better than the quality of life in the Navy. But the opportunities for leadership (read challenges) and unique experiences (like living more than a year of my life underwater) are far better in the Navy... If I had it to do over again, I'd choose the Navy every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
It's hard to believe that nukes would send an E4 to messcook but of course they must since every nuke graduate is a pushbutton 3rd.
ReplyDeleteI know how much this grated on my MMFN who got to mess crank twice due to the fact that push button nuke failures were pushed to the forward deployed non-accompanied MIDEASTFOR flagship. It really grated on them that some pencil necked geeks were exempted from mess cranking simply because they went nuke, busted out but retained the crow when they were shipped to the fleet.
Spent the evening reviewing the B32 and B36. Those were USAAF planes that took their crews into the war environment. Sheesh, only bunks for 6? What were they thinking. Those planes had 15 and 20 man crews!
Still and all, I get a kick out of the USAF where up to 96% of them never serve at the hazard of their lives and can only bitch and moan about 3 month overseas tours. Yeah, the USAF looks after its personnel but that's probably because the boredom of back to back expeditionary ops to Guam or Diego Garcia would kill them in droves without swimming pools, plasma tv's, rooms of their own and weekly massages.
Mr. Pennington,
ReplyDeleteLike I said in a comment below the 10/8 post, I think that's pretty cool that you wear your 'Phins below your SW patch. Is that a requirement or an option?
CHENG on a CG? Also cool. TICONDEROGA class with gas turbines? Wouldn't it be nice to power those with high-temperature gas reactors, bringing back the CGN, but with a gas-turbine?
Bob: I saw the score of the UNM - SDSU game this morning and was wondering if you watched the whole game. That was about as big a blow-out score as I've EVER seen! The rest of your comment was interesting, as well. When's the projected opening date for the new NAM?
ReplyDeleteCurtis: Thanks for dropping by and adding to the conversation.
Sam sez: If I had it to do over again, I'd choose the Navy every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI respect that and wouldn't expect you to feel any other way... even if you ARE misguided. At least you acknowledged reality in your statements preceding the quoted bits. ;-)
Seargent Pennington,
ReplyDeleteRe: SDSU @ UNM, uh, yeah I watched it, kinda over my shoulder while reading other things and such, after I did the math roughly at the end of the first quarter. I like to see the scenery and commentary on national TV. The Mountain (DirecTV channel 616) stuck with it the whole way.
The sign in front of the new N.A.M. construction site says, "Opening Fall '08." Well here we are. Not gonna happen. The skeleton is built, walls on, wrapped in yellow Tyvek vapor barrier. Some displays are on their way, as mentioned above. I'll snap a JPEG tomorrow and send it to you (I drive by it every workday). When it DOES open, it'll be bigger, better, faster, stronger! B-52, B29, nuclear Howitzer, various and sundry rockets, pro'ly a theatre showing "Ten Seconds that Shook the World" every hour. Displays about nuclear medicine and natural radioactivity also.
But whatever politically correct spin the new museum has, I'll know its true purpose: Forever (I hope) archiving the history of the ongoing war (nuclear?), your sons as active participants, you a veteran of it. Really, how will this period in history be viewed 100 or 1000 years hence, when all of us alive in the middle of it are long gone?
I'll see if I can get you a firmer date on the opening of the new N.A.M.
“Pushbutton.” Well I haven’t heard that term in about 25 years. I don’t know the history of that word in this context. I would suspect “pushbutton” means “automatic” as in “just push the button and it happens.”
ReplyDeleteI think you mean by that, Curtis, “undeserved” or “unearned.”
E-3 at the end of bootcamp was by contract, a contract that said “sign up (for at least six years) to be a Nuke and we’ll make you an E-3 if you finish bootcamp.” E-4 was by proper completion of the MM3 exams and getting better scores than the rest of the MMFNs and “strikers.” Thankyouverymuch.