Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Not Your Father's Air Force XXXII

Better:



From the notes accompanying the vid at The Tube o' You:
Published on Dec 5, 2013
Starting with a single cellist on the floor of the National Air and Space Museum's "Milestones of Flight" gallery, and swelling to 120 musicians, The U.S. Air Force Band exhilarated museum visitors with its first-ever flash mob. The four-minute performance featured an original arrangement of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring/Joy to the World," led by the band's commander and conductor, Col. Larry H. Lang. Unsuspecting museum visitors including tourists and school groups were astonished as instrumentalists streamed into the gallery from behind airplanes and space capsules, and vocalists burst into song from the Museum's second floor balcony.
Now how cool is that?  We had the Air Force Band back in the day, but we didn't have flash mobs.  Wait.  Let me think on that... Happy Hour at the club MIGHT qualify.

H/t to My Buddy Ed In Florida, who sent me the link.

9 comments:

  1. I'm sure it's my imagination
    But it sure looks like the Master Sergeant, playing the fiddle next to the bass player, has a mustache

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    1. You didn't actually WATCH the vid, now, didja? ;-)

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  2. Speaking of clubs, When I was a MSgt I had a 5 year stint at Division, and the Chief came up to me and asked if I wanted the Generals endorsement on my APR. Well sure, I'll take one. OK, well here's the deal he said, the General doesn't endorse any APR's of people who don't belong to the club.

    Anyway, now you know why I never made E-8... In my day (80's), only queers joined the enlisted club. The rest of us hung out at the VFW or American Legion clubs. The one outside Ramstein being a particularly rocking place with dark haired German and French babes.

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    1. And speakin' about "can't be bought," here's why **I** didn't make E-8 (from an old post):

      So... there I was... winding down my penultimate USAF assignment at lovely RAF Uxbridge, with orders in hand for Tinker AFB, OK. My commander told me he was putting me in for a Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) and needed the usual, customary, and reasonable write-up concerning my glorious achievements... such as they were... while serving as his Chief of Programs. I told him I would get right on it and had a one page list of about 12 bullet points on his desk in about an hour's time.

      "Not good enough" sez the Good Major.

      "What do you want?" sez I, in reply.

      "I want the citation write-up... the whole nine yards" sez he.

      "Ummm... isn't that YOUR job?" sez I.

      "Not if you want the medal" sez he.

      Well. To cut to the chase: I didn't want it that bad and I never provided the citation. I also didn't get the medal. As a matter of fact I didn't get any-goddamned-thing out of that assignment, which pissed me off no small amount. My point was this: I was still naïve enough to think gentlemen did NOT toot their own horn, ever. And I stood by my principles.

      Fast forward about six or eight months... I'm at my new assignment at Tinker AFB and was called into the Chief's office for a little chat. "So tell me, Buck... why didn't you get a medal out of Uxbridge?" I related the whole ugly story to the Chief who sat there and listened politely. When I was finished he looked at me and said "You dumb-ass. You might as well put your papers in, you're done." This coming just after I had been passed over for SMSgt (E-8) for the first time... and which the Chief believed was, in part, because of no dec out of my last assignment. I mulled that lil conversation over for a while and submitted my retirement papers a few months later. The Chief was right: I was done.


      Principles: ya either have 'em or ya don't.

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  3. I have to admit that this was seriously awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  4. YOWSAH!

    Now THAT'S music. Whatta rush - look at the faces in that audience.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.