Happy Airborne Day

[brenthutch 444]

To all of my brothers 

[winsor 236]

7 hours ago, brenthutch said:

To all of my brothers 

All the way!

[Phil1111 1,149]

Funny how George Bush picked national rum day for airborne day.

[JoeWeber 2,836]

On 8/17/2024 at 2:40 AM, Phil1111 said:

Funny how George Bush picked national rum day for airborne day.

Well, I'll be dipped in doo-doo and rolled in cornflakes! George Bush gave us National Rum Day? I've always said he's a helluva guy. Damn, I'm getting teary eyed here.

[brenthutch 444]

For those of you who have never strapped on 80+ pounds of kit and jumped in the dead of night in high winds over a questionable DZ, just STFU, and say thank you.

Edited August 24, 2024 by brenthutch

[Phil1111 1,149]

28 minutes ago, brenthutch said:

For those of you who have never strapped on 80+ pounds of kit and jumped in the dead of night in high winds over a questionable DZ, just STFU, and say thank you.

Is that ego, braggadocio speaking or both?

[brenthutch 444]

10 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

Is that ego, braggadocio speaking or both?

Your welcome 

[JoeWeber 2,836]

14 hours ago, brenthutch said:

For those of you who have never strapped on 80+ pounds of kit and jumped in the dead of night in high winds over a questionable DZ, just STFU, and say thank you.

Even if you are Evil Kneivel, Houdini, or John Glenn? Each and every last one of us needs to STFU? Alrighty, then.

[JerryBaumchen 1,442]

3 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Even if you are Evil Kneivel, Houdini, or John Glenn? Each and every last one of us needs to STFU? Alrighty, then.

Hi Joe,

In other words:  If you are not exactly like me, then Fuck You.

Sure, that always works.

Jerry Baumchen

 

[gowlerk 2,251]

When you do your best to alienate people and it works.

[Phil1111 1,149]

One branch of US special forces identifies itself as the "quiet professionals". This might be BIGUN . They go on the special missions to destroy the enemy and when they return tell nobody about it. They are so well trained, so expert that whatever they do is no big deal. Its just another day at the office.

Our Brent OTOH.... well he may be the _____________. I don't want to say it because it may offend others who were professional beside him.(sad embarrassed emoji)

 

[ryoder 1,590]

22 hours ago, brenthutch said:

For those of you who have never strapped on 80+ pounds of kit and jumped in the dead of night in high winds over a questionable DZ, just STFU, and say thank you.

Did you order the code red?

[JoeWeber 2,836]

5 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

One branch of US special forces identifies itself as the "quiet professionals". This might be BIGUN . They go on the special missions to destroy the enemy and when they return tell nobody about it. They are so well trained, so expert that whatever they do is no big deal. Its just another day at the office.

Our Brent OTOH.... well he may be the _____________. I don't want to say it because it may offend others who were professional beside him.(sad embarrassed emoji)

 

Your local post office, very likely, has a sign in the window that states: "Heroes work here" above an American flag. No one flinches or even quietly calls bullshit because we have become a very jingoistic nation.

Even if Brent didn't go to war he deployed, just like Tim Walz, overseas in defense of America and deserves our thanks, respect, and the protections our nation should afford it's military veterans. But he has not earned the right to curtail our First Amendment right to not STFU which, ostensibly, he was on the wall in Lithuania to protect. We are on a dangerous trajectory when we believe our nation is a binary composition of military veterans, the overwhelming majority of whom just held jobs in safe places, and whuffos who never wore a uniform.

[Phil1111 1,149]

8 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

....Even if Brent didn't go to war he deployed, just like Tim Walz, overseas in defense of America and deserves our thanks,....

Agree and apart from that I love to give Brent a deserving hard time. Personally I'm not offended by his STFU because he puts his combat boot in his mouth regularly and its all just a part of his GOP-right wing  schtick.

happy belated Airborne day Brent.

[riggerrob 643]

11 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Your local post office, very likely, has a sign in the window that states: "Heroes work here" above an American flag. No one flinches or even quietly calls bullshit because we have become a very jingoistic nation.

Even if Brent didn't go to war he deployed, just like Tim Walz, overseas in defense of America and deserves our thanks, respect, and the protections our nation should afford it's military veterans. But he has not earned the right to curtail our First Amendment right to not STFU which, ostensibly, he was on the wall in Lithuania to protect. We are on a dangerous trajectory when we believe our nation is a binary composition of military veterans, the overwhelming majority of whom just held jobs in safe places, and whuffos who never wore a uniform.

The United States Postal Service routinely moves military veterans to the front of the line when hiring. One of the reason that so many US Post Offices got shot up was PTSD. Back then, American society did not know how to treat shell-shocked soldiers returning from a war that they did not understand.

Merely deploying can be dangerous. Especially in the asymmetric style of warfare known as guerilla warfare. "Guerilla" is Spanish for "small war". The term originated when Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish Army was too small to stop the invasion. So small bands of Spanish "entrepreneurs" "bandits" "freedom fighters" etc. raided French supply columns or ambushed small groups of French soldiers.

Marine Corps veteran Gary Douris told me that even before he got shot at in Vietnam, he was afraid because the bus he was riding in had steel netting over the windows to prevent VC from throwing in grenades.

Skydiver Dave Ruckert may "only" have driven a Jeep in VN, but he was constantly at risk of ambush. After VN Dave worked a 20 year career at the USPS.

When my brother went to Afghanistan, he had to promise his wife that he would not go "outside the wire" because he knew that Coalition convoys were frequently ambushed by roadside bombs even when there were no Taliban in sight.

[JerryBaumchen 1,442]

3 hours ago, riggerrob said:

The United States Postal Service routinely moves military veterans to the front of the line when hiring. One of the reason that so many US Post Offices got shot up was PTSD. Back then, American society did not know how to treat shell-shocked soldiers returning from a war that they did not understand.

Merely deploying can be dangerous. Especially in the asymmetric style of warfare known as guerilla warfare. "Guerilla" is Spanish for "small war". The term originated when Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish Army was too small to stop the invasion. So small bands of Spanish "entrepreneurs" "bandits" "freedom fighters" etc. raided French supply columns or ambushed small groups of French soldiers.

Marine Corps veteran Gary Douris told me that even before he got shot at in Vietnam, he was afraid because the bus he was riding in had steel netting over the windows to prevent VC from throwing in grenades.

Skydiver Dave Ruckert may "only" have driven a Jeep in VN, but he was constantly at risk of ambush. After VN Dave worked a 20 year career at the USPS.

When my brother went to Afghanistan, he had to promise his wife that he would not go "outside the wire" because he knew that Coalition convoys were frequently ambushed by roadside bombs even when there were no Taliban in sight.

Hi Rob,

Re:  The United States Postal Service routinely moves military veterans to the front of the line when hiring.

All federal agencies do this.  It is one of the benefits of serving.

Re:  Marine Corps veteran Gary Douris told me that even before he got shot at in Vietnam

Gary got shot up a whole bunch and spent a goodly amount of time in a military hospital in Hawaii.

Jerry Baumchen

[gowlerk 2,251]

What I really wonder is why the OP chose this forum to post a “Happy Airborne Day” thread.

[JoeWeber 2,836]

19 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

What I really wonder is why the OP chose this forum to post a “Happy Airborne Day” thread.

It's a huge, inseparable, part of his identity that gives him a certain sense of superiority. You know, sort of like being a skydiver does for others. And, just like even if you haven't jumped for decades you still think of yourself as a skydiver and might from time to time lord it over the odd whuffo so it also goes, apparently, with having been airborne.

[gowlerk 2,251]

2 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

It's a huge, inseparable, part of his identity that gives him a certain sense of superiority. You know, sort of like being a skydiver does for others. And, just like even if you haven't jumped for decades you still think of yourself as a skydiver and might from time to time lord it over the odd whuffo so it also goes, apparently, with having been airborne.

Sure, I understand that. But why here and not bonfire?

[JoeWeber 2,836]

1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

Sure, I understand that. But why here and not bonfire?

You may enjoy posting everywhere, including bonfire, but for some SC is ground zero.

[riggerrob 643]

Canadian Army Basic Parachutist Course 8103 was the most physically-demanding thing I have ever done. Two weeks of push-ups followed by two days of jumping. We were all physically-exhausted by the end of the course. I lost 15 pounds! As an adult, I have only weighed 170 pounds twice. The second time was at the end of a long illness.

I am proud of surviving that gruelling course.