Here's your latest TEXAS RAIDERS update and a CAF Mission Statement drama for your entertainment. OK it's just me ranting like a loon.
This weekend just past we had a good turn out of volunteers who:
Installed accessories on the #2 Firewall and cleaned it some more.
Worked on drilling and tapping a messed up fastener on a starboard wing fuel tank.
Did more "stuff" related to the landing gear? Didn't get their story.
Cleaned #3 Engine- the philosophy being, if I clean it we can see where the new leaks are coming from.
The Cockpit Troll left before I heard what he had been trolling over.
Played the Rumor game.
Somebody asked me about a worst case scenario and I told them how we could get around it.
By the end of the day when the Maintenance Officer got back from his annual (Well deserved day off of) duck hunting... Someone told him I wanted to slap on the wings, sling the engines on, get a ferry permit and fly it away. I never did hear where they thought I was going to fly it. Davis-Monthan? To the Swamps of PNG to replace Swamp Ghost so the snakes and mosquitos won't feel culturally deprived? <-Sarcasm!!!)
Anyway, that got smoothed over, but I expect to hear more about it over the next few weeks.
On The Edge of a Cloud- Dec. 7, 2007
Angel Joe: Hey Smitty, Hey Garcia, come here. You gotta see this!
Angel 1st Class (A1C) Smith: What is it? I don’t see anything.
A1C Garcia: Yeah me neither. Hey, didn’t you used to be an Angel 1st Class? What’s up?
Angel Joe: Oh, yeah. Too much cursing. The OLD MAN didn’t like it and busted me down to Angel. Anyway look down there. Look Closer at Houston, Texas.
A1C Smith: What about it? It’s just a bunch of people fighting. What on Earth is new about that?
A1C Garcia: Yeah, they’re not even going after it hard enough to get themselves a ticket to up here.
Angel Joe: That’s not the point. The deal is they are the Commemorative Air Force. You know. The people who are supposed to be honoring us.
A1C Smith: So what? Ain’t it the way of the world?
Angel Joe: Yeah Maybe. But tell me, where did you buy the farm?
A1c Smith: Riding in the backseat of a Devastator at Midway. Man I get the willies just thinking about those Zeros. We cartwheeled in before we could even make our drop.
Angle Joe: How about you Garcia?
A1C Garcia: I drowned in the Mediterranean coming back from Ploesti.
My B24 ran out of gas after we got shot up by flak. We had to ditch.
I couldn’t make it out so I took a little swim with the fishies.
How about you Joe? You were one of those Glory Boys in B17s out of England weren’t you?
Angel Joe: Yeah, I was flying out of Ridgewell with the 381st, the best Group in the whole Mighty Eighth.
A1C Garcia: Hold on, Hold on. You 8th guys are insufferable. I asked you how? Not with who.
Angel Joe: Sorry. It was over Mercy-Less-Berg!!! We were bombing Merseberg for the umpteenth God-Damned time when my luck ran out.
Kaboom- Lightning lights up the cloud under Angel Joe’s butt and the other two angels back away.
Angel Joe: Sorry LORD!
It’s just those guys down there are squabbling to beat the band over an airplane that is supposed to do us honor. Look at ‘em. Listen to ‘em. Some of ‘em say they aren’t paying their dues if an election doesn’t turn out how they like it. Some of them say they aren’t coming back!!!
A1C Smith: Well I sure wish I could have stayed in my rack on “The Big E” instead of splashing in on the way to meet the Japanese Fleet.
Angel Joe: That is my point exactly. You didn’t! You put on your gear, strapped on your chute and YOU WENT! The both of you!
A1C Garcia: Yeah we went. Wilson over there died in his bunk at Pearl on Dec. 7th. His war was over before it started. No DFCs, No Navy Cross, just a Purple Heart in a box sent to his Momma.
Angel Joe (Voice getting louder and LOUDER): Hell’s Bells! It doesn’t matter where any of us served. We served! I DON’T CARE IF WE DIED OF THE CLAP IN POGO POGO…
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Burnt looking airman with an overseas bag on his shoulder standing in front of the Gates of Hell.
Gate Keeper: Halt! Who Goes There?
Angel Joe: Former Airman First Class Joe reporting for duty as ordered!
Dedicated with more respect than is immediately apparent to Everitt Haughey, USMC – Pearl Harbor to Chosin Reservoir. And his son, David Haughey USMC (ret.) Semper Fi
And My Dad, Wm. M. Price III of the Mighty 8th, 384th Bomb Group (H)