Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:39 PM 4/11/06 -0400, hlritter@mindspring.com wrote: >Marc, > >How sure of your statements are you? Kennedy and Bush I both saw action in the Pacific in WWII, being close enough to it to have been sunk and shot down, respectively, while piloting their machines of war in combat operations. Are you sure they never pulled a trigger/pressed a bomb release? And didn't Ike see action in WWI? > >BTW, how did Clinton accompish "hovering under the bed"? Up against the springs? When I hide under the bed (usually from my wife, after an impulsive Leica purchase--like the MP3 outfit!), I'm cowering! ;-) Howard Both Kennedy and Bush I saw service in the Pacific but I am unaware that either ever conducted any sort of operation against the enemy -- Kennedy got his both sunk through incapability while Bush I got himself shot down. Clinton dodged the Vietnam-era draft. I did not, so nyah-nyah-nyah to him. I never served overseas, only entering military service in 1974, but I was commissioned in '72 and was available though the Department of the Army was not quite desperate enough to call me to duty before that. I spent four years in ROTC, then four years on active duty, four in the National Guard, and twelve in the Reserve, being retired in 1994 and, incidentally, getting the "Peace Dividend Buy-Out". Whoo-ee. The money went to buy some Leica lenses and a lot of Lagavulin. I have no problem with George W Bush, as we both served in the Guard. He put himself at risk and was not called to fight, precisely as was my own case. I have more of a problem with Cheney but not a lot. I do have a LARGE problem with Clinton's manipulation of the system by his alternate claims of "I want to be in ROTC" and "I do not want to be in ROTC", much akin to Kerry's "I voted for the bill before I voted against it". I expended a lot of effort in the late 1960's and early 1970's writing letters to Draft Bords for friends who did not want to go. These were generallya long the lines of "you guys don't want this lad. I am contemplating a career either in the active army or in the reserve, and this guy is not your ideal candidate. He would only be suitable for duty as a casual clerk at a mental hospital and I'd not really trust him in that position, just between us kids." Not one of them was drafted. To provide some background, I came out of a High School in the Pittsburgh suburbs where we all knew our Congressman and which was very upper-middle-class. No one from that High School was ever drafted, as we all had Jim Fulton to get us out of the muck. Then in my senior year I moved to Novato, California, where an Air Base was located. A bunch of my High School friends from Novato volunteered rather than be drafted -- my best friend recently retired as the senior Colonel Dentist in the Air Force, hardly a combat job, though discussing the?stFront with Shannon requires a couple of bottles of Lagavulin! My draft number was 317 and there was no way I was going to be dragged to military service so, of course, I volunteered and the war had gone away by the time I got called to duty. My father was hell-bent that I go to West Point and kept on sticking me in for a Presidetntial Appointmentment to ne of the academies. Annapolish REALLY wanted me and I finally had to tell them in the quiet of the afternoon that I really didn't want to go to a military academy. They were really cool about it. But Clinton? Dear God Almighty! What a fraud! Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir! NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505