Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/11

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Chief execs who...KILL
From: msmall at infionline.net (Marc James Small)
Date: Tue Apr 11 20:50:57 2006

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





Replies: Reply from leicachris at worldnet.att.net (Christopher Williams) ([Leica] Re:Chief execs who...KILL)