Unmanned aerial vehicles

Me and the guys were sitting around watching the game on AFN. A commerical came on t.v. honoring the women who have died serving in iraqi and enduring freedom. Though the thought was in the right place, It just seemed wrong. They made no mention of the men who died. what happened to "you will not be forgotten","never shall i fail my comrades" and "leave no man behind"

Apparently i wasn't the only one who found the memorial disrespectful. One of the pilots turned to me after the commercial had highlighted some of their accomplishments before those women's last fateful missions and he
said very sarcastically " Nicole...bet you didn't know it but, you women won the war....yeah it was all you women who won the war" And a few of the other pilots chimed in with more sarcastic remarks.

I thought to myself.....i understand your point, but you do realize you are sitting in Germany drinking beer... getting credit for iraqi freedom....critiquing someone who gave their life taking fire from the enemy......and commenting about how little you think they contributed.

i have just two things to say about that...... i don't care if they are white, black, iraqi, male, female, or elephant.......they died for their country ...lest we forget.....what have you done for Uncle Sam lately?

and


Have you heard of auto pilot, and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)?! Just wondering

Do you know what you are fighting for....sir?

While in Germany i saw signs with the slogan "Combat Pride" all around the flightline. They had odd sops too.... they wanted all the fire bottles lined up perfectly in front of the nose of every plane...for "Combat Pride"...at the commanders request. There were no airplanes there that have seen combat... there are no gunships or other special ops birds there.





This was during the battle of fallujha last november where we took heavy casualties. Those fallen soldiers and marines were brought back to freindly soil just a few hundred yards down the ramp from where we were parked. From where all the combat pride slogans were posted.

Thanksgiving came and went..... And there was no mention of our wounded brothers who lay wounded and alone at the hospital. Some of whom died there. All while we professed combat pride by lining up the fire bottles and lowering the gear doors....so all the airplanes looked the same and so the flightline would look aesthetically pleasing from the big picture window. Combat pride to me is not leaving my fallen brothers, it is about being thankful for their sacrafice on thankgiving.

At one base they actually flew in a motivational speaker from the U.S. to giva a mandatory breifing to talk to us and to tell us how important our job is and to try to drive home the point that there are soldiers with great hardships out there....soldiers fighting and dieing and that is what we are here for.

These soldiers are all around us... on the base...they are who we haul......

i found it an insult to make me sit thru that breifing. If you didnt learn it from the guys around you.......you wont learn it from some motivational speaker.

And just bringing in the motivational speaker contradicts the point they were trying to make.

"Did you used to be in the army?"

"No". i said and i must have looked a little confused because he went on explaining... "well it is just that most people in the airforce dont know what an EIB is."

I looked at the airman, who proudly displayed his EIB on his airforce uniform.....something i have never seen before in the airforce. He wore jump wings too....but his airassault badge was 'traded' for an airforce security forces patch.He shared that He used to be infantry for the 101st.

I told him i had alot of respect for infantry. And he said "Thankyou. I really miss it, sometimes"....and he paused .... and looking at me in that very profound moment he again said thankyou.