I Stand Corrected

So earlier today, I wrote this "correct me if I'm wrong. (Which, while rare, does happen from time to time...)"

Yes, that's right boys and girls for in that self-same post, I said this "And the Air Force doesn't really have ships, we have boats. But no ships."

So in a post where I admitted to making a mistake now and again, and proclaiming those mistakes to be as common as a fiscally-conservative Democrat, guess what? (And yes that second italicized bit is a clue.)

120 ft Drone Recovery Ships of the U.S. Air Force

Yup, USAF, that's the Air Force!

The ships of the so called "Tyndall Navy" are stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base. That's in Florida. And really, 120 feet is a little large to be called a "boat."

Now I didn't discover this all by myself. Even Old AF Sarges have to look to even "older" AF Sarges, after all, we didn't spring from the womb as non-commissioned officers. An old sergeant of mine, Russ Kinion, pointed out my error, with this comment -

I figured you were referring to the Air Force "Navy" at Tyndall. I learned the hard way never to refer to them as boats. My neighbor in Panama City was a crew member on one of those "boats" and one day when we had a side of ribs in the smoker and were downing some cold brews, I made the mistake of using the term boat and it almost came to blows. He spent almost an hour explaining why they were NOT boats but were definitely ships!! The next Monday his Captain visited me at the shop and I received another lecture to the great amusement of everyone in the shop!

So Russ learned the hard way, from an Air Force "sailor". And the guys who commanded those ships were indeed accorded the title "Captain".

So yes, I was referring to the Tyndall Navy. Way back in the day I remember reading an article in Airman Magazine about the Tyndall Navy. But the picture they had showed was of a much smaller boat, something like this -

That's what I had based my comment on. I should have done my due diligence. But no, Mister Smarty-Pants knows everything! (Picture me slapping myself "up side the head" at this point.)

You can read about the Tyndall Navy here. I had no ideer...

So as I said (more than once) at Kadena, back in the day, and I say it again here - "Thanks SSgt Kinion!"

It's corrected we are...

Shiver me timbers.

Carry on, smartly!