Sunday, September 22, 2024

At the Risk of Getting on Yet Another List ...

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So the page views are still way up, guess they haven't found the switch to turn the bots off yet. I'll run with it.

That opening photo has always amused me, my first thought was that it looked like a bunch of JOs¹ showing up at an NCO² keg party. Yeah, we invited them because the first sergeant told us to, unit pride and all that. What I picture them showing up to ...

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But it did remind me of a story. A short one, mind you, I'm enjoying not slaving over a hot keyboard all day. Not saying I'm lazy, but ...

Well, yes I am.

So there I was ...

I was still a fairly junior guy on Okinawa, a bit older than most of my peers and a bit younger than most of the sergeants. I was still addressed as "Airman," as I would not attain the lofty rank of "Sergeant" until a few months later. (FWIW, I didn't spend much time as an E-4 sergeant, which the USAF no longer has, most of my time as an E-4 was as a Senior Airman. It wasn't long after putting on Sergeant stripes that I became an E-5 Staff Sergeant.)

So it was after a long, hard week (might have been two) in which the 18th TFW performed very well. (So we were told, it felt like we generated a lot of sorties, it also felt like the F-4s all behaved during all those sorties. At least the aircrew were happy, and that was our bottom line.) The powers-that-be decreed that there would be a "beer bust" on the actual flight line (well, one of the maintenance hangars). We would report at such and such a time, in uniform as I recall, to undergo mandatory "fun."

Surprisingly enough, it turned out well, very well.

It was a nice sunny day, not too hot, but just right. There, parked near the hangar, was a flatbed trailer, loaded with beer. Cases stacked 12 high as I recall, lots and lots of beer. Scattered about the venue were tubs filled with ice, loaded with beer as well. The aircrew also, as I recall, were cooking food, ya know, burgers, hot dogs, mighta been some brats as well. But it looked awesome.

We commenced drinking and eating and watching the aircrews throw each other into the large tubs with lots of melting ice (by now, Okinawa being semi-tropical) with still lots of beer. I think the crews might have brought in more ice, but left some of the tubs go to mostly water, for, ya know, dunking purposes.

At one point I found myself standing next to my squadron commander, attired in his blue office uniform (light blue shirt, dark blue pants) with his flight cap on sideways. Yup, not fore and aft, as it is normally worn, en colonne as the French would say, but en ligne, athwartships if you will.

I recall finding myself in a quandary, I am inebriated, though not in any disabling way, but my squadron commander is also inebriated, very much so, had a beer in each hand and he was swaying with the non-existent breeze. As I stared at his hat, desperate to point out the uniform violation, but knowing it was neither the time, nor the place, to do so, he spoke ...

"Airman Goodrich."

"Sir?"

"You're an asshole."

"Um, so are you, Sir, I mean with all due respect ..."

"Shut up Goodrich, you asshole." Then he handed me one of the beers he was holding.

"Uh, thank you, Sir?"

"Let us drink to assholes," he spoke, "here's to us!"

So I had a beer with my squadron commander, great chap he was, wasn't nearly as much of an asshole as I'd thought.

At the end of the day, next day was a Saturday I think, we half expected to be told to report the next morning to clean up the mess. And it was a mess, empty beer cans everywhere, drunken airmen filling the tubs of water, aircrew staggering around in their flight suits offering toasts to all and sundry.

But no, the Deputy Commander of Operations and the Deputy Commander of Maintenance had decided that the officers would all turn to on Saturday morning to clear away the detritus of one of the best parties I'd ever been to.

Did we work even harder after that to maintain our 70-odd F-4 Phantoms? You betcha. I don't know whose idea the party was, but it was brilliant. Morale was sky high after that, and it stayed there for the rest of my time at Kadena.

It was a bonding experience, but nobody was there dressed like those Feds above, nope, no way. They would have stuck out like sore thumbs.

Train hard, play hard, that's the way to do it.

Trust me.




¹ Junior Officer, O-1 to O-3, USA, USMC, USAF = 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, and Captain. USN, USCG = Ensign, Lieutenant Junior Grade, and Lieutenant. I have no idea what the "Space Force" calls them (probably same as the USAF) and I don't really care.
² Non Commissioned Officer, i.e. sergeants.

32 comments:

  1. Yah, seen that photo a number of times over the past few years, an informal meeting of the FBI? NSA? DOJ?

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    Replies
    1. FBI undercover at a Knights of Columbus party.

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    2. Nylon12 - Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb ...

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    3. Joe - With a "Don't Tread On Me" flag?

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    4. Too young to be KoCs. Tuna's a young one for being a KoC.

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    5. Age limits on KoC?

      Asking for the Protestants.

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    6. KofC? 18 minimum, no maximum. Good clean cut men there, but I've seen those Fed infiltrations across the interwebs over the past few years. Along with deliveries of pallets of bricks, protest signs, etc. Our Govt isn't "our" Govt anymore.

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    7. Hasn't been for a very long time.

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  2. Crusty Old TV Tech here. Your unit CC was a leader.

    One of the problems with the world today is such is not expected, nurtured, or celebrated by the dominant culture. The result is Chesterton's "men without chests", or Baden-Powell's observations of British young men coming to the Army which led to him creating the Boy Scouts. When the Old Man sings a 4-letter aria to a Base Civil Engineering O-6 in defense of one of his unjustly impugned Margarine Bars, that's leadership. When the Old Man concocts a steam-blowing-off social event like your beer bash (with the officer corps doing setup and tear-down/cleanup, BRILLIANT), that's leadership.

    To the Space Force comment. Holding an AFSC (2055) that would have moved to the current USSF, I am compelled to opine. YOU KIDS GET OFF MY CONSOLE! There, that's better. At least the officer rank structure is the same as the USAF. The enlisted, however...

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    1. The creation of the Space Force was, I believe, a reasonably decent idea. Though it should have Naval personnel involved, too, as the Navy has large-ship operation skills, which the Air Force doesn't since the transfer out of all of the AF range tracking and instrumentation ships.

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    2. I wouldn't think the navy would want to give away anything ... but in the world of science fiction the oceans of earth and the vastness of space have a lot in common. They have a Space navies and space Marines.

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    3. Rob - There's a reason it's called science fiction.

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    4. Science fiction writers are the dreamers who think the stuff up, calling it Science Fiction means it just hasn't happened yet.

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    5. (Don McCollor) One of the SpaceX achievements is landing a (mostly spent) booster on its tail (there have been a few mishaps) on a ship at sea just like a proper rocket ship should in the old sci-stories.

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    6. And just what does that have to do with the Space Force? Not a thing, government can't seem to do anything right, Musk can. Perhaps we should sell him the bloody Space Force. Then it might prove to be of some use.

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    7. (Sorry Sarge, hit the wrong key)

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  3. "I have no idea what the "Space Force" calls them (probably same as the USAF)"
    Space Force pronouns are "they/them/ and WTF is that?" Diversity is their strength. Uniforms courtesy of Comic con.

    Sounds like yours was a great party with some great leaders, and followers.
    A similarly epic celebration ought to be scheduled for 21 December....

    John Blackshoe

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    1. Gargle is having spasms again, I had to pull you out of the spam filter.

      I continually wonder what the purpose of the Space Force is, more flag positions? More senior enlisted advisor positions? I just don't get it.

      That's a nice idea, a party. Of course, at my age it's tay out until 8:00 PM, have one beer, then be in bed by 10:00 PM.

      Sigh ...

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  4. The good old days.... The Senior Chief shows up in the shop late morning with an empty coffee can & says, "after the flights go (afternoon flights) out were going to have some beer. He passes the can and heads off to the next shop... If I was having a bad day I'd already volunteered for the afternoon flight (I needed 4 hrs a month for flight pay). We had a really good engineering officer then!

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  5. Substitute 'Specialist' for 'Airman' and the Space Force ranks are otherwise the same as Air Force ranks. Eh, it is what it is. Having a force dedicated specifically to 'space' isn't a bad idea. We'll see how it all turns out over the next few decades.

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    Replies
    1. I think it's a very bad idea at this stage.

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    2. Well, aren't they special! And those cute uniforms, well bless their hearts!.
      JB

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    3. Yup, don't care for 'em at all. What's their mission?

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  6. Getting back to the more manly service, here is a potential header for Sarge when he is feeling frisky. First use seem to be around March 14,2016, but it has been used all sorts of places since then.
    Here is the bast quality version:
    https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=934264173291886&set=happy-brrrrttt-day-to-our-beloved-warthog-whose-first-flight-was-on-may-10th-197
    Earliest is here:
    https://fineartamerica.com/featured/rolling-in-hot-jay-beckman.html
    JB

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    Replies
    1. Nothing like some Brrrtttt to make one's day.

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  7. Okinawa was a good assignment. Glad I got to see it.
    You all be safe and God bless.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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