This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Sporkmaster

Simply an amazing day

Before I begin I want to thank Jonn Lilyea, for allowing me to write here. It was this access that allowed all of the things below to happen.

Yesterday was simply an amazing day. I do not think that one could have planned it any better from start to finish. It started at the 12th Training Wing at Randolph Airforce Base after being escorted by the 12th Wing’s Staff Officers. The Wing was called to attention as Uncle Tommy entered the building. There was short tour going through the history of the unit from the photos on the walls. There was a presentation on what training is conducted at the 12th Training Wing and answered any questions that we had.

Then we took a short break by going outside to T-38 Talon trainer and talking more about the aircraft that were being used on the base. After that we back inside and started talking about the history of the two men, the event in February 1952 and the unusual series of events that allowed this reunion to happen. There was a lot of history there to say the least.

We left the 12th Training Wing to go to where the air show was being held. The crowds were not there because we were invited to the air show rehearsal the day before. What was there was a static display of a P-51C Mustang and a T-33 Shooting Star. We managed to take many photos of Uncle Tommy with both aircraft. At this time we met with a reporting team from KSAT12, a local news group. They were filming as we were taking photos with each aircraft. ( I credited this website and Jonn for his part, I have no idea if they will link or not.)

The Wing Commander 12th greeted us on the flight line.

A few minutes later we watched the USAF Thunderbirds perform from the best seat in the house. There was some concern that the Thunderbirds were not going to be able to fly due to the weather. But the weather cleared up enough for the rehearsal to start and it was quite a show.

After the conclusion of the Thunderbirds, we went inside to where Uncle Tommy and Mr. Jerry Swartz were interviewed by KSAT12. After that was over, we left the base to go to my parents’ house to celebrate Uncle Tommy’s 92nd Birthday. Mr. Jerry Swartz had managed to locate photos of the Squadron members that were with Uncle Tommy. As Mr Swartz went over each photo, Uncle Tommy would recall their call signs and stories about the crazy things that they did back then. I am going to coordinate with Mr Swartz about adding those photos to Wiki Commons with their names to help out of anyone else is looking for family members that served with the 160th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. Mr Swartz also found the original Flight Safety magazine that contained that storyboard write up.

Before everyone left, Uncle Tommy was able to facetime with my son and hear my son sing happy birthday. The only down side to all of this is “what to do for his 93rd birthday.”

Update November 2nd 2015: The 12th Training Wing added more photos of the event on their facebook page.

November 1, 2015
A Reunion and an Air Show

Earlier this month I was was contacted by Mr. Jerry Swartz, the son of the late retired COL Swartz. The pilot who my Great Uncle Tommy saved in February 1952. Since my last entry I made on October 2nd, there has been massive email traffic between Mr. Swartz and my family. The outcome of those talks resulted in Mr Swartz confirming that he will be flying to San Antonio to meet my Great Uncle Tommy in person this weekend. I was excited by this alone, but it began to take a life of its own.

It seems that Mr. Jerry Swartz has a few friends at Randolph Air Force Base. During this up coming weekend, Mr. Jerry Swartz was able to invite my Great Uncle Tommy as a special guest on Air Show on October 30th. Which happens to be my Great Uncle Tommy’s 92nd birthday. Also there will be a static aircraft display of a T-33 Shooting Star, the two seat version of the P-80 Shooting Star. The same P-80 Shooting Star that was being used by both COL Swartz and Uncle Tommy. So I am liking a idea of using that as a chance for a photo op. But it gets even more interesting. It seems that the mission statement made by COL Swartz was found by Mr. Jerry Swartz.

We are hoping that this might be enough to restart his recommendation for the Distinguish Flying Cross. This has been one interesting month. I cannot wait to write the follow up this weekend. Going to be good.

October 27, 2015
Remembering the Past: Follow up.

About a year or two ago I wrote a article about my Great Uncle who helped out a fellow airman in trouble. I was contacted by the son of the airman that my Great Uncle saved. As I was contacting the family I was thinking about how often the aftermath of a good deed goes unknown. This make only worse when the person that performed the deed is modest. It just seems that all we see today is tragic events and the aftermath that follow. Rarely to we see the results of these good deeds. So when I got this news I was excited to share this news with family, figurative and literally.

October 2, 2015
Seeking advice for a mother of a new Soldier.

More specifically one who is going to be a medic. A few days ago I came across this message about a mother that has fears and concerns of our profession that her son will be learning. This was the request in full.

She is basically “scared to death” for him
• because he is so young,
• worried about what the impact of the trauma will do to him emotionally,
mentally,
intellectually.

How she can prepare herself to be the best support person HE NEEDS.
Not hinder or hold him back.

Have any Medics written any books, maybe from the Vietnam-era, that she could read so she is realistically prepared for what he MIGHT face.

Of course, it will scare her,
BUT she needs to PREPARE HERSELF, so she CAN BE STRONG FOR HIM!

I wrote that it would best for both her and him is to be honest with any fears or worries they have. The best way that she could help him is reminding him that no mater what happens that she will be there for him. But I felt it was lacking something, so as I promised I am reaching out to the medics and parents of medics on any further advice that could be given.

July 6, 2015
SPC Amanda Dillard; saving the world, one person at a time.

Today I had the honor of witnessing Specialist Amanda Dillard of the 47th Combat Support Hospital presented with the Soldiers Medal for her actions in assisting the driver of a recent and severe car accident. Now to say “assisted” would be a gross understatement. I will have to ask your indulgence, because I do not have the award write up and I could not find a news story link when it happened around late 2014. Trying to remember the story from the presentation, it went something like this.

Specialist Amanda Dillard was driving off of JBLM at the end of the day when she came across a truck that had slid off the road and crashed into a tree head on. The truck totaled with the black smoke coming out of the engine. Dillard went through the passenger side to assess the situation. The driver suffered a C-2 fracture along other injuries that were not described. To make matters worse, the driver was going in and out of consciousness. He was able to survive the crash because she immobilized his head and neck for at least thirty minutes before medical personal arrived on the scene. During the times that the driver would come around, she kept him calm and comforted as much as possible. Specialist Amanda Dillard said that she used jokes and light conversation to help distract from their situation. She visited him at the hospital during his recovery to see how he was doing. She did not inform anyone about her actions that day. The only reason that 47th Combat Support Hospital found out about her actions was because of a was a member of the emergency service was able to contact one of her NCOs, who then informed the unit.

During the presentation the driver of the truck spoke how amazing grateful he was to her and how things could have been drastically worse had she not done what she did. Saving the world, one person at a time.

UPDATED March 15 2015.

Here is a news story written by the JBLM Northwest Guardian about the award ceremony.

March 7, 2015
Why I care about Stolen Valor

I came upon this article on Facebook by Jack Murphy over at SOFREP. The article is titled “Why I do not care about stolen valor” piqued my interest to see where this was going. To be fair it was not what I thought it would be.

Perhaps the most popular issue among veterans on social media and various military-themed websites is stolen valor. You know, those sad, pathetic pukes who throw on medals and pretend to be soldiers. That SAS poser in Prague is a good example. We all delight in exposing these frauds for what they are. We like to examine their photographs on Facebook and use our keen military insider knowledge of AR-670-1 to critique what is wrong with their uniforms. Then we like to continuously point out how stupid these people are.

That and also have them on the internet so that when the same people try to pull the same stunts at a later time because they believe that no one will know or remember will be revived as frauds before rather then after being scammed. I mean stolen valor is just a watered down version of identity theft. Also it has helped in learning and remembering the correct wear for the Army uniforms from all the errors that they do.

But it doesn’t stop there. Not to be deterred in our search for the faux soldiers and with our insatiable desire to expose stolen-valor cases—we always need fresh meat for the grinder—we start turning on each other. Veterans are in such a hurry to “out” people they suspect of stolen valor, they take to social media and accuse real veterans of being fakers. We’ve seen this happen over and over again where veterans jump the gun, acting like keyboard commandos suffering from small-penis syndrome.

You know I would be happen to not see another story about someone not being guilty of stolen valor. Not because I do not want these cases being reported, but rather because these crime was not being done at all. Also I do not think that one has to look to hard to find people who want to play dress up (figuratively and literally) in public for their own benefit. I can see how Going back to the story above, I am curious if there are any updates on the Bronze Star with “V” device and the Purple Heart. Now before our favorite trolls get too excited over that last quoted statement, it follows up with this;

I actually respect many of the websites and individuals out there who expose stolen valor. Military frauds can do real damage to people. Using fraudulent credentials, they get hired for jobs they are not qualified for. Some of them lure in unsuspecting women with their fake war stories. Their stupidity in public can make actual veterans look like idiots. Some of these fakers even collect money for their fake military charities for personal enrichment. These are perfectly good reasons to call bullshit on the bullshitters.

Yep, so you can site back down now. Now on to his main point.

Do you know why I don’t care about stolen valor?

Because I have a life. You could work 24/7 trying to track down stolen-valor cases; that is how prolific these clowns are. The question you have to ask yourself is, is it worth your effort? Don’t you have professional and personal goals to meet in life? If I spend all my time writing about stolen valor, do you know what I’m not writing about? Real soldiers. I’ll be damned if I’m going to write about fake soldiers when I can write about real ones—some of them quite heroic.

The fake CIA-SEALs like Jamie Smith can say whatever they like, but it won’t take away a single thing that I, or any of my teammates, accomplished during our military service. Our actions speak a hell of a lot louder than the bullshit on the Internet.

For those that regularity read this site can say that we are well rounded in covering different topics such. The tags that help make sure that the actions of real service members get acknowledgement that they deserve over the frauds that do not. I also disagree in that these actions on and off the battlefield are going to have the effect that he states above. I believe that this mind set has lead to more people jumping on and riding the coat tails. It also does not help public in filtering out which is the fraud and the real deal due to not being familiar with military life.

So this is why I take a small amount of time to write about stolen valor and who is doing it.

February 7, 2015
Previewing our post draw down world?

NPR is reporting that with the increasing levels of escalation by Russia that countries in Europe are finding their military forces wanting.

Last month a Russian military aircraft flying in stealth nearly crashed into a commercial passenger plane taking off from Copenhagen. In April, Russian fighter jets carried out a simulated bombing raid on Stockholm. And nobody seems able to do anything about it.

Why you ask?

“The army has been reduced by 90 percent, from approximately half a million men to, today, 50,000 [troops] including the home guard, 25,000 if you just count the regulars,” he says.The story is similarly dramatic with the navy — which has been scaled back by some 80 percent — and the air force, which has slimmed down by 70 percent, according to Neretnieks.

The line that caught my eye and should be read over and over.

“Europe as a whole, of course, downsized their forces,” he says. “We tend to forget that things can change quicker than we thought.” “I’ve been in the armed forces since the early ’70s, and I’ve only experienced reductions,” he says.

January 29, 2015
Visiting relics of the past

Over Veterans day I decided to take my six year old son out to seem some static displays around base. It was one of those traditional things that my family on my parents side did for me when I was a kid.

We stopped by the Cemetery on post first in order for hem to start understanding what Veterans day is and how we should be grateful for those who have gone into harms way on our behalf. I may have to wait until he his older or a different approach. It did not help that he ran through the grassy area and got water in his shoes. He started to get cold so we moved on to the next site on post that had some static Tank and other military vehicles. We saw tanks from different decades and wars. Lasted longer then I thought he would. Lastly we went to the Air Force side and ran into a few hidden historical gems.

The first one was a F-16(A?) Falcon on display at the National Guard Headquarters. The interesting fact was that this F-16 Falcon had taken part in the Air Patrols immediately following the September 11th attacks. Unless someone took the time look at it, they would never know. The other gems were at a static aircraft display with over 15 aircraft. Two of them were rare finds as it turns out. They were the Douglas B-18 Bolo and the DouglasB-23 Dragon. Both were pre-world war two aircraft and were not used on the war and not very well known at all. But I think that make it more special because it was something new to see in how this history of aviation progressed from the biplane to the monoplane. More so because it seems that number of known examples of these aircraft in the world is in the single digits. I was able to show my son two such aircraft in one day.

So in short I was able to show some history and learn some myself. But given all the things that one can do on Veterans day, it always interesting to find out how much history at each post.

Also on a separate note, what has worked for you in explaining Veterans day to Children of single digits?

November 12, 2014