Dear Mr. Veteran,

I'm sad you had to go to war, but thank you very much for your brave sacrifice on behalf of the oppressed. I'm not a vet, but luna was in the Air Force. Luna? Where are you?

I was with US Navy, we call it Naval Aviation see my other response.... I'm too lazy to type it all again. Top gun. Sorta stuff.

Musher! Why did I not realize you were Air Forces? What did you there?

Musher did I ask you if you were part of the Great Plane Robbery??? I knew a Marine involved, and my Ex was sitting on the Ranger off shore at the time. Happened in Thailand. Might have been later than '72, good story!

I miss those days sorta.... there's something enjoyable about not having to wear make up, and getting to get all greasy, turning wrenches.

You're right, my memory isn't what it used to be!!!! Too much info pouring through it like a sieve....

AH you were a load master! This sounds familiar! Cargo planes... sometimes carried human cargo up topside....

The Great Plane Robbery as I recall (mind you my memory is fading fast!!! ) goes something like this.... in the semi post Viet Nam years, or perhaps toward the end, the government of Thailand did a shift. It's entirely possible communists took over from the royalty who had been running things up until then (I would have to look up their history). I know during the early on years of Viet Nam when Dad was there, he flew into Thailand (Bangkok) a few times and saw the Emerald Buddha and such. He loved it there, highlight for him; I think the royals were still in power then.

Anyway this story was told to me by my Ex (on the USS Midway as an electrician), and confirmed later by a former Marine I worked with. The group that took over Thailand managed to take over a large number of F5s at the same time (we had a small deployment there), wouldn't let Americans in or out of the country. I misremember if they were Air Force birds, or Navy birds. Naturally this was looked upon in a negative light by America (those were top of the line fighter planes of the time), and orders came down. In the dead of night, things were taken care of.... many helicopters (Marine I think) were sent over in the dark, latched onto the fighter planes, and physically lifted them right off the tarmac and away to the ship. F5s aren't very big so it worked beautifully.

All involved were told this was a dead dark top secret operation, and the press never heard about it. Would have been a bit of an international incident (since Thailand would have screamed "we nationalized them they were OURS" yeah sure) .... as far as I can tell, no one was killed, no battle or anything. Just nice dark covert stuff. And since I have a reputation far and wide as a storyteller, you are welcome to not believe it yourselves. UFO stories probably have more veracity!!!

Another friend told a similar story about Afghanistan.... over our "stay" there recently, a Chinook went down in a remote area.... no one knew about it (our military did naturally) and another Chinook was sent in to airlift the whole kitten kaboodle out. Never made the press, that's for sure. Again, no lives lost, no battle, everyone pulled out safely.

No, I was not a Loadmaster. Loadmaster is an actual aircrew position and at the time my vision did not quite meet USAF specs. Go figure, as a civilian I was able to attain commercial pilot certification. I was an Air Cargo Specialist and was very good at my job. Made maximum grade (Staff Sergeant E-5) in less than three years time in service. Practically unheard of in the Air Force. I often regret not having stayed in the Air Force for a career, but we all have to live with the decisions we make.

No am certain the event I recall was not that Great Plane Robbery. I think the item that was misappropriated was a small piece of artillery. One of our Aerial Port troops inadvertently got involved and was gathered up with the miscreants. He thought it was a legit return of a piece of the TDY unit's equipment and was actually helping move the item to the base for transport out of the country. Fortunately he was cleared when investigators learned he was duped by the perps.

So what can we say that is nice about all veterans?

I love that Justin has more or less dedicated "Bless the Wings" to military wives.