I was onboard from 2004-2007. The COs during that period were Casciano (don’t remember spelling- he was gone very quickly), Oxholm, Brennan (temporary CO after the previous CO was fired for a collision), and Jablon.
When you look at what he snipped, it becomes really, really blatant. Movie version:
Book version:
And so it continues…
Personally, I think the fact that he used a parenthetical to communicate exactly the same information as the book makes it pretty obvious, but the last bit makes it damning:
Who talks like that? “Streak toward the sky”? It couldn’t be more obvious. Quite apart from that, he was explaining the failsafe system for Minuteman launches, in response to the following post:
Gee, when the missile launch control sequence is performed correctly, the missiles launch? Why mention that unless you were copying it from a book and forgot what you were responding to?
As a former serviceman with a somewhat uncommon and technical specialty, I may just be overly sensitive to accusations of lying about one’s service. Not that I’ve been accused of lying about it before- but I think it would make me feel pretty angry and wounded.
Well, putting moonshot aside (because he’s boring), it occurs to me that it might be kinda hard to prove any personal qualification, since comparable information can always be found somewhere. Heck, I’ve been a Canadian Forces reservist for almost 23 years now, but if someone were to ask me military trivia, I’m almost certainly get it wrong because I have a bad memory for stuff like that, being more interested in the nuts-and-bolts of the job than the semi-secret ceremonies or trappings.
Of course, at the same time, there are lapsed traditions at my own unit that only I am familiar with because all the people who were members when I joined have since transferred out or retired. I suppose I could take it upon myself to teach all the new recruits the “Rickety Rackety Russ” song, but… nah.
My point being that if someone wanted to accuse me of faking, it’d be hard to prove them wrong. moonshot might be a former missileer, or he might not… what does it matter when everything else he says (“Romney will get 400 electoral votes”, “we shoulda nuked China”, “WarGames is a liberal fantasy”) is stupid?
Really? You think this:
“The final command to launch also required another “vote” (two missileers performing the same procedure at another Launch Control Center…)”
is likely to arise organically from two people independently?
Ok, you’ve convinced me that he took that phrasing from that source or another with the same phrasing.
That’s pretty much exactly what I think.
The point is this. When asked for his credentials, moonshot925 posted an almost word-for-word cite from a book. Now, why would he need to do that, if he had the experience he claimed he did?
No, you’re right- that phrase almost certainly did not just spring from his memory- it came from some book or other source that used the same phrasing.
Oh, Perry was CO in the 80s IIRC.
Were you there when she collided with a Turkish Freighter?
Well, that’s pretty much what we’re saying. If he’d taken it from an Air Force training manual, he’d still be full of shit, because he insists it’s based on his own recollection (“The facilities technician crewdog told me that the doors were 110 tons.”)
I’ve pretty much given in, but if someone asked me something technical about submarines, and I didn’t recall it exactly, I might look it up to “jog my memory”.
But I give in- the post in question came from the sources linked in follow-on posts, or some other source with the same phrasing.
Yes. I was in the top-rack (top bunk of 3) at the time (it happened at around 3 in the morning, IIRC), and the impact almost tossed me out of bed.
I was enlisted late 80s, early 90s. Even with random selection, I was pissing in a cup at a minimum of every other month. I was clean, but plenty of discharges for recreational drug use, and I’m pretty sure missiles are not some special breed who never toked.
One did not speak of it at work though. Too many ears, and like any workplace, too many petty, vindictive asses who would love to see someone booted. IF there is any truth, moonshot, good Lil ultraconservative posted boy that he might be would probably never be near any such conversation.
P.S. moonshot, there were also homosexuals in the command. Just because they didn’t openly discuss it doesn’t mean they didn’t do it. And there were also your compatriots always trying to out them. Sometimes succeeded.
Gee, I wonder why someone might randomly capitalize “freighter”…
Oh, sweet Jesus. If it wasn’t for El Kabong we might still be actually responding to him.
The biggest tell that moonie is full of buffalo feces is the firearm thing. Movies love to show everyone armed, but it just isn’t true. Especially on airbases. Not only was no one armed except the SP, no one was trained. Most fired the requisite 50 rounds or so from a Vietnam-era M-16 during basic and that’s it. Even if we were attacked (and remember I was on an intelligence base), there was no armory for us to run to and arm ourselves. But there were plenty of cricket bats if things got really dire. Now those things were real dangerous.
FWIW, this newsletter (Pdf) from the Association of Air Force Missileers, at page 6, talks about the .38 pistols “that missile crews once carried.” (Aside, I thought the Air Force had revolvers with moon clips in either 9mm or .45 ACP, not .38? The things you learn…) I do not know if that implies that officers in a Launch Control Center do not now carry them, or if they carried them during the time of moonshot’s stated service, or neither. Just adding a data point to the conversation.
It seems like one more damned thing to have to inventory and follow a regulation about—not to mention utterly superfluous considering the Air Force security teams’ weaponry at the Missile Alert Facility and elsewhere—but it wouldn’t be the silliest thing I’ve read about the government. The following from the cite seems a good example of what being armed actually meant for the crews:
A more tedious duty—even with the co-ed crews the USAF controversially debuted in the mid 1980s—is difficult to imagine. And to get to spend your 1/2 day of free time in a place like Minot, N.D or Great Falls, MT… Wheeeee. A good job for catching up on your reading, I guess. And at least nobody’s shooting at you.
To be fair, lots of people have really poor grammar and capitalization skills.
That said, its far more common for people to not capitalize when they should be doing so.
I have to admit being a bit surprised when I saw he’d capitalized “freighter” as well.
Oh great, just when thread couldn’t get weirder. We get the troll want-to-be to mention weed one time and what happens? Grandpa McPot is out of the woodworks like a shot lighting up a roach and telling us all of his reefer sex fantasies.
I say it with love luci. Now put the bong down.
They didn’t let you have gum? No smoking, sure, I can understand, but sugarless gum?