Thanks, John, and happy Veteran's day to you, too!
We appear to be contemporaneous, my time in the military coinciding with yours. I went into the Army in 1966, went to flight school, and flew helicopters in combat during the height of the Vietnam "Conflict" in 1967-68.
My year there was.....ummmm...interesting. In the first seven months of combat over one third of the pilots in my squadron were killed. You didn't need an advanced degree in statistical analysis to appreciate the odds.
My four years in the Army were too eventful to relate here, and perhaps irrelevent for anyone not serving in the military during those troubled national times.
If you're interested, the book "Chickenhawk" by former pilot Robert Mason describes to a "tee" what being a combat helicopter pilot was all about. Sort of the "Catch 22" (by author Joseph Heller) of the Vietnam War.
In any event, happy Veteran's Day to you all, and please, let's not hear anymore nonsense regarding Jane Fonda being elected one of the "100 most significant women of the 20th century".
She was directly responsible for the beating deaths of three American pilot POWs during her visit to North Vietnam, probably responsible for the death of six more, and possibly responsible for the deaths (all by beating after her visit) of perhaps seven additional pilots.
She won't get MY vote. I hope she doesn't get yours.
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Bob Steinbrunn
Nautical Research Guild
