I hope not Dean. The country owes your generation much more than that. Answering the draft call and serving was patriotic and honorable. I firmly believe that Americans are, on balance, more grateful and respectful than what the networks chose to portray us as on our tv screens in the 70s. Sorry about straying from Gary's thread but the way the media portrayed the members of our military during the Vietnam war infuriates me.

Nice snowfall Gary! Welcome to my world! I spent some of yesterday scooping and plowing snow on my pad to prepare for the impending melt.

PS. I'd highly recommend watching the video linked by John D in a previous post here. I've watched a LOT videos like this and this one is as good as it gets and worth every second. The kids milling aimlessly around in life today should be required to watch this.

OUTSTANDING opportunity to amplify select comments in this thread! - Due to an extremely sore left shoulder and reaction(s) to pollen this AM, I did not head out to the Air & Space Museum's Udvar Hazy aircraft museum, and it really bummed me out This morning ONLY the museum (located in/on Dulles International Airport) hosted a fly-in of vintage British WW II aircraft; everything listed from Marine Spitfire to Lancaster Heavy Bomber to Hawkers, Hurricanes, etc.

This killed me because had I felt better I would have been there at dawn when they invited the "hard core" to see the approach, landings, & taxiing maneuvers, which I have done many times before.

Fast forward to later this afternoon when I visited my local Starbuck's for a tall dark roast, and noticed two men pull up behind my car in a large Mercedes 600 (E?) convertible, sporting the logo license tag for the museum with the SR-71 Blackbird on it. Both were porky, frumpy-stylishly attired (think summer weight jogging suits), looked like a father-son duo.

Assuming they must have just come from the fly-in, I approached, greeted them, and said, "Did you go out and see the vintage Brit WW II aircraft land?" To my amazement, neither one of them looked up from their cellphone screens to respond. When I posed the question again, the son grunted a clipped "'Nope'"! When I said "too bad", the father got louder, still not looking up from his HHED (hand held electronic device), and amplified a louder "NO, NO, we did not go!!" Getting the message, I gave them an enthusiastic "All righty then!" and went about my business.

This is what we are dealing with today - I wonder what their reaction would have been if I'd said, "Damn, look at that SCUD missile coming right for us!! Must have been an errant demo launch from the air show!!!"

Should have called them out on their boorish behavior.





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Never cast pearls before swine.