I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Wild, Blue Yonder

I say ye, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), Congressional Gold Medal recipients.

It's about time the rest of the country understood what many in the services know. With out you, The War would not have been won. Most people get lost in the tactics. Fewer understand the importance of strategy. Fewer still know that logistics wins the fight, the battle, and the war. And the distinct minority know the WASPs went beyond logistic support and provided combat services in ways that could be denied (at the time), but were essential to the war effort. These women pilots helped pave the way for women in combat, all under the radar of the American consciousness.

Raise a glass and thank your lucky stars these women stepped up, did what their country asked, did it well, and we're asked to keep quiet about what they did (combat support, submarine spotting and attacking, navigation, engineering, troop carrier support, cargo ship caravan support, SAR, I could go on...). Oh, and every single one of them were volunteers.

2 comments:

sheila, who is feeling fabutronic today, said...

As a tip of the hat to the ladies of the air, I e-mailed Ohio's senators this morning to ask their support for Sen. Lieberman's legislation to repeal "don't ask don't tell."
:-D

Sen. Brown has already signed on as a co-sponsor, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for Sen. Voinovich to do the same.

The WASPs weren't allowed to join the service because of their gender, and I thought it would be nice to help stop the discharge of current service members based on sexual orientation.

Steve Buchheit said...

Sheila, it is one of those things that just boggles many in command positions who don't have blinders on. The military continues to misunderstand that homogeneous commands are subject to more moral and disciplinary procedures than commands that are diversified.