"The Enlisted Man"
Enlisted man
A US Air Force C-141 is scheduled to leave Thule Air Base,
Greenland at midnight. During the pilot's pre-flight check,
he discovers that the latrine holding tank is still full from the last flight.
So a message is sent to the base and an airman who was off duty
is called out to take care of it.
The young man finally gets to the air base and makes his way to
the aircraft, only to find that the latrine pump truck has been left
outdoors and is frozen solid, so he must find another one in the
hangar, which takes even more time. He returns to the aircraft
and is less than enthusiastic about what he has to do.
Nevertheless, he goes about the pumping job deliberately and carefully
(and slowly) so as not to risk criticism later.
As he's leaving the plane, the pilot stops him and says, "Son,
your attitude and performance has caused this flight to be late and
I'm going to personally see to it that you are not just reprimanded
but punished."
Shivering in the cold, his task finished, he takes a deep breath,
stands up tall and says, "Sir, with all due respect, I'm not your
son. I'm an Airman in the United States Air Force. I've been in
Thule, Greenland , for 11 months without any leave, and
reindeers' rumps are beginning to look pretty good to me. I have
one stripe; it's two-thirty in the morning, the temperature is
40 degrees below zero,and my job here is to pump crap out of an aircraft.
Now, just exactly what form of punishment did you have in mind?"
A US Air Force C-141 is scheduled to leave Thule Air Base,
Greenland at midnight. During the pilot's pre-flight check,
he discovers that the latrine holding tank is still full from the last flight.
So a message is sent to the base and an airman who was off duty
is called out to take care of it.
The young man finally gets to the air base and makes his way to
the aircraft, only to find that the latrine pump truck has been left
outdoors and is frozen solid, so he must find another one in the
hangar, which takes even more time. He returns to the aircraft
and is less than enthusiastic about what he has to do.
Nevertheless, he goes about the pumping job deliberately and carefully
(and slowly) so as not to risk criticism later.
As he's leaving the plane, the pilot stops him and says, "Son,
your attitude and performance has caused this flight to be late and
I'm going to personally see to it that you are not just reprimanded
but punished."
Shivering in the cold, his task finished, he takes a deep breath,
stands up tall and says, "Sir, with all due respect, I'm not your
son. I'm an Airman in the United States Air Force. I've been in
Thule, Greenland , for 11 months without any leave, and
reindeers' rumps are beginning to look pretty good to me. I have
one stripe; it's two-thirty in the morning, the temperature is
40 degrees below zero,and my job here is to pump crap out of an aircraft.
Now, just exactly what form of punishment did you have in mind?"
0
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Sounds about right.
Punishment at Minot on the flight line is extra duty, so you're forced to work 12 hours instead of the 11 hours you would've been working if you didn't screw-up.0 -
Yeah, I doubt any formal punishment would be much worse than that - yikes![:0] 0 -
I think they take the Home and Garden channel out of the cable lineup.[:D] 0 -
I used to work with a guy that got himself stationed there, (Thule) back in the 60's. People would count the minutes, hours, days, and months they had left there. He said he'd seen grown men cry when their flight out of there got delayed by weather. Dave 0
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