A US Air Force C-130 was scheduled to leave Thule Air Base, Greenland at midnight during a winter month. 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, the young airman takes a deep breath, stands 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 reindeer are beginning to look pretty good to me. I have one stripe, it's 2:30 in the morning, the temperature is 40 degrees below zero, and my job here is to pump latrine stuff out of an aircraft. Now, just exactly what form of punishment did you have in mind for me?"

That one reminds me of a very old black and white world war one movie I seen. These guys are sitting in a trench, bullets whizzing by, its snowing, muddy, rockets whisteling, and the mail catchs up with them. This solider has been playing a concertina earlier and he is now reading his mail. It was from the music store where he had bought the squak box and they are telling him if he doesnt send a payment he will find himself in big trouble!

Great story, except that when I was in Thule, I never saw any reindeer. Don't know if there are even any in Greenland; they need lichens to eat and most of the rocks in Greenland are under the ice.

One thing you learned quickly in the navy is carefully choosing your words. We had a rear admiral doing inspections on our ship along with a bunch of other officers. While saluting the admiral stating my name and rank "standing by for inspection sir". Never even went into the space I was responsible for (thrust block main thrust bearing for propeller shaft) Just returned my salute. However the guy standing by for the other thrust block space said Ready for inspection. Now the admiral did visit his space. Just lucky or good choice of words on my part??. Frank

I'd like to say nothing has changed since I was in but I'm sure it has. I do know that all folks are entitled to be ***'s but some insist on abusing the privilege as this Officer did, I commend the lowly Airman for his answer.

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198

Ahhhh...Thule Greenland AFB, where the recruiter said there was "A beautiful woman behind every tree"...

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NULLI SECUNDUS

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Hold my beer and watch this!

Nice one, Airpark.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I did a very short stint in fleet service while stationed at Kadena AB Okinawa, Japan. Servicing the rotators coming from the states wasn't to bad if the pump truck was working right and the connectors were a perfect match. Hardly a drop of the pretty blue liquid would hit the ground. if a seal was bad the guy doing the connection with the hose was in for a for a bad day and a long hot shower and a day or two of blue skin stains. The cargo aircraft were didn't have belly tank only urinals a chemical toilet that the crew chief got to dump. There is nothing like the smell of raw sewage first thing in the morning. I have the upmost respect for those people.

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Carpriver.

I was never there, and I dissavough anybody who says I was.

sort of like the old radio operator joke back in the 70s and 80s. "what are you going to do? send me to Guam and put me on shift work?" lee

A sorta similar occurrence on my senior trip to SE Asia in 1967. My crew chief, Mike, and I were putting 2.75 WP rockets together at the "rearm pit". Neither of us had shirts on and we were smoking as we worked.

About that time, the battalion commander and his minions happened by and we were fairly slow to stand and salute--no shirts and a Lucky in our hands. The colonel began berating us for being out of uniform, being disrespectful to an officer, and smoking around explosives. He summed up the tirade by telling us that we were likely to be punished for our actions.

My buddy, Mike, asked something like "What are you going to do--send us to Vietnam and make us door gunners?'

The colonel replied that the stockade in Cadena, Okinawa, was also an option.

Mike asked: "Are they shooting at us there, sir?"

There was no answer from the colonel--just opening and closing his mouth.

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... a little behind in my work