An encounter with a member of the Air Force

[barbtries]

I live fairly close to the Los Angeles Air Force Base. A couple of days ago while walking my chihuahua (wearing a knee-length nightgown, jeans, and a sweatshirt), i crossed paths with a young woman wearing camouflage fatigues. Think they call them fatigues.

Anyway. I stopped and asked her, "Are you in the military?" By the time we parted ways, I saw that her uniform identified her as Air Force, but as ignorant as I am, I don't think I expected that particular uniform to belong to someone in the Air Force. She said "yes."

"Have you been overseas?"

"Not yet." She was blond, beautiful, petite, and omigawd too young to die...I said, "Maybe it will end before you have to go." This was like Monday, I think - post election, definitely.

"Probably early next year, maybe January," she said.

I told her my son was lucky, "He got kicked out of the Navy before he had to go." (Last October my now 23-year-old son tested positive for marijuana in one of the two branches that still hold to a zero tolerance policy: The Navy).

She said, "I would definitely consider that lucky."

Walking on I found myself in tears, then wondering if i should run after her and tell her i know where she can get some dope! then i thought how dire the military situations is; if she was tested and came up positive, they'd probably just shove her into the Army and deploy her straight away to the war zone.

It was a short encounter, but i found it meaningful. This was an active duty member of the military and it was clear to me that she recognizes the wrongness of the war in Iraq.

Gawd i hope she'll be okay. why can't they all be?

[Skittles]

1. huh

when I was in the Air Force they very much discouraged us from wandering around off-base in fatigues - has this changed?

[barbtries]

2. i don't know

maybe she was just walking to work. it was just after 6 am.

[merh]

4. yes. n/t

[Cobalt-60]

5. Back in President Carter's Day

When I was in USN E.T. school, we were required to be in uniform off base, at least early in the program.
There must be a martial fashion cycle.

[DontBlameMe]

12. Were you conventional or Nuke?

In 1990, conventional ET's had to wear dungarees, but nuke's could wear civies after class. This was in Orlando, btw, before they closed the RTC.

[Cobalt-60]

15. Me nuke

ET-Nuclear.
But I did get to attend the comm school at great lakes.
Even in 1980 that was Old School gear.
We were simply verboten to stray off base in dungarees.
I particularly liked the near black "invisible pedestrian" winter uniform.

[MrScorpio]

7. Things changed

I used to go shopping in my BDUs all the time.

You see it a lot around here, all services

[CarbonDate]

8. The standard....

...is that you can make "quick stops" in uniform (e.g., getting gas), but often I'll see people wandering around at the mall in BDUs. I generally don't go chase them down and chew them out, since I don't actually care, but it is against regs.

[tsuki]

13. Yes, I see USAF personnel in fatigues everywhere. I must say,

as an old military brat, it does look strange.

[countmyvote4real]

3. Thanks for sharing. n/t

[CarbonDate]

6. He only got kicked out?

That is lucky. You test positive for drugs in the Air Force, you go to jail. A bad conduct discharge is not the way to go.

[barbtries]

9. he was in a good unit

his friend was court martialed and jailed for a month. andy received an other than honorable discharge. lost his benefits. and i am so fucking happy because he did not go to war. pathetic i know...i didn't want him to enlist because i knew gw would throw a war. but his sister was murdered. he quit his job, then quit school. he was sleeping all day and doing who knows what all night. and he joined up, and he did pretty well too: JSN (i think that's the letters), navy journalist, graduated DINFOS following boot camp. stateside til he was ousted. last January was when he was due to set sail. now he's up at humboldt pursuing his education with his grandparents' money rather than the taxpayers' dime. i sigh whenever i think about. it. i am just so, so happy he didn[t go to war. just wish no body ever did.

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. I am curious to know where the "Los Angeles Air Force Base" is...

I lived in LA for 3 years and i have no idea where you are talking about.

[Shrek]

14. It's in El Segundo.

Here's the link:

http://www.losangeles.af.mil/ABG/homepage.htm

And here's a Google link to the map.

[mymomwasright]

11. I'm glad you're happy for your boy.

I wouldn't suggest getting an Other than honorable by smoking weed or such to anyone who may be looking at this. The OTH stays with you for life! You can appeal all you want from 6 months to 15 years after they kick you out. Trouble is the Department of the Navy gets about 500-1000 requests for discharge upgrades. They might upgrade about two percent of the time. The rumor that it's easy to upgrade an OTH is just that, a rumor. It's on the web if you do a search. Even the DON archives for appeals.
I'm not criticizing this situation, just making sure that others see this for what it is.