Backlash over Air Force Uniforms.

I'm not sure I was able to read the entire article as it keep trying to refresh my page.

Not sure what would be terribly objectionable about the Air Force honoring the brave Doolittle Raiders - 30 seconds over Tokyo.

Hollywood produced a movie about the mission and the brave men that participated in it.... remember reading a book about the raid when I was in elementary school.

One of my uncles was a B-25 pilot during WW2 and flew missions in and around Italy. One time when I was young I asked him about the Doolittle Raid and he discussed it briefly with me but when I asked him about his experiences in the war, he didn't want to talk about that. Edit: I just remembered another relative telling me he was shot down once or twice. Lost crew members during missions and probably some during crashes. Took the loss of crew members very hard.

channeling @HornHuskerDad
 
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Troy Garnhart, a representative of the Air Force Academy’s athletic department, said the uniforms will be worn despite the backlash.
 
which was created and graciously permitted for use by the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Association
 
WTF?

“Equating football to a literal war is a very bad thing,” one person said.

Does this person know the football players are actual soldiers and funded by the military budget? That’s the equivalence, moron.
 
Off-topic a bit, but the next time you're in Fredericksburg stop by the Admiral Nimitz Museum. There is a Doolittle mock-up in there. Pay special attention to the 'guns' on Doolittle's planes. Cool stuff.
 
During the game I kept referring to the AFA (Air Force Academy) as AAF (Army Air Force), but no one caught on, presumably thinking I was making a typo. If the AFA was going to honor Dolittle’s Raiders, I was going to call them AAF. Note my uncle served in the AAF as a B-24 bomber pilot out of Italy.
 
George Bailey said:
the next time you're in Fredericksburg stop by the Admiral Nimitz Museum.
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Go there. The museum with the sub in front is well worth your time. There is a chilling aspect to one of the exhibits. When you go into the dark room that covers the bombing of Japan, look up. Models of B-29's are above you. I would not want to see that in real life.

On certain weekends they have a demonstration of Marines coming ashore in the Pacific including a flamethrower.

As a vet, war sucks but that is why we are still free from Britian, Germany, and Japan. All of whom are now allies.

Honor those who came before us, those with us and those who will follow us in service.
 
utahorn said:
As a vet, war sucks but that is why we are still free from Britian, Germany, and Japan. All of whom are now allies. Honor those who came before us, those with us and those who will follow us in service.
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"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." Dwight D. Eisenhower.

I held a 21-year-old's head together as we placed him in a body bag in Kuwait in 2005. Yes, war sucks and I hate it.
 
Horn6721 said:
BEST line in article
Troy Garnhart, a representative of the Air Force Academy’s athletic department, said the uniforms will be worn despite the backlash.
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I suspect the overwhelming percentage of people complaining: 1. Never served in the military 2. Do not know much about the actual history of this war- especially in the Pacific.
 
Some folks just really like to complain about stuff.

I'm glad that the Air Force Academy will wear the uniforms anyway. The men who flew that mission had serious cojones. A lot of them never came back.

I had an uncle who fought in Europe in the graves registration service. He was never the same afterwards.
 
Orangey, I agree with you that the Pacific was a neglected aspect of the WWII experience for many Americans. Europe was the focus.

Most people that don't like the AFA uniforms probably never served. The way I look it is, if you did not or could not serve, did you support us? That matters.

My wife did not serve, but she was ALWAYS there. When I was deployed to Saudi Arabia, at first mail call I had mail. Not email which was not around, but actual letters. Without my knowledge, she started sending letters before I deployed.

That means a great deal when you are away from your loved ones and home.

Yes, she was and still is, AWESOME.
 
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Go AFA. The Doolittle raid was the beginning of turning the war around against fascism in the Pacific. Not surprising a bunch of fascists would be against it.
 
My dad was AAF. Served on the bad ***’es on DDay as Radio operator. Then they would fly wounded to Italy and England. Said he’d never been so scared as when they dropped the boys (paratroopers) with the sky full of flack. And never so sad and humbled carrying the wounded back to medical. Said he tried to go back and visit wounded but after the first two trips he couldn’t any more - didn’t like them to see him cry. My dad was a real softie. Don’t know how he made it through without serious psychological scars but that’s about all he ever told me about his war time activity.
 
Nash - Cannot image what your dad saw and went though. If he is still here, tell him Thank You. We owe him and his compatriots more than we can repay.
 
He’s not. Lost him in 09 and damn I miss him every day. Bad last year and a half but he NEVER complained. Left me a heck of a high bar I’ll never reach.
 
I rooted for Navy, but screw the naysayers on this uniform stuff.

Later in the year, I want them to come out with "Enola Gay" on their uniforms with big atomic bomb mushroom clouds on their helmets!

That would have the additional side effect of boosting their fan base by millions.
 
History isnt for us to judge. It happened and the people that made those decisions made them in the context of what they knew at the time. Its easy to armchair quarterback with the benefit of hindsight. I hate current day.
 
Apparently the backlash was one random character on Twitter. You have to understand that the media makes up most of the articles they print.

And no matter how much you hate them and laugh when reporters are fired from their job and face an uncertain and bleak future - you should do that more.
 
I'm personally grateful for Doolittle's raiders. My dad was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor (Army, at Wheeler Field) and served 3 tours in the Pacific. He and his brother (Navy) were on Tinian Island when the Enola Gay stopped by on her way to Japan. He never said much about his wartime experience. I began to understand it, thanks to Tom Brokaw's reporting and writing about the Greatest Generation. Good to know that today's AFA kids are taught history. Thanks to all of you (and your parents) who served.
:hookem2:
 
Technically it was the Army Air Corps. The first two and fourth verses of the original Air Force Song ended with, "... Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!" When the Air Force was established in 1947 those lines were changed to, "... Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force!"
 
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