Thursday, September 10, 2020

"What the Captain Means" - political correctness meets combat reality!


I laughed out loud on several occasions while listening to this clip.  It's from Vietnam in the mid-1960's, where "politically correct" bureaucratic military officers were trying to control the flow of information about the Vietnam War.  Needless to say, those actually doing the fighting were more blunt about it - not to mention profane and pugnacious.  The video is a fictional portrayal, by actual serving officers, of how they experienced attempts to manipulate what they had to say about the reality of war.

LANGUAGE ALERT - This is blunt, profane and filled with F-bombs and the like.  So are many combat veterans of my experience!  If that bothers you, please don't watch it.





I was alerted to this video by a reader, but I'm afraid I thoughtlessly deleted the e-mail before I could acknowledge him/her in this post.  Sorry about that:  if you'd like me to mention your name, please send me a reminder.  Thanks!

Peter

9 comments:

Nuke Road Warrior said...

"A shy, unassuming, Air Force jet fighter pilot." LOL. Never met or heard of a "shy, unassuming" fighter jock in my life.

Bobo the Hobo said...

I heard this decades ago and had forgotten how absolutely funny this is. Thanks for posting this - it’s just as funny today, especially the reference to napalm.

James Higham said...

Was waiting for the swearing to start but it all turned out shy and unassuming.

Old NFO said...

Snerk... Hilarious, especially 'shy and retiring'... My ass!

MrGarabaldi said...

Hey Peter;

I heard this years ago and forgot about it. It is great! "Shy and unassuming"? HAH not in the Air Force.

Bruce said...

True story: Dad was part of the HAWK battery that overlooked that air base at Cam Rahn in 65-66. The F-4 pilots used to love to come up the side of the hill the battery was setup on and buzz them when they took off. One day the battery captain was walking along when an F-4 took off, and blew the captain's hat off. He yelled into the control van, "Lock on to that SOB." "Locked on, sir!" "Now activate the launcher!" The threat receiver in the F-4 went from radar lock to missile lock. Needless to say, that F-4 stood on its wing and dove for the deck. About 20 minutes later a jeep filled with pilots rolled up to the missile site asking what they hell they thought they were doing locking on to that F-4. The captain smiled and calmly replied, "Don't knock my hat off anymore, boys."
Dad said they never had another problem with the fighter jocks buzzing their hill and spraying sand everywhere.

The Freeholder said...

That's swearing? You really ought to hang with the Cav for a while. ;-)

TwoDogs said...

Great reminder of an earlier fun Air Force. Now long gone and replaced with PC horseshit and fundamentalist Christian fascism.

Jacquejet said...

I heard this the first time when I got to Pope AFB, NC in 1975 after my tour in Thailand flying AC-130’s. It was funny then and hasn’t lost much since. I never flew in Vietnam (I got there too late for that) but all my instructors did and their stories mimic everything The Captain said.