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Old 15th May 2019, 21:07
  #24 (permalink)  
gums
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: florida
Age: 81
Posts: 1,610
Received 55 Likes on 16 Posts
Salute!
The electronic logs are great, and if you are worried, print out a summary every now and then.

OTOH, the biggest mistake I made was not keeping a personal log from day one. Not for legal purposes, but sentimental ones and such as some folks here will agree.

At my wartime squadron reunions, many of us can't even agree on where we got shot at or the date ( within a week or so unless it was a famous battle) and so forth. Over time, your memory blends things and events. You may have the mission date clear, but "who was that wingman"?

History is important, and a lot is being erased for political reasons. Of a dozen A-7D squadrons that I had linked on our website welcome page, the USAF History dweebs at Maxwell have erased the online histories except for one or two active units. Way I designed it was if you clicked on a patch you got the history. I got a stack of paper upon request, but even that was incomplete compared to what they had before 2010 or so. Didn't find out until we tried to rejoin in 2013 and none of the links worked. It was sad, because my squad was famous in WW2 - we had the only USAAF fighter pilot MoH recipient in the whole ETO ( Doolittle gothis for the Raid and that was in the Pacific). Our WW2 history was captured by a member in the book " Big Friend, Little Friend" by Turner.

Later, at the end of the VietNam debacle, my flight commander was the only member of the 354th FW to receive the Air Force Cross. His recommendation for the MoH was downgraded, as we were almost at the "first" end of the was in December 1972, and the USAF and reginme did not want another big hero.

One good example for you all is my own, and I did not log the misssion, but some newspaper did. It was 'cause I led the last flight of fighter bombers outta the whole damned war in December of 1975.


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