Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 16, 2013
July 15, 2013
July 17, 2013
Transcript:
Mel: I couldn't say whether the overall mission is succeeding, sir... I only know my own little piece of the war. I just take beat-up birds and get them back in the sky. Roland: Well, the guys who fly 'em tell me we're doing great! Thumbs up all the way! Mel: Well, we love and depend on our pilots, sir. Roland: But? Mel: They have way too much fun, sir. I'd broaden my sample.
And so it’s always been, since there was aviation in warfare.The flyboys soar over the blood and guts, drop their payloads and return to the comfortable airbase.Sure, some don’t make it back, but often the other flyboys just saw them fall out of the sky; they didn’t have to cradle their bloodied and broken bodies (except in the bombers in WW2). And they rarely saw their targets close up.It’s good to be a pilot in wartime. It sucks to be just about everybody else.