From Vietnam to Iraq, pilot has a knack for close calls

[saigon68]

From Vietnam to Iraq, pilot has a knack for close calls


By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, April 15, 2006


Chief Warrant Officer 5 Gregory McManus, a test pilot
with the 135th Aviation Regiment in Iraq, has 39 years
of flying with the Army under his belt.
The Springfield, Mo., pilot flew helicopters in Vietnam
from 1969 to 1970, during which he was shot
down six times, he said.

http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=36498

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq — His navigation systems had failed. Visibility was limited. And he could be heading toward the Iranian border.

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Gregory McManus, a test pilot with the 135th Aviation Regiment, said he wondered if he was about to end his 39-year career flying with the Army as the first American pilot shot down in Iran.“For a few seconds, you kind of wondered, ‘I could have been retired,’ ” said McManus, 57.

McManus said he feels “blessed by God” to be able to keep flying at his age. “There’s not many pilots my age not in a state of decrepitude that can continue doing what I do,” he said. “I’m afraid if I stop, maybe I will become decrepit. My brain won’t work.”


But in Iraq, as in Vietnam, McManus will look out of his aircraft and see people dressed in black, wearing “strange hats” and working in the fields to support their families, who wave as he flies by, he said. “Then you couldn’t tell who the enemy was until somebody shot at you. Now, the same thing,” he said.

[madrchsod]

1. 57 years old?

dam buy an airplane and fly around missouri..

[saigon68]

2. He says he had a bad divorce

This is an example of how desperate the military is for "Warm Bodies"

It exemplifies the "Cold Mirror Test"

IE--- Slap a cold mirror on their nose

If it "Fogs Up" you enlist them in your war crimes crusading legion.

[acmejack]

4. They are taking us?

Jesus H! That is amazing, most people in our age group can barely hobble down to the VA...

[kineneb]

7. well, at least they won't take Hubby

at age 59...he is attached to a dialysis machine 3x/week...oh, and he would go to jail before he would "just follow orders"...

[saigon68]

9. Is his kidney failure dure to agent orange?

just wondering

[kineneb]

12. no

it is from diabetes and high blood pressure...on the other hand, he did work on submarine maintenence at Mare Island during Vietnam...

[saigon68]

10. They need anyone willing to hobble

They know a draft will mean violence in the streets.

There are always jobs for people to sort paper clips and count tongue depressors.

[leftchick]

3. "Iran"???

please tell me that is a typo.

[tanyev]

5. Maybe they've "improved" on the plan to paint some drones

in UN colors and hope they get shot down. Just put a few older, expendable pilots in planes with bad navigation systems and send them out near the Iran border. If they go down, you can claim they were shot down and you get the war you've been wanting so badly.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Of course it's a typo - that "q" is dangerously close to the "n" , right??

.
.
.

Brainwashing the masses bit by bit

Remember news reports of 911 with Saddam images in the background and vice-versa on CNN?

here we go

911 = Saddam = Iraq = Iran = whatever country the USA weants to bomb

right?

This is far from the first "typo"

and it won't be the last . . .

(sigh)

[Schema Thing]

8. You'd think he would get used to the hats by now

just sayin'

[MisterP]

11. funny, I thought this would be about President AWOL Chimp