Unfortunately that seemed to be the reason for a lot of wartime promotions.
Aviation myths that will not die
- Thread starter fastmongrel
- Start date
And when his tour was over, they made him a brevet full bird and put him in command of a B-24 training squadron at Westover AAB. There he violated the curriculum and taught a form of crew coordination not unlike modern CRM, and achieved an accident rate that was among the best in Training Command and THE best in the northern bases. Demobilized in 1946 as a Major.
Cheers,
Wes
So for us civvies does "brevet" also mean "acting" as in "acting colonel" even though he does hold the actual rank?
BTW thanks for the background.
You're right, it means acting or temporary, sort of like Commodore at sea. Any officer in command of a force of vessels for a specific mission or time frame has the title of Commodore, regardless of actual rank. Commodore McDonough who won the Battle of Plattsburg Bay in 1814 was a lowly Lieutenant. Likewise, historically a brevet officer wore the rank and had the responsibility of his brevet rank, but had the pay and privileges of his permanent rank. Brevets were relatively uncommon in peacetime, except in periods of budget crunch or personnel shortage. So Dick had the responsibility of a full bird, but the social privileges and pay of a Major.
Cheers,
Wes
PS: In another interesting twist in the world of rank and privilege, there's the Limited Duty Officer. LDOs are specialists in specific fields of expertise, and not being Line Officers, have no command authority. Medical, Medical Service, Supply, Aviation Maintenance, and JAG are typical examples. Occasionally one of these specialists will be a LO who's acquired the specialty after commissioning, such as a career aviator who's flunked his flight physical and gone to AMO school. In TraDevMan school we shared a training building with AMO school and got a lot of practice in rendering a proper salute. You could tell the retread aviators from the newbies cause they didn't give a damn about formal BS, while the young guns would brace you at the blink of an eyelash and practice their DI skills on you.
Another curiosity was "mustang" LDOs, senior or exceptionally talented enlisted folk who were sent to "knife and fork school" for 90 days to "acquire couthness" and pass for an officer and a gentleman. They became "very" Limited Duty Officers whose authority only extended to the subspecialty in which they performed as enlisted. They were at the bottom of the totem pole when it came to privileges such as base housing, parking, attendance at social functions, etc.
Last edited:
l'Omnivore Sobriquet
Airman 1st Class
Sounds true to me.
So all the "cons" but none of the "perks". That sucks.
It sounds like they were sent to the kids table at an adult party.
Your basically correct too, most personnel did in fact belong to the Air Corp administratively, but were assigned to the US Army Air Force.
Re read this thread from the beginning. That myth was debunked several pages back. My German is a little ragged, but I believe "blitzen" (lightning) is the word.
"Donner und blitzen". Thunder(bolt) and Lightning!
Cheers,
Wes
Street urchins allowed into the gentlemen's dining room. In the Airedale Navy and the sub service, this sort of class distinction was somewhat less pronounced, but by all accounts in the surface Navy it was holy grail.
Cheers,
Wes
Last edited:
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
The myth of the "Gabelschwanzteufel" is a "caidenism" (made up).
When Luftwaffe pilots described American (or British) aircraft, they called out the Anglicized names for ID.
B-17s were "Boeings", B-24s were "Liberators", P-38s were "Lightnings", P-51s were "Mustangs", Spitfires were "Spitfires" and so on.
When Allied fighters were spotted on a mission, Luftwaffe pilots often times called "Indianer" which was a reference taken from "Cowboys and Indians".
The Fort-Tailed Devil term originated from the P-38 pilots themselves. The Japanese nor the Germans used the term and this myth has perpetuated since Martin Caidin's book was published in '73.
When Luftwaffe pilots described American (or British) aircraft, they called out the Anglicized names for ID.
B-17s were "Boeings", B-24s were "Liberators", P-38s were "Lightnings", P-51s were "Mustangs", Spitfires were "Spitfires" and so on.
When Allied fighters were spotted on a mission, Luftwaffe pilots often times called "Indianer" which was a reference taken from "Cowboys and Indians".
The Fort-Tailed Devil term originated from the P-38 pilots themselves. The Japanese nor the Germans used the term and this myth has perpetuated since Martin Caidin's book was published in '73.
Ahh, the enduring romance of the American west, with its bandits and its bogies! BTW, does anybody know if there's any truth to the oft-told tale that "bogies" referred to unbranded cattle of unknown ownership?
Cheers,
Wes
Ascent
Senior Airman
I believe bogeys comes from the bogeyman and first used by the Royal Flying Corp in WWI.
I stand to be corrected though, as I'm struggling to remember where I heard it.
Last edited:
Greg Boeser
1st Lieutenant
Yeah, nobody's going to blurt that on the radio when bounced.
