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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 2:26 pm
(September 7, 2015 at 1:17 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: (September 6, 2015 at 12:43 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: It's "officers", pillow fighting is as close as they get to danger.
Easy there. I went to the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs. It's not as easy as people like to imagine.
When I was there, we had what we called "hall brawls", in which we Fourthies (freshmen) "celebrated" any upperclassman's birthday by dragging them out of their room and covering them in honey, syrup, etc., smuggled out of the chow hall. Their classmates tried to stop us, resulting in a huge wrestling match. It was great fun, though they kinda put the kibbosh on the practice after we accidentally threw someone through a plate-glass mirror at the end of one of the hallways, showering everyone with potentially-lethal shards of glass.
We were careful to return the items used in the brawls, because we at the Academies have an "honor oath" which is taken quite seriously: "I will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably (so help me God)." (The parenthetical phrase was not obligatory, and I skipped that part... my first major step, at age 18, toward openly admitting my atheism.)
USNA is my alma mater. There is a ceremony at the end of plebe year (freshman) where we lard up a giant 21 ft phallus, take our shirts off and attempt to mount it to retrieve the prize at the tip. True story. It is known as the "Herndon Climb" or "Vorlon's Wet Dream."
![[Image: slide_228159_1010018_free.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i.huffpost.com%2Fgadgets%2Fslideshows%2F228159%2Fslide_228159_1010018_free.jpg)
Traditions are weird.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 2:51 pm
(September 7, 2015 at 2:26 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: USNA is my alma mater. There is a ceremony at the end of plebe year (freshman) where we lard up a giant 21 ft phallus, take our shirts off and attempt to mount it to retrieve the prize at the tip. True story. It is known as the "Herndon Climb" or "Vorlon's Wet Dream."
Traditions are weird.
Yeah I heard about you guys' tradition re: the Climb. I think it's great, even if, yes, traditions are weird. But most of them serve a good purpose. We have several crazy things that happen at the end of the fourth-class year, called the Recognition ceremonies.
Sadly, I didn't graduate USAFA; I had to leave after my third class summer (for the rest of you: the training in summertime between Freshman and Sophomore years) due to severe illness that showed up during SERE training. I continued flight training as a civilian, but not as part of an intent to make a career of it; I just love to fly. Sadly, the cost of medical expenses eventually put my flight hours below what it took to sustain my licenses, and I discontinued the hobby to focus on work. Such is life.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 3:15 pm
(September 6, 2015 at 12:14 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: Army. They would have pillow fights.
That's precisely what I'd expect a pillow-biting Navy boy to say.
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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 4:07 pm
Can't help being predictable...
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 5:55 pm
How the fuck did you people win the Cold War???
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 6:00 pm
The Russians were scared of catching the gay, I guess.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 6:13 pm
(September 7, 2015 at 5:55 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: How the fuck did you people win the Cold War???
Boru
I'm pretty sure the decisive victory was a water-balloon fight where we trounced the Commies.
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RE: This is the Future "Officer" Corps?
September 7, 2015 at 7:35 pm
(September 7, 2015 at 5:55 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: How the fuck did you people win the Cold War???
Boru
Reagan beat Gorbachev in a thumb war.
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