Talk to a Veteran

My most interesting conversation in a long time happened today when I spent an hour with Staff Sargent Doug Hempe, USAF.

My exit from Ingles grocery presented the prospect of sporting an American flag at a very small cost. Actually, those little stars ’n stripes are some of the most expensive items you’ll ever buy, if you consider what it cost to defend them. 

In Doug Hempe’s case, the cost was only four shattered vertebrae in his back. The spinal components were damaged when a very heavy object fell on him while  rearranging equipment in an Air Force inventory.

In spite of the debilitation and subsequent disability, Doug was able to fulfill his potential from behind a desk and an array of international assignments.

I was amazed at his life-story, as you would be too, if you were to  hear his generous explanations in response to my many questions.

Avionics—that’s what he called the work that he did. It was his life’s work, as it turned out.

No small challenge there. . . when you are working with allies all over the planet, supplying them with military aircraft and enhanced defensive capability. 

I had never thought of this before, but the complexity of national defense is mind-boggling when you consider that we have allies all over the world to whom we supply, say, fighter aircraft. Doug’s specialty was avionics systems for F-14s, F-18s, and a few other combat aircrafts.

What’s tricky is how our Stateside companies and forces are duty-bound to supply and strengthen allies around the world, using yankee engineering to perfect their abilities to defend the free world. 

For instance, some electronic components that enable a fighter pilot to keep his craft airborne while evading and destroying enemy bellicosity— are necessarily customized according to what country they'e being shipped to. Our domestic aircraft manufacturers are required to customize electronic control components, according the likelihood (or not) that they will ultimately be captured or otherwise acquired by enemy states. 

You might say . . . a fighter jet that we send to, say, a steadfast ally like Poland ,. . . is not the same, electronically, as one we might send to, say, Turkey. And the one that is approved for shipment to Poland is not the same as those we procure Stateside to defend US shores.

It’s a complicated arrangement, defending the free world against aggressive actors whose bellicosity is so very hard to evaluate. 

I mean, like, who knew? We  thought we had a pretty thing going on with the Russians after Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and then the next thing you know here’s the ex-KGB buy blowing the hell out of his own neighboring nation. What are we supposed to do with that?

It is very complicated disaster, to say the list. The madman Putin is destroying Ukraine so that (as Doug surmised) the Ukrainians would not "come back" to rebuild their country.

But we are believing that the Ukrainians are better than that. They will never give up, according to President Zelenskyy, who is, in my estimation, you might say the Churchill of our age.

I don’t know, but it is good to know that highly competent people like Sargent Hempe are out there on the front lines of our peace and safety, even if they do have a few damaged parts under the uniform, and then find themselves doing fundraising duties at the grocery store.

When you see one of those guys with the uniform and the little flags, stop and drop in a buck or two. And don't hesitate to ask a few questions. There's a lot to learn in this perilous, complicated world. We could all stand to learn a thing or two from these guys. 

Smoke