Coronavirus recalled incidents revisited

As I note that the fired Captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt is both retired and symptomatically ill, as well as testing positively for Covid-19, I recall more of the airstrip incident and trial at Johnson AFB over 60 years ago. The request for a psychiatric examination came from the Major's defense team, a prerogative if not a mandated grouping under the code of military justice in a court-martial situation. The clever defending Major requested the exam which request, approved by the base commander and PACDAF (pacific air defense command) by the time it got to the hospital commander was an order.

Nevertheless that officer and his chief medical officer indicated that if I didn't want to risk carrying it, out they could pass it on to flight surgeons at home base or at the other two proximate airbases. This was occurring at a facility that could not recall having had a base psychiatrist in its past (an individual I met much later). So it was an order that could have been avoided (not refused). The offending Major had no idea of the complexity involved and simply wanted to tough it out (which no doubt would have led to rank reduction and imprisonment). The failure to fly issue once introduced, if supported would only mean RIF and loss of pension. The USAF punted and charges were dropped.

I now understand that following the domino theory, taking over the defense of former French Indo-China was in the wind. The Canberra bombers and F100 Voodoo fighters were barely accomodatable on the relatively short Johnson airstrips and were being replaced. Before I left active duty heavy training began in the Philippines with pilots and planes from other areas, hardware to be forever associated with Vietnam. So the tactical maneuvering with planes, law and psychiatry was irrelevant at the next level of strategic planning and implementation. That the highest levels of strategic planning were headlong and dead wrong is of passing interest. A commander's concern for the health and safety of his men found a place in the 1960s.

The incident of the Kushner "ours" reference has to be interpreted with a backdrop of similar occurrences where it has been clear that his main focus is the preservation of Trump's wealth. The back door incident, the excuses for Ibn Sad, the careful photographing of Trump and Melania next to the Royal Carriage, making sure that Queen Elizabeth was not included so that commercial advantage could come from the sale of the photographs, etc. He brazenly ignores the criticisms allowing his father in law to make his devious and untruthful defense.