Free Republic

did anybody see the live stream of the scuttle? i couldn’t get it. this was poignant for me, as i sailed on her sister ship, USNS Gen HH Arnold a couple times. i know folks who sailed on the Vandy and even on both ships. the Vandy did most of her AF sailing on the Eastern Test Range, and the Arnold was mostly Pacific. sometimes, they worked together as with some of the Apollo space shots. i was privileged to have been on the last two missions of the Arnold before she was mothballed.
When i first heard about the idea to scrap the Vandenberg a couple years ago, i was saddened. now, i’m all for it.
does anybody know if they scraped the cyrillic lettering from the movie off the hull before she went down? ;) reeko

Just an update, the G.I. Woodshop was an invited participant in the 2008 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl on New Year’s Eve. We had a booth, a home-made plywood “tank” and sideline media passes. I made some videos of the coin toss by Gen Petraeus, the F16, B52 and AH1 Cobra flyovers, the parachutists, the halftime ceremony etc. and posted them on the Great Americans website:
(greatamericans.com/giwoodshop)

When it was over, I came back home and checked my mail. There was a package from Afghanistan! It was a US battle flag that had been flown in combat on two combat sorties over Afghanistan - one in an F15E Strike Eagle and one on the EC130H Compass Call! There were also two certificates signed by the pilots and crews of each, with callsigns, dates and tail numbers, and a letter written and signed by the First Sergeant at Bagram AB telling us how much important our woodshop tools and supplies are to them... no kidding we are extremely humbled to have such a HUGE honor from our troops downrange who are fighting and dying... For those who do not know, a combat battle flag is usually reserved for Senators, Presidents, Generals and other VIP types as a token of appreciation. We are truly humbled. Pix of it is on the Great Americans website. Will update our website soon. Thanks to everybody who has helped the G.I. Woodshop get woodshop supplies to the guys on the front lines. It makes a difference to them! ;) reeko