The other morning, Sarah posted a link to this post by Sgt. Mom over at Instapundit. It made me laugh as I think that is the one question I never got when giving or assisting with base tours. We got asked a lot of other things (no, there are no missile silos on this base, only one vertical test cell thank you) and I was the smartass who, answering someone else’s phone, I told someone that no, the alien bodies were not at our base they were all at Wright Pat (and helpfully gave them the PAO number there).
You do get some interesting questions when giving base tours, but what made me laugh was not the question in question. Rather, it reminded me of a base tour I had been on that nearly ended badly.
Many years ago, when dinosaurs still ruled the Earth and the ground still hot, I and a group of other Boy Scouts (back when it was still a real organization) got to go out to Philmont and hike. Now, the journey out there was long, so our council rented a bus and arranged for us to stay at military bases along the way. Let me just say that the Air Force had the best facilities and chow, and the Navy was not far behind. Sorry Green Machine, but they trounced you.
Now, one of those Air Force bases at which we lodged decided to give us a pretty good dog-and-pony on our visit, including having our bus go on a tour of said base. In fact, we were cleared to go along a very special flight line as part of that. Problem was, as always, someone didn’t get the word.
All of a sudden, we were surrounded. A truck whipped in front of our bus and stopped, tarp went up, and machine gun trained out. Men and trucks to either side did the same. Anyone looking in from outside would have seen most of the scouts (except “Carl” and a couple of friends) sliding down in their seats below the windows, like the thin metal of the bus sides were going to stop anything…
It got sorted, but about three minutes later we got hit like that again. After than, an appropriate officer stood in the front of the bus to handle things as we continued our tour. I don’t remember much from that dog-and-pony, but I sure do remember that.
Thanks for the memory, and a good laugh, Sgt. Mom.
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