Looks like Santa got through all right

Well, Santa made it OK from what I gathered.

The Air Force probably gave him an air-to-air refueling of milk and cookies over both the Atlantic and Pacific crossings and he managed to avoid a couple of surface-to-air missiles fired at him from Tehran by the idiots there using the time honored trick of using tinsel as chaff.

I guess the Air Force gave him an escort through some of the rougher zones and it would not surprise me to hear that the troops in Afghanistan were standing by in case he was forced down there.

One of the neat things the Air Force does is that every year NORAD tracks Santa and fields calls from kids. It’s also a pretty good deal for the taxpayer because it doesn’t cost us anything. One of the phone companies sets up the phone network as a donation and all of the phone answerers are off duty volunteers.

I’d like to see how that works because I’d just bet that for the day the Airmen do this little labor of love that rank just disappears. It very well may be one of those little things that happens in the military every blue moon where you see a young airman teaching a couple of colonels and majors the ropes because he did it last year.

I’ve seen things like this happen at Camp Perry where you have an Army brigadier general in the pits pulling targets for a Marine corporal and another time I saw a Sp/4 look at a major and say, “Nyeah, nyeah, Sir.”

The major blushed a bit at having been beaten by the Sp/4 but you could see that there was something between the two that transcended the difference in their ranks.

There is a lot of good natured kidding that goes on at an event like that and it actually serves a pretty good purpose because an awful lot of officers and enlisted get to see each other as human beings. For that reason alone the program should keep going on.

I have heard a couple of pretty good stories come from the event and they made me grin.

One Airdale told a little kid that Santa had passed him but would turn around and get to his house if he went straight to bed. He was treated to hearing a phone receiver hit the floor followed by a few little thumps that sounded an awful lot like little feet. A second later he was treated to a father picking up the phone and asking the Airdale what he had told his son.

“I’ve been trying to get him into bed for over an hour,” replied the amazed father.

Besides the camaraderie that takes place at this event it should be noted that the world has gotten to be a pretty dangerous place. I suppose Santa can use all the help he can get these days. I know if I was some kind of communist off-brand type that thought of going after Santa I would think twice knowing the Air Force is guarding him.

Thanks, guys.

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This is my third Christmas at sea over the past four years and because I am out here some father can be at home with his kid which really is where fathers belong.

I actually volunteered to work over a few days for my relief because his son is home on leave but I guess he’s coming back to work on schedule because of scheduling and crew change transportation reasons. It’s a shame but that’s life at sea.

my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/