WHat are you trying to do?

Years ago I joined the Confederate (now Commemorative) Air Force. I was promptly commissioned as a colonel and went about my business as Colonel Piccolo. This was in the mid to early 80s.

The original CAF was supported by memberships and actually by its founders and a few others with some financial means. It was a casual, ragtag group and to a certain extent financing itself through air shows, donations, memberships and whatever. In the 60s when the group got started a lot of this stuff was still available and to some extent even affordable.

As for the name, it had nothing to do with the Civil war, slavery, succession, hate, or anything else along those lines. The name was really somewhat of a joke. The first time people would hear the name 'Confederate Air force' they would become immediately confused. The Army of the South never had any such thing. There never WAS a Confederate Air Force.

They would feel a little sheepishly amused when the got the details of the CAF and what they did. The name was a pretty good joke for a somewhat ragtag memorial group like that. It did draw a number of grins.

Of course it didn't take long before things got pretty damned expensive and the price of a serviceable P-51 Mustang went well over the $6000 that the original guys paid for it.

In short things got expensive fast and money was needed.

Unfortunately a handful groups had no sense of humor and didn't seem to understand he joke. Other groups, to tell the truth about it, were looking for things to shit on so the name of the CAF gave a number of outright stupid people something to whine about. 

The truth is the only thing the CAF had that the antebellum south would recognize is an affinity for that grand old southern drink called the mint julep.

By the late 90s the costs of running the CAF had soared and outside donations were desperately needed. It was now time to start trying to find some serious corporate sponsorship.

Of course, the crybabies, the stupid and those with no sense of humor looking to destroy things started the beginnings of what was very likely to be some seriously bad publicity for the CAF. This was at the time they were beginning to ask for corporate sponsorship. 

Of course, had any major corporation given the strapped CONFEDERATE Air Force a single dime, the dipshit do-gooders would have piled on to the corporation and raised holy hell.

Clearly survival was at stake here in the long term. Serious money was needed and something had to be done. 

CAF leadership sent opened the books to the membership and carefully explained that a change of name was needed to insure survival of the organization. The membership agreed, the name was changed to the Commemorative Air Force and the group survived.

A while back I ran into a former member that bragged to me that he resigned immediately after the name change and how they should have toughed it out and made their statement and so on and so forth.

I pointed out that changing the name had enabled the CAF to simply survive and that a pile of airplanes rotting away on Rebel Field for lack of money didn't do anybody any good. I told him that the CAF didn't need his annual dues. They needed some real money and unless he was capable of bending over and $hitting Ben Franklins by the bushel that he ought to simply stop whining.

People like him want it all their way and have an all or nothing attitude and all or nothing attitude. They generally wind up with nothing. They also generally don't have very deep pockets.



The CAF did what they had to do. 

One thing for certain is that the official name change really hasn't done a lot. The ragtag spirit is still there. 

















To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY