This is not a bus!

During the Viet Nam war, one of our flight crews had to visit Danang on a mission, and they found themselves in a big blue Air Force bus going around the perimeter of the field on the way to their temporary barracks somewhere on the base.  As they were driving along the road, a small contingent of marines came out of the bush looking pretty much worse for the wear, and they flagged down the bus.

I need to break here to tell you that the kind of work I did in the Air Force was a pretty closely kept secret, and when we rode the buses, they contained lots and lots of sensitive and highly classified materials.  Simply to get on one of our buses, a top secret clearance was needed whether you were in Viet Nam or Nome, Alaska. So, no hitchhikers of any sort.  Now, back to our bus in Danang.

Being typical Air Force jerks (back stateside, we had air conditioned barracks, lived at home with our wives and kids and basically served in the Boy Scouts while the real men were fighting the war) these guys on the bus felt a lot of compassion for the raggedy marines who were risking it all to protect them, and really wanted to give them a ride to the main base...however, "rules and regs" are "rules and regs," as anyone who has ever been in the military knows.  So it was impossible to pick up these (literally) war weary hitchikers.  The question was...how to do it without coming across as typical Air Force jerks. 

Our crew chief, a mustang 1st Lieutenant who had been in intelligence for nearly twenty years met the young marine 2nd Lt. at the door to the bus, and blurted the first thing he could imagine: "This is not a bus!"

The marine calmly stepped away from the bus so that he could survey the whole thing.  He looked up one side and down the other, and then, just as calmly, shook his head, motioned to his platoon, and continued the slog into the base without looking back at the bus that was no longer a bus.

I've often wondered how that Marine 2nd Lt.'s view of Air Force guys was shaped (or strengthened or weakened) by that little incident.  I've always hoped that someone might have set the record straight with him that the Air Force guys didn't want to be jerks, but that the circumstances required it.  And lately, as I've gotten a little different perspective on life, I realize that those marines should have been welcomed onto the bus with open arms and thanked for being there when they were needed--hell, half the time we were flying in civilian clothes against all regulations.  Who would it really have hurt?

In my business career, I used to fly a lot and was often upgraded to first-class because of my "loyalty status" with various airlines. And, whenever possible, I would trade my first-class seat so that a stewardess could offer it to a soldier or sailor or marine (or even an airman) flying in uniform.  Maybe I was trying to get the point across after all those years that sometimes an airplane can be a bus.