On the military and drugs: My experience.

[trof]

Last edited Mon Apr 30, 2018, 07:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Sometimes the military does what is possibly in your best interest, but also in THEIR best interest.

In the late 60's, as a pilot in the Alabama Air National Guard, I participated in a joint services exercise in Puerto Rico.
I flew down on our C-54 transport.
I flew an RF-84/F back to Birmingham.

It was about a 6 hour flight in a very cramped cockpit.
Our fuel tanks didn't have the range, so we refueled off of KC-135 (Boeing 707) tankers.


This is kinda what it looked like to me.


Before we left Ramey AFB in PR, our flight surgeon gave us two small envelopes. One was red and one was blue.
"Take the red one an hour before you land.
Take the blue one after the chocks are in and you're out of the aircraft."
OK, Doc.

The red pill was obviously some kind of amphetamine.
It was a long flight in cramped quarters and the refueling added another layer of stress.
Did I mention that if you were unable to hook up for some reason you were way out over deep water with no place to land?
Yeah.

Boy, I was sharp as a tack when I landed.
Stokin'.

The blue pill was a downer.
Possibly a barbiturate?
Washed it down with a few beers ( ) and slept for 12 hours.

It was good for them.
No crashed planes.
And good for me.
No crashed plane.
"For the good of the service" was what we called it.

[pbmus]

1. There really is a red pill and blue pill...

[trof]

2. Yup. There really is/was.

[YOHABLO]

3. "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small And the ones that mother gives you,

don't do anything at all.."

[pbmus]

9. ....

[Iggo]

4. Sure, but taking downers to knock down uppers does a number on your body, no?

Did you do that a lot, or was it rare?

[trof]

5. It was a one time in somewhat extreme circumstances.

I'm 77.
Believe me, I've done worse things to my body.

[Iggo]

6. Getting old is winning.

[trof]

7. Yeah, just wait till you try it.

But thanks.
I really did not expect to make it this far and now I'm a bit confused about how to deal with it.

[Iggo]

8. I'm 56.

The one thing I've learned about getting old (other than its being better than the alternative) is that it hurts.

And it hurts more this year than it did last year.

[wasupaloopa]

10. I did drugs in Vietnam. I wasn't 20,000 feet above the fighting.

[trof]

11. Buddy, if I had been IN Viet Nam I would have done drugs too.

When I joined the guard in 1963 I'd never heard of Viet Nam.
It was just a way to
1. Get a commission as a second balloon with NO boot camp and
2. Getting to go to USAF pilot training school.

This lead to a career in commercial aviation (Trans World Airlines pilot).
Aaaand...The aircraft my guard unit was flying (RF-84/F) went obsolete IN KOREA!
No way we were going to be activated.
For seven years I kept the gulf shores of Alabama safe from Cuban incursion.
Yer welcome.

[wasupaloopa]

12. When I was a kid, my dad's best friend was in charge of the CAP in Vandalia OH. I went to the

Air Force Museum in Fairborn OH monthly. I was born on WPAFB. I could have flown as a teen in the CAP but I listened to an older brother who said the CAP was too militaristic. I kick my self for not joining the CAP back then. All the kids did was crowd control at the air show.

[Aristus]

13. Guy Sajer, a French-German National who served in the Wehrmacht

wrote about how German soldiers would pull guard shifts in the field sometimes lasting 36 hours or more.

What he left out of his memoir was revealed years later: German troops were issued meth out in the field, both to keep them awake and to juice them up for combat.