How I flew 250+ combat missions in Vietnam and lived to tell about it: a lesson for COVID-19
SAM arcs plotted the kill zone for known SAM - surface-to-air-missile - sites (Photoshopped for emphasis, and yes, that is me 50 years ago)
I avoided flying into the SAM arcs. I avoided areas of known danger. I stayed away from SAM sites. Flying into the SAM arc got you and your crew extremely killed, or worse (captured).
I payed very close attention to my pre-mission briefings, which was done by military intelligence EXPERTS. They told me over and over, "DON'T FLY INTO THE SAM ARCS!" So, I did not "chase" targets into the SAM arcs. I never second guessed the experts. If they briefed me that a SAM site or anti-aircraft gun was at location X, I took their word .. 100%! I avoided location X.
I never put my crew in a compromising position, with respect to getting shot down. There were enough guns down there we did not know about, why get close to the places that would almost certainly shoot your ass out of the sky?
There were pilots that did not subscribe to my levels of caution. Some were cowboys. Some were damnfools. Some were congenital assholes who left trails of havoc behind them, and - sometimes - lived to tell about it. We all know the type.
I made it through Vietnam by adhering closely to the philosophy of Captain Yossarian of Joseph Heller's classic Catch-22: Yossarian wanted to live forever, or die trying. The operative word here is "TRYING."
= new reply since forum marked as read
There’s a lot if folks around no doubt who owe their very existence to you.
*SWOON*
will read the rest now 
But I walked away from my phone for a while, and others beat me to it.
And yes, I had to go back after and read the text. Was way too busy looking at the photo.
Me thinks DemoTex needs to turn the camera in the other direction the next time he's taking pictures from a fire lookout. Selfie time! 
Hello Poiuyt! So good to 'see' you! 
Thank you!
at work a guy in India IM'd me asking what BOY HOWDY meant, someone had used it in a Skype conversation at work
Alan Arkin was just brilliant in that role.
And yes, the COVID-19 is a known threat. We must protect our people, the medical caregivers, the weakest and most likely victims, and indeed ALL Americans!
We need to act like this is a war against a known enemy, and we all want to get out of it alive!
The most difficult, simple task in the world. Those who take it seriously live to tell about it. Those who don’t are the object of movie quotes like “a man’s got to know his limitations”.
Thanks for walking the walk.
