All the best to 'We the People'

Before leaving town President George W. Bush declared Washington D.C. a "disaster area." Yeah I know the intent of the act was to authorize federal funds channeled through FEMA to prepare to handle the huge crowd expected for today's inauguration. I imagine that the millions of people in such a small area will leave a mess of epic proportions to cleanup, not unlike the aftermath of a good sized tornado so that fits too. Hopefully the disaster designation won't be a portent of things to come for the good old USofA. I don't know about you but for me this current political hubbub has really been fun to watch. I get tickled watching Democrats tap dance. Here we have elected a president that seems to care only about himself. My American Heritage Dictionary defines narcissism: excessive admiration of oneself. Look at every carefully crafted event where you see President, by the time you read this, Barack Obama promise "I can do for you" in a plethora of ways. He avoids all controversy. All that will change now that he is sworn in and can no longer avoid responsibility. I fear he may be in over his head, but time will tell.

President Obama has nominated Timothy Geithner, a tax evader to be Secretary of the Treasury which includes the IRS no less. An honest "goof" they say but the American people aren't fooled, we know there is little mercy from the IRS when we happen to "forget" to pay our taxes.

Then came Eric Holder, nominated but not yet confirmed, for Attorney General. Here is a man that was embarrassed to have his past record of pandering to convicted FALN terrorists and fugitive crook Marc Rich but that was excusable because he was working for Past, second most wonderful, President Bill Clinton. Not only that, Holder is a known gun-hater intent on corrupting the intent of the Second Amendment, so we'll see where that goes.

Bad mistake Obama making Hillary Secretary of State. It is all about the Clintons and I predict that choice will come to haunt him. Should be fun to watch!

And then there is the ongoing drama of Rod Blagojevich, Obama's Chicago political machine fellow traveler and currently governor of Illinois. I was impressed when that guy stuck it to his fellow Democrats by nominating Roland Burris to fill Obama's vacant Senate seat. Burris was not Obama's pick and seemed unacceptable to the important Democrat king-makers but then they had no choice but to seat him after the race card was played.

Chicago politics as usual, and that brings up Ray LaHood, Republican Congressman, and Obama's choice for Secretary of Transportation. LaHood turns out to be head of Chicago's Republican machine, so that is a kind of cooperate and graduate operation. In my opinion those choices are not exactly good for we the people but will be acceptable to our new leaders as it keeps the important people in power.

It will be fun to watch. I still wish the best for President Obama and pray that our country will prosper under his leadership. May we remain safe from foreign terrorist attacks and may our economy (and my K) be restored back to health without the burden of runaway inflation. I wish him well!

To all of us who loved and respected him, he was simply Col Mac. His obituary states that Robert D. McCluskey, Colonel USAF Retired, was 88 years old when he died Nov. 15, 2008, in Fort Worth, Texas. Another of my heroes has gone west.

Col. Mac was the best squadron commander that I ever had the honor to serve. Stationed in Western Oklahoma, we flew KC-135 tankers during the Vietnam War era. Col. Mac set the standard in my book. He flew with all of us crews, a working pilot instead of the normal staff type who maybe hopped in the seat for an occasional landing. Best of all Col. Mac also got himself certified for our wartime mission and pulled SAC nuclear alert along with the rest of us crew dogs.

Col. Mac had seen combat as a pilot in World War II. Sometime after that war he worked as a newspaper reporter in the civilian world. Recalled for duty in Korea, he stayed in the Air Force until retiring after 37 years of service.

In later years when I received my own squadron it was only natural to follow in Col. Mac's steps. I flew at least once a week with a different flight crew, all 24 of them, so I learned each individual's strengths or weakness. I certified to pull alert and was a regular substitute when one of my pilots or copilots was ill or had urgent family needs and had to get off alert for a few hours or days. I even took a crew on a fighter drag out across the Atlantic when one of my crew commanders was ill and couldn't make the deployment.

My crews loved it but me pulling alert and deploying with my crews didn't set too well with some of my contemporary commanders in other squadrons. I think it was because the powers that be thought they should be doing the same thing.

Whenever one would answer the telephone and heard, "Hello Lucky," we knew that Col. Mac was on the other end. Oft times the "Lucky" was doubtful, as he had some minor detail that needed tending to down at the Squadron. In 1968 the "Hello Lucky" led to him ordering me to get my crew prepared to go to Alaska for Christmas, that after spending the summer in Southeast Asia. Somehow the crinkle around his eyes, reflected in his voice, made the command easier to take. Even today Ann gets tickled to hear "Hello Lucky" as it brings fond memories of a long gone commander and friend.

I will be forever grateful to Col. Mac for another event. He wrote the recommendation that eventually got our crew the MacKay Trophy.

The Air Force awards that huge silver loving cup annually for the most meritorious military flight of the year, ours in 1967. Thank you Col. Mac. May you find warm tail winds and happy landings in pilot heaven. You were one of the best.

That is the way I saw it.