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MILITARY OFFICER


FEBRUARY 2017 $4.75 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | NEVER STOP SERVING® WWW.MOAA.ORG


training … served our fighter pilots well





required to parachute into the triple-canopy jungles were able to … escape and evade for hours and even days.


[in Vietnam] because many who were


—Lt. Col. Howard “Gary” Nophsker, USAF (Ret)





Immersion Air Force survival


Jungle


U.S. troops undergo grueling training to operate in a demanding environment 54


Jungle Training I read with great interest Christina Wood’s recent article “Welcome to the Jungle” [February 2017] because I was exposed to similar training in the U.S. Air Force. I only wish that her research had explained that pi- lots and aircrews in the 1960s were also required to successfully com- plete a three-week basic survival course at Nellis AFB, and that most of us then went on to a four-day Life Support Systems School, a one-day sea survival course, followed by a one-week advanced jungle survival training course at Clark Air Base in the Philippines.


I completed all that training in


1963, prior [to] receiving a combat assignment to Da Nang Air Base (Republic of Vietnam) in 1964-65. It was obvious that the Air Force survival training we received served our fi ghter pilots well because many who were required to parachute into the triple-canopy jungles were able to E&E (escape and evade) for hours and even days until picked up by a helicopter. In addition, that training gave us the confi dence we needed to concentrate on the job at hand. —Lt. Col. Howard “Gary” Nophsker, USAF (Ret) Life Member


Driftwood, Texas


Strength in Diversity Thanks so much for your great ar- ticle on diversity at our military academies [“First in Class,” Febru- ary 2017]. I have been an admis- sions liaison offi cer for [the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA), Colorado Springs, Colo.] since 1982 and always seek candidates who can add to our team. It is not easy, and your article


10 MILITARY OFFICER APRIL 2017


provides lots of encouragement and helps promote these eff orts. —Lt. Col. C.J. Hoppin, USAFR (Ret) Life Member, Southern Maine Chapter


Peaks Island, Maine


I have just finished your article “First in Class,” and it is one of the best articles I have read about ra- cial diversity at the academies, and how over time that has led to mi- norities not only in leadership po- sitions in uniform, but in all other professions as well. I was especially taken with the story of Christopher Howard, as my first assignment as a brigadier general was immedi- ately next door to Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pa., right by the Pittsburgh Airport. You clearly did your homework on the schools you covered. That said, … you only covered four of the five academies. … Con- spicuous by its absence is no men- tion of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, located at Kings Point, N.Y., on Long Island. —Maj. Gen. William D. Razz Waff, USA (Ret)


Life Member via email


Disney Insignia I enjoyed the “Disney Goes to War” story [February 2017]. I would like to add that Disney is still serving with the U.S. Army Criminal Inves- tigation Laboratory [USACIL] at the Gilliam Enclave, Forrest Park, Ga. The USACIL emblem has Mickey


Mouse looking through a magnify- ing glass. Hopefully with the folding of the lab under the Department of Forensic Science Center, the history


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