A Moment Caught In the Rank Structure

There is no rank in sacrifice. ~ J. Daniels

Beloved cracked me up a few weeks ago! 

He came home with a little story to tell me. Of course, as he was telling me this store I didn’t know whether he was just about to laugh or if he was greatly offended.  

I know half way through his story I was all smirks! 

Iceman was flying the Cessna and they had finished their first flight period of instruction. So, they stopped in at a civilian airport that has a contract with the military to do all sorts of things for them. 

This little airport is one of the local places that the instructors take their students (planes or helicopters) because it is a nice training stop due to having breakfast for the guys, it can refuel the military helicopters, and it is perfect for swapping out training students.

It was while Beloved was getting breakfast that a group of young flight school trainees (mostly newly military or new Warrant Officer 1s) came in to get a quick bite of breakfast before they switched out with their stick buddies.  Iceman being the relaxed guy he is was just curious how flight school was going for them, and thought he might ask how far along they are in their flight training,  --- small chit chat ---  nothing long but just a friendly howdy from one Warrant to another! 

He was greatly saddened!

Unfortunately, NOT one of them would even make EYE contact with him! They saw Iceman from just a few feet away and went stone face with their heads down while their eyes became shifty.

 Of course, I was cracking up at this point in Beloved's story!   

Poor Guy! He hasn’t had anyone dare to be eye- shifty on him.  So, this was all shocking to him!

I suppose it is because it has been years since Beloved has even seen a WO1.  In our unit, when it comes to WO1 they say, “Do they still make them?”  Yes, It’s been so long since he went through flight school.  22 years to be exact!

Of course, there was a lot of disussion because not many people have ever even seen a Warrent Officer 5. They are fairly rare unless you are in our unit. Matter of fact,  Beloved went into camping world the other day and came out laughing because the cashier said in awe, "I have never seen anyone with that rank before!"

Anyway,  Iceman told me that you could practically read the thoughts of these young newly ranked aviators. He said, those guys were thinking, “Don’t make eye contact and the WO5 won’t talk to me!”   

I, of course, could not let that comment slide! My redheaded roots flared up a little and warmed Iceman's heart with a good Old man tease!  I smiled and with a wink, I said,  “No. They were probably trying to figure out which one of them would be volunteered  to wheel chair the ancient W05 out to the flight line!’

Beloved chuckled and said,  "Yes. While I am thinking, 'Do they even make WO1s anymore?' They are thinking, 'Do they let WO5s fly still?'"