Does the Badge Count?

Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun;
Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,
At 'em boys, Give 'er the gun!
--Into the Wild Blue Yonder (Air Force Song)

Gun & Ammo magazine (''News in Brief,'' May 2007) mentions the disgruntlement that some of today's armed pilots are expressing over a lack of firearms training targeted for them.

''A new, federal refresher course was recently offered, but it didn't sit well with everyone.'' Pilots must take the course, at their own expense, within three to five years of getting their guns.

Quoting from an earlier Washington Post article, one pilot said, ''This is going to cost me $2,000 [in expenses and lost work.] If this was a really great program, they would treat us like adults.'' Sorry to be the one to tell you, Mr. Armed Pilot, but there are few really great programs in these United States anymore.

The pilots have also expressed the desire for more supervision in between range visits, maybe something that could be offered in the airports themselves. Though that request was not addressed specifically, federal agents did say they ''plan to issue police-like badges to pilots in coming months to help them better identify themselves in a crisis.''

Brilliant. This need to i.d. oneself as armed pilot would seem to be superannuated in the actual need to enlist the service of your weapon. Those federal law dogs...always thinking.

Psychological testing is also part of the certification process, which will hopefully weed out cases like last week's hapless Northwest Air pilot. The flight was canceled ''because the pilot was yelling obscenities during a cell phone conversation while people were boarding and cursed one passenger,'' a federal official said.

''Northwest removed the pilot from the aircraft, and returned him to his home base in Detroit for an investigation.'' Perhaps he was just upset about the killing news recently of the Japanese automakers trouncing the Motor City.