Airborne Daddy

C-130 rollin' down the strip
64 Rangers on a one-way trip
Mission Top Secret, destination unknown
We don't know if we're ever coming home
--C 130, Army running cadence
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The last few publicized parachute jumps by George H. W. Bush have been with the Army Golden Knights Parachute Team ("Ex-Pres Bush Goes Skydiving Again.") The Golden Knights are not a privately-funded sports parachute club, but an entity of the U.S. Army which is totally funded by U.S. tax dollars.

GHWB is not a military member -- he is not the Commander in Chief and he has no official role in the U.S. government or military. He is a retired politico and as such, the Golden Knights are not at his beck and call.

If Bush the elder wants to fall out of perfectly good airplanes then let him pay for the experience out of his own pocket. Ranger strenuously objects to Army funds being used for the entertainment and pleasure of a Bush former president. Obviously, GWB and GHWB feel that the U.S. Army is constituted as their personal plaything.

Please don't tell Ranger that the Golden Knights are used because security is required during these photo-op jumps, presumably taken under the camera's watchful eye to allow the 83-year-old's presented machismo to somehow rub off on the feckless son.

Ft. Bragg has a wonderful Sports Parachute Club operated in a secure environment, and is slap filled with patriotic parachutists, all of whom pay for their own jumps. If GHWB is so strapped for cash, he could tandem-jump for free by just asking.

After all, there are plenty of homeless and needy vets, so being a veteran and down-at-heel isn't a sin. Why should GHWB be any different?