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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

May Day

Back when I worked as a military intelligence analyst, May Day was a big event as we got to see the new Soviet airplanes and tanks. Nothing really new (from my sources I had seen it all years before) but it was fun to see what they wanted to show off, what point they wanted to make.

This May Day morning, I happened to watch Doctor Strangelove on one of the movie channels when I woke up too early and couldn't sleep. I will say what I have said before; this is two movies. The "war room" is basically a comedy, but the "bomber crew" is one of the best war movies ever made. Men doing their jobs under impossible conditions. The final scene when the pilot climbs into the bomb bay to rewire the door motors and allow the bombs to drop was what being a professional military officer is all about. Sure, the cowboy hat was silly (if you were going on a suicide mission would you care what anybody thought about your hat?) but watch that crew do their jobs when the plane was hit and almost shot down.