April 18, 2012

Military Pranksters

Military prank pulled off in the Pentagon
This photo of "Ensign Chuck Hord" used to hang in the Pentagon.  Evidently Ensign Hord was lost at sea in 1908 and quite the time traveler, since he managed to get his photo (not a painting) taken and posthumously hung up in the Pentagon.

Of course this is a prank, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.  I won't spoil the details, which you can read at the link.

I am reminded of a similarly themed photo prank played on me.  Back in 1995 I was a Distinguished Graduate of the Joint Firepower Control Course (JFCC), essentially the Salutatorian.  I had missed one question on the final exam which was enough to knock me down to #2.  For my efforts I got this big JFCC poster that was probably made back during Vietnam.  It was a print of a painting that showed a bunch of people involved in the whole process of requesting Close Air Support.  This thing was huge and really wish I had a picture to share, but it didn't survive my many moves.  I dragged it back to Germany with me, put it in a cheap poster frame, and hung it up near my desk at work where it just became background.

A couple years later when I was getting ready to PCS (Permanent Change of Station) back to the US I started cleaning out my desk and took the picture down from the wall.  I was debating whether to take it out of the frame or just ship the whole thing when I noticed that someone had pasted a picture of my supervisor over the head of a figure in the poster.  Who knows how long I had a shot of my boss with an evil grin leering at me from my poster.

If I can find a shot of the poster I'll put it up.

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