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My Great Old Man
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 11:53:40 +0200
From: Pete S Cadungog, PMA '75
E-Mail: hornet@PACIFIC.NET.PH
Location: Metro Manila, Philippines
Subject: My Great Old Man
To: ACF@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Sir Arf, thank you very much for your kind words especially about my old man. I will never forget him (he died 9 years ago). PMA life was not a surprise welcome
for me because of the simple things he taught me about "Survival" and
"Honor". To my old man, we would rather go to the Chinese store and make
"utang" again and again than cheat or take advantage of others or steal
from other's properties. Our Honor Code and Honor System in the Academy was
no dice for me.
When everything is resolved and all arguments finally filtered, we either live by the sea or kiss the land of our birth. No way that I can live in the skies above. We, in the Air Force must go down to earth and during situations when emergency landings had to be done, we always look to the sea as a better landing field than a rugged terrain. In the sea, you can ditch the aircraft by riding on the waves; on the ground you will never know its contour and how hard is the surface unless you are there already.
I can feel something eerie about the Air Force. The way technology is advancing too rapidly, it is not impossible that pilots become irrelevant in future wars where Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, Aerospace Weapons are being tested.
And the way floating air bases are being designed to solve the problem of land bases not allowed by host countries to be staging points for attack aircraft, the navy will always be relevant.
Happy Sunday and God bless!
Pedrito "Pete" S Cadungog (PMA '75)
