Diego Garcia Postcard

For decades, most normal people (sorry, BEES) arrived at Diego Garcia on board Military Airlift Command flights. In the real early days, they flew on C-130s from Utapao AB or Bangkok International in Thailand. After the BEEs built the long runway, they usually flew in via Clark AB in the Philippines on C-141s, C-5s, and "Freedom Birds" (contract airliners). Depending on the diplomatic situation of the times, flights sometimes came in via Nairobi or Mombassa in Kenya, Bahrain, or Singapore. After the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which forced the closure of Clark, and the advent of routine air-refueling, many arrived via Guam or Okinawa, or Sigonella, Sicily. Today, MAC is Air Mobility Command, and I'm really not at liberty to detail the iteneraries of the flights to and from our wonderful little Republic...

Of course, you first had to leave your home station in the States or another civilized country, and proceed to one of those exotic jumping off places to complete your flight to the furthest reaches of the American Empire.

But, back in the dark ages, before DG went "co-ed", that meant you had to have good reasons to leave your loved ones, your car, your favorite fast-food chains, and all the other trappings of civilization and orderly society. Usually, the overriding reason was that you had a set of orders in your hand, and ignoring those orders meant years in one of those other crude locales, like Fort Leavenworth or Portsmouth Naval Prison...

But the Department of Defense would rather have you get on the airplane peacefully, without an armed escort or in shackles, and so concocted an elaborate disinformation campaign designed to convince you that your were on your way to Paradise Itself!

Part of that campaign were "Travel Posters" intended to depict Diego Garcia as a wonderful destination, populated with the one thing that young U.S. military men desired above all other things - Beautiful, available WOMEN!

Little did the average Joe know, but these travel posters and postcards were all lies!

And here, gentle reader, is an example of one of those cruel, sad jokes...
Note the Hollywood Model, posed and dressed up to look not just seductive, but wealthy as well! Who wouldn't get on an airplane to travel to that island of tropical splendor, overflowing with women like this?

The PPDRDG believes that this cruel twisting of reality is right up there with "Medical Care for Life" on the list of broken promises the Department of Defense has made to its service members! We demand reparations! Specifically, we would like to be 23 years old again and for the American government to actually send us to an island brimming with sunshine, beaches, and beautiful women. If you agree with this, write your Senators and Representatives and send them the message straight and plain: "NO MORE BROKEN PROMISES... GIVE US THE WOMEN YOU TOLD US YOU WOULD WHEN WE WERE YOUNG ENOUGH TO ENJOY THEM!!!"