This brings up an interesting topic. For the last 25 years we've had every personality type of chief pilot possible. The only reason I know my current base CP's name now is he flew as my FO, and apparently I didn't scare him or act like a D!ck enough for him to remember me.

We had one Gem in the 90's that called my parents house raised his voice and demanded to know where I was. My (ex POW) Dads reply was "He's sitting in one your airplanes flying his schedule to Orlando, what kind of an outfit are you running where you can't keep track of your pilots? " Later that season he sat next to my girlfriend in the back non revving and hit on her the whole flight. The joke was on him as "she had a face that made time stand still".

On the other hand, when another immediate family member got hospitalized in ICU while I was doing the Peru overnight, the LAS CP called me personally to see if the company could help, and I'm an FLL guy. I think at least our middle manager CP's are the best group we've had in 20 years (with exceptions). If I wasn't a short digit midget I'd be tightening up my belt for a while to get used to the new boss, as they might not be same as the old boss.

That was a reference to The Who, (to you "not ATP Yet" guys, The Who was a music group that played a new form of music called Rock and Roll, that we used to punish our parents with for raising us as decent people) and if you were a teen when "Albums" were used, and were only half the idiot I was, then you'd know by now music lyrics may make for questionable life influences. Welcome to Spirit anyone?

I will say the Blue guys I chat with in passing seem good-natured, not up tight, welcoming, hate blue shirts, and wear a standardized uniform. Do we still forbid Wingtip Oxfords with fancy toes?

I'd be more concerned about the training department integration for our Spirit training guys. Might just be a chance to weed out those guys we all know. Of course I'm sure Blue has a few of those guys as well.

I will say I didn't get that brown shirt comment because my shirts keep shrinking in the wash so their mostly new and still whitish. I thought Brownshirts was a reference to fascist, and when I was in, we wore the first gen BDU's (intentionally uncomfortable and dorky) and specifically were ordered to hate fascist, commies, and socialist. Even though we didn't know what they were we pretended to shoot at them all the time.

I just hope the wiseacre that made the brownshirt pronouncement doesn't get cancelled. Maybe he should just do an extra powerpoint. Or two.

Maybe real Brownshrt guy doesn't believe in bleach? What if he seeks to reduce emissions by not wasting energy on Ironing,and who knows what "dry cleaning" really is? It's probably backed by Big Pharma. No one knows what goes on behind the counter when you hand over a shirt to a "dry cleaner". Dirts gots to go somewhere.

No wonder we have a divisive pilot core that only wants to leave and fly "wide Bodies". Heck, just marry one and buy her/him a house, divorce 'em, hate on women/men for a while , pay their bills, then find a Latin American that "really" loves you , but tends to have sickly family that need monthly money for doctor visits.

Maybe Brownshirt Guy is just practicing for his UPS class date. Left seat of the truck to left seat of the MD-11. Can't tell me it hasn't happened. Didn't Tom Hanks do it in a movie with a coconut?

I'll finish up for the day saying I feel bad for that guy that got to shoot down that balloon. Because, the fun factor of life life can only go downhill from there. Unless Jennifer and Barb go back in time 30 years and move in with him together.