David Floyd

Military aviator. Ex-Politico. USAFA ‘73. Flew U-2/TR-1, KC-135, a few others. Views mine.

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@tomselliott @MayorOfLA It was a mostly peaceful day at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Except for 2 hours.

[Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer]

Having lost a job and lost a spouse in my lifetime, they are very, very, so much not the same.

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@megbasham Joined this month
82 followers
Don’t think they’ve earned any credibility as yet.

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@Cloud1a7 Also Home

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@Cloud1a7

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@Cloud1a7 @OnlyinFlorida2 And from KY

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

“When you hear Scott Pelley talk, oozing with arrogance over his ‘combat’ experience, remember that he is of a breed that all think and act alike. To those "journalists," we were not American fighting men and women in combat. No, we were there for their convenience. It sickened me, and still does.”

“You think you hate journalists enough...”

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

I want to tell you a story about a “journalist.”

I’m pretty sure the journalist in question was Scott Pelley, but for reasons I am about to explain I can’t be 100% sure—I just know it was a major US TV reporter.

August, 2003.

I was the G-4 of the 82nd Airborne Division. The IED threat had just become a real thing in Iraq and the 82nd—having just returned from Iraq—was sent back to the fight.

The “Division Support Area” was earmarked for a place called al Taqaddum, or “TQ.” I led the advance party to occupy the site (we drove from Kuwait). TQ was a huge area on a high bluff, west of Fallujah, and had a cratered Iraqi Air Force airfield. Later in the war it was a plush site with a PX and restaurants, but when I occupied it, it was nothing but a bunch of abandoned buildings, hulks of old Iraqi fighting vehicles blocking the runway, nightly rocket and mortar attacks, and constant probing of the huge perimeter by insurgents.

The IED threat was happening because insurgents were pulling artillery rounds out of abandoned Iraqi army ammunition supply points and turning them into roadside bombs.

We had been on TQ about one full day when the front gate called me on the radio: “All American 4, we have some TV reporters here, they want to come in, what should I do, over?”

After telling the gate to check IDs and do a sweep of their vehicle, I said: “Send them to me, over.”

A few minutes later an armored Mercedes pulls up to our TOC. The “talent” is in the very back where I could barely see him, but I’m pretty sure it was Scott Pelley. (Pelley was definitely in Iraq at the time, I checked.)

His producer gets out from the air-conditioned Mercedes plushness and pulls out a map. He arrogantly points to an Iraqi ammo supply point between TQ and Ramadi and demands: “I need you to escort us to this location.”

(They wanted to do a story with reporter speaking against a backdrop of an ammo supply point, because that’s where the IEDs were coming from.)

“NEED? I’m sorry sir, that site is not secured and I am not putting my paratroopers at risk for your story.”

Big disappointment and head shaking. I’m thinking: “The NERVE of this guy. Does he think I work for him?”

He then asks: “Well what will happen if we go by ourselves?”

My response: “You’ll probably die.”

(Important background: TQ also had a giant Iraqi ammo supply point that was inside the wire but we had not cleared it yet—it could have been booby-trapped, we just did not know at the time.)

He points at the map again: “Well how about the ammunition right here? We can just drive over there, right?”

“No sir, you cannot. We have not cleared that site.”

By this time he was visibly angry, he had a chat with the talent in the back, and then they all got back in and left without even saying thank you or good bye.

(Important point: the ammo on TQ he wanted to use as a backdrop for his “story" was SECURED from Iraqis grabbing any of it, yet they wanted to use that as a backdrop for a story on Iraqis grabbing ammo.)

The point of this story is this: those “journalists” were incredibly arrogant, incredibly dismissive of anyone in uniform with dirty boots, and basically oozed a sense of entitlement as if they were on some sort of noble mission, when in reality their mission was to smear the effectiveness of our operations because Bushitler.

When you hear Scott Pelley talk, oozing with arrogance over his “combat” experience, remember that he is of a breed that all think and act alike. To those "journalists," we were not American fighting men and women in combat. No, we were there for their convenience. It sickened me, and still does.

You think you hate journalists enough...

[Megan Basham @megbasham]

I know you guys are used to decades of GOP establishment groveling for your approval. That era is over. You are not special. You do not deserve some special deference for being TV reporters.

We are done letting you set false narratives and I am glad that the president is teaching Republicans how to push back and refuse to accept your framing.

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@wokeandwoofing Ha!

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@BuckSexton Why wouldn’t you WANT to look like The Dude?

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

You know how in the New Testament, Jesus was always hanging out with the tax collectors?

That's because at the time, tax collectors were the lowest form of human life. Absolute filth. Greedy, mendacious, parasitic liars who the broader society rightfully condemned and shunned.

Jesus hung out with them to show that God's grace is available to everyone.

However, if Jesus were starting his ministry in 2026, he would be hanging out with journalists.

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@SharylAttkisson Real-a-tor
Irregardless

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@elonmusk Wow. We’re going to get even faster at home!

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@MCCCANM Yep

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@Rainmaker1973 Looks like Clarkson’s Farm!

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@matthewdmarsden @Heccles94 Yep!

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@JournalismSEEN @jk_rowling Eleanor is so ashamed

[Fusilli Spock @awstar11]

This was the moment that my trust in so-called “experts“ went to absolute zero

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@bonchieredstate AI added the 5 days growth

[cdrsalamander @cdrsalamander]

A good object lesson about what can happen to you when you invade your neighbor in an orgy of rape, torture, murder, kidnapping -- mostly against unarmed civillians.

[David Floyd @kyfloyd]

@DutchRojas Similar story here. Just chill.
Although it’s frustrating that the slowest you can go on FSD is the speed limit (Sloth mode.) Sometimes I want to preserve battery for the trip, and I want to go slower. Maybe 10 mph slower. Now, THAT’s Sloth mode!