The space army
Strong Bad has the military-esque rank of "First Lieuteneral", but NASA (which SBASAF mirrors) is a civillian organization.
From: space program
Posted on: 15:06, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
Arguments for:
- NASA doesn't have either Lieutenants or Generals.
Arguments against:
- Astronauts in the early space program were selected from military test pilots. They retained their rank and service affiliation (e.g. Col. John Glenn, USMC; Capt. Jim Lovell, USN).
- From www.nasa.gov: "NASA selects two kinds of astronauts for space flights: pilot astronauts and mission specialist astronauts. Pilot astronauts command and pilot shuttles. Most pilot astronauts are test pilots from the United States Air Force, Navy, or Marine Corps. They are paid according to their military rank."
- The most recent space shuttle commander, Eileen Collins, was a colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
- The most recent space shuttle pilot, James M. Kelly, was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
- NASA is a civilian organisation but the fact that Strong Bad has a military-esque rank does not in itself determine whether SBASAF is a military or civilian organisation. It is just that the word "but" in the suggestion is misleading.
Additional comments:
- Added here rather than the page - I'm not sure if this is noteworthy.
- Either way, this fact really doesn't make a lot of sense. Perhaps a revision is in order?
- The first argument for is patently false. Since this whole item is based on the reasoning in that argument, it has serious flaws and cannot be on the page without some revision, if at all.
- Despite the obvious reference to NASA, this email is much more a parody of Star Trek and other similar sci-fi series/movies, in which the main characters have military ranks (usually based on the Navy).
- A large part of the email also parodies military recruitment and educational filmstrips from the 50s and 60s. As the space race was getting underway, NASA engaged in quite a bit of this sort of propaganda, which in and of itself was regarded by many as a tool of the military. NASA has in many ways retained the perception that it is closely tied to the military, even if it isn't a military organization directly.
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