Wednesday, July 14, 2021

18 year old Bob Ross as a medical records technician for the U.S. Air Force (1961)

 


18 comments:

  1. That's Bob way before he hit the Chia hair phase.

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  2. ..."and now, we're going to button up these happy little epaulets. Everybody likes epaulets! And these plain collars never look that way by themselves, we need to add some nice little features. A couple of happy little branch-of-service collar devices. "

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    1. Wanna bet some "Spiffy-Stays" under the collar are doing their job as well, Aggie.

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  3. A medical records tech with aircrew wings??

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    1. A lot of military careers can be quite fractured. When I started UPT in 76, there were recent pilot grads, with wings, working in the dispensary while waiting for their next training slots.

      LC LtC

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  4. I do not see the resemblance at all.

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    1. Marine Corps picture of Drew Carey: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Drew_Carey-Marines.jpg/640px-Drew_Carey-Marines.jpg

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    2. I've seen that pik before and do see the resemblance in Carey.
      Not with Ross though.
      I've watched Ross since the 80's and always liked him. I've read the rumors too. Supposedly the reason for him being soft voiced is that he was drill sgt for 20 years and spent a lot of time yelling at soldiers, then when he got out he vowed he'd never yell again, and went the other direction. A drill sgt for 20 years? In Alaska? I don't think so.

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  5. I listened to a Mike Rowe podcast, "The Way I Heard It" about Bob Ross. Pretty interesting story.

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  6. He appears to have a lot of stripes for an 18 year old.

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    1. Yeah, that's a senior airman stripe, E4. I didn't make E4 until I had 2.5 years in in the army mid 70's and I was 21 years old.

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    2. I was going to say the same thing. Those are E-4 Sergeant stripes (you can tell by the star; SrA didn't exist until 1975). Like ghostsniper, I was in 2.5 years before I sewed on E-4.

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  7. In the 80's that would have been buck sergeant, maybe senior airman in the 60's, but nothing less. Makes no sense.

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  8. Who is Bob Ross and why do we care?

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    1. https://top-stories.org/2020/07/04/bob-ross-time-in-the-air-force-influenced-him-in-the-joy-of-painting-pal-says/

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    2. Bob Ross was an 18 yo medical records technician, but I don't believe that picture is from when he was 18. He served 20 years in the USAF, retiring as a Master Sergeant, so that picture is from a little later in his career. He was a First Sergeant at the medical clinic at Eielson, so I'm guessing he spent his career in the medical service. Perhaps he was medevac aircrew at one point, hence the aircrew wings in the picture.

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    3. exactly; who is Bob Ross and why do we care?

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  9. It's now conclusive, the picture above is NOT Bob Ross the artist.
    This him, and he looks nothing like the other one:

    https://external-preview.redd.it/J2XJywreE2sfbFXucrW_3AUM25uuTCyrgA24u5ylutc.jpg?auto=webp&s=5c78cea68c6a4dc4ac7d1bbe20993c6022d7430e

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