Swag From the AOR

Lately we've been taking our morning coffee from a unique USAF souvenir mug... pictured here:

Front

Back... which obviously needs some splainin'.  

Well, Hell... so does the front.  SN1 and his boss, Colonel Hopkins, deployed to Kandahar from Shaw AFB, SC... where Col. Hopkins was the maintenance organization commander and Buck was one of his maintenance officers... thus "Kandashaw."  The legend on the reverse stands for "I've Been Touched By Hopkins...So To Speak... And Survived."  The "People, Pains, Processes" is a take-off on the Good Colonel's mantra... substituting "pains" for "planes."  It goes without sayin' this is a "ya hadda be there" kinda thing but those who drink from these mugs most definitely understand.  I get it, too... albeit second-hand and with the understanding I've fought similar "battles."

There are any number... thousands... of these sorts of things floating around the military and I used to have a bunch of 'em.  But, sad to say, all of mine seemed to disappear over the years.