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They booed the U.S. National Anthem, and we took the gold. #Suck it!

I was in New Zealand recently and on a whim, I managed to go out and fly a Pacific Aerospace CT/4 trainer. Fairly unknown in the US... I don't believe any are airworthy here. This one was the first of two prototypes, before it went into production in NZ. It was built in 1972. The pilot I flew with was one of the handful of former NZAF A-4K pilots (only 168 total), and is a pretty accomplished warbird pilot. We did some sightseeing, AHC, and light aerobatics. It was "different". Really enjoyed getting to fly a piece of NZ aviation history.

The kid is going to lose his shit if the 35's, Hornets and Vipers get the kills and he left holding a balloon (marking).

I've never been shot but I've flown a few helicopters and I think it's a tremendous accomplishment to fly a bus into a hot LZ with a few bullet holes in your body. Good job Slover.

Glad to hear we have a strong OPSEC program.

Picked up my dream pistol, 1943 Remington Rand M1911A1, all parts are correct. This pistol was never overhauled or passed through the CMP. The holster is from 1918, has an unlegable name and service number written in pencil on it. I purchased that separately years back.

Something came out it

I think he was a F-4 WSO, then UPT, then F-111, then A-10, passed over for Major, hired by the Reserve A-10 unit in New Orleans, hired on at United but invited to leave during training (lying on his application?), invited to leave at New Orleans for flying violations and personnel conflicts, tried to get hired at Columbus Reserves but blocked by the NOLA A-10 folks, hired at UPS and fired after a conflict on a Asia flight with the other two pilots that resulted in them locking Runner out of the cockpit. After that, it is a mystery that I'm sure we will learn more about. Quite the resume, if you ask me. Maybe he was a plant to screw up the Chinese PLAAF.

I copied something I wrote on another site and occurred in the 92-93 timeframe. As a Flt CC,I took 6 A-10s from Shaw to Little Rock to support the Army doing Army things at Ft. Chaffee near Ft. Smith. Runner brings a jet back with a broken windscreen. No worries, that front panel would occasionally Crack from the window heat. Well, that wasn't it. He had hit the grounding wire on some high tension power lines. No call. No controllability/ damage check. He argues he did nothing wrong. The front windscreen on the Hawg is 7 layers of laminate that will stop a 23mm cannon round. That windscreen is supported by a very stout I- beam looking frame. The grounding wire hit on top of the AAR door, slid over the windscreen cracking the glass and shearing off windscreen attachment bolts before scratching the top of the canopy. The wire completely missed the engine nacelles and rudders. Any other jet and he would have been sliced in two and he thinks he did nothing wrong. Arkansas Power and Light was replacing that wire and sent us the piece with gray paint on it and said it was 292 feet off the ground which was below his cleared altitude. His excuse was rising terrain despite that handy, dandy radar altimeter warning which was not used. He also almost put a Vark in the dirt during Desert Shield after screwing up a LGB toss. You might have seen the video updating your altitude chamber.

The Struggle is real.

Too Funny!

So he was a Loadmaster? Now I'm confused.

EPIC SAVE!!!! by Connor Hellebuyck😁

Got my RIP for Vance, IPT in November (requested later date). No info on IPT location.

Looks awful in my opinion. The light blue scheme was timeless on every airframe it was put on. This looks like some generic airline scheme from 1998.

The “both sides do it” argument in the context of what we’re talking about is lazy, dishonest, and willfully ignorant. Conservatives at scale are absolutely not rioting, looting, vandalizing, threatening people’s lives and livelihood, losing complete emotional control over everything, etc. The left on the other hand has and is continuing to do all of those things at scale. Do I need to list all of the very obvious examples and give you a list of personal experiences, or can you put the ego aside and recognize you’re blatantly wrong on the “both sides do it” bullshit? Of course I’m not saying you can’t point out some ultra right nut job who did something bad, or even point out a few. We also probably agree that politicians by and large are asshats, whether they have a D or R next to their name. But when it comes to at-scale violence, destruction and willful disregard for the law and societal norms, GTFO with this “both sides” bullshit. That doesn’t mean you have to like Trump or identify as an R, but you should acknowledge reality.

TL/DR: It depends entirely on the situation, but regardless I'm ready to be disarmed by a LEO. I'll fight it in court, not in the moment. It's about managing my own expectations and it all boils down to the officer and his/her assessment of the situation. If I talk to the sheriff in church as I walk by, I'm fine. She knows I'm armed. If I am the first responder who engages an active shooter in that same church, I fully expect that same sheriff to disarm me afterwards. A: the situation is over and shootings result in frayed nerves and shaking hands. B: evidence. The reason doesn't matter, I've decided before it all happens that I'm submitting to the proper authority. If the officer deems according policy/judgment that disarming me is advisable, I'm not resisting in the slightest. It might be a complete BS reason. There also might be a factor I don't know about. If I feel like my rights are getting trampled, that specific moment is NOT the time to take a stand. I must give the officer the benefit of the doubt. The officer is not required to reciprocate. In fact, the officer literally stays alive by NOT automatically giving people the benefit of the doubt. If it was wrong and/or illegal, we can figure that out in court...later...when loaded weapons aren't in play. I'm also of the opinion and experience that simply acting as described above will relieve any tension and most likely the officer will not escalate to disarming me. It's about expectations. If I act like I am superior with better legal knowledge than this officer, they can smell it, it's a red flag for them, and it does nothing to help the situation, regardless of how right I am. To use an analogy: I treat every police officer the same way I treat the range safety officer I've never met: With absolute deference to the authority they hold in that moment. Yes, some that suck. Most don't. But every single one should be treated with respect. If they prove undeserving, I bring it up with management later, not on the range.

Mostly this activist action against ICE is to distract the conversation from the electoral kryptonite of the MN welfare fraud scandal (and other states) They know the attention span of the public is short and they need a narrative they can spin against the Republicans in the mid terms This is a calculated planned funded political operation, a theater level action.

Story time!

In all seriousness, the threshold for getting an MoH as a living serviceman is incredibly high. And there's not one shred of doubt in my mind that this administration would happily violate the customary burdens for qualification so they could say that their operation had one more piece of flair on it. If the guy lives up to the standard set by previous recipients, then by all means. But getting shot and continuing the mission is not enough. And unfortunately for that pilot, everybody knows Trump is going to be pushing this as hard as he can, regardless of whether or not he deserves the medal.

Most of the prep for flatbed loading is complete ✅

Nice looking Piper. "Someone tell me what to do."... I would sure like to know more about his flight training. Wow.

Sounds like typical big tech. We want those sweet DoD dollars, but we want to pretend like we stand for world peace and non-aggression. Fuck them. They should feel privileged to serve the military that created the world they profit so richly in.

ID to vote??? Racist, sexist, and a crime against democracy !!! ID to shovel snow? Absolutely required in the workers paradise by Comrade Mamdani. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/josephchalfant/2026/02/21/mamdani-snow-shoveling-n2671695

Looks like it was shot down

A recent T-38 class patch from Vance.

The mid-terms are shaping up to be a battle of the ick. Trump continues to run his mouth and say $hitty things, the Dems continue to actually do $hitty things. Look no further than New York City with new mayor Mamdani and his road to ruin in NYC. Promised to end sweeps of homeless camps, broke that promise less than 60 days in and restarted sweeps today. Published his $127 billion budget for its 8.4 million residents. In contrast, the entire state of Florida, with a population roughly three times larger (approx. 23 million), is considering a budget of around $113.6 to $115 billion. His budget has some interesting items and actions. a. $5.6M and $4.6M for racial equity programs. b. $835K for gender equity initiatives. c. Up to a 9.5% property tax hike. d. Cancelling the hiring of 5,000 police officers. e. $1 billion plan to establish a new Department of Community Safety. f. Withdrawing $229 million from this fund in fiscal year 2027. (64% of NYC teachers voted for him 🤣). g. Withdrawing $980 million from the city's rainy day fund. Ordering lots of popcorn to watch NYC turn into an even bigger crap hole.

'Til Valhalla, Big Duke Six!!

Mark Tape: Mamdani will be found in the future to be putting a lot of this tax money in his own pockets.

Thank you for proving my point in the very next post. Again, I look forward to your candidacy. But we both know that you're not going to do a damn thing but complain. Disgruntled indeed.

Found this in the store for you Huggy

My brother was the -135 boom who AR’d the B-1s. He made sure to rep Broncos Country.

Did you seriously just respond to him asking what you stand for/what your opinion is, with questions? Copy, you really are a 🤡

More big tanker stuff Concept MD-11 tanker and article with KC-10 pilot commentary (reposted from a forum) in the article. Seemed like a very realistic appraisal of the concept and practical implications Avgeekery.comToo Big For Its Own Good: Why A MD-11 Based Tanker Was Ne...Why didn't McDonnell Douglas make a serious attempt to sell a tanker version of the MD-11 tanker to the Air Force?Needs boom and pods but a good render nonetheless This is what we need back in the fleet (among others), a strategic tanker / cargo platform.

Inshallah

I feel sorry for the illegals who are taken advantage when they come here, but they shouldn't be here. We can't let in millions of unskilled people and expect our society to remain stable and prosperous. My wife had a friend who overstayed a tourist visa to secure work in restaurant. Her friend worked for that restaurant for a year without pay (was provided food from the restaurant and lived onsite) and when she demanded her back pay, the employer threatened to turn her into ICE (and to another employee they did the same thing to). She ended up going back to her home country without having gotten paid for a year's labor. We put her in touch with some NGOs that help illegals get their pay (illegal or not, nobody deserves to be taken advantage of like that) but none were able to help and so she went back home (she wanted to work in the US to earn money for her daughter's cancer treatment but wasn't able to find a job in her home country due to being past retirement age). At any rate, illegal immigration and fraudulent asylum migration will continue until the incentives are removed.

Aggressive ICE ops wouldn't be necessary if the Republicans in Congress would get off their asses and pass some laws that a) dramatically increased the penalties for employing illegals (i.e. seizure of business, heavy jail time, etc.), b) 50% tax on remittances, ban on illegals receiving any taxpayer funded assistance, c) bill their home countries for their education and medical care costs incurred in the US (and trade embargoes on those who don't pay up), and d) remove counting illegals in the Census for Congressional apportionment (which is why the Dems are fighting so hard to keep them here, plus the kickbacks and grift). Most would self-deport were these policies enacted and aggressive ICE ops wouldn't be necessary. But the Republicans in Congress are only pretending to oppose the Dems.

ICE has a legitimate function. They are not operating like this in red states because red states cooperate with the feds. If MN went back to cooperating, this type of activity wouldn't be necessary. Just because some radical Soros funded organizations are purposefully causing riots (or insurrections?) that are getting people killed, that doesn't mean law enforcement should cease. My kids throw temper tantrums occasionally. If my kids organize and throw a temper tantrum together, that doesn't mean I'm going to suddenly stop enforcing the rules as a parent. Give into that behavior as a parent or as a country and the only thing you can expect is that same tactic anytime they want something.

90% of these issues would be prevented if these state/local govts would just cooperate with DHS and hand over the convicted criminals with deatiners already. It's all planned.

Interesting take........ Former Special Forces Warrant Officer gives his take on Minnesota protests: "What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t 'protest.' It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook." [As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly. What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook. Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse. This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s. The most sobering part? It’s domestic. Funded, trained (somewhere), and directed by people who live in the same country they’re trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid-response network against federal officers—complete with doxxing, vehicle pursuits, and harassment that’s already turned lethal—you’re no longer dealing with civil disobedience. You’re facing a distributed resistance that’s learned the lessons of successful insurgencies: stay below the kinetic threshold most of the time, force over-reaction when possible, maintain popular support through narrative, and never present a single center of gravity. I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night. Not because I want escalation. But because history shows these things don’t de-escalate on their own once the infrastructure exists and the cadre believe they’re winning the information war. We either recognize what we’re actually looking at—or we pretend it’s still just “activism” until the structures harden and spread. Your call, America. But from where I sit, this isn’t January 2026 politics anymore. It’s phase one of something we’ve spent decades trying to keep off our own soil.] - Eric Shwalm