MKopack

Hell, I was a member of the enlisted corps, and I agree with you. Was never closer to being a pilot or aircrew than kicking chocks, but we've lost so much heritage due to self-inflicted political correctness as an Air Force, that perhaps this is just a bit of an opportunity to push back a little, so I'm in. I've lucked into a pretty good group of friends, who are way above my station, that flew between the 60's and the 90's that I've forwarded the Colonel's message to. Hopefully he'll be able to put together a package that will, if nothing else, send a message that gets heard.

Just finished reading "Naked in Da Nang: A Forward Air Controller in Vietnam" by Mike Jackson. Good, but not great. The first third of the book takes the author from home in Ohio, into the Air Force, through flight training and into Cessna O-2's before you take the trip with him to Vietnam. Not the best if you're looking for a book that will put you right into the FAC seat on missions as there are surprisingly few flying passages, but he does a good job of describing the day to day life and experiences of living as a five-man USAF detachment on a remote Army post, along with the changes he witnessed during his year-long tour, both around and within him. The book seems to take it on as a mission to debunk the media's "Vietnam Veteran stereotype" (which, being a generation younger, I never really saw - I've always looked up to those guys) because it's mentioned numerous times. Overall a pretty good read, although one that may have benefited from an editor that could have guided the story along. On the other hand, can't even imagine flying O-1's or O-2's under the conditions and against the threats that the author and all of the FAC's faced.

Ninety-years ago today Billy Mitchell dropped a bomb that at least indirectly started the Air Force. “It is a very serious question whether airpower is auxiliary to the Army and the Navy, or whether armies and navies are not actually auxiliary to airpower.” General William 'Billy' Mitchell Surface area view of the captured German battleship Ostfriesland after it was attacked by Martin MB-2 bombers of the U.S. Army Air Service’s First Provisional Air Brigade, led by Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell, on July 21, 1921.

There ARE warriors in the Air Force beyond fighter pilots, but when you take that fighter pilot out of the Air Force, we lose a great deal of what made the USAF the dominating force it has always been. Know your role, where you fit in the mission, and accomplish that role with pride, no matter what it is. I believe that everyone has a mission to play, and many, but not all, of them are important. I never was a fighter pilot, but I knew my role, and I never strapped a "Cyber Warrior", a "Finance Warrior", or a "Chow Hall Warrior" into a bombed up jet and set them off on a combat mission hoping - but never positive - that they were coming back at the end of the day. This former "Speedhandle Warrior" is offended by this, and what would Frank Luke, Hub Zemke, Gabby Gabreski, or Robin Olds think today...? Perhaps I should have posted the note about Robin Olds birthday, 14 July, here instead (he would have been 89). Shows just how much we need him today.

Modeling the latest in post-DADT flight gear, these Austrian Typhoon pilots are seen wearing some disturbingly stretchy pants. Austria spent a mint on their fifteen aircraft delivered in 2007, for which they currently have fourteen pilots that average about six flying hours a month - with five aircraft expected to be operational at any one time. Sort of like your local flying club. On the other hand, this should give the new Austrian fighter fleet an expected airframe life of about 200 years.

$62 worth of tax free Twinkies was probably the tip-off...

I hate to see this as "Liberty Belle" really was a beautiful bird that represented so much Air Force heritage and one of only a handful of the "Flying Forts" to still fly. Looks like a total loss. You're right though, the old warrior brought the crew down safely, just like so many times back during WWII. I can remember this bird back during the mid-70's, before she was heavily damaged by a tornado while a static display at a museum in Connecticut.

If WWII had been fought today... Sixty-seven years ago today Allied forces landed in Normandy and suffered terrible casualties through the fierce fighting against the Nazi defenders. Over the next several weeks the beaches that had been once stained with American blood, were occupied by an entirely different type of invasion - the invasion of the shoes.

George Kopack - US Army medic landed on the beach 67 years ago today - on the way to Germany and VE Day. He was thirty years old that day and if the Army called him back now, I'll bet he'd be packed by dinnertime. Thank you to Uncle George and to all those Americans and Allies to took the fight onto the continent all those years ago.

Don't know if this is the correct place for this, but I couldn't think of a better one. I guess I shouldn't be surprised...

Never point a toy gun at the forehead of a guy that has biceps larger than most people's thighs. SSgt. Peoples and his kids did an excellent interview on Good Morning America this morning where the interviewer asked him to demonstrate how he disarmed and held the attacker, and he replied with a smile, "I really don't want to hurt you." Said that the County Sheriffs Office has offered him a job if he decides to get out, but that he's just put his package in for the Army's Warrant Officer program.

If that's the case, just with my track record of deceased relatives leaving me $$, I think we'd be fully justified in a declaration of war against Nigeria...

That's some good public relations right there... Kind of nice that the LIPA provides a couple of toll free phone numbers just for people to call and let them know what they think at: 800-490-0025 or 800-966-4818.

Have a good friend with the 58th at EG that I'm sure is happy to hear this. Not there yet, but a step closer.

Have to admit, I didn't know much about the Norwegian mission in Afghanistan, so this evening I did some reading - and I almost wish I hadn't when I saw this awful news from 01 April 2011. As many people as I know in the military, friends and acquaintances, I'd been lucky that the losses for nearly ten years of war hadn't hit "close to home" - until tonight. I knew Siri from my time at Lockheed Martin working on the Royal Norwegian Air Force's P-3 Orion UIP project. Launched and recovered her acft many times during test flights here in the States, and we'd kept in touch, on and off, over the past ten years or so. Lt. Col. Skare was the very first female RNoAF pilot, earning her wings in 1984, and spending her time flying P-3's and C-130's. She lost her life while serving her country as a military advisor to the United Nations in Afghanistan after an idiot preacher in Florida decided to "make a point" by burning a book. What a waste. Til Valhall / Till Valhalla, Siri, I'll keep the 333 Squadron patches you gave me forever.

I see your speculation and add some more from a defensenews.com article from six weeks ago: Aircraft Oxygen-Generating Systems Under Investigation

Raptors grounded today over potential Onboard Oxygen Generating System issues.

Probably be able to solve everything with a new uniform combination and some new disco belt rules...

Short article from the UAE-based Gulf News that might ask even more questions about what Pakistani military and government officials might have known about bin Laden's location.

Apparently a compound with 18 foot walls and a 'blockhouse' with few windows built in 2004-05 of steel reinforced concrete. Abbottabad is described as a relatively large Pakistani Army garrison town. The compound is on Pakistani TV now (shown on ABC) and is now on fire.

Late word via ABC says US ground troops took the shots taking out bin Laden and his entire party in a firefight. His body is in US custody and will be buried at sea. An excellent end to a day where I lost my last grandparent at 100 years old. Was feeling pretty down and heading for bed when I checked the news one last time. Congratulations, and thank you, to all those involved.

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."

If the military in general has one overriding tradition, probably back to Roman times, it's bitching. It's our heritage. Overheard in 1776: "@*#$%& Washington, getting us up on @*#$%& Christmas night and here we are floating across some &@%#& icy river. Could be *@%@&$ sleeping rather than in this &@%&# leaky boat. Wish he'd just *$%@&! fall in..."

ACC posted this 'epic' just today: "Customs, courtesies crucial to mission success" I replied on their facebook page to the best of my ability. While all of their other posts have multiple replies, to that one - beyond mine - nothing. Maybe even that says something.

Back when they held the Robin Olds estate auction, I was able to buy his 1949 edition of Winston Churchill's "Their Finest Hour" (was about all I could afford...) I'd always known that Churchill had written his "Second World War" series (it earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953) but always figured that it would read like a college textbook and wasn't really all that interested in that. This volume though (the second in the series), while it certainly isn't an 'easy' or quick read, seemed a lot more like you were having a conversation, probably in a tall backed leather chair and with a glass of something stronger than tea, with the wartime British leader. What really struck me was just how "positive" he was of the eventual outcome, not only as the book was written after the war concluded, but also in his 'real time' private memos and correspondence (which the volumes are almost 'illustrated' with) during the dark days of 1940's Battle for France, Battle of Britain and the Blitz. It was always "With a little bit of luck, if we can make it through these next few days, we're not only going to survive, but we're going to win." I don't know if I felt more "privileged" to be reading about the day to day decisions made during WWII from one of the people that actually made them, or the fact that I was reading them from the same book that Robin Olds - a personal hero of mine - read them. I never met General Olds, but only if the book could speak. Did the wear on the cover come from the volume traveling traveling around the world with him? On exchange in England? Maybe at Wheelus in Libya? Perhaps while based in Thailand with the 8th TFW during Vietnam? The turned over corners on pages with especially interesting passages, the a torn address (on Sunset Blvd) from an envelope that was used as a book mark and even the cigarette ashes between the pages all tell a story...