brickhistory

Do we have IDF/AF students at SUPT? Wha? I'm just askin'...

2 on the well done for this one. Made me chuckle...

I just threw up. And not a little.

That is an OUTSTANDING reaction to stress. If, on the other hand, you meant "bawling" as in crying, well, then I'm just a bad man...

In the Pentagon. But nearly as far away from the impact point as is possible and still be in the same building. Oddly enough, we were in a meeting in the XOO's (now A3O, I believe)office discussing part 1 of a 2 part CBS News series on dangerous military flying. The previous night they'd run many clips of guys doing "dangerous" stunts at game flyovers, the F-16/Cessna Florida mid-air, etc. We were crafting a rebuttal for PA to go to CBS with. We got word of the first WTC hit, turned on the TV, some smartass jokingly said "Hope it's not one of ours." At that moment we thought it was an accident like the B-25 into the Empire State Building in WWII. Went back to my office, saw the second hit on TV. When the Pentagon was hit, from my perspective it was like a movie theater Dolby explosion without the sound. Really didn't hear it, but felt a vibration in my solar plexus. Another comparision is feeling a building A/C compressor kick in when it's right above you. A comic relief was the GC secretary across the hall pulling the hysterical woman from "Airplane!" scene. She was screaming and freaking out, raising the ping factor for everyone - who, by the way, we were all kinda standing about since we didn't know what had happened/was happinging and a solid building with no threat seemed better than a cattle stampede exit. Anyway, rather than slap her a la "Airplane," one of her officemates calmed her down. About 10 minutes after impact, the PA directed an evacuation into South Parking - which I discovered later was the impact area. Not the smartest move, but no blame as it was very confusing. About then, the office phone started ringing as families wanted to know about their better halfs. As my family was in Kansas at the time, I stayed behind and answered the phones and everyone went to South Parking. I found out later that a couple of retired guys now working as civil servants helped out. My salute to them. When I was ready to beat feet, the PA came on and said go to North Parking. Just as I was leaving, our satellite office - manned by part-time Reservists, often no one there, but that day there were three - located at the FAA's ATC Command Center - that's the place were day to day CONUS airspace is coordinated - called and reported that we'd been hit by a general aviation plane. Obviously, it was a chaotic time for the FAA and many reports/rumours were rampant in the moments following. So I go to North Parking along with 10,000 of my closest friends. At that time Hwy 110 ran right by the lot. Being the brave soul that I am, I took cover between two vans because I'm thinking the herd would make a great drive-by mass casualty event. I eventually E&E'd my way to the Command Center mentioned above, figuring they'd need help. By the way, the roads leading out of DC were freakishly snarled. A mass casualty evac will be a really ugly thing should it ever happen in a metro area again. By the time I got to the Command Center, the displays showed only 35 aircraft over CONUS. All either fighters or tankers. That is when the seriousness hit. Normally, on a weekday, there's 5500-6000 IFR tracks and an unknown number of VFR stuff. The Command Center is where the GS-15 National Operations Manager (forget the Sec of Transportation or the CinC claimng credit, it was this guy) who made the unprecedented, unplanned for, and gutsy call to land everything. That it happened without further loss of life is a credit to the controllers, aircrew, and airports who stepped up. My salute to them as well. For the next 3.5 days, we hand cleared everything that flew in the US while also figuring out how to start an airspace/ATC system that was never designed to crank from a standing start. We have some smart people at the worker bee level. Too bad we have politicians to fcuk it up strategically. Don't forget the bad guys want to kill us and make our way of life 12th century.

WHO the fcuk was his top cover to get him into the general track? How could they not see what a douche he was? Then once a GO, how did the club let him keep advancing? Ugh.

Wha?!

Remember the thread regarding the, I think, Orthodox Jew who didn't think he could pull missile duty because of the confined time (sts) with a woman? Given this unbelievable, and I argue, unConstitutional order regarding the Muslim holiday as observed at State-side bases, then it would seem Big Blue should honor his beliefs as well. And of those that sacrifice farm animals, draw pentagrams on the parade field, etc, etc, etc. Why the fcuk does the military, ok, the Air Force, play these PC games?

Call Robert Ballard and have him find that M-14! Oh, the horror!!

Some mighty M1 Garand time today with my son. As it was my Dad's from his time on the AF rifle/pistol team, there was a sense of tradition. Glass-bedded, National Match barrel, etc, etc. Wish I could do it justice, but that skill didn't pass down. As well as having the biggest "BOOM" on the range as compared to the various 9mm and .223s being shot by others.

What was the altitude restriction for Madeline Albright's war, er, I mean Kosovo? I don't advocate a no threat or we don't fly; I think many guys have died trying to hack the mission in equipment ill-suited for the task. And I salute that kind of courage, we don't win without it. I do advocate buying the right equipment for the fight. The AT-6 or Super Tucano can be a big player today - I defer totally to those that know the mission/threat - but in three years outside of Afghanistan? Many supposedly smart people, SECDEF included, are jumping completely into the next war will be an insurgency. Maybe. Pisser if he's wrong. Lots of examples where we planned for the last war and took it in the shorts when the new conflict wasn't that way. Buy both AT-6s and a new A-10 type and I'm all for it. Trying to go cheap and I'm not such a fan.

I'm expecting tar and feathers, but here goes anyway: If they are wanted in three years, what good will they do? We will be out or on our way out of Afghanistan. There is no way to "win" there, and eventually the One will cave to public pressure to exit. Iraq we will leave with some sort of half-ass functioning government. If they screw it up after we're gone, we can say it's their fault. In Afghanistan, what is the point? Kill bad guys sure, but for how long? At what point does our ability to keep tens of thousands of troops with the national treasure expenditure rate outweigh the killing of bad guys? Then what do we do with them? I think there is a reason low/slow types were withdrawn from Vietnam and retired from the USAF - beside money which was the main point in canning the USAF OV-10 and OA-37. The USMC relearned the hard lessons during Desert Storm of low and slow and also retired their Broncos. Argentina didn't fare too well with their Pucaras during the Falklands. Anybody with any sort of AAA/manpad threat will negate these things and then what? I understand guys want to fly and that the F-35 will not really replace the A-10. But a 'cheap' COIN aircraft is just going to get guys killed in the next fight. How about new A-10s or an A-10 replacement? And, probably most blasphemous (sp?) of all, what does an AT-6 bring to most fights that an AH-64 can't? Yeah, I know, shut up retired ABM...

Out-fcuking-standing!

Doesn't it hurt just a little inside that America is pretty much #1 at everything? Man, a nation of rednecks, gangstas, liberals, cowboys, Wall Street execs, and WalMart greeters, and we kick your ass at nearly everything. Oh, except the early death rate. edited to add: Do your Russian officer friends have chats about what type of BMW to buy? Or just about what type of bread they hope is available?

Ok, to clarify for the last time for me: I am not slamming or against the Super Tucano. We can probably use it; I'm not knowledgable or expert enough to say whether it's a good choice or not. I trust that those that did the testing do have that knowledge and expertise, thus it being purchased and deployed to assist the guys with knives in their teeth. But just as SecDef Gates says the F-22 doesn't bring anything to today's fight, neither would, necessarily, a Super Tucano to the next fight where we might not have air dominance. In that case, more than a few F-22s sure would be a "must have" not a "nice to have." I say both are good, necessary capabilites that the US should possess. Not either/or.

I don't argue the need for COIN. I do argue the need for undisputed air superiority. 187 F-22s may/may not settle a future fight or deter said fight from occuring. 300+ probably would. I do argue we can and should have both.

Why do you argue the either/or? Both are vitally important. By the way, this COIN is all fun and games until somebody gets an SA-14 or better as Ivan found out before us.

The only way for "leadership" to show they are leading is to hammer their folks for any infractions. As the song goes, "Same as it ever was." Unless something goes boom or somebody breaks something, there is no difference in a guy pulling an alert exactly according to the book and a guy who skates. Thus, the only way for any squadron leader to know how his guys perform is to notice the ones who don't get their attention which is an oxymoron. As noted above, that leads to either covering up mistakes instead of learning from them or applying a sledgehammer when a quite chat would do. SAC missiles prided itself on eating its young, so most fled ASAP. I did.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_cosmo_bachelor_071109/ Wha?! I'm just sayin'... edited to add: a friendly beer if I could find those icons...

Riding Rockets by Col Michael Mullane. NASA class of 1980 astronaut - RF-4C backseater, Shuttle Mission Specialist - did three trips. Good, humorous descriptions of the selection process, the life of an FNG astronaut, some behind the scenes NASA gossip, great descriptions of training, the fear/exhileration (sp?) waiting to launch, and the wonder/grossness of being in space.

I own one. Got it as my retirement gift to myself last year. Never could manage anything like that as an Lt. Put your money in investments; retirement or separation gets here before you know it. Oh, and you kids get off my lawn!

2 Out of the 12 guys from my IQT class, I was one of the two to not get an Article 15 or LOR during my sentence, er, assignment.

Agree. It's just that this newest one was a professional before he entered Congress.

"Lone Survivor" by Marcus Littrell. Jeezus... I learned much about that particular mission and about SEAL training, i.e., that the absolute sh1t they do in training is not just Hell Week, but the period before, and pretty freakin' tough training afterward. to guys who can do that.

It's official. Congress is a clown act.