Hacker

Like this is some kind of new thing? Go grab a doofer book from Desert Storm, or Vietnam, or Korea, and see what kind of world-class sport bitching there is in there. There's no more bitching and whining today than there was at any other point in USAF history; there are just more public outlets for it.

While I certainly understand his grief, anger, and desire to understand what happened, I have to shake my head at his ideas on how he is going to do that, e.g.: No, I don't think you're 'entitled' to that, sir, and knowing that information won't add to your understanding, other than to give you a person's name to direct your rage. The military can do a far better job of analyzing the error chain and helping prevent it from reoccurring than you can. Trust that they will.

https://www.freep.com/article/20110413/NEWS06/104130333/Michigan-dad-wants-answers-son-s-combat-death?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5guMfinZBAN37m9ioE9ubA4hlljqQ?docId=91916fa7c8ec4cbfb1177ab12856bc05

Good ol' Moggy. "I've got boiling oil, Red Leader." Great series, and came out at a time that I was just becoming interested in the Battle of Britain. Seeing all those Spits flying off the lawn of a French chateau was just simply magnificent. No CGI...no fakery....

I always figured you for a 'hit-me-on-soft-eleven' kind of guy, heh heh.

https://www.lakenheath.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123250470 Video link: https://www.lakenheath.af.mil/shared/widgets/popup.asp?url=https://www.lakenheath.af.mil/shared/xml/rssVideo.asp?mrsstype=3&contentid=123250470&contenttypeid=1&type=video&pos=0

SJ doesn't have a hospital proper (only a clinic), so any significant medical care will get farmed out to the hospital there in Goldsboro. Special care (like prenatal care and c-sections) can get farmed out to better facilities up in Wilson or Greenville, or even Raleigh/Durham.

While we're at it, bring back the Phantom and Skyraider.

https://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/asd/2011/04/01/02.xml&headline=null&next=10

USAFE Safety down day in 3....2.....1....

Naah, it was in England. It was more like this: Note: Not a model or fakery -- Ray Hanna actually flying a Spit under the bridge for the BBC series "Piece of Cake" back in the late 80s.

This is still standard UK low fly. Still standard, 'Fighting Edge' rules. Squawk 11 and check six. Also standard UK act....Radar Information Service..... That's the point I was getting at in my post further up the page. We're not all THAT far separated from the days you're talking about, but we're at least 3/4 to one complete career-span from it. It's far enough back that O-4s and O-5s who are considered 'old craniums' in their ops units weren't flying when stuff like you're talking about happened, which leads guys younger than that to think it was ANCIENT history when that shit was occurring. I'm not old enough to have done any of that firsthand, but certainly guys who were O-4s and O-5s when I was a Lieutenant, and even up into my first fighter squadron did it, and those kinds of stories got dragged out at the bar.

I have to wonder just how long some of you have been flying for the AF, and what community you are from. I haven't been around the AF that long, but hearing about this kind of stuff doesn't seem to knock me off my feet as much as it seems to for some of you. This was probably more prevalent in the 80s, but I certainly heard about this kind of stuff when I was a Lieutenant in the mid 90s. Seems to have started to decline a little in the Fogleman era and be nearly completely gone by the mid 00s. We're to the point where we are now a whole "career" of pilots away from when these sort of shenanigans happened, and some seem to be astounded that it ever happened. There's an entirely new standard of what's acceptable and what's totally outrageous. Not that flying under a bridge was ever "acceptable", but it certainly didn't warrant the stoning at sunset that it would probably get today. As Rainman has indicated, it was more of an extended-ass-chewing-in-the-Boss'-office sort of thing. Grounding. Take a crappy deal or three. We have had a serious cultural shift in the AF over the course of my short career, and it's a matter of perspective as to if that's a good thing or not.

Man style.

Greater skill at what?

"Conservative" is the mantra of so many USAF leaders these days. IMHO that desire to be the most conservative leader, so as to not in any way possible even tempt making a decision your boss disagrees with, is one of the cancers killing USAF leadership. If a boss can pin the toughest possible punishment on his subordinate, then he's never putting himself into question from his own chain of command. It's like the SEFE who is getting the NAF STAN/EVAL over-the-shoulder treatment, and decides he needs to be Mr Hardass so as to not appear weak.

The AF was going for both a Court Martial and FEB.

There were 4 guys in the airplanes.

Awww, now, I've seen it posted twice...

He all ready regularly posts his AF Times cover shot here (which has his name on it)...I don't think he's all that concerned about it.

I'll simply reply this way: - If you know Maj Kopacek and believe this, then call him and get his side of what occurred. - If you don't know him, then you are seriously mis-assessing him as an individual based on a very small sliver of info you've been given. - NJP cases rarely tell the "true" story...especially for a guy who was days away from separating from the AF (and the AF knew they didn't have a career to wreck, yet still had a message to send to the rank-and-file) BL: There's a lot about this story that you don't know, and your "assessment" of the situation reflects this. It's not any of my business to discuss those details, but it's important to know that this punishment was more for the benefit of the "Rest of the AF" than it was punishing Kopacek's actions.

I love how anything turns into an excuse to tear things up.

How'd you figure that math?

When turbine wheels let go big enough to blow big holes in the top of the engine compartment, I'm thinking the chances are pretty good.

It did not count as O-1 time, no.