ClearedHot

Full audio of the shootdown if anyone cares.

Which makes me wonder, do the SEALs of the sky have their own special BUDS class?

Seriously? You are hanging your hat on Seymour Hersh? Really? I am kind of without words. He may be famous for uncovering the 1968 My Lai massacre and the mid-2000s Abu Ghraib but he has more conspiracy theories than the flat earth society. Among his claims: 1. "Bin Laden was a “prisoner” of the Pakistani intelligence service in his Abbottabad compound since 2006; the United States learned of Bin Laden’s whereabouts through a former Pakistani intelligence officer; Saudi Arabia was “financing Bin Laden’s upkeep”; and Pakistan’s military helped Washington plan the raid." 2. "Top leaders of the Pentagon deliberately subverted American policy toward Syria, sabotaging US efforts to aid Syrian rebels and even sending US intelligence to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad." And my personal favorite: 3. In January 2011 he spoke at Georgetown University’s branch campus in Qatar, where he gave a bizarre and rambling address alleging that top military and special forces leaders are "all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.… many of them are members of Opus Dei."

Meh... it could be worse. Check 1:25 on the one below.

Ever been to Verdun? Mass artillery is horrific and what happened at Verdun is sickening. The sole purpose of the battle was not to take territory, rather it was to "bleed them white", a horrific battle of attrition meant to consume human life. It will take your breath away, I wept. This building is the memorial and it frames the cemetery. The center is meant to represent an artillery shell. You can see the people in the center for scale...now the sickening part. As you go around to the back it becomes obvious the memorial is built into the hill and it has a large basement that runs the length of the building. Every time it rains they find more bones and skulls from WWI. They collect the bones and deposit them in the basement. There are windows you can look in and see the bones and skulls stacked 20' high. The enormity of loss overwhelmed me. Over 100 year ago and the earth is still scarred from millions of artillery shells.

Reports this afternoon saying we flew the U-2 alongside the Balloon last week. Huggy, ever done anything like that...onboard sensors or handheld camera (if you can say).

The model on the pointy nose side for MANY years has been to build "most" of the initial cadre from Patch Wearers, it makes sense for a lot of reasons especially as you move into OT. These days in an effort to run faster we run DT and OT at the same time, often while still settling on the final design. That being said if you are thinking of pursuing WIC just as a path to the B-21, don't! I was not the best Patch in the world but I was very good at finding (and eliminating), careerists who wanted WIC for the wrong reason. The Weapons School is far from perfect but it is one of the last vestiges of trying to do the right thing with regard to airpower and our Air Force. If you want WIC so you can teach, lead and mentor...SHIT HOT, go for it. The rest will take care of itself.

There I was, I shot a lot of people, I came home...repeat 69 times. Happy?

Recreation with actual comms from the shootdown. Frank Luke did it....16 times.

I saw the T-Birds in the Phabulous Phantom when I was a kid...Phucking Amazing. Both teams were superb in the F-4.

Because of the gun door limitation? I would have wanted to capture and exploit as much of the payload as possible and hit only the balloon, not that a fall from 60K was going to protect the payload but 20 pounds of WDU-17/B warnugget slinging 200 titanium rods probably made a mess of things. Stand by for Block 45 ultra high alt mod.

China now threatening to retaliate because we shot down their balloon! China responded that it reserved the right to "take further actions" and "an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice." In its statement Sunday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "China will resolutely uphold the relevant company's legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserving the right to take further actions in response."

VERY odd choice of weapon.

Given that the White House didn't reveal they found classified documents at the Penn center for months...I'd say there is trend. Also kind of odd we just found out there is another Chinese "Weather" balloon floating across South America.

Go to 46:22 - 'More than half the women in my administration are women'

Nothing to see here, just the Chinese thumbing their noses at our sovereign airspace.

The FBI is now at Joe Biden's Rehoboth Beach home searching for classified.

CBS news now reporting the FBI DID search the Penn Biden Center in November of 2022. Funny, that never made the news before the election, the White House mislead everyone and it is just now coming to light...