Steve Davies

Easy. Ask a question. Yeager gives a .3 response. Ask another. Yeager gives a 1.5 response. Final question (probably something like "Are you charging by the hour?") and Yaeger finishes with a .3. I once tried to interview Yaeger and ended up having to deal with his wife. I don't recall if she asked me for money if I wanted some phone time with the General, but I do recall it ended with me being told to sod off and buy his book. I already had it, so that didn't help much.

She has a short line at the beginning of this clip. Too bad she turned out the way she did. The clip is from my all time favourite comedy show. Great if you like British humour:

Do me a favour!

As a kid growing up in East Anglia (the bit that sticks out of the eastern side of England) during the Cold War, I watched Bentwater/Woodbridge-based A-10s fly *under power lines* on more than one occasion.

Give me some credit. I know that's not your name and rank.

And you should know. From: BNet

Yes, apparently the HH-60Gs from EGUL are off the coast aboard the USS Ponce: Daily Telegraph

Can't find the original thread using either the SF or Google Search Site... ...but the outcome of the Ohio State flyby has been released (although the investigation is still ongoing, apparently). Pilot has relinquished his wings in exchange for honourable discharge. Non-AF Times linky: Press-Citizen

Source: BBC More details (scroll down for video): C4

My bad - didn't read your post properly.

Quick question: does the US give Russia international development aid money? If so, has the Obama administration made any attempt to review that fund or the recipients of it?

I thought that 'pointy-talky CAS' was what the A-10C goes a long way to delivering - SADL, LST, TAD etc.

Being serious, even when Americans dress in civilian clothes, they stand out like a sore thumb in Europe (just as Europeans do in America, I would imagine). If you do want to blend in with the locals, consider going native and buying your clothes from local retailers. Exactly what I thought. AFAIK, no, those busses are not domestically manufactured over here. I believe that they are shipped over from the US.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Look at Europe. The story of a white woman being abused like this did not surprise me one bit. Curious that the Post warns not to extrapolate too much... The PC crowd say the same thing about the worrying disproportionate rise in rapes of white teenage girls by Muslim men and Muslim gangs in England. The PC crowd also say the same thing about the fact that Sweden has gone from having the lowest number of rapes per capita in the whole of Europe, to the highest number per capita in the whole of Europe - all but one of which (IIRC) last year were perpetrated by Muslim men, and nearly all of which involved exceptional violence. No doubt, the PC crowd in Denmark and Norway are also trying to find a way not to extrapolate too much from the fact that in recent years, Muslim immigrants have been massively over-represented in rape statistics (typically 3 in every 4). This, just off the top of my head. But, yeah! Let's not take this lying down! Although maybe we should recline just enough that we don't offend anyone? Still, I suppose you don't need to extrapolate too much when an Imam in Sweden says that unveiled women are asking to be raped, or when a journalist in Denmark makes the mistake of mentioning the official rape figures and is then tried by his own government for racial hatred (the same government, incidentally, that introduced, overnight and without consulting the people, a new clause to its constitution that makes it illegal to talk out against multiculturalism). There is a problem here. It stems from many things, but the common denominator is religion. The sooner the media are prepared to discuss that, the better for everyone.

Depends on where the stude is on the course. Everyone in flying training is under threat: If you're still at pre-IFT stage, or have not yet completed IFT, you'll have to go through the aptitude testing process again - top 70% in the re-testing stay. If you have not completed the RAF equivalent of Phase 2 of UPT, the top 70% (assessed based on their sortie reports) stay. For those guys already at the equivalent of UPT Phase 3 and Phase 4, only 65% will make it through (again, based on sortie reports). For some, ground trades and retraining will be offered, but for many it will be involuntary redundancy. Indeed. It's pretty worrying to be living through it, too. That bloke looks a bit like a bird.

It gets worse. The British Army has just sacked a small group of senior NCOs as a cost cutting measure. Incredibly, c.30 or so received the news via email... one of them while serving on the front line in AFG . The reality is that the British public might well support the armed forces as patriots, but many don't believe that money should be spent on defence when the domestic situation continues to worsen and the economy remains very poor. Rightly or wrongly, this government has decided to maintain a nuclear deterrent at a cost of several £bn, and that means that cuts in defence spending must come from elsewhere. Why maintain an RAF at all? To provide protection of UK sovereign airspace, and to provide support to UK overseas Ops. The reality is that this country is broken - financially, militarily, morally, culturally, socially and politically. It is a far cry from that in which I grew up, and that which my Grandparents fought to protect. The future is looking quite bleak.

Agree. Completely different from anything I'd read before, too. Incredibly poetic (in the non-rhyming sense). Another very good book, and one that covers Marine F-4 exploits in SEA to boot: Phantom Over Vietnam, John Trotti.

Thanks, Gents. I've had a number of emails about the list from Red Eagles, all of whom echo the comments here; how typical of the men whose mantra was "be humble, you cool fucker". The truth is that I just wrote a book - these guys are the ones who made history. to them.

Why would you drink that shit?

Looks good if you don't like a nice head on your pint.

FM The majority of the mainstream media here have not covered the 'story' (yet), so I don't think it's on most people's radar. It does, though, have people in the military scratching their heads, as you would expect. Obama's administration does seem, from this side of the pond, to be doing a great job of flipping us the bird, not least of all because of ongoing operations in AFG and Iraq. Also, Obama's handling of increasing tensions between the UK and Argentina over the Falklands Islands has been noted. A couple of weeks ago the administration referred to the islands as the Malvinas (the Argentinean name for them, as is well known), and Clinton has in the recent past offered to 'mediate' the tensions, which allows one to draw the inference that there is something to discuss. Given that we went to war to get them back from Argentina - an effort helped immeasurably by Reagan's Administration - that's the sort of shit 'up with which we shall not put'. These recent comments and actions appear to fly in the face on solid ongoing military relations between the two countries (RJ integration happening right now, for example) and, presumably, the closest intelligence sharing operation between America and any other nation - the very reason the UK-US special relationship began in the first place. However, for those that do care, there appears to be a degree of pragmatism mixed in with the occasional bit of indignation! Pragmatism because, while our Conservative/LibDem coalition government does not care much for Obama or his Administration, the military ties appear to remain solid. But pragmatism most importantly because these sorts of political disagreements and shenanigans have happened in the past (Edward Heath's banning of SR-71 flights out of RAF Mildenhall, and furious Henry Kissinger's response ordering NSA and CIA to immediately cease all contacts with GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, springs to mind) and will almost certainly happen again in the future, but not to the extent that they cause irreparable damage.

So, is the French Fries ban over?

Call me a pedant, but he missed out about 1/3rd of the world in his 'round the world' trip. The other guy appears to have flown, no kidding, around the entire world, to include one of the poles.

True. Short for 'perambulator'.