Leaderboard

I think he was a F-4 WSO, then UPT, then F-111, then A-10, passed over for Major, hired by the Reserve A-10 unit in New Orleans, hired on at United but invited to leave during training (lying on his application?), invited to leave at New Orleans for flying violations and personnel conflicts, tried to get hired at Columbus Reserves but blocked by the NOLA A-10 folks, hired at UPS and fired after a conflict on a Asia flight with the other two pilots that resulted in them locking Runner out of the cockpit. After that, it is a mystery that I'm sure we will learn more about. Quite the resume, if you ask me. Maybe he was a plant to screw up the Chinese PLAAF.

I copied something I wrote on another site and occurred in the 92-93 timeframe. As a Flt CC,I took 6 A-10s from Shaw to Little Rock to support the Army doing Army things at Ft. Chaffee near Ft. Smith. Runner brings a jet back with a broken windscreen. No worries, that front panel would occasionally Crack from the window heat. Well, that wasn't it. He had hit the grounding wire on some high tension power lines. No call. No controllability/ damage check. He argues he did nothing wrong. The front windscreen on the Hawg is 7 layers of laminate that will stop a 23mm cannon round. That windscreen is supported by a very stout I- beam looking frame. The grounding wire hit on top of the AAR door, slid over the windscreen cracking the glass and shearing off windscreen attachment bolts before scratching the top of the canopy. The wire completely missed the engine nacelles and rudders. Any other jet and he would have been sliced in two and he thinks he did nothing wrong. Arkansas Power and Light was replacing that wire and sent us the piece with gray paint on it and said it was 292 feet off the ground which was below his cleared altitude. His excuse was rising terrain despite that handy, dandy radar altimeter warning which was not used. He also almost put a Vark in the dirt during Desert Shield after screwing up a LGB toss. You might have seen the video updating your altitude chamber.

So he was a Loadmaster? Now I'm confused.

Story time!

An AFSOC C-146A Wolfhound struck a concrete barrier while taking off in the Philippines causing substantial damage to the aircraft and some injuries to the crew. When this appeared on my feed my first question was what the hell is a C-146A? It's a Dornier Do 328 twin turboprop aircraft that's part of the eclectic coterie of Key West Agreement sized aircraft that the Air Force operates with a diaspora of aircrew in far-flung corners of the world. When I worked at ATA years ago I used to jumpseat on these all the time, I cannot remember which airline operated them but they had a fairly modern glass cockpit layout at the time and had a unique navigation system. Instead of INS, IRS, or Ring Laser Gyro they used a system that would triangulate multiple radio Navaids for a position solution. I don't remember what it was called but the crews seemed to really like the aircraft. The Do 328 was short lived in US Airline service and quickly replaced by Regional Jets so I'm sure the AF picked up some of these for a reasonable cost.

Yeah... But.... She's pretty hot.

The irony is the incident also comes almost 30 years to the day since Cuban defense forces shot down two small civilian planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a US-based group that searched for rafts carrying migrants from Cuba to the US. Four people aboard were killed in the 1996 incident, triggering outrage in the US. Coincidence? Maybe not...

Gen Douglas MacArthur got a MOH just by escaping Corregidor so not having himself be taken prisoner like his whole command by the Japanese. I'm sure FDR did it just to get some good out of a disaster.

Most of the prep for flatbed loading is complete ✅

Received a response after leadership reached out on my behalf. A delay of a "couple more weeks" is likely as those short-term training gaps are being filled by others.