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Lock Mart and Pilatus working on PC-21 upgrades / 5th gen training focus https://aviationweek.com/defense/light-attack-advanced-training/pilatus-pursues-f-35-focused-pc-21-training-system-upgrade Change course AF: Basics in a quality GA platform, Skylane. Mil training in a PC-21. Track studs to T-7 or T-54. Don’t overthink this.

I’ll be as clear as I can. I would absolutely be held to a different standard than leadership. Dick Cheney had evidence manufactured to justify starting Iraq War two, killing hundreds of thousands of people; no consequence. James Clapper lied to the Senate about NSA spying on American citizens; no consequence Drone strike after Abbey gate deaths during Afghan withdrawal, family of 10 murdered; no consequence For those in charge it is, and always will be, rules for thee, not me Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://youtube.com/shorts/7Fw7bZoPyVU?si=KZehGb5SndOahWQW

Musk needs a nap.

Hmmm, a nation acting in its own best interests. Other, smaller nations deciding where to hitch their wagons in their own best interests. Whatever is the world becoming?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/world-war-ii-airman-tokyo-prison-fire-accounted-for/

The two companies took different approaches to meeting the requirements. Boeing came up with a better concept - I don’t know a single fighter pilot from any service that doesn’t share that sentiment. Sorry, can only be vague on the internets. FWIW, it’s badass and a slam dunk…in theory. The pessimist (realist?) in me says they’ll fuck it up and it’ll be F-35 2.0 from a programatics perspective. At least there have been some solid fighter guys involved in the program up to this point, unlike the F-35 where the fighter SMEs of the early days were F-4 guys, who God bless ‘em, had zero fucking idea what a 5G fighter should be like (though they may have carried their balls in wheelbarrows, respect).

Sunday March 6, 1836 At midnight on March 6, 1836, Santa Anna's troops began moving into position for their planned attack of the Alamo compound. For several hours, the soldiers lay on the ground in complete darkness. About 5:30 A.M., they received the order to begin the assault. The massed troops moved quietly, encountering the Texian sentinels first. They killed them as they slept. No longer able to contain the nervous energy gripping them, cries of "Viva la Republica" and "Viva Santa Anna" broke the stillness The Mexican soldiers' shouts spoiled the moment of surprise... Inside the compound, Adjutant John Baugh had just begun his morning rounds when he heard the cries. He hurriedly ran to the quarters of Colonel William Barret Travis. He awakened him with: "Colonel Travis, the Mexicans are coming!" Travis and his slave Joe quickly scrambled from their cots. The two men grabbed their weapons and headed for the north wall battery. Travis yelled "Come on boys, the Mexicans are on us and we'll give them Hell! "Unable to see the advancing troops for the darkness, the Texian gunners blindly opened fire; they had packed their cannon with jagged pieces of scrap metal, shot, and chain. The muzzle flash briefly illuminated the landscape and it was with horror that the Texians understood their predicament. The enemy had nearly reached the walls of the compound. The Mexican soldiers had immediate and terrible losses. That first cannon blast ripped a huge gap in their column. Colonel José Enrique de la Peña would later write "...a single cannon volley did away with half the company of Chasseurs from Toluca." The screams and moans of the dying and wounded only heightened the fear and chaos of those first few moments of the assault. Travis hastily climbed to the top of the north wall battery and readied himself to fire; discharging both barrels of his shotgun into the massed troops below. As he turned to reload, a single lead ball struck him in the forehead sending him rolling down the ramp where he came to rest in a sitting position. Travis was dead. Joe saw his master go down and so retreated to one of the rooms along the west wall to hide. There was no safe position on the walls of the compound. Each time the Texian riflemen fired at the troops below, they exposed themselves to deadly Mexican fire. On the south end of the compound, Colonel Juan Morales and about 100 riflemen attacked what they perceived was the weak palisade area. They met heavy fire from Crockett's riflemen and a single cannon. Morales's men quickly moved toward the southwest corner and the comparative safety of cover behind an old stone building and the burned ruins of scattered jacales. On the north wall, exploding Texian canister shredded but did not halt the advance of Mexican soldiers. Cos's and Duque's companies, now greatly reduced in number, found themselves at the base of the north wall. Romero's men joined them after his column had wheeled to the right to avoid deadly grapeshot from the guns of the Alamo church. General Castrillón took command from the wounded Colonel Duque and began the difficult task of getting his men over the wall. As the Mexican army reached the walls, their advance halted. Santa Anna saw this lag and so committed his reserve of 400 men to the assault bringing the total force to around 1400 men. Amid the Texian cannon fire tearing through their ranks, General Cos's troops performed a right oblique to begin an assault on the west wall. The Mexicans used axes and crowbars to break through the barricaded windows and openings. They climbed through the gun ports and over the wall to enter the compound. General Amador and his men entered the compound by climbing up the rough-faced repairs made on the north wall by the Texians. They successfully breached the wall and in a flood of fury, the Mexican army poured through. The Texians turned their cannon northward to check this new onslaught. With cannon fire shifted, Colonel Morales recognized a momentary advantage. His men stormed the walls and took the southwest corner, the 18-pounder, and the main gate. The Mexican army was now able to enter from almost every direction. In one room near the main gate, the Mexican soldiers found Colonel James Bowie. Bowie was critically ill and confined to bed when the fighting began. The soldiers showed little mercy as they silenced him with their bayonets. The Texians continued to pour gunfire into the advancing Mexican soldiers devastating their ranks. Still they came. When they saw the enemy rush into the compound from all sides, the Texians fell back to their defenses in the Long Barracks. Crockett's men in the palisade area retreated into the church. The rooms of the north barrack and the Long Barracks had been prepared well in advance in the event the Mexicans gained entry. The Texians made the rooms formidable by trenching and barricading them with raw cowhides filled with earth. For a short time, the Texians held their ground. The Mexicans turned the abandoned Texian cannon on the barricaded rooms. With cannon blast followed by a musket volley, the Mexican soldiers stormed the rooms to finish the defenders inside the barrack. Mexican soldiers rushed the darkened rooms. With sword, bayonet, knife, and fist the adversaries clashed. In the darkened rooms of the north barrack, it was hard to tell friend from foe. The Mexicans systematically took room after room; finally, the only resistance came from within the church itself. Once more, the Mexicans employed the Texians' cannon to blast apart the defenses of the entrance. Bonham, Dickinson and Esparza died by their cannon at the rear of the church. An act of war became a slaughter. It was over in minutes. According to one of Santa Anna's officers, the Mexican army overwhelmed and captured a small group of defenders. According to this officer, Crockett was among them. The prisoners were brought before Santa Anna where General Castrillón asked for mercy on their behalf. Santa Anna instead answered with a "gesture of indignation" and ordered their execution. Nearby officers who had not taken part in the assault fell upon the helpless men with their swords. One Mexican officer noted in his journal that: "Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without complaining and without humiliating themselves before their torturers." Santa Anna ordered Alcalde Francisco Ruiz to gather firewood from the surrounding countryside and in alternating layers of wood and bodies the dead were stacked. At 5:00 o'clock in the evening the pyres were lit. In this final act, Santa Anna's "small affair" ended. On the thirteenth day of the siege, Santa Anna’s forces advanced toward the fort before the sun rose. Awakened by the sounds of Mexican soldiers shouting, “Viva Santa Anna,” the Texian defenders quickly returned to their positions on the walls. Travis and his slave Joe made their way to the north wall to coordinate artillery fire on the Mexican troops. On the third assault, those troops began breeching the north wall of the Alamo. Mexican soldiers, who had also captured the south and west walls, followed the retreating defenders into the Long Barrack where a final stand was made. Before the sun came up, the last defender had been killed.