MKopack
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Posts posted by MKopack
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You missed one...pay up!
My foul, I'll pay that one. I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of the guys that I grew up hearing / reading about, but that is quite a line up. I've never read Bud Day's book (although his story is legendary) I'll have to pick that one up.
Mid 70's at Windsor Locks with F-100F 56-3801 of the CTANG...
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Would love an F-4C nose gear door for the wall (for that matter, I'd love about anything for the wall...)
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Of all the months to not be in Dayton, Ohio...
Tickets available Oct. 2 for Misty FAC panel discussion at museum9/26/2012 - DAYTON, Ohio -- Tickets will be available beginning Oct. 2 for the Misty Forward Air Controllers (FAC) panel discussion, which will take place from 10-11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20. During this free presentation, the public will have the rare opportunity to interact with Misty Forward Air Controllers, as the FACs share their experiences spotting and marking enemy targets in heavily-defended areas during the Southeast Asia War.
Panelists include Col. (Ret.) George "Bud" Day, Misty 1; Col. (Ret.) Charles B. Neel, Misty 22; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Donald W. Shepperd, Misty 34; Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dick Rutan, Misty 40; Lt. Col. (Ret.) Stephen L. Amdor, Misty 54; Gen. (Ret.) Ronald R. Fogleman, Misty 86; a Gen. (Ret.) Who Shall Not Be Named, Misty 94; and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jack Doub, Misty 145. Other Misty FACs also will be in attendance and available to answer questions.
Tickets for the panel discussion are available until Oct. 17 and may be obtained in two ways. Requests can be made in person at the museum's Special Events office Monday- Friday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. (excluding federal holidays). Those who cannot make it in person may request tickets by calling (937) 255-5940. If requesting tickets by phone, please provide your name, phone number, address and the number of tickets you would like mailed to you. Tickets will be mailed by Oct. 12.
A book signing and autograph session will take place from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Authors Day, Shepperd, McPeak and Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Ross C. Detwiler, Misty 67, will sign copies of their books. Other Misty FACs also will be available for autographs.
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How cool is that? As a former maintainer I hate to imagine what kind of damage could have been caused during scheduled maintenance that would have caused her early retirement...
I've only been lucky enough to have seen a handful of U-2's but someday when they are retired the world of military aviation will be a much less interesting place.
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Walked my son in to his first day of 4th grade today and on the board the teacher had posted the article from the paper and written:
Rest in Peace Neil ArmstrongAugust 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012
The first American to orbit the Earth
My nine year old said, "Wait's that's not right, is it?"
With that "One small step", Neil Armstrong changed mankind forever - and I'm told that as an eight month old I was set down in front of the TV to watch.
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Years ago we had an engine troop who was HYT'd as an E-4 Sgt at something like sixteen years - couldn't take a test to save his life (spoke Spanish as a first language, and his English was rough at very best) but he could tell you which main bearing on our old F100's was wearing, just by laying his hands on the side of the 16 at idle. Never saw anyone even half as "natural", and he had a list of job offers well before his last day.
Of course he was an exception, most HYT's were barely taking up space.
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Winston Churchill returns from a wartime trip to America, piloting a flying boat, on 02 Feb 1942.
If you are "the Boss" who is going to tell you that you can't go ahead and fly it (and smoke a cigar while you do)? The aircraft is a BOAC Boeing 314 "Berwick" G-AGCA."Churchill soon made friends with [bOAC Captain] John Kelly Rogers, “a man of high quality and experience.” He entered the cockpit smoking his usual cigar, and Kelly Rogers waived the rules and let him continue, even allowing him to strike a match when it went out. He tried the controls of the huge craft, as Kelly Rogers whispered into the co-pilot’s ear, ordering him to apply corrections only if it looked as if the plane was getting out of the Prime Minister’s control…
Churchill was allowed to do a couple of slightly banked turns, and was photographed by one of the official cameramen. He talked about his own flying career which had begun in 1913 when he founded the Royal Naval Air Service, and compared the Boeing Clipper with the primitive aircraft he had known then. When Kelly Rogers made radio contact with the [accompanying] Pan American planes, Churchill asked if he could speak to them, but the captain ruled that out as too much of a security risk…"
– Lavery, Brian. “A Flying Hotel in the Fog.” Churchill Goes to War: Winston’s Wartime Journeys. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2007.
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I agree that taking away everyone's weapons would stop these senseless shootings - after all, it's worked so well in Toronto...
Prior to Friday there have been 147 shootings in Toronto involving 209 victims this year, a 62% increase from 2011.
"Two dead and nineteen injured in Toronto mass shooting."
http://news.yahoo.com/toronto-shooting-2-dead-19-injured-103720046--abc-news-topstories.html
"Toronto gun violence rages as politicians debate solutions."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/07/21/toronto-shootings.html
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While he played the Skipper on the 1960's TV show "McHale's Navy" in real life Gunner's Mate 1st Class Ernest Borgnine was a US Navy WWII Veteran serving from 1935-1945, during the war years aboard USS Lamberton (DD-119). Lamberton served in the Aleutian Campaign and then largely off of the West Coast. He spent a lot of time doing work with Veterans and was also the first person (and one of only roughly 70) to be named as an Honorary Blue Angel.
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All flags at half staff in North Carolina today. In a state with a large military presence their sacrifice is high profile news.
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Two sides to every story, but...
Weather Channel Anchor Says She Was Fired Over Military ServiceBy Todd Starnes
A former anchor at The Weather Channel is suing the network after she said she was fired over a dispute involving her military service.
Nicole Mitchell, an Air Force Reserve Officer and a member of the “Hurricane Hunters” team, has accused The Weather Channel and NBC of discrimination and violating her rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.
Mitchell said she began to experience harassment about her military service just after The Weather Channel was purchased by NBC, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
Court papers allege NBC bosses made explicit complaints about her military service schedule and created a “hostile working environment” for the anchor.
Mitchell, who holds the rank of captain, was an on-air meteorologist for The Weather Channel from 2004 until 2011 – when her contract was not renewed. She is a highly decorated officer who flies aboard a “Hurricane Hunter” and her military expertise was especially noted during the network’s hurricane coverage.
But after the network was purchased by NBC/Universal, Mitchell said network executives ordered her to get clearance before agreeing to any military assignments....
.....An incident involving a missed hair appointment seems to be where Mitchell’s career at The Weather Channel went wrong.
LoRusso said his client received a telephone call ordering her to appear for a Sunday hair consultation.
“They said quite clearly, ‘this is non-negotiable, no excuses,’” LoRusso said.
But Mitchell did have an excuse – she was on weekend military duty – and Mitchell had given the network advance notice of her responsibilities.
“She was told that was not a good answer,” he recounted. “They gave her a hard time, but she stuck to her guns.”
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4 June 1942 - The Battle of Midway. As decisive a turning point as existed in WWII except for dropping the two atomic bombs.
During the 80's at an airshow, I had the privilege to meet George Gay (1917-1994), a TBD Devastator pilot from Torpedo Squadron 8 on the USS Hornet. Seventy years ago today his entire squadron attacked the Japanese fleet without fighter support. In that one attack every aircraft was lost. Then-Ensign George Gay was the only survivor, recovered from the water over 30 hours later.
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At least they didn't force VMFA-122 to go back to what was apparently their original name - The "Candystripers", seen here on one of their F8U, yes, "Crusaders"...
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I've got an old VMFA-122 "Crusaders" shirt that I wore on a visit to MCAS Beaufort last year, got a lot of good comments from the squadron members...
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Here you go, just don't pack a lunch - I don't think it would fit...
(N213TD - my Dad's photo from a Coolidge, AZ fly-in last winter)
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The Air Force is undoubably funding, somewhere in the back rooms at DARPA and by their best secret squirrel inventors, the most reflective belt to ever be seen on Earth.
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Via CBS Los Angeles:
Pilot Killed After Jet Used In Navy Exercises Crashes In OxnardMay 18, 2012 1:15 PM
OXNARD (CBS) — A jet making its way to Point Mugu Naval Air Station crashed in Oxnard Friday, killing the pilot aboard, authorities reported.
The Federal Aircraft and Aviation department received reports at 12:15 p.m. of a plane down at Laguna and Protero roads, near Cal State University Channel Islands.
The aircraft is a Hawker Hunter jet registered to Airborne Tactical Advantage Company, a company contracted by the Navy to provide adversary support for fleet exercises off the California coast.
“It’s a civilian-contracted airplane to the Navy, and it was a former military pilot,” Naval Base spokesman Vance Vasquez told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO. “These are not current military airplanes and/or aircraft that are owned by the Navy.”
The plane was returning back to Point Mugu from a mission and crashed into an unpopulated area of Oxnard.
This is the second loss for ATAC this year after a Kfir was lost in the spring. Has to be tough for a small group.
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Back from the dead? Who would have seen this coming - maybe it's not all about the budget, or even capability (because if you can get less capability for more cost, how can you not just jump all over that).
House appropriators add $5.3 billion to defense bill for weapons buysA powerful U.S. House defense spending panel has recommended adding more than $5.3 billion to the Pentagon’s procurement accounts in 2013 to buy more aircraft, ships, vehicles and weapons, according to a report quoted in Defense News. The chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), announced a version of the 2013 defense appropriations bill last week that is $3.1 billion higher than the Pentagon’s $642 billion overall spending request.
New recommendations will stop the USAF from retiring the Block 30 Global Hawks and the C-27J's.
Also will provide additional funding for:
- 17 C-27J's (to a total of 38)
- a continuation of the C-130 AMP program
- 1 C-130J, 2 HC-130J's and 2 MC-130J's
- 12 MQ-9 Reapers
- 10 Black Hawks (National Guard)
- 3 EADS Light Utility Helos (Lakota's? - National Guard)
- 11 additional F/A-18 Super Hornets (to 37 from 26)
- 1 additional V-22 Opsrey, one Bell UH-1Y helicopter, one Bell AH-1Z helicopter, five Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters and two Lockheed Martin KC-130J tanker transports
- PAC-3 Patriot missiles and launch systems
- $$ to keep the M1 Abrams production line open from a planned temporary shutdown
- Upgrades to Bradley fighting vehicles
- Army NG Humvee modernization
- 1 additional Navy DDG-51 destroyer and $$ to retain three cruisers
And $$ for a Raptor "back up" oxygen system and $500 million in cuts to the F-35 program.
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"As an active Marine I say, 'Screw Obama' and I will not follow orders from him."
Even back in my time in, this was one of those "third rail" issues - really tough to "untouch" it once it's done. We had a guy on base that said much the same thing about Reagan in uniform to the media as his second term was coming to an end. Can remember sitting there in the dorm watching it live on the news - was like watching a car crash. "Dude, dude, stop... don't go there... Owwwww, that's gonna hurt."
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I was a fourteen year old high school student with a National Geographic map full of stick pins on my wall and the shortwave radio tuned to the BBC long after I was supposed to be in bed...
It was a year later when I met the crew of one of the Black Buck missions along with their Vulcan at an airshow up in Canada. When I asked about the mission, I was told, "We didn't hit much of anything, but it was worth it just to see those bastards running and diving into any hole they could find."
How do you say, "What the @#$% was that and where did it come from", in Spanish?
Prior to the training for the mission, as I recall, the Vulcans hadn't air-to-air refueled in years, and many no longer even had probes installed. I do know that an RAF crew "acquired" a refueling probe during the deployment from a Vulcan on static display at Castle AFB museum in California. The Nimrod ASW / sea surveillance aircraft had never been air-to-air refueling capable until an emergency mod mounted a probe above the cockpit - which was "plumbed" straight through the sealed cockpit escape hatch, down to the floor, and the pipe ran straight down the cabin walkway to the wing. Early in the deployment the normally land-based RAF Harrier GR.3's that were onboard carriers for the first time, found the hard way that the INS's wouldn't align on a moving boat.
Victor tankers, Nimrod patrol aircraft and a pair of Harrier GR.3's at Ascension Island during the conflict.
The war would have been considerably different had the British not retired the last of their conventional aircraft carriers (HMS Ark Royal in 1979). While the Harriers proved their worth, Phantoms and Buccaneers would have been an entirely different ballgame.
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I spent several years working the P-3's at the Lockheed Martin depot a decade ago, even then the Orions were tired. Probably half of the aircraft that we brought in had major wing spar cracking, fore and aft, we were seeing more and more wing plank cracking around the nacelles, and it had gotten to the point where we could no longer remove all of the corrosion from the aircraft structure because guys were grinding straight through.
Great aircraft, fast and powerful (loved doing engine runs on them), but they've suffered from a lot of flying through the salt spray down on the deck over the water (MAD runs, etc.). It'll be interesting to see in the future how the "thin walled" P-8 / 737 fares flying in the same conditions.
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Yesterday a pilot and his ATAC F-21 Kfir were lost in a crash at NAS Fallon, Nevada. The pilot was Carroll LeFon, a retired Navy Captain, fighter pilot, and military blogger - better known by his "nom de plume" - Neptunus Lex.
I've read his blog for years, and had corresponded with him several times. Naval Aviation may have never had a better friend. Godspeed, Lex...
From http://www.neptunuslex.com/
By Whisper, on March 7th, 2012
When Lex “left the keys in it” for me to be a guest blogger here about a year ago, we didn’t discuss what to do in this occasion. I am at a loss. I did feel the need to provide one place for your tributes and condolences to collect. So here it is.
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I have. It is a little difficult for many to contemplate or even believe.
Amazing just how much times have changed. Almost reads like bad fiction today - who'd believe it?
From an enlisted perspective, all of the exercises from our "deployed location" ended with a nuke elephant walk and we knew, "real world", in that scenario our LGPOS's were never coming back. Not only that, but we were told, by number, the Soviet airborne regiment that was assigned to drop on our location along with the timing. Once our birds were gone, our part in the show was over.
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Perhaps a second look by someone less inclined to "overlook" or minimize potential contributing factors (like a lack of O2) will result in a different conclusion.
U-2 Dragonlady info
in General Discussion
Posted
My friend Keith nailed a pretty good shot of the U-2 at the Sacramento airshow. Though some might appreciate...
He's at www.kbvp.com