MKopack

Great guy. "Like" him over on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/walterjboyne) for even more stories, if you're over there as well.

We had a pilot that was blown up by his own MK84 back in '91. Punched and the Navy picked him up. We got him back two days later and he was told that he wouldn't be allowed to continue flying missions. He told everyone that they were going to have to send him home then, and when that was 'shot down', he was back in the cockpit a day or two later.

"Alcohol is involved in a third of misconduct incidents on Alaska's military installations, three generals said in a letter to Rep. Dan Saddler, co-chairman of the House Special Committee on Military & Veterans' Affairs." A third of misconduct? By my math that means all that military sobriety is screwing things up. But what do I know, I've been drinkin'...

The initial report I heard said that the DC-3 is in good shape, but was moved "several hundred yards" during the storm. The plan, according the the EAA, will have the gates opening as normal at 8AM on Friday after a night of cleanup. The Blue Angels and the F-22 will be in in the morning, and the weather is expected to be good now through the weekend. A couple of years on the flightline over at MacDill taught me to always keep an eye up in the sky though. Things can change fast in the Spring in Florida.

By '87 when I enlisted, the "on base" age at Sheppard (Tech School) and at MacDill had both changed to 21. Of course if you had a military ID no one really cared, on base or off, and the 1st Shirt would roll a couple of kegs over to the dorm on most holiday weekends.

Yemen: "I can see Somalia from my house." It isn't really the 'garden spot' of the Arabian Peninsula - a region not really known for being a 'garden spot' in general, but with all of the built in problems that could make the "worst case scenario" in Libya look like square one in Yemen. If Al Qaeda and everything historically that led to it has a natural backyard, as much as anywhere else, this is it. (Good call, Lockheed, corrected...)

If they got separated, they weren't doing it right.

Good article - of course filtered through the media, so who knows how accurate it is - about the crew's treatment while in Libya, from the National Review. More at the link...

Have a friend that's an ANG crew chief on the 16's out of Atlantic City. On their last Balad deployment he was able to get a photo pass out of his unit and ended up with a dozen or more "cover" photos on the Balad website and AF.mil. The Combat Camera guys were pretty hot about a flightline guy getting their 'press' - and getting some excellent shots. (http://www.balad.afcent.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123203787) Back during Desert Storm we had the only two-seat 16 in the Gulf. "Balls 47" sat as a cann bird for the first few weeks of the war while our assigned CC guys really pushed to be able to fly. One day the Col. said to put her together. When we rolled her out, there were suddenly a lot of concerns about maintenance, scheduling, regulations, etc. In the end she got in a lucky thirteen missions and a good portion of the air-to-air video on TV was taken from 86-0047's back seat. (If the Combat Camera guys hadn't finally taken the seat, you know that I'd already volunteered myself and my camera for it...) Pretty well known video that our CC guys put together with a couple of camcorders and VCR's all wired together. Just like everything else, I've worked with some great Combat Camera guys over the years - others who are mostly there filling up a spot.

(12XU2A3X3 just beat me to it...) I wonder if the "inability to demonstrate" is due to the lagging flight test schedule, or it is a sign of a deeper issue. On the bright side, ten years from now we might be seeing brand new fighters refueling from brand new tankers...

And triple the cost.

I know that name, the older and the younger. 3-star is correct.

Secretary of State Clinton has stated that US Military aircraft have delivered "emergency core coolant" to the disabled and overpressure and overheating Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. They have announced plans to release radioactive steam to relieve the pressure. I'm not a nuclear pro by a long shot, but don't most nuke plants use basically plain water as coolant?

In a similar story, early in Desert Storm a KC-135 flew way into Iraqi airspace to rescue an F-16 returning from an airstrike (might have been one of my unit's acft) - may have been a similar outcome as well, I know that they were awarded after the war for the flight, but would bet that they were probably second-guessed not long after touching down.

Don't think of it as canceling Mustache March, think of it as postponing the entire month. Until the ORI is over, just continue to sign everything off as February - Wednesday will be Feb 30th, Friday will be the 32nd... But Sir, if it was March, I'd have a mustache. Sort of like 'out-shoeing' the shoe. Was asked by a couple of people what Mustache March was, so based on some of what I've learned here, and read in a couple of books, I pounded this out on the keyboard today: "Mustache March and the Legendary Robin Olds" I'm not a writer, by any stretch, but maybe it will at least partially answer, "Hey, why do all of those guys have mustaches all of a sudden?" (Any comments, additions and/or corrections are welcome...)

Who'd have thought that the star of the number one sitcom on TV and the long-time dictator / head loony of Libya would both be interviewed on the news last night - and Gaddafi would come off as being more grounded in reality...

A couple of days ago we lost Hervey Stockman. Sixty-eight missions flying Mustangs during WWII, one of the first handful of U-2 pilots including the very first flight over the Soviet Union, and later six years as a POW after his Phantom was lost over Vietnam. Salute, Colonel! From the POW Network website (who I'd guess won't mind being quoted...)

I'll post this without any comments, other than "Frickin Kaboom." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJKIrseIHRE Things are going to get racial here.

42 Years ago tonight, John L. Levitow (November 1, 1945-November 8, 2000), an AC-47 Spooky loadmaster for the 3rd Special Operations Squadron, lifted off in his gunship on a mission over Vietnam. By the end of the mission he would be a legend that will live forever in Air Force History. Medal of Honor citation

Will be in Goldsboro for the SJ airshow in April, so I'll keep my eyes open.

The original photo comes from a story from Palm beach State College http://www.palmbeachstate.edu/x19825.xml, which describes him as: "Anthony LaTorre served in the Air Force from 2004 to 2010 achieving the rank of E-5/staff sergeant. His tours of duty include Baghdad and Fallujah in Iraq, and Kandahar, Afghanistan. He is currently a student at Palm Beach State." His name also links to the facebook page for "Air Force Junior ROTC FL-824 Lake Worth High School" where Anthony J LaTorre IV wrote: "2000-2004 national drill team champs. still running strong..."

In 1947 the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association decided not to send a team to the 1948 Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, over a disagreement over amateur qualification rules. A group of members and former members of the Royal Canadian Air Force didn't think that was right (well, they were Canadian...) The Ottawa RCAF Flyers were selected from Air Force stations across Canada and coached by Ottawa Senators legend Buck Boucher and his son, RCAF Sergeant Frank Boucher. At St. Moritz, they beat Italy 21-1, Poland 15-0, Austria 12-0, the United States 12-3, Great Britain 3-0 and Sweden 3-1, with a scoreless tie against Czechoslovakia. In their final game, they played the host Swiss and needed to win by two goals to finish ahead of the Czech team. Sixty-three years ago today the "RCAF Flyers", skating for Canada, won the Olympic Gold.

These guys might have sounded better at halftime than the vocal and audio trainwreck we saw in Dallas:

And in that 15 seconds she sounded better than she did for the next 11:45. "Dear Kim, Your rack is unreal."