brickhistory

Steve's in the background

1. Bags should be for those who fly - front end, middle, back end in an aerospace vehicle as it is a utility uniform specially designed for the aviation environment - NOMEX properties, etc. Make allowances for UAV pilots/sensor operators? 2. Missileers wear what they are directed to. Throw the flag at the USAF leadership that decreed the change - leather jackets included. 3. Back in the dark ages, I wore the old 'crew blues,' transient alert-type two piece fatigues with the oh-so-stylish polyester 'dickie.' That was replaced at whatever cost by the blue crew uniform (blue flight suit), followed by the all-purpose 'everybody's special' green bag. All of the above were/are pointless. Wear the green fatigues/BDUs/ACUs to/from alert, then put on your sweats and bunny slippers like has always been done. 4. I then went to a FACP GCI site - BDUs, pup tents, duece and half trucks, 1st generation M-16s, M-79s, and M-60s but still in use in the early 1990s. 5. Then went to AWACS and JSTARS where the green/desert flight suit was the duty uniform. Worst item ever for comfort outside of the 60-70 degrees with 45% humidity weather range. You stew in your own juices when it's hot/muggy and you suffer incredible 'shrinkage' when the Oklahoma or Korea winter slides right in via the body-length zipper. I couldn't even wear the black tennis shoes, er, boots so popular due to having Frankenstein-ian feet. 6. Fini assignments on Air Staff and FAA HQ where blues followed by the post-9/11 'warrior' uniform policy, so quickly back into bags or BDUs. BDUs were the best uniform of the bunch. Comfy, take the shirt off if it gets hot, can do shit with out worrying about trashing it, etc, etc. Never got around to ACUs before retirement, so no comment there. Blues are just cheesy. Bags are pretty useless unless actually flying/hanging out in the squadron. If you fly, you get to wear a bag. If you don't, you don't. But everybody gets the PT uniform. Now that's BTW, silk scarves were also used to protect the pilot, mainly figher type, from serious neck chafing - to the point of rawness - from the endless, but life-saving vitalness - of having to keep his skull on a swivel during long missions. WWII Mustang and other long-distance escort pilots would be doing the lighthouse imitation for 5-8 hours per sortie. If he didn't see the other guy, there was a good chance he wasn't going home.

NEW GUY (Not a reflective belt in sight) New Wings, New Mission “After only a twenty minute flight check, I was declared ‘operational’ and sent into combat.” So begins Morris Dalton’s World War II tale of nightfighter combat in Europe. In the spring of 1943, Morris Dalton was finally old enough to enlist in the US Army Air Forces. After screening in Knoxville, Tennessee, with hundreds of other aspiring airmen, only he and a relatively few others made the cut for pilot training. He soon found himself in California starting his journey to win his coveted wings. “By February 1944, I’d made it, getting both my wings and a commission as a second lieutenant. More importantly, I had qualified to be a fighter pilot, something I wanted badly. “Then they hit us with some bad news. They wanted to roll most into being instructor pilots. After spending almost a year busting my butt to make it to combat, I sure didn’t want to go back into the training environment. “They offered me a way out if I volunteered to become a nightfighter pilot. Since it was a way into combat and the name still said ‘fighter,’ I jumped at the chance,” he recalls. Up until now, all his flight time had been in single-engine types culminating with the North American T-6 Texan as the most powerful he’d yet flown. All the U.S. nightfighters, however, were twin-engined so he went to Hamer Field, California to check out with multiple throttles. He first checked out in the powerful Douglas A-20 Havoc, a big attack bomber with two Wright R-2600 Double Cyclone engines, each flogging 1600 horses and each putting out almost more than three times the power of the T-6. “It was a big step up for a new pilot with less than 300 hours, but wartime created a sense of urgency so my transition was merely routine for those days.” It was there that he also was introduced to the arcane science of radar-guided airborne interception (AI), first used successfully by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Battle of Britain. The RAF had a curtain of ground radar sites that searched the skies for any inbound aircraft. Once detected, controllers would scramble and vector fighters to an interception point where the battle was joined. Once the RAF had defeated the Nazis during days of the summer and fall of 1940, the Luftwaffe turned its bombing efforts to the long winter nights. The previously successful Spitfires and Hurricanes were nearly useless in the dark English skies, so the RAF placed smaller airborne radar in larger two-man aircraft and eventually recaptured the night. Still using the ground radar sites, a GCI (ground control intercept) controller would vector the nightfighter into proximity where the fighter’s less-powerful on-board radar detected the target. The radar operator or R/O, would then provide directions to the pilot until the pilot was able to see the target. A good R/O could verbally ‘paint’ the air picture until the pilot could see and identify the target. Once the pilot had it, the classic hunter and prey scenario took over. In Dalton’s case, the first nightfighter he flew was the bastardized version of the A-20, the P-70. The USAAF, lacking a nightfighter of its own at the outbreak of the war, had plans to introduce the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, a large, fast, very capable nightfighter. Delays in production, however, forced the Army Air Forces to bring out a stopgap fighter, the P-70. By taking the very capable A-20 attack aircraft and placing a radar in the nose, the rear gunner with an R/O, and slapping a belly pack of .50 caliber machine guns, the USAAF produced a very modestly adequate nightfighter. The P-70 was now overweight and slow to climb to combat altitudes. The shortcomings of the P-70, in fact, were so severe that they were never placed in European combat. They did see limited action in the Pacific where they performed marginally through no fault of their crews however. Instead, the P-70 was relegated to nightfighter training duties and so it was when Mo Dalton first took one up. “It was a big airplane but pretty steady to fly. The tricycle gear made it a cinch to land and taxi. Learning to fly with an R/O and follow his control was interesting, much more mentally absorbing than day flying.” By August, Dalton finished his training and found himself on the way to France to join up with his operational unit, the 417th Night Fighter Squadron. It was on a troopship there that he acquired the nickname that would stay with him for the war. Indeed, at squadron reunions, most of his compatriots only know him as ‘Dirty’ Dalton, so monikered after a cartoon strip of the time. The fictional ‘Dirty’ Dalton character wore wide fur chaps and an enormous 10-gallon cowboy hat pulled low over a usually tobacco stained bushy mustache. (Notice the many 'variations' of uniforms. Seems this generation could fight a war as 'adults.') New Aircraft In September 1944, Dalton arrived at La Valon, France, northwest of the French Mediterranean city of Marseilles. It was there that he first saw his wartime mount, the Bristol Beaufighter. A BIG, twin-engined tail dragger, the ‘Beau’ had served as the first effective British nightfighter back in 1940 and soldiered on still although most of the RAF nightfighter squadrons had traded in theirs for night variants of the De Havilland Mosquito. The Beau was quite a change from the P-70. With big 1670 hp Hercules sleeve-valved radial sitting even with the cockpit which was perched on the nose while the rest of the Beau trailed aft, it had a strong reputation as a handling challenge. Dalton says about that, “A lot of guys complained about the Beau, but I enjoyed flying it. You had to fly it every minute, and the tail would swing on you in a heartbeat if you let it, but if you paid attention, it did what you wanted. “On take-off, you wanted to get the tail up fast so the rudder was effective. You could use differential throttles to keep straight but that was usually more work than it was worth, just pour the coals to it and get the tail up and you’d be ok. “Likewise, on landing, you kept flying it all the way to the ground. If you got slow, it would drop like a brick. After you landed, however, the pneumatic brakes on it weren’t much good. The Beau, like most British types, used this little paddle switch on the yoke versus the toe brakes we were used to. Since our aircraft were borrowed from the Brits anyway, they usually gave us ‘clapped out’ planes with worn out brakes. Combine that with a supply system that didn’t work (author’s note – The US only used four squadrons of Beaufighters, the 414th – 417th) since we couldn’t get parts for the Beau and, well, you had an ‘iffy’ airplane.” After many hours of cockpit drill – sitting blindfolded in the cockpit until he could readily identify every switch, knob, and control by touch, Dalton took his first flight in the Beau. Since there was only one pilot’s seat, the instructor crouched behind the pilot and gave instructions. Dalton continues, “After only 20 minutes in the local area, my check pilot, a Captain, told me to land, I was qualified.” Placed in the operational line-up, he crewed with flight officer (FO), later second lieutenant, William Work as his R/O. The R/O’s office in the Beau was about two-thirds of the way to the tail underneath a plastic bubbletop canopy. In front of him, he had a set of primary instruments and a radar set, the SCR-720. When scheduled for a mission, Dalton says the mission was usually preceded by a night flying test to make sure the aircraft and its many systems were working before they left on patrol. “We would take a Beau up for 30 minutes or so and check out the aircraft, fire up the radar to make sure it was giving a good picture and so on. I usually didn’t test fire the four 20mm cannons because if I did, then the armorers would have to clean the guns after I got back. A lot of other guys did test fires on a bunch of old landing barges down off the coast, but I rarely did. I trusted the ground guys to do their job and I didn’t want to make extra work for them if I didn’t have to.” As for flying the Beau on patrol, Dalton says, “The Beau had great visibility. I had a big flat panel in front of me and large side windows. Being way up front, I could see in every direction except directly behind me and my R/O would keep an eye out there. “With no superchargers, it wouldn’t get very high. I can remember trying to intercept a German photo ship that would fly over Marseilles every few nights. He would be in the 20’s (20 thousand plus feet), and I’d be hanging on the props at maybe 19. Never could get a shot at him. “At lower altitudes, I thought it handled well. It had pretty good maneuverability and wasn’t really heavy on the controls. “I also got pretty good at crosswind landings in the Beau, I had to. Our field at La Valon, had a dirt runway lying east-west. The predominant weather there was a strong wind from the north called “Le Mistral.” When I say strong, I mean in the 40-60 knot range, sometimes more! “We still had to fly our assigned missions no matter the weather, so I just had to get good at handling the crosswind. Sometimes, when the weather was so bad during the day that it grounded the single engine guys, we even had to send up planes to cover their patrol areas.” Regarding the Luftwaffe reconnaissance ship mentioned above, Dalton tells a story of good ol’ fashioned Yankee ingenuity combining mission accomplishment with ‘acquiring’ badly needed spare parts. “Since we couldn’t get this guy in our Beaufighters, the RAF sent in a Mosquito nightfighter to take care of him. When the ‘Mossie’ landed at our field, we took the crew off for some chatting and dinner in the field mess. Meanwhile, our maintenance guys swapped out the Mossie’s landing gear – wheels and all – with one of our tired Beau sets. They were the same wheels so it worked.’ Dalton continues, “It wasn’t just a prank or to be obnoxious. As I said, parts for the Beau were non-existent in the US supply system. We had a squadron ‘hack,’ a worn out B-25 that we used to search all over the Mediterranean for parts. We even took a load of tires once from a trash dump in North Africa, so you can see that a new set of wheels was a big deal to us. “The Brits were fairly good-natured about the switch and even shot down the pesky photo intruder so everybody got something from the deal.” New Experiences Some other Dalton experiences, “For a time in late 1944, the Germans were flying high ranking officials, gold, and artwork from northern Italy, down the Po Valley, out over the Med and into a place near neutral Barcelona, Spain. This run became so regular that it got a nickname ‘Barcelona Charlie.’ “Our squadron got detailed to stop this run so we patrolled for weeks in December, in some of the worst weather you can imagine. The Germans had a radar altimeter coupled to an autopilot and would routinely fly at 20-30 feet above the water. Whenever we got a crack at him, which wasn’t often because it was difficult to see him on radar that low, our guys had their hands full. We didn’t have an autopilot so we were trying to intercept this guy, at night, in bad weather, right on the waves. “I usually set my radar altimeter to 50 feet so that if I got too close, I’d get a big ol’ red light to get my attention. I never had a crack at him, but one of our crews finally did on the night of December 28, 1944. “That kill got our squadron a Presidential Unit Citation and was, incidentally, the last US Beaufighter kill of the war. Dalton says he never had an enemy engagement despite many intercepts. Since all AI contacts had to go to visual range to ensure the ‘bogey’ wasn’t a friendly, it was fairly common to intercept lots of Allied aircraft that were off course. “One night, a group of B-24s out of Italy flew a night time mission. They wound up being scattered all over southern Europe. We flew a lot of intercepts, creeping up on a target only to see a B-24 lumbering along, completely lost.” Most of the time, Dalton says his patrols were boring unlike another squadron crew, “These guys, and I won’t name names, had bailed out twice due to mechanical problems and ditched at least once during their tour. By then, the R/O was pretty ‘twitchy,’ as you could imagine. “Anyway, this crew took off one night for a patrol and soon after take-off, developed a rough running engine. The pilot told the R/O over the intercom that he was heading back to circle base until the engine ran smoother. If it didn’t, he planned to land. “Well, the engine only got rougher, so the pilot told the R/O, “We’re going in,” meaning “we’re going to land.” “The R/O, however, was spring loaded to leave after all the bad luck in the Beau so far, and bailed out. The pilot didn’t know the R/O had jumped until after landing when the ground crew asked where his R/O was. “The R/O, meantime, had come down several miles away from the field. His chute snagged on the corner of a convent of all places and he just hung there, too high to unbuckle his harness. “The French at first took him for a German and were about to give him a rough time before they realized he as an American. After that, he was ok except the Mother Superior of the convent gave him an earful for some reason! “This R/O was shipped home soon after.” Soon after the war ended in May 1945, the 417th swapped its tired Beaufighters for shiny, new P-61s, but ‘Dirty’ Dalton recalls his first fighter with affection. “I really enjoyed flying that thing.” Sidebar – Sleeve Valve Radial Engines A sleeve valve radial contains the valves in a sleeve mounted between the piston and the cylinder unlike a conventional radial engine with its valves mounted on the top of each cylinder Using a smaller crank that turned at half the speed of the crankshaft, the sleeve moved in an elliptical path, lining up ports on the sleeve with the cylinder that allowed fuel and air to enter the cylinder and expelled the exhaust at the completion of the power stroke. The advantage of the sleeve valve is improved volumetric efficiency because the sleeve’s larger ports improved gas flow into and out of the cylinder and created a higher compression ratio. Aerodynamically, the sleeve valve radial presented a smaller frontal area and thus created less drag for the aircraft to overcome. From a maintenance aspect, however, a sleeve-valved design was a nightmare. It leaked oil like a sieve and had many more moving parts than its more conventional brethren. The design rapidly fell from grace after the war. Sidebar - US Beaufighter kills Although the RAF and other Commonwealth flew Beaufighters in dozens of nightfighter and strike squadrons, only four USAAF squadrons were so equipped, the 414-417th NFS, all in the Mediterranean and European theaters. Even the thought the US Beaus were few in number, they did account for a fair number of enemy aircraft destroyed or damaged. NFS 414th 415th 416th 417th TOTALS Confirmed kills 8 11 4 7 30 ‘Probables’ 1 5 2 4 12 Damaged 1 1 1 11 14 Some of the Beaufighter victories include two by the 415th’s Dr. Harold Augspurger, now a retired dentist. He recalls the Beau as “an aircraft that needed constant attention to detail. It wouldn’t stay trimmed up no matter what you did and you had to work the throttles and brakes carefully once the speed dropped, but it flew just fine.” Dr. Augspurger had two confirmed kills in the Beau. The 417th’s only two kill crew of F/O Jeffery (pilot) and F/O Henderson (R/O) combat report on March 28, 1944 reads, “Took off on a freelance. At 0758, sighted a Ju-88 flying on the deck, heading 030, doing 280 mph. We slowly were able to overtake the ‘bandit’ and opened fire at 800 yards, right on the deck. Fired until within 200 yards when enemy a/c returned fire, hitting us in port engine exhaust and wing. Claim one damaged (later confirmed as a kill). Their second combat was only 3 days later, “Scrambled at 2245 and controlled by “Perform” GCI station. Vectored to within two miles of ‘bogey.’ At 2350 hours, we sighted one Ju-88, heading 240 at about 50 feet off the water. Opened fire at 130 yards, enemy aircraft taking hard evasive turns. Got in a second burst at 110 yards, breaking off at 75 yards. One Ju-88 destroyed.” The above is a magazine article that formed the basis for my book: Assuming the mods ok it, I'll copy Steve's example and gladly sign/ship to anyone who wants to PM me. It not, I'll delete this ASAP.

Out-F*ckin' - Standing reply! Way to go MSgt (ret) McMonnies!

My last two PCS', I did just that via the partial DITY maneuver.

Steve, My pre-order has been with Amazon for over a month. Congrats! Brick

Thank Chr1st! But I would have put Doc in the "General Idi Amin Dada" category. Of course, "Weird Merrill" could be SECDEF and DepSECDEF Doc in close-heinie- trail just like the old days. Dear God, I've got some snakes in my head........

No definite answer, but: USAF or USN A-7s? Reason for asking is there could have been something wrong with the jet and the pilot dumped everything prior to going back to the boat. Of course, a USAF SLUF could've needed to clean up the jet for the drive home due to a problem. So, no help there, sorry for the stream of consciousness..... An obvious suggestion would be switches setting failure/electrical wiring failure that punched the MER off as well. "Finger trouble" if you will. Good idea on the thread.

MY EYES!!! OH MY GOD, MY EYES!! You bastard, you should've warned us!!! However, I wonder if 'Dic' will run for any WV congressional or senate seat. Byrd has got to die sometime soon, so I wonder...... If so, there needs to be a concerted, combined arms baseops campaign to provide material to his opponent.

yerfer: Is there something more to this part of the story? If you have an assigned seat, why did asswipe get to sit there and you get stuck between the fatties? And if the gutless (in this case, according to your story so far) flight attendents won't do anything, then clown act can pack sand or make a move, in which case the nice airport police can have a chat with him. Yes, I get it that that action would also delay you and you were pressed for time. I'm not judging you, I'm just asking if there was more to this story.

The Sepecat Jaguar http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p...id=000166507214 When one thinks of the country of Great Britain and the name “Jaguar,” images of the sleek, classic English sports and luxury cars spring to mind. While well deserving of such name recognition, another mechanical beast from the UK shares the name, and like the hunting feline of that moniker, this other ‘Jaguar’ is agile and deadly. Conceived in the early 1960s as a collaborative effort between the French and British Ministries of Defense, the Jaguar initial design was supposed to be an advanced training aircraft with a limited ground-attack role. During its drawn-out, at times contentious development, each country changed its requirements until the Jaguar became not a trainer at all, but a ground attack aircraft with vastly different capabilities. The French version had limited avionics and weapons delivery systems, but gave good service as a day-VFR strike fighter. The Royal Air Force (RAF), however, from the outset, envisioned their version to have advanced navigation and weapons delivery capabilities enabling their force to have a fast, low-level, all weather attack jet. The Jaguar GR.1, later GR.1a/b and GR.3, more than delivered that requirement. Two seat versions, the T2 and upgraded T2a, provide for type training in the jag while maintaining a combat capability should they be needed. After a relatively trouble-free, although exceedingly long gestation, the first RAF Jaguars were introduced into squadron service in 1974. At the time, the Jaguar GR.1 (for ground attack/reconnaissance) featured one of the most advanced navigation systems in the world. The NAVWASS (navigation and weapons aiming subsystem) used a completely self-contained inertial navigation system that updated the jet’s position on a large moving map display in the cockpit. Combined with a HUD (head’s up display) for targeting and flight instrument cues, the total system allowed the Jag pilot to spend most of his time with his eyes outside the cockpit, vital to his survival since the jet was designed for high-speed, low-level attacks. Moving at more than 7 miles a minute, every millisecond spent looking inside meant a measurable increase in the chances of smacking into the ground at high speed! Relatively small, shoulder-mounted wings flowed from the air intakes and provided a solid ride at low altitude while lugging a substantial bombload. The small wing didn’t have enough space to place ailerons, so spoilers mounted on the upper surface provided roll control, supplemented by a differential tailplane system. The tailplane itself, had a distinct anhederal, very much like the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II and for the same reason. By dipping down below the wing, the horizontal stabilizers maintained their effectiveness at high angles of attack where the wings could have blanked them out. The pilot had a good, if small cockpit that blended into the upper deck of the fuselage. Not as good as a ‘bubble’ type canopy, but then the Jaguar was designed to go fast low down and drop bombs, not search out enemy fighters. With its two Rolls-Royce/Turbomecca (an Anglo-French Company expressly formed to design and build the Jaguar’s engines) Adour Mk 102s, each produced 7,300 lbs of thrust with afterburning. Although the Adours are highly reliable engines and relatively fuel-efficient, the Jaguar was never thought of as over-powered. With fuel and weapons, the Cat could scoot along at just over 1.1 Mach at low level, but any turning maneuvers quickly bled off airspeed. Andy Papp, a serving USAF colonel, flew an exchange tour on RAF Jaguars in the late 1980s, says of the Jag in a turning fight, “Anything vertical quickly turned into a horizontal fight” The Jaguar carried a variety of air to ground ordinance. When rushed to duty as part of Operation GRANBY, Jaguars were hurriedly equipped with AIM-9 Sidewinder infra-red air to air missiles on unique overwing pylons. The overwing design proved to be a bonus as sideways airflow along the upper surface of the wing was effectively blocked, a superior aerodynamic surface resulted along with improved fuel consumption despite the increased weight of a Winder on each wing! RAF Jags have since served in operations over Bosnia and Kosovo. With each conflict, avionic and weapons upgrades have improved the jet’s abilities to deliver firepower on target. Other than a lack of power, Papp has fond memories of his time in the jet. He had come into the Jaguar world from the USAF’s A-10 “Thunderbolt II,” otherwise universally known as the “Warthog,” a well-armored, heavy hitting, but slow, ground attack aircraft. “The Jaguar was underpowered, but it was very stable at low level. Faster than the A-10, it was a good bomb dropper. The nav system was good and the moving map display outstanding. The map was almost like a filmstrip, and great to see while at low-level. “The RAF routinely practiced down to 100 feet and the Jag flew well down there. We’d typically fly as two-ships, using the radar altimeter to warn of getting too low. One of the things I had to adjust to while flying with them were some differences in terminology. For example, they use ‘port’ and ‘starboard’ for left and right. Not a big deal, but a little different to get used to. “The RAF trained to very high standards. They were very structured in their approach to flying and once I was qualified as an operational pilot in the jet, they were very welcoming to me personally. “I really liked some of their life support equipment as compared to ours. For example, their flying gloves are just great. I still use them today instead of the USAF issued ones. However, the helmets at the time were just torture devices, heavy and the mask was cumbersome to use. “I had one of their flight surgeons tell me that it was designed to hit a tree at 700 knots and not break. He had no answer when I asked what would happen to the rest of me if I hit a tree at 700 kts!” Papp says of his time with the RAF Jaguars, “It was the best tour I had except for command.” And this from a man with several tours of F-117 “Nighthawk” in his logbook. As a matter of fact, at the time of the interview, Papp was the Vice-Commander of the ‘Stealth’ wing based at Holloman AFB in New Mexico. The RAF plans to retire its remaining Jaguars during 2006. (This was written in '04-ish.) I hope others will cotinue post their photos/tales/why a particular airplane is their favorite

2 Uber $$ though. Nice restaurants (good Irish Pub as well), casino, theatres (if you sprechen), some open fields/hiking trails/woods. Again, two year old gouge - hence no clue on the AFRICOM at Kelley, sorry for the bum steer. Get the rental car, however.

If staying TDY in Stuttgart, press HARD for a rental, and work to get to the Kelly Hotel on Kelly Barracks (Kelley?). 20 min drive Kelly to Patch. The TDY dorms on Patch suck, plus they can/have cut per diem since there's an Army chow hall on post. Then you have the hassle of missed meals, etc. It's way convenient to be on Patch, but depending on your work cycle, it can suck. I've heard Panzer is also good, but never stayed there. Also close to Patch. Avoid Robinson. Rental car is the key.

There is too much smoke and mirrors to this. Big Blue should come out with the facts. If her story is true, she's a hero and would be trumpeted as such - Tillman, Jessica Lynch, et al, as examples. However, the USAF has a long, distinguished history of sweeping embarrassing things under the rug which nearly invariably winds up biting them in the asses. So, if she's a hero, give her a medal and parade her as the "All American Girl." Just think how that would be viewed by the feminist movement as well as for recruiting. If she's a fake, expose her, show the officer and enlisted 'core' that we will uphold standards, and hammer her (sts) and anyone involved in this affair (not sts).

Or United on nearly any long haul flight...

2 on 60 days for ACSC. And AWC. Hypothetical question: I've wondered why when one's spouse did AWC and her paper (with some (100%) ghost writing by the one) got a 'good.' Then, when one took AWC later, turned in essentially the same paper, and got a 'marginal?' Then one gets his stones busted regularly about her paper being 'better' than one's. Hypothetically speaking, of course?

So, did you learn anything? Is it as bleak as you suspect?

(again, mods or members, feel free to call KIO) COLD WAR LEFTOVERS After the Soviet Union collapsed and the world seemed it would be a safer place, I was a member of an E-3 AWACS (airborne warning and control system) flying from Japan. With no known military threats on the horizon, the many exercises and patrols we flew seemed to be ‘busywork.’ I found out that even a sedated, muzzled bear can bite. My crew and I were conducting a joint Japanese Self-Defense Air Force (JASDF) and US exercise on the western side of the northernmost of the Japanese main islands, Hokkaido. Our jet was the radar control agency for a four ship of US F-15s Eagles that would be playing ‘red air’ or the bad guys in the scenario. Red air was defending their notional homeland against a ‘blue air’ strike force composed of JASDF F-1s escorted by US F-16s. The blue air side would be controlled by a fixed JASDF/US radar site at Misawa Air Base. We had arrived on station in our orbit over the Sea of Japan and our F-15s had just checked in on their way to their combat air patrol (CAP) point to the east of us. As part of standard operating procedures, our surveillance section was busy scanning the entire coverage area of our radar which can be out to hundreds of miles. Within that coverage was part of the Russian coast off to our west. Shortly after our arrival, our surveillance technicians pointed out a blip that had originated from the Russian interior and was on a fast beeline toward us. In the bad old days of the Cold War, the USSR and other countries had spent considerable time and effort in devising tactics to take out an AWACS. They knew that the ‘big picture’ we provided to both tactical aircraft and air battle commanders was a huge advantage that the Soviets couldn’t match. If they couldn’t have the advantage, they didn’t want us to have it either and were willing to sacrifice many fighters if need be to deny us that advantage. As part of our training, AWACS and fighter crews had studied the fast flyer tactics and had developed countermeasures which for the E-3 consisted mainly of bravely running away while calling for help. In this situation, the unknown ‘bogey’ was still screaming towards us so we decided to move and see if it was a coincidence that the blip was aimed towards us. We moved, it moved with us. It wasn’t a coincidence. We had just about determined to abort the sortie when we came up with the idea to scare the bogey. Due to the geometry of the developing intercept, we figured the probable Russian aircraft didn’t know about the Eagles to our east so I radioed the F-15 flight lead to “go secure.” Moving to a scrambled frequency, I told the flight lead of our predicament and my intent to place his four ship between us and the rapidly approaching intruder. “You want what?” was the incredulous response. The F-15s expecting a training sortie were carrying no armament. An Eagle without weapons is akin to a supersonic Lamborghini. Neat to look at, but what do you do with it? Nevertheless, I figured the approaching Russian wouldn’t know that the Eagles were declawed and faced with a wall of the best fighters in the world, he might decide that his mission of gathering intelligence on the E-3 wasn’t worth the confrontation. The F-15s pushed up their throttles and hustled to place themselves between the E-3 and the adversary. Using their powerful APG-63 radars, they asked the electronic equivalent of the famous Dirty Harry movie line of “Are you feeling lucky, punk?” I’m sure any Russian crewmembers on that aircraft that had any coffee sitting on their crew stations spilled it on their laps due to the rapid turn and equally rapid egress from the area. For us, we went back on station and finished our part in the exercise but from then on and for the rest of our time in Japan, it was always with one eye peeled. You never knew when the bear might stir again.

Nonsensical component was high, but the readability was low due to no capitalization at all. On the Bender scale this is a 'fail.' However, to your point: Unfortunately, you aren't saying anything new or unique. Our predecessors going back to the early 1800s said the same thing about their leadership and lack thereof. Our own Air Force has been plagued by it since before we were a separate service. Arnold would not have become chief if his predecessor hadn't made a fabric and aluminum mess on a hill someplace (Andrews? can't remember). Arnold also had a big drinking problem and was a racist. Not defaming him, this behavior was the norm then. It's all about the context. However, the crew dogs who made up the legend of 8th, 5th, 20th, 9th AFs, et al, complained about the queep of the Army Air Forces - while engaged in combat, in a forward base. Some of the stupidity foisted on those guys makes the 'Dumbness at the Deid' thread look like nothing. Want to make it better? Pick your battles. If you are against everything, you need to figure out why. Maybe it all needs to be changed, but in your span of control, can you do that? Probably not. From that basis, what can you change and why? Change just for the sake of it is just as bogus as not changing something stupid. Having picked your battles, do you have an appropriate approach? Remember, there is a chain of command backed up by the UCMJ and a large beaucratic (sp?) inertia. That combination has a lot more firepower, energy, and frankly, patience than you probably do. Still game? Ok, what do you want to change locally? Why? What is your solution to fixing it? If you don't have one to recommend, then why should the boss listen to a whiner? Moving up the rank ladder, you may gain more span of control. Conversely, the time you have to do the things you want decreases. So, again, you have to prioritize. What can you do that will make it better for those under you? If you are stupid about it or concentrate on that to the exclusion of the mission, you probably will be relieved of your command. But, there are things worth that. I don't think most of those who make it to flag rank are tools. I think they were just like you, me, and most of the rest of us here - they want to get the job done with a minimum of asspain. Some of those at that level are tools - see the 'he who shall not be named' thread for an example. By the way, think it's really different in the civilian corporate world? Maybe if you found google or Microsoft. But if you are an employee for a large organization, I'd submit it's worse. Many more ways for f*ck-ups to stay on the payroll and/or in the way than in the military. If that weren't true, why are there so many books on leadership and management? Why is "The Office" such a smash? So, good on ya for seeing the issues at a junior rank. Ponder how to fix what you can - with or without the liquid assistance. Lather, rinse, repeat for your entire career.

May it please the court, I am forced to ask when this 'person' could have logged combat time? He didn't graduate UPT until 1973 and was sent to T-41s (question, is that indicative of anything?). I'm guessing a FNG out of training doesn't get a say in his first assignment once it's made or his class ranking is final. So he didn't (couldn't) get into Vietnam as it was winding down by then - RTU to ops to combat probably would have taken too long before the end in '75. The only other 'war' during his career that would have involved his type jet flown at the time of conflict was Desert Storm when he was assigned to the Pentagon just as the shooting part kicked off. Members of the jury, I am not defending this 'thing,' but is this one charge that can be untrue? However, the evidence is overwhelming of him not being human. ------------------------------------------------Separate but related thread drift---------------------------------------------------- The question was asked early on "How do guys like this get promoted?" Early on, he seemed to specialize in exec/special assistant. Worked that all the way to wing command. Ok, sucks, but that's the game. Now, my question is, how/why did the GO's club let him in after he made O-6? What and when is the 'nod' given or earned? For examply, CH said of the recently deceased 3WG/CC that he acted a like a good dude even though he knew he'd be a GO. Ok, being the exec for the 'man' is traditionally one usually surefire way to get there , but to get that gig, he couldn't have been a slouch. So, when along the way is talent really either noticed or steered? Or conversely, when is douch-i-ness noticed/rewarded like in 'it's' case? Knowing the rules of the game is always useful, I think.

It wasn't quite the "I'd be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle, anytime, anywhere' Patton-esque speech, but it wasn't bad. Have a CC's call and say the same thing. This is exactly what needs to be said and would be surprisingly well-received, I bet.

I bet the guy's been promoted at least twice since?

YHGTBFSM! There is nothing scarier than an O-6 trying to make O-7. I wonder if anyone would set up a hotmail/gmail/yahoo account anonymously and send a copy of this to Maj Gen Scott. Or the Air Force Times. I'm just askin'.......

Nope, it's where they film "Ice Road Truckers" and they don't GOVs ruining their shots.... sorry.......... BTW, how the F*CK is that history and shown on the History Channel? Sorry again, complete thread derailment.