ClearedHot

I swear on the Sky trident of all the SEALs of the Sky out there, I never once saw a naked gunner hug in the Gunships community. I did have a Pavelow gunner attempt such a maneuver on several folks on my crew while deployed to Osan (back in the days when the Pavelows were still stationed there). I also saw a group of Pavelow Gunner try said maneuver on Spectre Island, right after the chugged beers from Johnny A's prosthetic leg.

I never said China... They are being cagey (on purpose), when the Pentagon gave their brief it sounded like he slipped up a few times and called it an aircraft. Latest reports say they were tracking it for 24 hours. Could be either, hope we find out soon.

Just breaking, we just shot down another "object" over the U.S. Update - "Car sized object over or near Alaska." Another F-22 Aim-9X kill. Raptor boyz racking up the kills...what is the Brevity Code for Balloon ace? Sounds like this was a UAS...that changes the game a bit.

Naked gunner hugs are an invention and tradition in the Pavelow community.

Our 1st amendment is under attack from many directions, I hope you are paying attention. NewsNation reporter arrested during a news conference after Ohio law enforcement told him to stop his live broadcast

Our attitude will change when the Chinese pull up with a big boat full of supplies, money and construction equipment.

Full audio of the shootdown if anyone cares.

Which makes me wonder, do the SEALs of the sky have their own special BUDS class?

Seriously? You are hanging your hat on Seymour Hersh? Really? I am kind of without words. He may be famous for uncovering the 1968 My Lai massacre and the mid-2000s Abu Ghraib but he has more conspiracy theories than the flat earth society. Among his claims: 1. "Bin Laden was a “prisoner” of the Pakistani intelligence service in his Abbottabad compound since 2006; the United States learned of Bin Laden’s whereabouts through a former Pakistani intelligence officer; Saudi Arabia was “financing Bin Laden’s upkeep”; and Pakistan’s military helped Washington plan the raid." 2. "Top leaders of the Pentagon deliberately subverted American policy toward Syria, sabotaging US efforts to aid Syrian rebels and even sending US intelligence to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad." And my personal favorite: 3. In January 2011 he spoke at Georgetown University’s branch campus in Qatar, where he gave a bizarre and rambling address alleging that top military and special forces leaders are "all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.… many of them are members of Opus Dei."

Meh... it could be worse. Check 1:25 on the one below.

Ever been to Verdun? Mass artillery is horrific and what happened at Verdun is sickening. The sole purpose of the battle was not to take territory, rather it was to "bleed them white", a horrific battle of attrition meant to consume human life. It will take your breath away, I wept. This building is the memorial and it frames the cemetery. The center is meant to represent an artillery shell. You can see the people in the center for scale...now the sickening part. As you go around to the back it becomes obvious the memorial is built into the hill and it has a large basement that runs the length of the building. Every time it rains they find more bones and skulls from WWI. They collect the bones and deposit them in the basement. There are windows you can look in and see the bones and skulls stacked 20' high. The enormity of loss overwhelmed me. Over 100 year ago and the earth is still scarred from millions of artillery shells.

Reports this afternoon saying we flew the U-2 alongside the Balloon last week. Huggy, ever done anything like that...onboard sensors or handheld camera (if you can say).

The model on the pointy nose side for MANY years has been to build "most" of the initial cadre from Patch Wearers, it makes sense for a lot of reasons especially as you move into OT. These days in an effort to run faster we run DT and OT at the same time, often while still settling on the final design. That being said if you are thinking of pursuing WIC just as a path to the B-21, don't! I was not the best Patch in the world but I was very good at finding (and eliminating), careerists who wanted WIC for the wrong reason. The Weapons School is far from perfect but it is one of the last vestiges of trying to do the right thing with regard to airpower and our Air Force. If you want WIC so you can teach, lead and mentor...SHIT HOT, go for it. The rest will take care of itself.

There I was, I shot a lot of people, I came home...repeat 69 times. Happy?

Recreation with actual comms from the shootdown. Frank Luke did it....16 times.

I saw the T-Birds in the Phabulous Phantom when I was a kid...Phucking Amazing. Both teams were superb in the F-4.

Because of the gun door limitation? I would have wanted to capture and exploit as much of the payload as possible and hit only the balloon, not that a fall from 60K was going to protect the payload but 20 pounds of WDU-17/B warnugget slinging 200 titanium rods probably made a mess of things. Stand by for Block 45 ultra high alt mod.