bfargin

I just finished Roger Ball about Navy Captain "Hawke" Smith's career. It will piss you off as you see the Navy does like the AF and promote self serving numbnuts, while they screw over the leaders/commanders who take responsibility, protect their people and actually lead from the front. Hawke started as a RIO in F-4s and after one cruise went back to pilot training and then flew F-4s, A-4s, F-5s, F-14s and who knows what else during his career. He ended up only getting to fly 1 combat sortie during VietNam and then went from there to serve as Top Gun's commander. He helped mold fighter tactics to prepare Navy and Marine air crews for actual close in dissimilar air combat. Deals with the average Navy pilots attitude that since their new fighter was so technologically superior to other stuff out there that ACM wasn't that crucial. It deals with his whole life from personal stuff, family etc, to his dreams of making a difference in the lives of his people. A good read and some interesting stuff on the F-14 acquisition program (he was a part of that program for 3 years+). The end of the book kind of left me hanging since it just ends as he is about to take command of a new squadron after leaving Top Gun. I ended up googling him to find out some more information about him just to appease my curiosity.

When I saw your 'call out" post I was actually hoping that you knew Hacker and were yankin his chain. I guess I was wrong.

Sad thing is we are headed that way as well. Give us a few years at our current pace and we won't have any money for defense (or defence) either.

Now that, was very well played. Kudos to AF Blues

You're pretty much seeing the effects of no religion in parts of this world. We'd just keep using other distinctions like we regrettably have always done, skin color, economic status, caste, round eyes or slant eyes, long nose or flat nose, ... I grew up in Pakistan (3 years) and then Taiwan (10 years) and you'd better believe there are plenty of other factors besides religion that we humans can come up with to discriminate and hate over.

It get messy trying to define combatants, terrorists, legitimate targets, etc when you can't identify your enemy (the guys trying to kill you). We're fighting ideology and not a country. In this case, kind of like the crazy kamikaze pilots of WWII, the concept of killing oneself to take out a target, is foreign to us (even after 100s of years of Islamic knuckleheads doing stunts like this). Most of us, in war, would rather kill the enemy and live so that we can come back another day and kill more enemy.

I'd say they were all non-combatants in this setting and situation. No war going on here in TX and all parties involved were supposed to be on the same side. And, everyone was unarmed due to ridiculous rules about guns on base. On a military base might be the easiest place to kill somebody and get minimal resistance (way from the front gate or any entry point of course).

I've looked here on baseops and on google but can't seem to find exactly what DD means the way it is used here on the forum. I've been out a few years but can't recall it being used back in the day??!! I'm sure it will be obvious when you tell me, but somebody please do so.

M2 or anybody who might know. Have you shot or played with any EAA guns?? My most recent copy of American Rifleman had an ad in there from/for them. I like the idea of a 9mm that can be converted to a 22 for plinking around. I built a 50 foot indoor range onto the back of my house and want to limit indoor shooting to 22 cal for noise and safety concerns. Any thoughts on that type gun (convertible between 9mm and 22 cal)?? And any experience with the EAA line of guns?? I searched the forum for EAA guns with no hits, but seem to remember there might have been previous discussions on conversion kits. Thanks in advance.

Nice!!

I like it, the sooner the better.

Wow, can't believe I'm agreeing with a post of yours... that's how it was way back when I was in. Old guys stayed put until they rotated out, new guys filled into rooms (once they were vacated by guys going home) from a tent city area.

Dude, that is classic and I can confirm bits and pieces of this story first hand as I was at Kadena while the F-15 driver was being discharged. I was a just commissioned 2LT waiting for UPT to start and went to visit the SQs DO (family friend). He didn't tell me everything, but did relay bits and pieces of what was going on but never told me names and such. The F-15s caught a lot of grief over that for a few years. The story of course made it all around TAC. While I was in UPT at Willie on a couple of short out and backs over to Luke I was told that the F-16 drivers could and would close down the engine nozel when they taxied in front of any F-15. One of my IPs was a former F-16 pilot, so he might have been blowing smoke but he said it was just a reminder to them that everyone knew "all F-15 drivers were light in the loafers". All in good fun I'm sure (no competition between airframes).

CH, Good one. Your predator topic was one we discussed (thanks to the discussions here). But, when it is just data being captured it's not as sophisticated a link required. A back up could still be on the aircraft, but then searching for lost black boxes at the bottom of the ocean wouldn't be required in the event of an accident or sabotage. Longer capture times could be obtained and recorded (kept).

I had a student bring up an interesting topic the other day in my graduate level MIS class. We were discussing technology in aviation ( I try to combine my current job of teaching technology and my true love - aviation, when possible) when he asked me why with the advances in technology the black box hadn't been moved and located on the ground (on a server type system) instead of in the aircraft. The technology exists for each aircraft to have a private network connection using satellite or even ground based stations located around the world. All aircraft systems output could be broadcast, voice communication could be captured (internal and external), even passenger cabin voice could be captured. Data storage equipment is becoming cheaper every day and wireless technology is getting cheaper and more capable each day. Any thoughts on how long before or if this will ever happen?? Because of having to broadcast (encrypted if need be) the internal voice recordings from the cockpit, would pilot's groups/unions be opposed to this? Would it be seen as constant "monitoring" by the company since all communications would be recorded and could be monitored at any time with this type of arrangement? Would the initial expense be too great for this to be viable? Thoughts are welcome?!!?

One of the all time great ones!!!

Couldn't find this yet...pretty sad really that some have no more respect than this for you guys that serve and risk it all. https://www.kplr11.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=b5f41dee-1451-409d-a603-7aebd41e2c15&src=front

Exactly. Of course this is from an old crewdog that isn't in the fight anymore...but I think the main issue is the pussification/homoization of the Air Force. I mean come on when a 4 star has to apologize to us for making a joke about how good we have it as flyboys and somebody gets a chaffed crotch and cries. Our senior leadership is completely unsat any way you look at it. Grow some nads and put a stop to all of this crap and be the Air Force.

M2, I don't know anything about him except what I read here and other places...but he has my vote on that issue!!

I searched and didn't find this one...obviously if it has been previously posted somebody will let me know. Enjoy.

I take it, that the magazine is a joke???!! Right??! I couldn't tell for sure and didn't want to spend too much time reading it.

So, should we go in now and stop them??

I knew better than to ask.

Alright guys I'm old and I guess clueless...what is offensive or "shocking" about the Columbus patch. I'm not seeing anything, please enlighten an old guy.

I think I remember that in a book written by Ed Rasimus..."When Thunder Rolled".