Royal

31 at XL.

What a beast of an aircraft. Why is it that we are always in desperate need of an plane that has an "A" in front of it, but it gets put on the backburner because it isn't sexy enough? Our inventory should already be replete with something like the A-1 to supplement our A-10s. The higher, faster, farther, stealthier, expensive-er, maintenance-ier hypnotic mantra never ceases to sucker our leaders down the rabbit hole.

Looks like it's all back...allegedly. Pakistan has even promised not to sell remnants of the helicopter to China; what a great bunch of dudes. Link

There's an ally.

Did anyone catch the video that has the alleged interpretation of this dude's speech? "You are the hunters; you are the predators; Taliban is the prey. To Valhall!" Solid.

Enter: the honey badger In case it wasn't posted somewhere else: Pastor's story of being a former Navy Seal collapses when someone realizes his tale sounded really similar to "Under Siege" Link

Color me jealous. What do you have to say about the SCAR?

Unfortunately, that's what Boyd dealt every day of his career, even when he was enlisted in Japan. He put his job on the line every time he believed in something and relentlessly smashed all the paradigms in his way, but it always paid off for the rest of us. The fact that we preach "Integrity First" and then demonize the Col for being one of the truest embodiments of integrity to have ever graced the Air Force is lamentable. However, I think Boyd's been vindicated time and time again by the fact that he was able to accomplish such a great deal and that the words from his briefings still pulse through our nation's military on a regular basis. One of the best ways to honor his memory is to live by his words: "Ask for my loyalty and you'll get my honesty; ask for my honesty and you'll have my loyalty."

A little while ago a bunch of these units went up for auction. It kind of set the tone for what they could charge for rent. You'd have to check to see the current numbers to find if they've got any good deals, but if you're willing to commute 35 minutes, it'd be a nice place to settle down for a few years. Last time I drove by Bayshore Blvd they had quite a few houses up for rent/sale. Being close to the back entrance, sts, would make your drive into work about 5 minutes long. Not a bad deal. MacDill is definitely a nice base to be at. It also might give you a chance to network with the C-37 dudes, if that's something you're interested in.

Just saw Atlas Shrugged last night. It didn't have the most impressive acting I've ever witnessed, but the message was legit. If you like Ayn Rand, liberty, an industrious economy, and you value intellectual property rights, you'll probably enjoy the flick. If you love Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and John Maynard Keynes, then you probably won't be too happy with the movie.

I got a kick out of that too. My favorite part was the length of the report: That couldn't have worked out better.

My eyes were scorched with all that warrior ethos safely shining in every direction.

I want to be shocked by this. I really want to, but I've become accustomed to this sort of behavior. Here's the link if you want to see what the $600,000 fairy looks like.

Those must've been the days. I wonder what we would've gotten with the F-22/YF-23 and F-35 if we had a similar procurement program today.

Here's a nice, succinct summation of the history behind the creation of the A-10 and how it was directly spawned from Col Boyd and Pierre Sprey's involvement in the "military reform movement." Which, not so incidentally, is also why it's such a beast of an aircraft. Quoted from the Boyd biography Mind of War by Grant Hammond: Edit: grammar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ3OyE93ePw

Brit sailor goes crazy, kills one and wounds another on board a nuclear sub. Link

stoleit2x summed it up.

Cops light up an 8 year old...with pepper spray. The real WTF here is that they didn't shoot him

I just got back from spending a few hours there. They moved the C-17 and KC-135 out of Dodge. It looked like a lot of folks got their planes off the airfield before the storm came in. The Blue Angels' show was pretty good. Patty Wagstaff's flight was impressive too. However, the highlight was some dude flying a Beech 18. I'm not sure who it was, but he totally owned that plane: loops, rolls, the works at pretty low level. The DC-3 and A-1 definitely survived without a scratch, but one of the Bird Dogs wasn't so lucky.

That sucks. Did anyone hear anything about them staying open through the weekend? I was planning on stopping by tomorrow afternoon since the weather is supposed to clear up tonight. I'm guessing they'll probably need some volunteers to help clean up the mess.

I still can't rationalize that; all I could think about were the countless man hours, engineering, material production, and infrastructure planning that went into that area just to get wiped out in an instant. Insane.

Apparently the Iceman can outmaneuver a Mig-28, but he can't outmaneuver the IRS.

Thanks for all the help, gents. I'll boogie down to MCSS to see if they've got a poster up. Cruising over to the VFW and American Legion is a really good idea, too. I didn't know I'd be able to get a copy of his DD214; I'll see what comes up on the MRA website. Just through perusing the interweb, I figured out that two of the sets of wings he had were for Navs and Observers. Unfortunately, I couldn't find his pilot wings. He's also got a medal that looks pretty similar to an iron cross. I'm curious to find out what that is. Lastly, he's got a tiny medal that was given to folks that worked on the Manhattan Project; I think that was from his father-in-law. Pretty interesting stuff.