airshow!

I'll be at the Luke Days Airshow this weekend with my T-6. Come on out and enjoy the Thunderbirds, the USAFA Wings of Blue, the F-22 demonstration team and an A-10 demonstration team. Should be a good time. See you out there!

scary....

Neptunus Lex highlights this article. Things in the Air Force are not looking that great as it is...

The word within the U.S. Department of Defense
is that the White House wants to collect six to eight "scalps" -- major program kills -- in this year's Quadrennial Defense Review.

Some of the cuts already are being considered as Defense Secretary
Robert Gates rewrites the 2010 budget. You can expect to hear a lot of rumors about which programs are being targeted between now and when the Pentagon releases details of its budget request in April. But while most of the military services are scrambling to protect programs, at least one is getting ready to offer up a signature weapons system. The U.S. Navy will propose removal of one aircraft carrier and air wing from its posture, dropping the number of carriers to the lowest number since 1942.

I wonder what it is the Air Force will have to give up? A friend thinks the F-35 is already too far along to stop production, which is good news. But aircraft are big ticket items. I can imagine the numbers of requested F-35's will most likely shrink.

What really scares me is what will happen to existing weapons systems. First there were problems with the F-15C, then it was the F-16s, followed by the A-10, and now the mighty C-130. What's next?

The United States has enjoyed air superiority since for the most part since WWII. If the current administration allows numbers in aircraft and personnel to dwindle even more, who can guarantee that we will continue to control the skies?

Go here for the state of aircraft around the Air Force, put together the president of the AF Association.

My colleagues and I joke about buying our own office supplies and toilet paper in the next fiscal year, but what will our Air Force look and act like with an aging fleet and pilots flying less training hours due to budget cutbacks? In my opinion, not good.

need a job?

The Air Force is looking apparently. Like this should be a surprise. This was on the Air Force Times website. This will probably be the first and only time I actually visit it.

Retirees, reservists to be tapped for empty jobs

By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 21, 2009 18:41:39 EST

The Air Force is turning to retirees and reservists to fill 1,600 empty flying and staff positions — a strategy that could eventually have 58-year-old lieutenant colonels flying alongside officers half their age.

If you are a retired rated officer or a rated officer on traditional reserve status, the Air Force wants you back on active-duty status to fly or serve in staff positions for up to four years.

For retired officers, the program is open to aviators who retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel or below and will not be older than 60 when their service starts.

For former rated officers O-5 and below who left before they were eligible to retire, the program is open to aviators on individual ready reserve status or serving as traditional members of the Reserve or Air National Guard.

Successful applicants are expected to pass the Air Force fitness test for their age group.

Application information should be posted later this week on the Air Force Personnel Center’s Web site.

While the article makes it seem like 58-year-olds are going to be flying fighters, the it is much more likely that they will get these retired or separated former-AF pilots to fly UAVs. They are still considered "flying" positions, and are one of the only jobs in the AF that is not properly manned. This will probably be good news for anyone eligible that has recently lost a job in the current stellar economy.

And I do not like the AF Times because the one time I actually spent money to buy it, the publication called the F-117 and the F-15 the "Fighting Falcon." Not exactly great fact-checking there...

must see

Yeah, I was a big Transformers fan when I was little. I saw it last night, and I can honestly say I was not disappointed. Good action, some comic relief, and freakin awesome effects when it comes to the Transformers themselves. Plus, lots of Air Force involvement. Its about darned time we got in a good movie! John over at OPFOR has a good assessment, and he even has the Air Force coverage on shooting last year at Holloman AFB:


And my current favorite band made the new theme song! Have a listen to Mute Math's version on their MySpace. They did a great job, and their style goes so well with the movie.

One thing that never does add up in movies though...One of my buddies made the observation that whenever there is some top secret agency that no one knows about, they are always portrayed as idiots or on some big power trip. If they are so power hungry and a few cards short of a deck, how in the world do they remain so top secret?

Anyway, see it... its worth the $8 or whatever you have to fork out for a movie these days.

robin olds interview

In with the AirVenture 2007 videos is a 30 minute interview with Robin Olds. It is a great piece of history, and it reminds me of talking to my grandfathers. A true hero, a man's man, and one bad ass fighter pilot.

Video here.

H/T Dennis Collins over at Hangarview

eye candy

No, sorry, not me in a bikini. But I do have some sweet video of the Raptor.

The Raptor is one bad jet, but I'm not gonna lie, I do not really want to fly something so new that I'm always worried about pushing the limits. And when you can shoot down any aircraft before you even show up on their radar screen, what's the fun in that?
H/T Jake Silver.

f-15 and f-16 mid-air

F-15 Fighter Jet Crashes After Mid-Air Collision With Another Military Jet in Alaska

Monday , June 11, 2007


ANCHORAGE, Alaska —
An F-15 fighter jet crashed Monday after colliding in mid-air with another military jet during a training exercise, Air Force officials said. The other jet landed safely, and one was seriously injured.

The pilot of the F-15C ejected safely and was taken a military hospital, said Airman Jennifer Anton, a spokeswoman at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks. The pilot did not have serious injuries, she said.

The pilot of the other jet, an F-16C that landed safely, was uninjured, she said.

It was not immediately clear why the two jets collided at 11:23 a.m. local time during a training exercise about 90 miles east of Fairbanks in Alaska's interior, Anton said. A board of Air Force officers will investigate.

The crash happened at the Pacific Alaska Range Complex, a 60,000-acre training ground.

The $27 million F-15C that crashed was from Langley Air Force Base, Va., and the F-16C was from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

The Alaska Air National Guard took the F-15C pilot to Bassett Army Hospital at Fort Wainwright, also near Fairbanks, said McHugh Pierre, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

The training exercise includes more than 1,400 military members from the U.S., Singapore and Australia. The simulated combat exercise is scheduled to run through June 15, according to Eielson's Web site.

Source Fox News.

I'm fairly certain that this happened during Cope Thunder. Correct me if I'm wrong boys...

A Pacific Air Forces-sponsored exercise initiated in 1976, Cope Thunder was devised as a way to give aircrews their first taste of warfare and quickly grew into PACAF’s "premier simulated combat airpower employment exercise." Prior to Operation Desert Storm, less than one-fifth of the U.S. Air Force’s primary fighter pilots had seen actual combat. While the percentage of combat-experienced pilots has increased in recent years, a high percentage of pilots haven’t been thrust into combat. Analysis indicates most combat losses occurrred during an aircrew’s first eight to 10 missions. Therefore, the goal of Cope Thunder is to provide each aircrew with these first vital missions, increasing their chances of survival in combat environments.
***
Cope Thunder is a realistic, 10-day air combat training exercise held up to four times a year. Each Cope Thunder exercise is a multi-service, multi-platform coordinated, combat operations exercise and corresponds to the designed operational capability of participating units. In other words, exercises often involve several units whose military mission may differ significantly from that of other participating units. Cope Thunder planners take those factors into consideration when designing exercises so participants get the maximum training possible without being placed at an unfair advantage during simulated combat scenarios.

We're glad you're safe brothers.... I might catch some flack for this, but we have a dangerous job, and fighter pilots have to push the limits. Sometimes pushing those limits means putting yourself in danger, even when you're not in that wartime situation, to make yourself a better pilot.

I'll keep everyone posted on developments.

newest af training

I know we're short on money, but this is ridiculous.

H/T to Pablo. Thanks bro!

cool video fo the day

Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Thanks Slushie!

friday fun

A bit of humor for your Friday. At least you know us zoomies can laugh at ourselves. All via eDodo, the underground e-zine for the US Air Force Academy.





Have a great weekend!

question of the night

John asks, "What has the Air Force done for us lately?" Ok, not quite in those words, but it is an interesting discussion. One that pushes a few buttons on all sides. Just remember boys, we're all on the same team.

All this military history swirling around my head got me thinking......

The Marines have Tripoli, Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, Chosin, Khe San, Fallujah...

The Army has Saratoga, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, Somme, Overlord...

The Navy has John Paul Jones' fight with the Seraphis, the dominance of Lakes Champlain and Eerie during 1812, Midway, the Japanese surrender on the Mighty Mo'...

But what about the US Air Force? (Best I could come up with is the air war over Kosovo and the air campaign prior to Desert Storm).

Check out the comments, and add some yourself.

UPDATE: Hey Cox & Forkum at thinking in that direction also. I think that's one video I'm definatly going to have to rent.

here here

From the Conservative Propaganda post Why the Air Force Memorial sucks.

The Air Force is culturally divided into two camps: The Blue Air Force and The Green Air Force. The Blue Air Force wears the blue uniform to work while the Green Air Force wears fatigues and flight suits. The Blues do essential tasks like stock the warehouses, maintain the motor pool, and push piles of paperwork around base. The Greens take wing in chariots of fire like sky gods. The Greens are shooters, the Blues shoe clerks. The Blues are preoccupied with trivia like stopping people from whizzing in the woods outside the Officer’s Club after Happy Hour and making sure your ribbons are in the right order on your official photo. The Greens are preoccupied with putting bombs on target.

There is a clash of cultures within the Air Force, where the Blues impose their spit-shined, regulation-happy, utopian culture on the Green’s realist, pragmatic, quick and dirty combat rules culture. The Air Force Memorial is a monument to the Blue Air Force. I’m surprised they don’t have a bronze statue of a clerk at his desk typing a form in triplicate. That’s what it’s all about for the Blues.

I propose an alternate Green Air Force Memorial be placed in the National Mall, hidden in the woods near the WWII Memorial, out of sight of the damned bureaucrats. It would be completely accessible to the public, night or day, just like the other memorials, not like the current Blue Air Force Memorial, which is wedged between the Pentagon and Fort Myer, unapproachable by civilian tourists except on special occasions. I’d like to see a big, bronze P-51 Mustang fighter, the prettiest plane ever made, with the pilot standing next to it, discussing the maintenance forms with his crew chief. A guy from life support is holding a parachute, another guy is fueling the aircraft, and the armorer is laying .50 calibre bullets into the wing guns. That would show the tip of the teamwork needed to launch a fighter.

What little kid gets excited about abstract art? How proud are veterans when they see it? This memorial does them ill. As Tantor points out, it falls far short of the other memorials in DC. We need something that embodies, as he says, those who "take wing in chariots of fire like sky gods." That gets me pumped, and proud.

Tantor's description is about as acurate as it gets when describing the AF. The comments are interesting also, especially those by the AF OSI agent. There are definaly a lot of hard working AF personnel out there, but I think most of them do not know the work anyone involved in flight operations puts day in, day out. I have met a few that did not know the aircraft that flew on their own base. I usually go home when I have to, when my mandatory crew rest starts, after a 12+ hour day. My day does not break for lunch, I do not get time during the work day to go to the gym. The non-fliers on base cannot say the same, and they wonder why pilots are angry when they show up somewhere that is closed for training in the middle of the day. By the same token, I get to fly for all my hard work. I'm not so sure I would be as dedicated if I had to deal with angry people all day who complained when my office was closed.

More from John at OPFOR. He agrees.

And that post, right there, effectively sums up why I love the Air Force just as much as I hate the Air Force. The blue Air Force is contrary to everything that I learned at VMI. At the Institute, it was adapt, overcome, think outside the box, find solutions, not excuses. Rules and regs are handy, but the mark of a true military man is his ability to quickly evaluate mission necessity vs. military regulation, make a command decision, and live up to the responsibility of that decision for better or worse. That's the stuff leaders are made of.

what is that?

I wanted to fly the F-35 after I get my chance at a Viper, but I'm not so sure about the get-up...

Lex has more dilemmas about the alien-like duds. As per the comments, chicks still love a man in uniform, just maybe not in the helmet.

canadian student ejects

The Canadians decided to buy a variant of the newest Air Force trainer, what I'm currently flying. They call it the Harvard II, we call it the T-6 Texan II. It has a great ejection seat, 0/0, which basically means the pilot(s) are able to eject at zero feet, zero knots. Let me tell you that's nice when you've only got one engine. Well, last week, a Canadian student ejected, and not on purpose.

Ejection shock for first-time student
The Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, April 05, 2007

MOOSE JAW, Sask. -- An instructor and a first-time student pilot at an air force base were slightly injured yesterday when an ejection seat on a Harvard II accidentally deployed during a training session while the plane was still on the ground.

A spokesman for the base said the two, who were not seriously hurt, were treated and released from hospital.

"The ejection occurred, [the] seat worked as advertised, parachute opened and the student landed on the ramp," said Lt. Paul Goddard, acting commander for 15 Wing Moose Jaw.

This is not the first time this has happened, and its a pretty big deal. The seats themselves cost about a million dollars apiece, and the whole rest of the aircraft costs about the same as the seats. I'm sure this guy is on the hot seat for screwing up something fairly basic, but then that's what students do best, right?

On a lighter note, she's a fun jet to fly, and she gets great gas milage. The Texan II can go about 800 miles on 160 gallons of good ol' jet-a. And let me tell you, its nice knowing you got that rocket under you.... so to speak.

remember

"Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear... mournful... lonesome... a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass overhead."

Last November, I posted about a downed F-16 pilot, here and here. My commander, a Viper pilot himself, mentioned Maj. Gilbert today in a commander's call, amid talks of deployments and awards, that we remember the bravery and sacrifice that we are called to. Lex, channeling Paul Harvey, has the rest of the story.

Gilbert, 34, of the Litchfield Park area, was trying to head off an attack by insurgents on ground troops and the crew of a downed Army helicopter 20 miles northwest of Baghdad…

Gilbert carried out one strafing run against the enemy vehicles, striking a truck with his 20mm Gatling gun before pulling out only 200 feet from the ground, said the head of the accident investigation board, Brig. Gen. David L. Goldfein.

Gilbert flew even lower on his second strafing run and was unable to pull up before he crashed, Goldfein said. Investigators concluded that he died instantly.

His actions helped save the lives of the helicopter crew and other coalition ground forces, Goldfein said.

Gilbert was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor.

He chose to attack at a very low altitude because he was concerned about making sure he was correctly identifying enemy vehicles trying to merge with civilian vehicles, Goldfein said. Gilbert attacked from a difficult angle because he apparently wanted to bring fire on the enemy vehicles quickly to protect the ground troops, who were in a very perilous situation.

And from Lex himself "Good people on the ground were taking hits, so Maj. Gilbert deliberately stepped outside of the box to help them. He saved some lives that day, but paid for it with his own. And though his remains have not yet been recovered, in a very real way he came back on his shield. Hand salute. Ready, two. Carry on."

Here's a toast brother. Godspeed.

so there i was

In my last flight in the Tweet. That's right folks, I will fly that screamer no longer. I'm off to fly the newest aircraft in the AF inventory. I can't wait for air conditioning that works and GPS!



Head over to Michelle Malkin's for some hopping stories by guest bloggers Smash, Greyhawk, Matt Burden of Blackfive, and John Noonan of OPFOR. They have posted some great stuff the last few days. Here's a little bit of support for his AF bros from Matt. He thinks the Air Force should change their PR campaign a bit for more funds.

the fray take on tweets

The band produced a video of their orientation ride with my squadron. Except for the Top Gun music in the background, this is a pretty good video. I'm not one for much mainstream music, and I'm the last person who would celebrity worship, but they are good dudes.

some af humor

Photos via eDodo.

And for the Zoomies out there....