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

here's a toast

We lost a great man...

General Olds, rated a triple ace for having shot down a total of 16 enemy aircraft during World War II and the Vietnam War, served his country in assignments to England, Germany, Libya, Thailand and the United States, in positions of squadron, base, group and wing commander, and assignments to Headquarters U.S. Air Force and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"Triple-ace Robin Olds' legendary leadership and heroic service to the cause of freedom have been an inspiration to our nation and our Air Force," said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. "He is one of our 'great captains' and a pioneer of air power.
***
Throughout his career, he was a staunch advocate for better fighters, better pilot training and new tactics, culminating in the war-winning air-to-air tactics and doctrine of surgical precision bombing we use today. Brigadier General Olds' courageous life stands as a timeless example of the power of faith and the strength of the human spirit.

Source

Second rounds on me. H/T Lex

And as we fly among them there we're sure to hear their plea,
"Take care my friend, watch your six, and do one more roll for me."

best aviation books

So I got such great response from the best aviation movies post I thought I would try my own personal poll on the best book on aviation. This was tough, plus you cannot really include biographies and narratives in with the technical stuff. And then most of the technical information military pilots read is not for public dissemination. I also have not read any fiction associated with flying, so I'm hoping some of you can enlighted me in that area to broaden my horizons. I've just been into the real stuff since college. Here's my top choices, and they are all over the place, so be gentle.

1. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram
2. Into the Mouth of the Cat by Malcolm McConnell
3. The Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose
4. The Few by Alex Kershaw
5.Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering by Robert L. Shaw

Please share your own favorite written works, no matter the genre.

a bird? a plane? snoopy?

My mom was too excited when I posted about wanting a leather skull cap, goggles and a white scarf, because she actually got one for my birthday! It will definatly come in handy...

angels pilot update

Updates below

Story with an interview of a guy who had a close call with the jet. It also includes reaction from a teammate "'Our squadron and the entire U.S. Navy are grieving the loss of a great American, a great Naval officer and a great friend,' [Lt. Cmdr. Anthony] Walley said."


Fox identifies the pilot:
The Navy identified the pilot Sunday afternoon as Lt. Cmdr. Kevin J. Davis, 32, of Pittsfield, Mass.

And gets some of the flying part wrong:

The Blue Angels fly F/A-18 Hornets at high speeds in close formations, and are considered the Navy's elite. They don't wear the traditional G-suits that most jet pilots use to avoid blacking out during maneuvers. The suits inflate around the lower body to keep blood in the brain, but they could cause a pilot to bump the control stick — a potentially deadly move when flying inches from other planes.

Instead, Blue Angels manage G-forces by tensing their abdominal muscles.

Emphasis mine. Sorry guys, we all tense our muscles, even the ones who wear fast pants. And we don't just tense our abs. For those of you who do not know the specifics, pilots who pull many G's have to tense their whole lower body to keep the blood flowing to the brain and eyes. Otherwise the pilot can lose vision, known as "greying out," or totally black out and lose conciousness as gravity pulls the blood to the lower extremities. Of course that would not be a good thing. A G suit helps with G straining (tensing of the muscles) by providing something for the pilot to strain against. Generally, a G-suit will add one G to a pilot's tolerance. So if I can pull 4G's in a relaxed state (that's four times my body weight pressing down on me), and I can pull 7.5Gs just straining my legs, butt and abs, then a G suit will help me get to 8.5G's or better.

From what we are hearing, the whole formation was low to the ground. If they were rejoining, and LCDR Davis was above, it might be hard to see closure and depth with the ground. My old man concurs. Also, if LCDR Davis knew there were homes nearby, he might have been trying to avoid them. I wish there was a pilot's eyewitness story to be found, but I'm sure the Navy is keeping them all under raps for accident and safety investigations, as they should.

The Delta triangle, what the team was setting up for:


Blue Angles website
The team

If anyone has anything to add or correct, please let me know. Again, please keep the Davis family in your prayers.

As Blue Angels spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Garrett D. Kasper said, "We will rebuild." Blue skies brothers.

Update:
An Old War Dog is keeping an ear out over at Bill's Bites

The pilot's family may have been present at the show.

cool fighter chicks

I missed this post over at the American Thinker last August. It highlights the Chick Fighter Pilot Association, with a little hero worship to boot.

A confession: I am in awe of fighter pilots. I was never physically qualified to join the Army, much less posessed of the physical and mental abilities necessary to be a fighter pilot. But that has never stopped me from fantasies of dogfighting in a WW II Mustang or an F 16. Nor has it crippled me with envy for those who serve our country at the outer limits of the junction of technology and human capabilities.

But now I am in danger of becoming a complete groupie. A new organization of female American fighter pilots has been formed, the Chick Fighter Pilot Association (CFPA). They even have a website. And the website has pages of photos.

And The Thunder Run has an article on Maj. Kim "KC" Campbell. I got to meet KC (not just her initials, also stands for "Killer Chick") a few years ago when she honor the US Air Force Academy with her presence. She was calm and collected as she told us the story about how she lost part of her wing and tail over Baghdad, barely making it back to a friendly base. Let me just say I was in awe myself. She was recently decorated for her bravery:

On April 7, 2003, then-Capt. Campbell and her flight lead responded to a call for air support in downtown Baghdad, where an elite unit of the Iraqi Republican Guard had U.S. forces pinned against the Tigris River. Campbell and her wingman faced bad weather before they dove out of the sky and devastated the enemy with rockets and the Warthog’s feared 30mm Gatling gun. After successfully hitting their targets, the pilots turned back toward base – and that’s when Campbell’s jet was rocked by a large explosion, and immediately began pulling to the left and toward the ground. With numerous caution lights flashing, the one that worried Campbell the most was the hydraulic lights. A quick check confirmed her suspicions: Her hydraulic system had been fried. She would later discover that one of her engines was badly damaged and the fuselage was riddled with hundreds of bullet holes.

Campbell quickly switched to manual inversion, allowing her to fly her Warthog under mechanical control. She then had a decision: try to fly 300 miles back to base, or parachute into hostile territory. This was dicey terrain, so she decided she had to make the flight. Despite the heavily damaged aircraft and terrible weather – including massive dust storms – “Killer Chick” persevered. With the help of a seasoned pilot on her wing, Campbell landed safely back at base – fully prepared to take to the skies again and unleash the Warthog, as well as her moniker, on any opposing forces.

For her actions and bravery, Campbell was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism.

CENTCOM article here. Have you made it when there's a Wikipedia article on you? Congrats KC!

More links:
KC makes the "History of the Air Force"
KC tells her story
Article from Combat Edge
Smithsonian article, including photos of the damage to KC's jet
Speech by Gen Richard B. Meyers, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs, at USAFA, he mentions KC near the end (I was there!)

hehe

This is good. Trust me.

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.

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.

eulogy of a fighter pilot

I was reminded of the Great Santini when a guy in my squadron sent this out earlier this week. This my not have been my experience as the child of a fighter pilot, but I can relate to the the way his children idolized their father. This is Col Don Conroy's eulogy, given by his son, Pay Conroy. Full text here, or you can just google "Eulogy of a fighter pilot" for more. This is a great memory of a great man, enjoy.

The children of fighter pilots tell different stories than other kids do. None of our fathers can write a will or sell a life insurance policy or fill out a prescription or administer a flue shot or explain what a poet meant. We tell of fathers who land on aircraft carriers at pitch-black night with the wind howling out of the China Sea. Our fathers wiped out aircraft batteries in the Philippines and set Japanese soldiers on fire when they made the mistake of trying to overwhelm our troops on the ground..

Your Dads ran the barber shops and worked at the post office and delivered the packages on time and sold the cars, while our Dads were blowing up fuel depots near Seoul, were providing extraordinarily courageous close air support to the beleaguered Marines at the Chosin Reservoir, and who once turned the Naktong River red with blood of a retreating North Korean battalion. We tell of men who made widows of the wives of our nations' enemies and who made orphans out of all their children.

You don't like war or violence? Or napalm? Or rockets? Or cannons or death rained down from the sky? Then let's talk about your fathers, not ours. When we talk about the aviators who raised us and the Marines who loved us, we can look you in the eye and say "you would not like to have been American's enemies when our fathers passed overhead". We were raised by the men who made the United States of America the safest country on earth in the bloodiest century in all recorded history. Our fathers made sacred those strange, singing names of battlefields across the Pacific: Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh and a thousand more. We grew up attending the funerals of Marines slain in these battles. Your fathers made communities like Beaufort decent and prosperous and functional; our fathers made the world safe for democracy.
***
Here is how my father appeared to me as a boy. He came from a race of giants and demi-gods from a mythical land known as Chicago. He married the most beautiful girl ever to come crawling out of the poor and lowborn south, and there were times when I thought we were being raised by Zeus and Athena. After Happy Hour my father would drive his car home at a hundred miles an hour to see his wife and seven children. He would get out of his car, a strapping flight jacketed matinee idol, and walk toward his house, his knuckles dragging along the ground, his shoes stepping on and killing small animals in his slouching amble toward the home place.

My sister, Carol, stationed at the door, would call out, "Godzilla's home!" and we seven children would scamper toward the door to watch his entry. The door would be flung open and the strongest Marine aviator on earth would shout, "Stand by for a fighter pilot!" He would then line his seven kids up against the wall and say,

"Who's the greatest of them all?" "You are, O Great Santini, you are." "Who knows all, sees all, and hears all?" "You do, O Great Santini, you do."

We were not in the middle of a normal childhood, yet none of us were sure since it was the only childhood we would ever have. For all we knew other men were coming home and shouting to their families, "Stand by for a pharmacist," or "Stand by for a chiropractor".
***
When he flew back toward the carrier that day, he received a call from an Army Colonel on the ground who had witnessed the route of the North Koreans across the river. "Could you go pass over the troops fifty miles south of here? They've been catching hell for a week or more. It'd do them good to know you flyboys are around." He flew those fifty miles and came over a mountain and saw a thousand troops lumbered down in foxholes. He and Bill Lundin went in low so these troops could read the insignias and know the American aviators had entered the fray. My father said, "Thousands of guys came screaming out of their foxholes, son. It sounded like a world series game. I got goose pimples in the cockpit. Get goose pimples telling it forty-eight years later. I dipped my wings, waved to the guys. The roar they let out. I hear it now. I hear it now."

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, my mother took me out to the air station where we watched Dad's squadron scramble on the runway on their bases at Roosevelt Road and Guantanamo. In the car as we watched the A-4's take off, my mother began to say the rosary. "You praying for Dad and his men, Mom?" I asked her. "No, son. I'm praying for the repose of the souls of the Cuban pilots they're going to kill."

Later I would ask my father what his squadron's mission was during the Missile Crisis. "To clear the air of MIGS over Cuba," he said. "You think you could've done it?" The Great Santini answered, "There wouldn't have been a bluebird flying over that island, son."

centrifuge

It was about time I got around to posting my first 'fuge video. No sound unfortunately, but I think its pretty funny. For those of you that do not know, every Air Force fighter pilot goes to the centrifuge to test their ability to pull G's. What aircraft you will fly determines the amount of G's you are tested with. Before I flew the T-38, my classmates and I were tested. You can see the amount of G's in the upper left corner.

moral of the story

From my mother...

A teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories.

"Johnny, do you have a story to share?"

"Yes ma'am. My daddy told a story about my Aunt Sheila. She was a Pilot in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whisky, a pistol and a survival knife. She drank the whisky on the way down so it wouldn't break and then her parachute landed right in the middle of twenty enemy troops. She shot fifteen of them with the gun until she ran out of bullets, killed four more with the knife, till the blade broke and then she killed the last Iraqi with her bare hands."

"Good Heavens" said the horrified teacher. "What kind of moral did your daddy tell you from this horrible story?"

"Stay the Hell away from Aunt Sheila when she's been drinking."

sunday night humor

My grandfather would appreciate this, and I can post it because I only dye my hair brown. Hattip CFPA.

A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get it started. Her boyfriend asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?" The blonde says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a tiger." Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says, "First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger." He takes her hand and says, "Second, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then ..." He sighed...Let's put all the Frosted Flakes back in the box."

gifts for pilots

Less than 30 shopping days until Christmas, so what to get for that pilot in your life? Here are some ideas for those of you in need:

Practical:

• Anyone just learning to fly could always just use the cash. Flying is an expensive proposition.
• The professional pilot is always in need of some nice threads to help him look good in that corporate or airline world.
• A good pilot always has to have an accurate time hack.
• Not the biggest Tom Cruise fan, but a pilot's got to look good.
• I'm no bomber pilot, but I like their way to stay warm.
  

Fun

• Make sure everyone knows you are a pilot.
• Something for the future pilot.
• For future pilots who like pink.
• My favorite t-shirt. This one is pretty good too.
• For the pilot who likes to play games. For the AF pilot who likes to play games.
  
• Chuckle with your cup of joe in the morning.
• Christmas cards for your pilot.
  

Reading material, my favorites

• The Few by Alex Kershaw (my own review coming soon!)
  
• Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot by Starr Smith
• Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram
• Flyboys by James Bradley
• The Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose
• Fighter Combat by Robert Shaw (More technical)

Anyone else have any good ideas?