...because, as you say and as I've experienced, many Airwing Officers just have very little in the way of common sense. Some book smart people, yes, but would do some of the most unthinking things to an aircraft (i.e. wet-start) and wonder why we maintenance poges would get pissed. And another thing that worked against them was their ego, which was, to a point, needed to allow them to their jobs, but they do tend to think that they are infallible about everything. The officers that I truly respected as a person were usually BOOST officers or the rare ones that had the confidence offset with a large amount of common sense.

I figured he was, Pedinska, but figured I'd ask. I still wish there was html coding for sarcasm/ stinger tweaking!

I still wish there was html coding for sarcasm/ stinger tweaking!

;-}

Not to dis those that believe some Beings should be capitalized, but those are often the ones in the services, with increasing influence, and with Hell's Black water in their veins, who tend to Believe in the Big vision of our wars. Sadly, having nothing to do with what was Beseeched. For those, one impishly wishes the Bit were true. Perhaps But for one's own Blame. Damn, again!

Curious, did you find a diff btw fighter and strike?

Pedinska confesses: "I wink a lot... ;-} " in reply to:

"I still wish there was html coding for sarcasm/ stinger tweaking!"

Hmm. Sometimes I just drink a lot . . .

doesn't help much with the spelling / syntax / logic, but hell, whatever gets you through that dark night. And the sad thing is that folks like HornetGuy (whether he's what he says he is or not, it's still sad) and Dubya don't miss a wink. Something about conscience, or what separates us from the insects . . .

Modern jet jockeys have it rough. Feel sorry for the helicopter crews. They actually get shot at. Alot. Almost as much as the groundpounders.

We had a "Strike pilots are more grounded" that we would use in the support squadron that I was in. Bad pun, but it usually held true. But they were also Harrier pilots, so I had doubts about their sanity.

Please insert the word "saying" in my last post where it would make the most sense. Dang it...

LOL. Wasn't McCain a stike pilot? What did he fly, you know? My Dad flew A-4s.

Guys, I can't for the life of me understand why you believe HornetDriver is who he says he is. I'm with Kitt, he probably is driving his mom's Dodge Hornet. But I seriously doubt he's in Iraq.

I mean, first, someone actually living in Iraq isn't bound to make a typo and confuse it with Iran, is he? How often do North Dakodans get their state mixed up with South Dakoda?

Plus, check it out: He claims he's "hitting the rack" at 7:57pm Pacific Time.

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/11/mccain/permalink/ec470c1e5d57c6d41d98ae396c532ca0.html

Do you know what time that is in Iraq? 5:57am. This here soldier types away at the internets all night, "hits the rack" at dawn, rolls out of his fart sack at gawd knows what time, and begins it all over again. That about right, Hornie?

Sorry, guys, Hornie is some sad soul wanking away in his old bedroom at his mom's house, to mimic some truly beautiful descriptions made above by totallyblasse and others.

One other thing, on a semi-serious note. It seemed people began to believe Hornie was in the military, simply because he's stupid. Did I just imagine that? If not, it's not really fair to military guys, many of whom are quite intelligent.

He flew a little, crashed a little.

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_mccain_lost_five_u.htm

Those suckers are heavy!

Than one of these guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8IB4FcvE_U

Bush pilots are carzy and they don't usually live as long as jet jockeys and no one is even shooting at them.

In Iraq, anyone can make a bomb

Improvised explosive devices don't require international conspiracies.

By Andrew Cockburn, ANDREW COCKBURN is the author of "Rumsfeld, His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy," published this month by Scribner.

February 16, 2007

PRESIDENT BUSH HAS now definitively stated that bombs known as explosively formed penetrators — EFPs, which have proved especially deadly for U.S. troops in Iraq — are made in Iran and exported to Iraq. But in November, U.S. troops raiding a Baghdad machine shop came across a pile of copper disks, 5 inches in diameter, stamped out as part of what was clearly an ongoing order. This ominous discovery, unreported until now, makes it clear that Iraqi insurgents have no need to rely on Iran as the source of EFPs.

The truth is that EFPs are simple to make for anyone who knows how to do it. Far from a sophisticated assembly operation that might require state supervision, all that is required is one of those disks, some high-powered explosive (which is easy to procure in Iraq) and a container, such as a piece of pipe. I asked a Pentagon analyst specializing in such devices how much each one would cost to make. "Twenty bucks," he answered after a brief calculation. "Thirty at most."

[...]

As of now, these weapons represent only a small fraction of the bombs used against U.S. forces. Last month, according to my Pentagon sources, out of 3,000 IEDs directed at occupation troops, only 2.5% were EFPs. But a further statistic explains why these particular weapons are so feared by soldiers encased in their armored vehicles: Despite the relatively tiny number deployed, since November they have accounted for fully 15% of U.S. bomb casualties, and that percentage is ticking up. Anyone pondering the implications of this trend need only look to the Israeli experience in Lebanon during the 1990s to see where it might end. "These bombs drove the Israelis out of Lebanon," a former Pentagon weapons-effects expert told me unequivocally.

[...]

Despite their known lethality, these weapons weren't taken into account by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's program of military "transformation." Indeed, Rumsfeld bequeathed the Army the Future Combat Systems, a $168-billion extravaganza of computers, sensors and robots deemed by its proponents so deadly to a foe that armor on U.S. military vehicles might be dispensed with altogether.

Once it became impossible to ignore the threat of all kinds of "home-made" bombs, and EFPs in particular, Rumsfeld responded in orthodox fashion by throwing money at the problem.

A "joint IED defeat" task force was created to address the issue, and last year it was granted $3.32 billion, but with little result. True, each Humvee patrolling Iraqi roads now carries two specially designed jammers, costing $100,000 apiece, that jam radio signals detonating roadside bombs. The other side has simply switched to wire detonators or infrared systems. One hundred towers spouting remote cameras, at $12 million each, watch main roads for bomb planters, with no improvement in attack and casualty statistics.

Rumsfeld's mentor, defense intellectual Andrew Marshall, marketed the phrase "revolution in military affairs" as a justification for high-tech programs such as Future Combat Systems. But those copper disks represent the real revolution in military affairs, and it is not in our favor.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-cockburn16feb16,0,6714688.story?coll=la-opinion-center