An Army article covering the commissioning of Clemson University ROTC graduates noted that their ceremony ended with a “Silver Dollar Salute ceremony”, encapsulating a tradition involving a young officer’s first salute: Read more
The US Air Force will reportedly ship perfectly good F-16s to the desert — and potentially slow down the F-35 program — if it is forced to keep the A-10 beyond the date it wants it retired:
The House Armed Services Committee inserted $683 million into the 2016 defense bill to stop the Air Force from retiring the A-10 Warthog.
However, Air Force leaders said the service will have to mothball F-16s and delay the deployment of the F-35 in response to the move by the committee.
The HASC logic basically says the Air Force needs the A-10 right now, as Read more
So easy, even a robot can do it:
The US Navy reported that its X-47B — a demonstrator for unmanned combat air vehicle technology — successfully completed autonomous refueling.
Aerial Refueling (Air-to-Air Refueling) (AAR) is a notoriously Read more
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus reportedly said that the F-35 Lightning II
should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly.
If you want to fly a fighter rather than a computer console, Read more
In March, the Air Force announced it had selected 87 company grade officers for Undergraduate Flying Training (UFT). UFT in Air Force parlance includes training for pilots, UAV operators, systems operators, and Air Battle Managers.
The Air Force does not release the numbers of total applicants, though it seems reasonable to conclude a few hundred applied. As the selectees were divided into a further four groups, only one of which was pilots, it seems the pilot track in the Air Force remains quite difficult to enter from active duty.
It can be done, as Read more
Aviano Air Base, Italy, becomes the most recent base to publish a story on the military tradition of “challenge coins.”
The true history of the challenge coin dates back to World War I, when an American pilot was shot down and captured in Germany.
While escaping from the grasp of the Germans, the pilot made his way to France, where they believed he was a spy and sentenced him to be executed. To prove his identity and save his life, he revealed a bronze medallion with his flying squadron’s emblem, confirming that he was an American pilot. The French spared his life and celebrated by giving him a bottle of wine instead.
The story is Read more
Last week The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon explained his discovery of the Martin-Baker tie club — the “elite” group of people who have the unique honor of taking the one-way trip on a Martin-Baker ejection seat and surviving.
Fallon’s father-in-law ejected from an F-8C Crusader on Read more
LtCol Robert Hite, one of the last three living Doolittle Raiders, died Sunday at the age of 95. Hite was a POW of the Japanese after the raid for the remainder of the war, until his camp was liberated three years later in 1945.
With his death, Read more