Category Archives: Fighter Pilot

General Welsh Confirmed as next USAF Chief of Staff

On August 10th, General Mark Welsh will become the next US Air Force Chief of Staff.  His Senate confirmation had previously been on hold.  Welsh, who is popular for his well-delivered inspirational messages and straight-shooting, will replace retiring General Norton Schwartz.  The Air Force Times said one of General Welsh’s first jobs will be to “repair” the damage done to the Air Force’s relationship with Congress — under Schwartz, who has Read more

US Soldiers Get Coined by General

A recent Army article noted that the commander of forces in Afhganistan “coined” members of the US military for their exceptional performance:

Marine Gen. John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan…presented ISAF commander coins to six soldiers surrounded by their friends and fellow service members during a mid-day ceremony here.

After listing the accomplishments of the soldiers, the article included this summary of the tradition:  Read more

Kitten Killer Gets Jail, but Military Files No Charges in Child’s Death

A former US Marine accused of wringing a kitten’s neck received 30 days in jail from a civil circuit judge:

Circuit Judge Thomas Forehand…found Angelo Michael Stango, 27, guilty Friday of misdemeanor animal cruelty and sentenced him to a year with 11 months suspended.

Violence against the cute and cuddly is punishable (though, oddly enough, there was apparently no body to prove the cat was actually dead).  There will certainly be some who claim the former Marine Sergeant should have received a harsher punishment.

As an interesting comparison, the US military has apparently chosen not to charge US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan with killing the unborn child of one of his (alleged) victims, US Army Pvt Francheska Velez.  Stango’s kitten killing was tried in civil court — notably, there is no UCMJ article specifically addressing animal cruelty.

There is a UCMJ article specifically addressing killing an unborn child:  Read more

Marine Ejects from Harrier

A US Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B jump jet crashed in the desert southwest; the pilot ejected:

A Marine Corps Harrier attack jet crashed while on a training mission Wednesday in southwestern Arizona and base officials said the pilot ejected safely.

The AV-8B Harrier went down about 3:30 p.m. some 15 miles northwest of the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma…

The spokesperson speculated that the pilot must have been ok since he called back to the base on his cell phone after the incident.

C-17 Makes Unscheduled Landing at Wrong Airport

Single seat fighter pilots are individually responsible for every action they take with their aircraft.  They have no co-pilot, so everyone — even the youngest Lieutenant fighter pilot — is qualified to make the calls necessary to safely fly their aircraft.

For that reason, fighter pilots sometimes joke that heavy aircraft are “flown by committee,” since every action is a “team” effort among pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, loadmaster, flight attendant, etc.  Still, oftentimes passengers’ lives are at stake and valuable cargo is on board, so perhaps redundancy is called for.

On that note, it seems a certain C-17 team made a poor decision:

A huge military plane from New Jersey may have mistaken the tiny runway at Peter O’ Knight airport for the runway at MacDill Air Force Base…

While the aircraft was from McGuire, some news reports indicated the mission Read more

Pilot Safe after USAF F-16 Crashes in Pacific

A US Air Force F-16 crashed in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday; the pilot safely ejected.  It was apparently part of a flight from Japan to the United States — meaning it was far from home (and potentially land) when the pilot ejected.  That may explain why he spent 6 hours in the water and was eventually picked up by a commercial — not military — vessel.

With various controversies ongoing over crashing Ospreys and the presence of Marines, the US was quick to praise the alliance with Japan that aided in the pilot’s recovery.

As with every other aircraft incident, the Air Force will investigate to determine the cause over the next month or so.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gets Hosed

General Norton Schwartz recently took his final flight in the US Air Force, known traditionally as a “fini flight,” and he was greeted in the traditional manner, by his wife and a fire hose:

“Fini flights” have sometimes become common place, even occurring as a pilot moves from one flying assignment to another in the same airframe.  There is something special, though, to a true fini flight that caps a nearly four decade career.

General Schwartz is scheduled to retire later this year.  General Mark Welsh has been nominated to replace him.

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