Fighter Pilots and Fighter Jocks
Sometimes its hard to tell if a term is an affectionate appellation or an underhanded swipe. Sometimes you might just not want to know.
Courtesy of Merriam Webster.
Category Archives: Fighter Pilot
Fighter Pilots at the Pearly Gates: AF vs Navy
As if further evidence is required of the steretypical fighter pilot (notwithstanding the positive attribution of the naval aviator):
An unfortunate Navy fighter pilot was lost at sea during a night recovery in the weather. Next thing he knew he was standing in a long line waiting to pass through the Pearly Gates. Read more
F-35 Training Units Stand Up
An Air Force Times article highlights the progress in standing up the multi-service training units for the F-35 Lightning II at Eglin AFB, which is scheduled to begin this fall with the arrival of the first F-35 in November.
For the record, the F-35 variants have taken their first flights in only the past few months. The 200 “instructors” cited in the article (which may include maintainers) haven’t logged a single hour in an actual aircraft.
No worries, though; according to the wing vice commander, Marine Col Arthur Tomassetti, the training shouldn’t be too difficult: Read more
Fighter Pilot Traditions: Hat in the Freezer
It’s been said many times before that being a fighter pilot is a lot like being in a college fraternity. Yes, its true, “pranks,” to use an equivalent word, are still prevalent among the elite fighter pilot crowd.
If you lose something in a fighter squadron, check the freezer. If you’re lucky, it will just be wet. If you’ve been gone awhile, there’s a distinct possiblity your lost item, most famously, your hat, is now in a solid block of ice, or your car keys will now need to be thawed before you can drive home. (Another technique is to put just the head of the key in the block of ice, so the driver can still enter and drive his car, albeit with a 5 pound block of ice hanging off of it.)
While this is a longstanding fighter pilot tradition, the modern Air Force has Read more
Gates Recommends Amos for Marine Commandant
As largely expected, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has given the name of General James Amos to President Obama as his recommendation for the next Commandant of the Marine Corps.
Putin Says New Russian Jet Bests F-22
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reportedly said the Russian T-50, sometimes dubbed the “F-22ski”
will be superior to our main competitor, the F-22, in terms of maneuverability, weaponry and range.
One would certainly hope an aircraft first flown in 2010 — with a planned employment date of 2015 — would at least claim to be superior to one developed more than 20 years ago; the YF-22 first flew in 1990. Also, the news report, seeking to highlight something significant, quoted this from the Russian releases: Read more
Summer Choices: Band Camp or War Zone
While many upcoming college seniors are spending their summer at the beach, at work, or doing whatever else they might want, the US Air Force Academy continued its tradition of sending senior cadets to the combat AOR.
Air Force Academy seniors, Cadet 1st Class Eric Varner…and Cadet 1st Class Alan Foote…visit the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia as part of their summer deployed operatons program.
Urban legend has it that USAFA Cadets deployed to Vietnam Read more
Senior Enlisted Chiefs Forced Out Over Cheating
Not long after talking about the discharge of the cheating Marines, Stars and Stripes noted that two Navy Chiefs are being “forced to retire” after helping a Sailor cheat on a military advancement exam.
During a rare court-martial at sea, chief petty officers Reynaldo M. Bernardo and Ferdinand P. Quinto were found guilty May 24 of failing to obey a lawful order, said the aircraft carrier’s spokesman, LtCmdr Bill Urban…
It appears the cheating, which occurred on the USS George Washington, was fairly obvious:
During the exam, Bernardo and Quinto moved a sailor to a different table and then instructed the sailor to cheat off another sailor’s test, Read more