Tag Archives: air force

C-17 Landing at Wrong Airport Blamed on Fatigue

Update: The Stars and Stripes reports on the corrective actions put in place to prevent future aircraft from misidentifying the runways.

The Tampa Tribune obtained the report of last July’s “unscheduled landing” of a C-17 at Peter O. Knight airport in Florida — when it was supposed to land at MacDill Air Force Base a few miles away.

The crew of a military cargo jet landed at the wrong airport in Tampa in July, in part, because of fatigue, complacency and a lack of flight discipline, an Air Force investigation has found.

Fortunately, the crew realized their error and were able to Read more

Air Force Welfare Sweep Nets Porn, Nose Art, Religious Books

The Air Force released the results of the “health and welfare” inspection ordered by Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh in December.

The Air Force found 631 instances of pornography…; 3,987 instances of unprofessional material…; and 27,598 instances of inappropriate or offensive items… In total, 32,216 items were reported.

The Air Force even published the entire list, if you’re keen on seeing 61 pages of small font of every item confiscated, removed, or destroyed.

Most media articles have already picked up on the things like Maxim magazine, nose art, and PG-13 movies on the list.  A few — mostly fighter pilots — will pick up on the mermaid-handled mugs that were removed.  Fewer will notice the Air Force actually had to order new parts for aircraft to replace “offensive” painted panels.

Wonder how many people will pick up on these:  Read more

Air Force Officer Ponders Moral Fabric as Cause of Military Ills

In a surprisingly frank assessment, LtCol W.E. Gene Mattingly wrote an article entitled “The Elephant in the Room” following the sexual assault scandal and General Welsh’s order for a health and welfare inspection.

LtCol Mattingly becomes one of the few who dares to try to drill down to the root of the problem, rather than settle on addressing symptoms:

I think the problem is related more to our moral fabric than anything else.

As an Air Force, we must remain alert to what is presented as societal norms, which our Airmen may embrace, but that our Air Force simply Read more

Homosexual Websites Claim Military Censorship

A few homosexual advocacy websites have used their military members’ access to DoD networks to claim the US military is censoring websites identified as “LGBT.”

It’s bad enough the United States Department of Defense censors Towleroad and AMERICAblog – banning the gay civil rights Web sites from being accessed on DOD computers – and it’s even worse that the Pentagon has no problem permitting their computers to access Ann Coulter’s and Rush Limbaugh’s hate-filled Web sites…

While claiming persecution is all the rage, this is actually really old news.  The ACLU has been going after libraries and public schools for years for using the same web filtering software — BlueCoat and its categories — the DoD uses.  So much ire has been aimed at BlueCoat it has revised the wording of its filter and made a point of publishing its ‘neutral stance’ on the topic.  It only provides a service; its customers choose how to employ it.

Also, as noted before (when an Air Force Sergeant tried to get ChristianFighterPilot.com blocked from military servers as “hate speech”), it is difficult to Read more

US Marines to Institute Blues Fridays

Update: An official Defense.gov article notes the recent changes in Armed Services uniform policies and covers some of the highlights.

Just after the US Air Force abandoned “blues Mondays,” the US Marine Corps has announced that, as of tomorrow, Fridays require Marines to wear service uniforms instead of their utilities:

Beginning Jan. 4, 2013, all non-deployed Marines and sailors assigned to Marine units, regardless of component, active or Reserve, will be required to wear the appropriate seasonal service uniform each Friday.

The reasons given are the “form fitting” nature of the service uniform Read more

Maxim Magazine Tightens Aim at Military Audience

In an interesting bit of timing, given the Air Force Chief of Staff’s recent health and welfare inspection, Maxim magazine was covered by the New York Times in a story highlighting its ubiquity within the military.

Why?  Basically, troops can’t get racy magazines like Playboy or Penthouse shipped to the war zone overseas — but Maxim, while it may skirt the line, doesn’t cross it:

Maxim, a testosterone-fueled magazine featuring adolescent humor and plenty of scantily clad actresses, has become for today’s Army what Esquire was to soldiers fighting in World War II and Playboy was during the Vietnam War…

The sale of “explicit” magazines on military bases comes up in the news every few years.  At one point, Lifeway publishers was attempting to create a Christian alternative to the popular magazines.  For now, the rules actually “benefit” Maxim:  Read more

Top 10 ChristianFighterPilot.com Stories for 2012

It’s the time of year for lists and summaries, and various sites and groups are compiling their “best of” and “mostest” lists for 2012.  Consistent with last year’s apparent trend, issues of religion and the military seem to have largely fallen from the visibility they once had.  For example, BJC online lists their “Top Religious Stories of 2012” — not one of which references the military.  Likewise the Christian Post.  The Religion Clause and the Stars and Stripes lists both made only one relevant reference, to the much delayed Fort Hood massacre trial.

Curious as to what others were reading here this year?  The Top 10 most-read stories on ChristianFighterPilot.com for 2012 are Read more

National Guard F-16 Crashes in California

Multiple news outlets reported a California Air National F-16 crashed in the California desert on Friday.

No details were given, except that it was a medium altitude emergency and the pilot safely ejected.

The F-16 military jet went down in Owens Valley in Inyo County. The pilot safely ejected from the aircraft.

Pilots at the 144th Fighter Wing are on what’s called a “safety stand down” day, meaning all flights are grounded as part of standard procedure following a crash.

As is standard procedure, the Air Force will investigate the mishap and report it some months from now.

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