"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
I was fascinated by this exchange during Katie Couric’s interview of Sarah Palin the other night: Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians? Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears […]
In an earlier post, I promised to tell you about our resident spy at Soesterberg Air Base in The Netherlands. His name was Jack van Beek, but we called him Jack the Clock. I honestly don’t know that he was our resident spy, but everyone knew there was a resident spy, and most of us […]
Boy, does this make me feel old: In early November 2007, the nose and cockpit section of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C broke away from the rest of the aircraft during a training flight. The pilot ejected and survived. Here’s a simulation of what happened: Following the mishap, the USAF grounded its entire fleet […]
Is air power the new face of successful war-fighting? Much to the dismay of the boots-on-the-ground zealots … the answer for today’s democracies may well be “yes.” During the summer, while U.S. ground forces in Iraq were distracted investigating potential war criminals in their midst, air power delivered a major success. … When thousands of troops […]
My friend Dick Herman, in a comment to an earlier entry, asked for my thoughts on the warrior ethic. For a few years, back when my career was on fire, I was on the staff of a joint command, working with Army, Navy, and Marine officers. Army and Marine officers could philosophize about the warrior […]
What fun! Went flying with a buddy this morning, a retired USAF lieutenant colonel with a background in B-52s and C-130s. He knows people I flew with, I know people he flew with, and, like me, he was once a headquarters flight safety chief. Running out of things to talk about was never a problem. […]
This entry was posted by my co-blogger Dick, a writer and former squadron mate: For the record, I was in the pit of Stormy’s F-15 when Paul flew his flight lead check out of Soesterberg, like in 1981 or there abouts. That mission told me all I needed to know about Skid. Yeah, he had […]
Several years ago, when I was chief of flight safety for one of the USAF’s major air commands, I was ordered to interfere in an ongoing major aircraft mishap investigation. My mission was to shift the investigation from the track it was on (the right one) to another track (a false one). Some explanations are […]