Is That a Teratoma in Your Pocket, or Are You Glad to See Me?

How do you like my new eyePhone? Grotesque, no? It makes me think of teratomas, those legendary tumor-like growths that contain hair, teeth, and bones (sometimes even eyes). I don’t have a valid reason for showing you this photo other than to disturb your dreams. You can thank me later. I write book reviews and post […]

Air-Minded: Cookin’ with Gas

When you’re flying fighters, or any kind of aircraft, fuel is everything. You have to know not only how much fuel you have remaining at any time, you have to know how far you can go on it and how much you’ll need if things turn to shit and you have to divert. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a short training flight in the local area or part of a multi-jet package flying a 12-hour long overseas deployment with air refueling tankers as escorts, fuel is never far from your mind.

Sonora Dogs

When we run low on dog food I take the girls with me to the neighborhood feed store. During chick season (which is a thing, who knew?) they have galvanized tubs of pullets inside the store, and the minute the dogs come through the door they hear them peeping and go straight for them. They […]

Air-Minded: Heritage Flight Photoblog 2016

Once a year, rich guys with extremely expensive toys train alongside active duty USAF fighter pilots and jets at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. The annual program at DMAFB is called the Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course, and over the course of a few days civilian and military pilots practice flying close formation. Pilots who complete the […]

Air-Minded: Sweeping Changes

When I take visitors around the outdoor aircraft on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum, I always say a few words about these Republic F-84s, early jet fighters that show the evolution from straight to swept wings: The aircraft with the barber-striped tail is an F-84C Thunderjet, first flown in 1946 and later employed as […]

The H-Bomb of Justice

If you know me, you know I obsess over North Korea and the Kim regime. Probably because I spent some time in neighboring South Korea, sitting air defense alert at Osan Air Base and running trail near the DMZ with the Seoul Hash House Harriers. The closer you get to the 38th Parallel, the spookier […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Pussy

Criticism of Obama is agenda-driven (that agenda being total opposition to anything a a black Democrat president does) and would be just as nasty no matter what he did. Killing Osama bin Laden? Total pussy. Busting up dozens of planned terrorist plots against American targets? Total pussy. Preventing a repeat of 9/11? Total pussy. Bombing ISIS? Total pussy. Ah, but if Putin drops a few bombs on ISIS, more than a year after Obama started dropping bombs on ISIS, he’s a real man, right?

Air-Minded: Non-Starter Option Revisited

In July, I posted an Air-Minded Diary titled The Non-Starter Option. In it, I proposed purchasing new F-15s, F-16s, and F/A-18s (all of which are still in production) for the USAF and USN. My argument was that new F-15s, which are far more capable that the older models currently in use, are needed to supplement […]