"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
You really never leave
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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?
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 […]
Daesh terrorists hit Paris while my buddies and I were in California on a motorcycle trip. We talked about it during stops, and were glued to our motel room TVs at night. I felt, and still feel, that what happened in France has the potential to swing our upcoming presidential election to the Republican candidate, whoever that […]
I don’t know when Veterans Day turned into Veterans Week, but it has, so I don’t feel too bad posting a little of my own veteran history one day early. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was stationed at Soesterberg Air Base in the Netherlands, a brand new F-15 Eagle pilot in the 32nd […]