Typhoid

sorry to hear that. I've been enjoying your sim of one my old stomping grounds. Hope it all works out.

when a nation sends its military to war, it has to back them up. Putting them in, taking the casualties necessary to achieve the objectives, and then bailing out and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a betrayal of their service and sacrifice. any politician who does that is treating the troops killed and injured as purely expendable. when a war is on and forces engaged - it gets a little vague to use the term expendable in the context of the forces and leadership. We (DOD and high level military personel) do not send forces into harms way lightly, but do so with the intention to achieve some objective. In so doing we know that we will take casualties. We measure the goal vs the expected level of casualties and the commander makes the call. That does not mean we consider them expendable, but recognize that war is war and is ultimately a brutal, chaotic process. A Russian general one time described his decision in WWII when he faced an objective with a mine field in the way and no mine clearing means or time. He lined up the regiments in line and marched them through. His lead regiment took some pretty heavy casualties but cleared the way for the next two who took the objective on time. His point was that he took fewer casualties that way overall because he won the battle. Hard decision. my beef with McNamara, to briefly put this back on its original subject, is that he considered the war unwinnable, pursued pointless strategies and put forces into combat believing they could not win for purely political purposes. They were expendable for his purposes which were not to actually win the war he and LBJ committed them to. Once engaged in war, a nation has to win it. Against the current enemies who's objective is our destruction, we have to win. Defeat, surrender or negotiated withdrawal are not viable options. To withdraw is to betray the forces committed and betray those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Our Democratic Party leadership today, as in Vietnam, has chosen that course as did McNamara.

the weapons pack includes the AIM-54C. It doesn't go past that so the 54C+ and the various blocks and ECCM's are not here. Have to leave some chance for the Migs........

also, once you hit the last waypoint the "TACAN" points to the ship.

friends killed for nothing but $$$ in a ledger or for cheap, short-term political talking points (propaganda). And a son in Fallujah now and another headed back over there in the next few months. sorry if I get a little heated, but that is the bottom line. It has been my life, the lives of friends and shipmates and now sons who have been and are being betrayed, again. And I left shipmates behind lost in watery graves. your comments on points 1 and 4 are on target. I would phrase the efficiency vs effectiveness a little differently based on my past combat air operations and target planning perspective - efficiency is doing something at least cost. Effectiveness is getting the job done the best way with cost as a secondary consideration. Overwhelming force is a most effective method, just enough is a most efficient method. As an example - Desert Storm was most effective, OIF was most effecient. "No, as much as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh would like you to believe, Harry Reid and Howard Dean don't send out a bulletin to anyone left or reasonably center with beliefs and arguements that can be tossed away when the next one comes in." actually, they do get their talking points every day faxed to them from the moveon.org and similar crowd. the NYT's reported that not to long ago. Which is why the same talking point is repeated simultaneously by various DNC types and their media hacks in the mainstream Propaganda Press. THat is not Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh saying it, it was the NYT themselves that admitted it. For once, I choose to believe them......... one correction. I said we captured weapons grade uranium. We captured enriched uranium which was not yet weapons grade. We left 500 tons of uranium that was not enriched (purchased from Africa) at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility.

the initial Su-27 was, in real life, air to air only. The later mods added air to ground capabilities. Those later mods are being developed.

case one is carrier lingo for VFR conditions and a visual approach

I have never, ever in 35 years ever seen the media get anything correct about something I knew about. ever. and they aren't getting it right this time either. They are invested in the Democratic lunatic fringe which in invested in our defeat for short-term political gain. just like the '70's. the same playbook

oh, so there actually WERE postwar plans!! you must have missed you faxed talking point on that issue. Don't you realize that the approved propaganda point was that there were no plans?

never heard any confirmation of the ISI claim, just hype. Yes, there were a lot of links between the ISI and Al Queda. Odd that you don't credit any of the documented links between Al Queda and IIS. weapons grade uranium? we captured and airlifted out of Iraq tons of weapons grade uranium, now held in our custody. We left over 500 tons at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research facility which was not yet weapons grade.

you do realize that the number of wmd warheads captured in Iraq was no where near zero?

" This is the release of the 8 new airbases for my SFP1 Deutschland terrain and for WOE. The bases are: GDR (East Germany) Drewitz Holzdorf Marxwalde Preschen Trollenhagen FRG (West Germany) Ahlhorn Büchel Hopsten Additionally bases will follow. ------------------------------------ Hope you enjoy it. Michael (Gepard)" outstanding work. looks awesome.

I've been resisting adding anything to this because that piece of gutter trash cost so many lives and I am still very, very angry about his duplicity. But your post points out how incredibly STUPID and DEVOID of Common Sense he and his number crunching cronies were. His arrogant stupidity cost lives. He admitted in some interview not too long ago that he never believed that we could or would win in Vietnam, but that he supported the committment of troops into what he believed was a lost and useless cause because he thought it important that other countries see that we could and would take casualties. So he was both and architect of our involvement and our political defeat. As a result, of course, we as a country are now casualty averse and branded by our enemies as a hollow, paper tiger and a juicy target. For all of that, may he rot in ............

"The F-4 is a perfect example of aerodynamic theory wherein even a brick can be made to fly if you put a big enough engine on it." that is a rough quote from an F-4 pilot I knew some years ago.

locking pin isn't seated fully or the guy accidently launched with the wings folded. Happened one night at Miramar when I was the squadron CDO for our E-2 squadron out doing CQ's. Some dumb-@$$ in an A-7 tried to launch without having his wings spread. Unlike the F-8 or the F-4 that can use brute power to generate enough speed to generate enough lift on the remaining small bits of wing to go fly - sorta - the A7 piled into the brush off the end of the departure end and blocked the runway. Right when all my squadron's planes were due back......... fortuneately there were lots of divert fields and a crosswind runway at Miramar that could take us. it was the next day that all squadrons started providing linemen to the final checker team at the hold-short line........

nope. wish I could help you but I would only be guessing. by any chance is that the Iranian F-14A that's here?

I'm not sure that emulating one of the architects of defeat is a great idea.

I would not recommend basing that kind of assessment on how accurately these sims replicate the actual, detailed combat capabilities of various fighter aircraft.

if you have a deceptive jammer then you should not do that - that's the best way to get shot. jink hard and dump chaff (and flares if its an IR)

oh? I was in AOCS class 24-73, was that about the time you went there?

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! Your first solo will always be with you no matter how many orbital missions you eventually make. A fantastic milestone! Is your shirt tacked up on the instructor's wall or do they still do that?

(puts safety back on....)

who are you calling an arm chair pilot?

dumb question but how is that different? I recall pulling out a gas piston in the M-16 and cleaning that filthy beast.