Weasel Keeper

Hehe, he said the F-16 was intended to be a "light fighter". True. Most F-16s today are more into the light attack business without any bad guys roaming the skies. Yeah, our guys practice dogfighting, but when it comes down to deploying...we go as light bombers. Strap on a couple JDAMs and LGBs, provide 24 hour coverage over Iraq to be where needed within a few minutes, and that's the main job of a lot of F-16s today. QF-4Gs would still be great for SEAD/DEAD, but talking to the contractors who work the drone program at Tyndall AFB they told me the Gs are already used up and most are at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. There are still some QF-4Es, but it would be crazy to do the "G" conversion now. The F-16CJ/CGs are fine and do a great job. I personally think SEAD might be best done by UAVs in the near future. SAMs are still a dangerous thing, and it might be better to risk UAVs.

The "undead" Phantoms still haunting the spooky boneyard...possibly given a second chance as a cheaper alternateiv to the MQ-9 Reaper UAV. http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/10/air-forces-new.html

Hehe, I think Vegas is taking care of itself with that! I was at Nellis last year for Green Flag and I saw a leg in the middle of the road when I went to town one evening. DON'T cross the street where there's no crosswalk!

I wonder if the safety block was still on it or if the load crew put it on and let the news take pictures of it. That would be weird if somebody forgot to remove it before flight. ;)

That's no lie as far as the F-4 MX...she was a bear to work on. Always had something to do even when she came back code 1.

Hehe, that's just our new skycop shop. Good planning placing it right next to the gun range.

Yeah, but what's in the basement?!?

Caesar, thank you! You may have not BTDT yet, but you're a step closer in the right direction and on the path to serve. I was in Iraq this time last year, and although now I've BTDT I still get dumbfounded when the locals around here tell me "Thank you". I've deployed, been shot at, but never personally fired a gun in anger (although the pilot I sent up in a great flying aircraft that I maintain got to squeeze off many rounds and bombs). I don't have any planned reply to a thank you because to me it was just a TDY, and I TDY a lot. I usually just tell them "thank you" back. I'll join in and thank all who serve. Thank you all!

Says they're doing site maintenance...maybe that's it? Meanwhile, check out my claim to fame on Youtube. I'm the green Neon leading the camera car for about 5 minutes. I backed off at the 4:09 mark because I didn't want to get killed going into the "kink". If you look in the mirror of the camera car after he passes me, I almost get killed anyway by the yellow car.

Ahh haa! That's where the F-18s ended up. Ft Wayne ANG was supposed to host somebody's F-18s for the storm but they never came.

The F(?)-117 was very expensive to maintain, a lot due to the outer absorbant material that had to be scraped off to remove panels for internal maintenance. If any of the material had come loose after a flight or had to be removed to depanel, a new coating had to be applied and allowed sufficient time to cure. Lots of money and downtime. The F-117 was pretty much a "stealth" F-15 on the inside. It had F-15 landing gear, hydraulic and pneudraulic systems, and almost the same cockpit. 25-30 years ago it was a great platform, but with the stealthy B-2, F-22, and the F-35 when it goes into production, the F-117 is just old and tired.

I thought our job was to prepare for UCIs and ORIs even though we deploy to the nasty places regularly. We're doing a bag drag phase 1 ORE next drill...even though this time last year we did a real bag drag and were already in al Udied waiting for our C-17 to Balad Iraq. Our job these days is to look good for Washington so we don't get put on the next BRAC list...heh. Thanks for the heads up. I took part in some great USAF history this weekend. We had our reunion for the Society of Wild Weasels at the USAF Museum and dedicated a monument bench for the fallen Weasels (located on the reserved parking side of the main building) in the name of Pierre Levy who was the designer for the Wild Weasel mission and passed away a few years ago. I also got to meet an all time hero of mine...MOH recipient Col. Leo Thorsness (also a WW). He was our featured speaker and spoke of his MOH mission and the 6 years in the Hanoi Hilton after being shot down just short of his 100th mission (92nd mission I believe).

F-105 pilot during Vietnam and author; Tom Wilson... Lucky's Bridge Termite Hill Tango Uniform All are at Amazon I believe...great reads!

Bellville, Bates, and Magnum are all very good (Magnum may be the best, but pricey). Personally all I wear are Converse Tactical boots. Comfortable like tennis shoes, but pretty durable boots. Non steel toe run around $80-90, composite safety toe run around $90-100. Zipper sides make it easy on and off rather than lacing/unlacing to put them on or off, and they are the first boot I've ever worn where I didn't have to remove them to get through a metal detector at an airport! Leaving Balad, Iraq I was the only person NOT stopped and wanded by Navy customs through the metal detector! http://www.copshoes.com/c-converse-boots-shoes-tactical.html I wore the desert tacticals in Iraq, and wear the black tacticals currently with my BDUs. They even have a sage green version now for the USAF ABU uniform.

For fun on the weekends... '95 Dodge Neon ACR (SCCA ITA class). Daily drivers (it's a Jeep thing...) Her '01 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo My '97 Jeep Wrangler TJ Sport (4.0L)

Okay, Jedi mentioned in the first post that there wouldn't be many real racers driving this. I got an email from the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) that I drive in for real and they offered me a free month and a free bonus car worth $15. The same email and offer went out to every licensed SCCA driver, and there is an SCCA series for the members. Sooo...I put in the promotion code and downloaded it. It actually is like real racing where they make you race clean or your stats will show. The Solstice feels pretty good and the tracks included are very nice. I ran a race at Lime Rock and had a good time. Voice comms is built in and everyone was pretty friendly and said "thanks" when you'd let them pass cleanly. I doubt I'll renew after my month is up but I'll have some fun with it for now.

Red Flag is conventional A/A, A/G, and more recently EW exercises. Green Flag (used to be Air Warrior) is pre-deployment live weapons delivery exercises. Main focus on CAS and precision guided weapons delivery to get aircrew refreshed before going to OIF or OEF. EW used to be a part of Air Warrior/Green Flag, but was moved to Red Flag. I took part in Green Flag West (Nellis) in March 07, and the jet I crew was the leader in delivered munitions. :)

Yup, good to have the EPU fire when generators go offline when the engine shuts down. Without the EPU the jet would drop like a rock since there are no manual flight controls.

Pilots practice engine out landings all the time in the Sim...I even got to watch one pilot do it while I was waiting for my turn in the sim. It's a must for a single engine aircraft. This guy was SH and did a perfect landing!

What did I see? I saw me racing my buddy hard at Nelson Ledges Raceway near Youngstown Ohio. He thought I'd let up as we went into turn 1 (5 laps in) but I didn't...and maybe I should have. I saw my two left wheels go off track in the wet grass, me trying to keep the car straight so I wouldn't lose it while easing back onto the track, then the backend kicking out when it hit the pavement shooting me across the track towards tire barriers (more like piles of tires). I saw black, then blue (sky), then black again as I ramped onto the piles of tires and barrel rolled the car 360 and ended up back on my wheels. Kind of looked like this that happend a couple months ago to somebody else, but at the first corner...and I didn't scream like a girl (because the $1000 Neon I was driving wasn't a $100,000 Viper this guys was driving...lol). In fact I never made a sound. ;)

I bet they'd be allergic to chainsaws too under the right conditions.

Thanks guys, it's a lot of fun! The dings in the right side...interesting story there (I didn't do it!). This is actually my buddy's car that I drive for him (he has two ITA Neons). Great deal for me since I don't have a race car and don't have to rent one either...lol. He bought this car from one of his friends who used to run the Neon Challenge back in the late 90s. The previous owner used this car as a daily driver as well as his weekend racer. Anyway, he was driving on the streets one day and got T-boned by a van on the right side. He thought it was totalled and sold it to my buddy for $1000. My buddy took it to his garage and within a day had the frame straightened and ready to drive again. The guy who sold it to him asked if he could buy it back...my buddy said "sure! $5000 and it's yours!". The crinkles on the door are just about the only damage this car has seen...and it runs like a champ now. This car is almost showroom stock and ran as a showroom stock car for a number of years. Now it's considered an "Improved Touring A class" (ITA) in the SCCA. Other than the safety mods like a full Nascar style roll cage, seat, window net, and 7 point harness, the only mods are a slightly lowered suspension and a quicker ratio 5 speed transmission (I can't quote numbers because I'm just a driver...lol) as well as racing exhaust and cold air intake. This weekend was my first solo/autocross event and I just ran it for fun (and the two trophies just appeared without me knowing I was doing well...lol). My primary interest is road course racing and I'll be running in a double regional race next weekend at Nelson Ledges, Ohio (between Cleveland and Youngstown). This race will be a warm up for a 24 hour race next month at Nelson...good fun! BTW, in this weekend's solo event I was 3 seconds faster than a Corvette, and placed second in class by 2 seconds over third place. :)

I like SCCA racing and my favorite driver is...me. Oh yeah, pics are from today. Won 2nd place in class, and 1st place overall novice driver out of about 10 other novices.

Thinking about it. You know it's going to be like 175F degrees right? Replied to your PM, I'll let you know.