firehawkordy

Skimming the Tehachapi Mountains

Climb out over the Mojave Desert

Some shots of my #2 test flight out of Edwards. Start up:

do you do funerals? Okay, for the B-52, It flies good, the turn rate is SLOOOOW, so you'll be doing more straight ins than not. I used 3/4 runway in 0 wind at NAS Fallon on multiplay, 1/2 flaps. Low level ingress to Dixie Valley target range and climb out and transit to Castle AFB. Landed with full flaps in a 10 knot head wind, poped the spoiler and watched the drouge chute deploy. For ground handling it steers like a Mack truck. Overall if you plan your turns well in advance you won't have many problems.

This is the first time I've had to sit and read the Pub in a while. Due to job and familiy I've been busy this past week. As Navychief and some of the others know, my daughter was diagnosed with a hyper para-thyroid this spring. Well next week those glands come out. We have to take her to USC Med Cntr for the operation and looks like she'll be out of school for at least two weeks. Spare a thought for her if you could, it's going to be rough on her for a few days. Sorry about the firestorm I unleashed, my big regret was that I couldn't get back to my post and to add any thing more. I was surprised at the amount of replies it generated and saddened to see the direction it turned. Chief, hope your move is going well. After we moved to this place my wife said it was the last move she's making. Yeah,right. Remember, friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies.

Chief, Hanity scares even me! Actually his hair scares me.

And why not dead people, they vote in Florida and Chicago. ;)

As long as we belive that our politicians are crooks, and they are, at least get a ticket that's honest with there dishonesty...... Daley and Rizo for the White House !!!! And we can fill the Cabinet with the heads aof the Five Families. :D

My old Master Chief sent this to me, don't know how many have seen it, but here it is. Kind of long. Bring it on, John Oliver North August 27, 2004 "Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'" -- Sen. John Kerry Dear John, As usual, you have it wrong. You don't have a beef with President George Bush about your war record. He's been exceedingly generous about your military service. Your complaint is with the 2.5 million of us who served honorably in a war that ended 29 years ago and which you, not the president, made the centerpiece of this campaign. I talk to a lot of vets, John, and this really isn't about your medals or how you got them. Like you, I have a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. I only have two Purple Hearts, though. I turned down the others so that I could stay with the Marines in my rifle platoon. But I think you might agree with me, though I've never heard you say it, that the officers always got more medals than they earned and the youngsters we led never got as many medals as they deserved. This really isn't about how early you came home from that war, either, John. There have always been guys in every war who want to go home. There are also lots of guys, like those in my rifle platoon in Vietnam, who did a full 13 months in the field. And there are, thankfully, lots of young Americans today in Iraq and Afghanistan who volunteered to return to war because, as one of them told me in Ramadi a few weeks ago, "the job isn't finished." Nor is this about whether you were in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968. Heck John, people get lost going on vacation. If you got lost, just say so. Your campaign has admitted that you now know that you really weren't in Cambodia that night and that Richard Nixon wasn't really president when you thought he was. Now would be a good time to explain to us how you could have all that bogus stuff "seared" into your memory -- especially since you want to have your finger on our nation's nuclear trigger. But that's not really the problem, either. The trouble you're having, John, isn't about your medals or coming home early or getting lost -- or even Richard Nixon. The issue is what you did to us when you came home, John. When you got home, you co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War and wrote "The New Soldier," which denounced those of us who served -- and were still serving -- on the battlefields of a thankless war. Worst of all, John, you then accused me -- and all of us who served in Vietnam -- of committing terrible crimes and atrocities. On April 22, 1971, under oath, you told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that you had knowledge that American troops "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam." And you admitted on television that "yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed." And for good measure you stated, "(America is) more guilty than any other body, of violations of (the) Geneva Conventions ... the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners." Your "antiwar" statements and activities were painful for those of us carrying the scars of Vietnam and trying to move on with our lives. And for those who were still there, it was even more hurtful. But those who suffered the most from what you said and did were the hundreds of American prisoners of war being held by Hanoi. Here's what some of them endured because of you, John: Capt. James Warner had already spent four years in Vietnamese custody when he was handed a copy of your testimony by his captors. Warner says that for his captors, your statements "were proof I deserved to be punished." He wasn't released until March 14, 1973. Maj. Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot who was in Vietnamese custody for 2,284 days, says his captors "repeated incessantly" your one-liner about being "the last man to die" for a lost cause. Cordier was released March 4, 1973. Navy Lt. Paul Galanti says your accusations "were as demoralizing as solitary (confinement) ... and a prime reason the war dragged on." He remained in North Vietnamese hands until February 12, 1973. John, did you think they would forget? When Tim Russert asked about your claim that you and others in Vietnam committed "atrocities," instead of standing by your sworn testimony, you confessed that your words "were a bit over the top." Does that mean you lied under oath? Or does it mean you are a war criminal? You can't have this one both ways, John. Either way, you're not fit to be a prison guard at Abu Ghraib, much less commander in chief. One last thing, John. In 1988, Jane Fonda said: "I would like to say something ... to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm ... very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families." Even Jane Fonda apologized. Will you, John?

Nesher, I hope those stupid "F's" realise that when they get to Paradise all them virgins will be laughing 'cuase they blew up their naughty bits. :D There was a young lady who was in my last squadron that had served in the IDF. She was the only woman in the unit not from the S.E. United States that I and my crew had to teach to shoot. Very pretty too, lets see good looking,could cook and shoot and had a wicked sense of humor. Too bad I had met my future wife by then.

Chief, If I could give your foster cats a home I would. I have never seen so many kitties that look that happy and well cared for. My wife is wanting to get a Chihuahua, but my and the Leading Cat say differently. My daughter has two kittens that I'm trying to bring home at the moment.

It appears that your cat was an Airman in a past life and was traumatised by a Master Chief. :P Hope your foster cat makes it home. He looks like my dads cat O.C. (Outside Cat)

More like NoCal with all the midget mobiles. B) I used to live in SoCal, Long Beach to be exact, and even on a bad day I only saw maybe five or six on the side of the 405 or 710.

Ever notice that the entertainers that have any kind of real education stay out of politics.Frank Zappa went against Tipper Gore in the eighties durring her "Spainish Inquesition" into rock music. He was very well spoken and surprised alot of people in his eloquent answers to her questions. The quickest way to get me to stop buying an artists records are for them to preach their views from the stage. I dont mind a song or two, it's when they open their mouths and think they have something profound to say. BTW, look at Ted Nugent and his adventures in bussiness. And he has conservitive views as well, but you never hear him expouse the at the wrong time and place.

Happy B-Day Mad Jeff !! :D :D :D

And this bad.....How?

Please FireHawk,those GUYS were NOT Chiefs,they were e-7,8 or 9..The ones I knew would actually go and get grease on their khakis..but there were some such as you mentioned,and we would say chief as such,not Chief(as RESPECT) Scout, you are so right about them not being real Chiefs. I have known quite a few REAL Chiefs and I looked up to them. Hell, my Father is a Chief, albeit a Blackshoe,but still THE Chief at home. My best man at mine and Pam's wedding was my old Command Master Chief. He and another Chief took me under their wing and raised me to be the best AO1 that I could be. This is me and AOC Gary Thompson on Det to NAS Moffet.The SOB just told me what he had done to my coffee cup while I was doing a recovery. He had a wicked sense of humor and a mother bears devotion to his troops.

Regarding ordies and gas, I was in shop that most of the AO's could fart at will. If that wasn't bad enough, we would wait until Quaters for Muster, when we had a captive audience. The best any of us did was on det to Fairchild AFB. We had to share an armory with an AFRES unit and I and my LPO were getting fed up with their whining about thier 12/12 shifts when we were doing flight quarters. The whole shop went out for dinner one evening and had Indian and Thai food. Then we went out drinking and got in to a contest to see how many pickled eggs we could eat. The next morning we had fouled the air so badly that the AF troops refused to come in the shop. What was worse was that we were walking through MaintControl emitting SBD's. That was after we found out that the Chiefs that had us doing flight quarters were going home after eight hours.

Agggh!!!!!Must fight the nightmares,must not think of the coop! Too late, have the urge for MidRats!!! Curse you Foofighter!!! :P

Chief I have no idea on the timeframe for the next platform. The last time they tried to replace the Orion was in the mid-80's with the P-7. That got canned because Lockheed fouled up the diameter of the fuselage and then wanted more money to fix it. At that time the hope was to bring in an A/C that would be a replacement but also have commonallity with the P-3. Right now if I remember right all NAVAIRES VP squadrons are to be disestablished in the next two or three years. I'll have to ask around as to when exactly. The fleet will continue the ASW/AS mission. Not a bad move in this case as there are too many aircrew and aircraft and not enough work to go around. Plus the skills used in hunting subs are perishable, you have to do the job constantly and once a month is not good enough these days. The trend is to use deisle-electric boats in shallow water and when running on batteries those boats are real quiet. I'll keep you posted on this,it looks like NAVAIRES is going to take a big hit soon, CVW-20 is on the block too, they will go when the JFK is retired. It looks like the CV's will be using four fixed wing airframes in the near future, three as the Prowler is set to be phased out also.

Chief I just found out that the Reserve P-3 units are to be disbanded in the near future. Makes sense in this case the as the ASW mission is one that the fleet should be able to handle. As far as I know by the end of the year all but two units I served in will be memories. This was taken at NAS Moffet Field back in 1989, I was launching the CO and COMPATWING10.

PG, I agree God touches our life in different ways, I think that had I not followed the path to that church I would have been in a world of hurt in more ways than one. I was exposed to folks who through their narrow minds broadened mine. As you said the true Christians are not pushy, they are very quite about their faith. I have met both types of Christians, the quiet ones will draw people to them by their conduct in day to day life. They show a dignity that has no words. I did benifiet from fellowship and friendship in that church. And I made a couple of friendships that are very strong. One being with one of the pastors. The ones that jam God and the Bible in your face do more harm than good, but they are in the minority. Those are the ones who can undo years of quiet work with their clumsey attempts at saving souls.

Scout, I completely agree with you that there are extremists in all religions. However, here it's the Christians. I have to say this about them though, while the Muslims want to turn the clock back to the middle ages, at least the Bible thumpers only want to regress to the 1800's. I belive that you only need to follow the 10 Commandments to have a happy life. So far I've managed to break only two of them so an 80% compliance is not bad for an Ordie. While I may have annoyed the flock the Pastor loved having me and my little girl around. The fact that I was open and upfront with my life was something he encouraged, as long as I was respectful I was allowed to shake things up. It was always fun to bait the hypocrits. I said this in another forum awile back and I think it bears repeating now and then: We shall never have freedom of religion until there is freedom from religion. Nick, what you wittnessed this past week was something that Pastor's James and Eddie always admonished against," Don't make a specticle out of your faith. You will be better recived if you are low key".

While our server was down I flew at a couple of other servers. As I was on vacation, I was online at all hours. I spent most of my time at WestCoast ATC, on the 24/7 server. I got a taste of flying in controlled airspace over there. Had just as much fun as here, but with more than 20 pilots and controllers flying at the same time, the feel was polite and professional. TS is a must during a session there. It's a gas to call Heathrow Tower and get a Cockney voice directing you to the airport. I don't use my firehawk handle there, but if you know what I prefer to fly, you can pick me out. Found another site, I think it's out of the U.K., it's called AAF Military Server. Chatted with the owner one day, he's looking to start a Virtual Air Force some time soon. The feel there was more disiplined. As it can only handle 30 players at once, and most hops are in Europe, the site has about ten rules that should be followed. I enjoyed flying there, although Pick your plane carefully, I flew part of the hoplist and found that My C-20 Navy Gulfstream does not like short fields. Also there are no parking spots listed on Air Bases, I would reccommend AFCAD'ng at least on spot to start at on each field. Now for just having fun, as in oops lined up on the taxiway, and everyone having a laugh when it happens, this is the place. Nothing says home and friends than BioHaz's server. I can make mistakes and get practice flights and not worry about being put down, razzed yes, made to feel bad, hasn't happened yet. This server is where you check your ego at the door and have fun. I spent a week off, and flew at alot of servers, but nothing beats this one, and it's because of the folks that fly here.

Nick, it seems that the people youv'e seen are the ones I give wide berth to. I was a member of a Christian church, I left when I realised that there were few good people there. Most of the ones I have met, the ones you described, have no concept of the real world. Everything is evil unless it is approved by their church. Most of these folk are very, very trusting, to a dangerous degree. They will on the one hand say the world is evil, and on the other welcome a just released felon into their midst. I hate to agree with finiteness but I view anyone who blindly follows a church with suspicion. I have been in their houses, what scares me is the total lack of anything to read other than the Bible, TV Guide, and any book written by whoever is the popular TV preacher at the momment. This is how depressing it is to be around these folk. Before Y2K, all they could do was pray for the end of the world. When the world was still here on New Years Day 2000 they were sure that they weren't worthy enough for the Rapture. As a group, Christians can be as dangerous to freedom than any other extreme group. I have seen such acts of intolerance as a burning of a womans health clinic, trying to ban books in the library of a local High School, burning of rock music albums. I was told that the music I listened to wasbad for me. I asked why and was told by my chastiser" When I hear that stuff, I always do things to get in trouble". I told him that it sounded more like a personal problem. I left the church not because I lost my faith, but I took my daughter to the new daycare and was confronted by Army Recruiting posters changed to say "you are joining Gods Army" and "Warriors of God". This to me was very upsetting and I felt and still feel it was out of place. Idividualy Christians are fine folk and most try to lead a wholesom life. As a group, they are as oppressive as the Facists. I know I'll get flack for that but it was in God's name that the New World was conquered. The Christian Churches have wipe out more cultures than anyother extreme religion. I am sorry if I offened anyone but, I was in a Pentecost Church that changed to Four Square Gospel because they could get more money. I was told to join the sigles minestry and then because I was dating a couple of ladies, asked if I was doing anything immoral. That and was hiding a terrible hurt because I did not drink to excess, did not do drugs and was not molested as a kid. Every one I met had some kind of problem that was proudly put on display. Because of that I have not willingly set foot in a church in 11 years. So go ahead and tell me I'm going to hell, the folks I went to church with told me that long ago. In the US we have freedom of religion, but the self appointed Christian leaders seem to think it gives them the right to oppress those that are not them.