Why Don't We All Just Relax, and Trust Them.

The Ship of State is foundering on it's Summertime Cruise. I fear that once again we'll be the ones to have to walk the gangplank to lighten the craft. Lots of privileged folks are on board, of course, but they'll be busy with their tales of aggrandizement and power sharing, scratching backs and kneeling to get a better angle on it.

It's time for us to deal with the slimy mess which has prevailed in D.C. since the liberal orgasm of a year ago or so. Do we just paddle harder and hope and pray for "change"? I'd like to see some authentic patriots do something real for a change.

Angelo M. Codevilla gets its correct when he writes,

"Our ruling class's agenda is power for itself. While it stakes its claim through intellectual-moral pretense, it holds power by one of the oldest and most prosaic of means: patronage and promises thereof. Like left-wing parties always and everywhere, it is a "machine," that is, based on providing tangible rewards to its members. Such parties often provide rank-and-file activists with modest livelihoods and enhance mightily the upper levels' wealth. Because this is so, whatever else such parties might accomplish, they must feed the machine by transferring money or jobs or privileges -- civic as well as economic -- to the party's clients, directly or indirectly. This, incidentally, is close to Aristotle's view of democracy. Hence our ruling class's standard approach to any and all matters, its solution to any and all problems, is to increase the power of the government -- meaning of those who run it, meaning themselves, to profit those who pay with political support for privileged jobs, contracts, etc. Hence more power for the ruling class has been our ruling class's solution not just for economic downturns and social ills but also for hurricanes and tornadoes, global cooling and global warming. A priori, one might wonder whether enriching and empowering individuals of a certain kind can make Americans kinder and gentler, much less control the weather. But there can be no doubt that such power and money makes Americans ever more dependent on those who wield it."
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the/print 

Someone Has Finally Let It Out!

It couldn't be clearer nor more understandable.

Sad Days Ahead…

There could be some sad days ahead in the blogosphere. Lex, the proprietor of "NeptunusLex.com" has decided to pull back a bit and re-prioritize some of what he does. He does it well and I hope that he'll continue. If not, there will be a void somehow that will affect the many, both male and female, military and not, right and left and all the others doing the invisible lurk.

Best of luck and Godspeed to him and his. If he leaves, I hope that he returns. If he pulls back, I hope that he can heal.

We all will be the worse off for his absence.

Afghanistan and Kissinger. Kissinger?!!!

Patrick Wood of the "August Review" unravels more of the web of intrigue we find ourselves caught up in here in these United States.

Is it possible to be astonished, but not surprised?

Whining Liberals who are more sensitive to others needs than I am, probably won't like this…



Absolutely unbelievable, except of course to those who think our enemies and traitorous citizenry should get a fair shake.

Speaking Out On Israel

This is a must see video for anyone who doubts that President Obama has strong radical views regarding our only true ally in the Middle East.

Some Ideas From Radioland (KSCO-AM - 1080)

The following is a KSCO commentary. Here is Kay Zwerling:
Only an entrenched irresponsible Congress urged by an irresponsible President would vote into law an irresponsible healthcare reform Bill of over 2000 pages, which nobody in Congress read before voting for it, and which will bankrupt and destroy our Country.
We the People must finally demand term limits.
Last week, local resident Bob Lessley, offered creative sensible ideas about changes in our government focusing on term limits and States’ rights.
Now, another concerned citizen who believes States’ rights and term limits are a must, came up with other creative ideas, calling it “The Congressional Reform Act of 2009”.
So, let’s examine the ideas in this Reform Act, and maybe a groundswell of citizens will get started on Congressional changes from both of these Americans’ ideas.
Senators could introduce the Bill in the U.S. Senate, and Representatives could introduce a similar Bill in the U.S. House. These people could become American heroes.
These ideas are from a modest fellow who calls himself merely “A fellow American”.
And, here are his eight concise reforms:
#1. Term limits: 12 years only for each person in office. I would limit it to six years per person for the Senate, and six years per person for the House, because serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term, then go home and back to work.
#2. No tenure – no pension.
Congress will collect a salary while in office, and none when out of office.
#3. Congress past, present, and future participate in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system where Congress participates equally with the American people.
#4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as we all do.
#5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
#6. Congress loses their current healthcare system (poor babies), and participates in the same healthcare system as they created for We the People.
#7. Congress must equally abide in and by all laws they impose on the on the rest of us.
Remember: Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term, then go home and back to work.
And, finally –
#8. All contracts with past and present Congresspersons are void effective 1-01-2010 because the American people did not make contracts with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts and deals among themselves.
P.S. – Let’s limit lawyers to no more than 15-20% of the Congressional membership.
To conclude, I say – kudos to this modest American who proclaims “It is my sole intent not to make anyone mad with this email, but instead to make people THINK! We need to get our freedoms back before it is too late.”
And, I say, “Let’s go for it. Let’s take portions of Bob Lessley’s proposals and combine them with this one, and together we can take back our Country. It can be done.
For KSCO, this is Kay Zwerling.
© copyright 2010

What's in the video below…

If you decide to look at the video of Steve Wynn (Las Vegas guy), you may have to watch a brief commercial from CNBC. The wait is worth it because this man and his money are speaking loudly to anyone who is smart enough to listen.
I personally believe that he is somewhat naive to think that moving some of his business to Macao will keep his money safe in the long run. I think that country will eventually simply just take it away from him. That being said, he's hit the nail on the head regarding what's going on in D.C. Give him a chance to talk to you. Let me know what you think.

Steve Wynn takes on Washington D.C.

Nothing too serious here, really!

Someone sent this along and I think that it is fun. Fun? On a conservative's blogpage? "You jest!", sez you, the uninitiated.

See for yourself.

Another sign of the times.

But I think that there is a lot more to it,
Where the bad guy comes out a hero. Funny world, isn't it?

One a day, I guess…

Must Watch

History Repeats Itself (I hope not!)

A year ago or so, I posted the picture you see at the right of this comment. It illustrates arrogance and demonstrated to the world that appeasement is delectable. The cheers were short lived as the we descended into a global conflict. We are headed in the same direction on a similar highway. Our president is an appeaser and his cronies are afraid to call him on his dangerous ineptitude. I fear that many will die for a global cause which has nothing to do with our security. Click the title to see the original post.

Milk Run - Epilog

Like I said, the plane never flew again. The next day, my crew chief came around and told me about what they'd found.

The four embedded sparrow air to air missiles had more than one hundred pieces of shrapnel in them, but none had caused them to explode. For the most part, the 37mm shell had exploded downward, or early, if it was a proximity (but I don't think they had those). It came within a foot of blowing the left main gear off. It took out most of the hydraulics on the left side (good concept - redundancy), somehow the left main had worked in the gravity/pneumatic mode. The leading edge flap was severed and the aileron and spoilers were inop.

He also handed me a pound of lead which was the top of a 37mm shell, which he had found somewhere in the leading edge of the wing. I use it to this day for a paperweight on my desk. You can see how the detonating mechanism is mis-aligned. This has been a constant reminder of that day and how the good Lord had His hand upon me, even though I didn't have a clue.

101

How much fun is it to think about my dad and what he'd think of this world and the mess we're in? I get in these moods (and especially on his birthday) when I get a sniff of Canadian Club. Bizarre, I know. That smell and that of a freshly dry-cleaned suit, bring back memories of my youth, my family and the security I felt as I grew up.

Now dad was not a boozer. Don't think for a minute that I smelled the CC on him whenever I saw him. But there is something about the odor that takes me back to Seattle in the late forties and the pleasant routine of life for the Wilsons. Going for an apple pie on a Sunday evening. Listening to "Lum and Abner" "The Shadow" and "Amos and Andy" (http://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Amos_n_Andy.php), innocent things that are missing in today's frenetic lifestyle in the glow of the TV.

Pop, I wish I could talk to you and say how much I love you. We'll meet in heaven - we'll talk.

Milk Run - Ride ‘em Fuzz

 When I began this entry on the blog, I really didn’t think that it would take so long for me to get my act together, work through “writer’s block” and find the right words to express my delight that some even cared whether I wrote it down or not. It is almost forty-four years since that afternoon in 1965 (16 November). In some ways it seems like yesterday. It was a lifetime ago.

Final approach didn’t take as long to fly as it takes to write about it. At higher final airspeeds, you have to descend at a higher rate to get to the same point at the end of the runway (DUH!). Anyway, Bill and I set the bird up and rode it down without really sensing any danger. It never occurred to me that we wouldn’t walk away from this thing.

Geez, looking back and trying to relate what I felt, it was exciting and almost fun! What a dummy.

My wingman checked us over for one last time and broke off at about 500 feet. The next several seconds went by and I simply put that sucker on the ground. I spiked it as hard as I could, pretty much where I thought we’d passed the first barrier and before we whizzed by the second one - the only one that would work for us.

Now the micro second that nothing happened during roll out seemed to last forever! Then all that planning paid off with a deceleration that made me glad I’d locked my shoulder harness. The hook worked as advertised and we came to a dead stop in about a second or so.

Right in the middle of a sigh of relief, I was completely startled when the airplane began to roll backwards and sort of “ground looped”  as the nose wheel turned during the barrier cable retraction. This was probably the most unsettling part of the whole day. Some say I have control issues. It really took us by surprise.

We sat there for a couple of minutes, opened the canopies and took off our masks. No matter what the mission or its results, taking off that mask always felt good. I can’t remember whether I lit up a Marlborough in the cockpit, or whether I waited until my foot hit the ground. My crew chief was the first to get to us and he had two bottles of Heineken. Best ones we’d ever have, I suspect. I think I actually remembered to sign the plane’s log (781?). I wish I could remember what I might have written in it. We walked around the airplane a bit, got into a crew van and went to debrief. I never thought to take a picture and I have regretted that for a long time. The airplane never flew again, I believe. I heard that they had put it on a barge after cannibalizing it and took it to the Philippines. That was that.

In the debrief, many shook our hands (the Wing D.O. included), and then my flight commander, Jesse, chewed my ass for five minutes for getting low on a bombing run.

That’s about it. The next night it was back to north of Hanoi, in the dark, under the flares. Maybe daylight flying shouldn’t have  held the allure it did.

Milk Run - My First Trap

Since 350 knots seemed to work OK going up and jinking, I saw no real reason to worry about slowing way down for the trip to Ubon. Willy had proceeded on ahead with his low oil pressure light, and one of the guys had gone home with him and the last guy in our foursome stayed with Bill and me.

The base had been alerted and was getting ready for our arrival and landing. It seemed like only a few minutes before we started descending and setting ourselves up for some sort of long straight in approach (something else we didn’t really practice under VFR). I could use the ILS for a back up reference, but it didn’t really work very well with a 200K final, or at least it seemed weird. It was obvious that I wasn’t going to approach initial and break. The airplane wouldn’t like that at all. Control was OK, but I had to lead roll in, roll out, etc. by a huge margin. The rudders helped a lot, Lord, it was sloppy!

As we came down into the local area, I decided to wait for three or flights of four to recover from up North, so I sort of “held” over a point (more or less) north and east of the strip. It was during one of those 360’s that some O-6 in the tower told me to set up for a low pass before I tried the approach. I guess he wanted to see how extensive the damage was or something. I encouraged him to change his mind or pretended I didn’t hear him or something. Anyway, one line up and approach was enough for that afternoon. I never did hear back about it, so I guess he was OK with my decision.

Once everybody had recovered I got lined up several miles out, (probably a whole lot further than several) at what I remember was about 2000 feet above field elevation. We ran some various check lists and got the gear down and locked. My chase said they looked good and I had green lights now to go with all of the amber ones. I remembered to put the hook down (first time for everything!) and proceeded to settle the airplane in at about 190K. The Phantom, once trimmed, was a very stable airplane. That probably came from its initial design as an air to air platform for fleet defense. The thud drivers had to work harder than we did at low airspeeds, but at 500K the “Farmingdale Squat Bomber” was stable as a rock. Anyway, once we got on the final approach heading, we were pretty much under control. I used the rudder for alignment and thrust management kept us on some sort of acceptable glide path. Obviously, I didn’t need as much power going down clean as you did with the leading edge boundary layer and full flaps. That was a little strange, as we RARELY pulled the power back below 83-87% on final at approach speeds. I had a student do that for me later in life, and he nearly killed us. But I digress.

The airplane had to take the number one wire (there was no number two or three) and I had to miss the MA1A chain link barrier. This means that the hook had to hit in a space some fifty feet in length or there would be a go around and lots more talking. Oh well, guys in the brown shoe Navy do it all the time. What’s to worry?

Milk Run - Coming to a Close

The briefings that were held at happy hours tended to be somewhat superficial, if you really want to know. A lot of ideas were always put forth and a lot of posturing would take place to defend one's ideas about almost any subject that was being discussed. When we talked about the so-called "approach end engagement" the conversations mostly dealt with why the hell you would have to do such a thing in the first place. This was a last ditch method to save one's neck without having to eject. Now Navy guys do this a lot. It's something they train for, wash out of the program for and spend a lot of time bragging about. Air Force professionals prefer large areas of concrete laid down on dirt. Landing on a floating piece of steel never seemed quite right somehow (how DOES that work, anyway?).

So here's your introduction to the piece of equipment known as the MA1A Barrier in combination with the Barrier Arresting Kit (BAK 9) (in the diagram).

(Quoting from an Ops Manual)

2. Types of USAF Systems.

2.1. MA-1A. The MA-1A emergency arresting system consists of a net barrier and

cable system designed to engage the main landing gear of an aircraft. Because it is a unidirectional system, it must always be installed in the overrun area.

Aircraft engaging this system above the speed and weight limits provided in Figure 2-

3 will result in a runout greater than 305 meters (1,000 feet), or cable failure. Most MA-1A systems employ ships' anchor chains as the energy absorber. These systems require a runout area of at least 259 meters (850 feet) plus the length of the aircraft. The chains lie on either side of the runway overrun, beginning at the barrier location and running in the direction of aircraft travel; however, some MA-1A systems use a BAK-9 instead of a ships' anchor chain

as the energy absorber. These systems require a runout area of at least 290 meters

(950 feet) plus the length of the aircraft. This configuration is an MA-1A/BAK-9 combination.

If you actually read all of that stuff above, you should note two important items:

First it says that this is a unidirectional system. It is designed to work one way.

Second, note which way the arrow is pointing. Right to left.

The thing is designed to catch a fighter that has aborted take off for whatever reason and it prevents the airplane from traveling out into the local boonies by arresting it with a net-like barrier or cable (like an aircraft carrier). It assumes a decelerating "catch" under about 180 knots (in typical use more like 80K). This is a departure end engagement.

In an approach end engagement, you engage the mechanism from left to right. Yup, wrong way on a one-way street. Oh and you don't want to catch the part of the barrier that is attached to the ship's anchor chains. Look at the diagram and you'll see that if used from right to left, you pick up the drag of one link, then two, then three and so forth. From left to right you grab the entire weight of the chain immediately and probably rip the ass off of your plane (or worse). You might want to note as well that there are about 35-50 feet between the chain catch and the cable catch.

I am starting to brag here.

Exciting Times!

Can't write about simple combat in airplanes, I get to see some real combat in the Swamp!

Jeanie and I are at the 30 yard line, 16 rows up. I'm waving.

Go Gators!