Ed Rasimus wrote:

:On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 03:08:52 GMT, Fred J. McCall
wrote:
:
:Ed Rasimus wrote:
:
::The USN has a tendency to be a bit parochial about who is defending
::them!
:
:Primarily because we're afraid that the Air Farce might do the same
:stellar job when they take over that job that they did for so many
:years in providing close air support for the Army. :-)
:
:Even with the smiley face at the end, that is patently absurd. I could
:introduce you to a lot of AF airplane drivers both current and dating
:back to SEA that spent a lot of time putting ordnance "in the wires"
:and working both at night and under the weather in support of guys on
:the ground. There is no more important mission.

And I could introduce you to a lot of grunts on the ground that
thought parts of the Air Force were being taught that CAS was
something you did from 30,000 feet and would rather have the Marines,
the Navy, or the Australians up there.

:I have a foil I want to use at a meeting, but I need to make sure no
:USAF personnel are there before I do. It's a shot of a Hornet on
:final to trap, with the caption:
:
: "If it was easy, we'd let the Air Force do it."
:
:You ought to put up a video clip of Baghdad in the middle of the night
:with all of those missile trails and tracers then one of Sadaam's Hq
:buildings being excised from amidst the neighborhoods without
:collateral damage by an F-117, B-2 or F-15E. The caption can be:
:
: "If the Navy could reach it, we wouldn't have to do it."

Except, of course, that would be preposterous since the Navy could and
did 'reach it'. We didn't have 5 carriers over there for sport,
sport.

:No one ever won a war by "out-landing" the enemy.

Uh, that's how you win the air war. If a higher percentage of your
take-offs end in landings than the enemy can manage, you get air
superiority.

:Besides, why would
:you want to fight a war from any place without a bar?

Well, there is that.

[And this might explain that issue that so many grunts had with USAF
CAS. :-)]

--
"The way of the samurai is found in death. If by setting one's heart
right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his
body were already dead, he gains freedom in The Way. His whole life
will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling."
-- "Hagakure Kikigaki", Yamamoto Tsunetomo