Navy or Air Farce?

On 05 Mar 2004 14:25:04 GMT, (Pechs1) wrote:

roncachamp- Naval aviation exists for those that can't qualify for the Air
Force. BRBR

righto-we all had assigned seats everytime the USAF exchange officer came
aboard the boat...better show than either the USMC pilot or the movie...
P. C. Chisholm
CDR, USN(ret.)
Old Phart Phormer Phantom, Turkey, Viper, Scooter and Combat Buckeye Phlyer

Everyone has their place. I respect the skill it takes to get on and
off the boat. I had a chance to ride with the VF-11 Rippers off of
Forrestal in the Med. It was impressive. Did the whole tour--couple of
flights, hang around the ready room, eat in the chow hall, bang my
head on the overhead, trip over the passageways, get lost in the maze,
take a dry shower, visit pri-fly, stand between the cats in the box,
contemplate the net below the LSO perch, etc.

Now, OTOH, when I was there, we tapped an KA-6 after T/O. The
nose-gunner driving me around bragged later about his tanking
ability--we took 1500 pounds to ease the cycle. I mentioned that the
previous week I'd returned to Spain from Incirlik and we took 16,500
pounds in one hook-up.

We did some 1-v-1 at the end of our station period. I was amazed at
the ability to low-speed fight the hard-wing F-4. I mentioned to the
guys during debrief, that if they ever saw me in my green/brown F-4
coming to fight their grey ones, it would be at 420 kts minimum and
probably a lot faster. There wouldn't be no knife-fighting and
scissoring. And, if I caught them on CAP like I'd just
watched--loitering at 250-275 kts in a holding orbit, they'd be dead
before they knew it.

In my squadron back on land, we had a huge grease pencil board on
which we logged our six-month requirements. Refuelings, low-levels
(day/night), nuc deliveries (vis/radar), conventional deliveries
(10,20,30, rx, strafe), intercepts (day/night), approaches, etc. The
Rippers had a small board. It logged landings--that's all, nothing
better than a green-three. Everything else (i.e. mission) seemed to be
secondary to coming aboard.

Just an AF perspective.

BTW, I did get to taste a bit of warm scotch in a paper cup while
hunched in a cramped C-position on the edge of a lower bunk with six
guys in a 8x5 foot stateroom without a window, beneath a cat and next
to an ammo hoist. Nice life!


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8