Survivability in Combat

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message link.net...
"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

It's considered extremely bad manners to ask for, request, or demand
personal background and/or qualifications of any individual on Usenet.

Sorry, I'd never heard of this rule!

It's not a rule. It's accepted protocol.


Must be an outgrowth of The New Yorker cartoon: "On the internet,
nobody knows you're a dog."

I was just curious, Dudley. Honest to God! I wanted to know about the
Fighter Pilot Fellowship.

Is Ed Rasimus a member?

Thank you Dan. I appreciate the honest, and I believe straight forward and
friendly request for information. If I misread your intent before I
apologize. I will say however that it might be better in the future if you
ask for this type of information privately instead of in the public forum
and possibly consider not asking for it in the middle of a thread discussing
a totally different issue.
Now if I can just get past your "Dudley, there's something fishy about you"
remark in connection with your initial request , I might begin to believe
you have a genuine interest in the Fellowship.

I will mention my signature tag line if I may, since it seems to be
bothering several people on the group including yourself, as you have
expressed this sentiment in your prior post. I believe you used the exact
phrasing
"We're supposed to sit here awestruck at the Fighter Pilot Fellowship".
Since I really don't want people to be "awestruck" by my use of the term
"fighter pilot", and since I am a civilian, I will allow myself a friendly
response to this since it does show some ambiguity and could possibly be
confusing to those not familiar with me and my "history".
The tag is in no way meant to impress or imply anything other than it's
single purpose; that's why I don't put "President 1971- 1985 IFPF" on the
line any longer. The tag is there because from time to time people who
actually DO remember the Fellowship will happen on a post of mine and
inquire about the health or whereabouts of an ex member of the association.
I receive letters from time to time that address this purpose.
As for the Fellowship itself; It was formed in 1971. It lasted until 1985
when we disbanded for the usual reasons organizations like ours disband. It
took a great deal of time and effort to keep it going, and none of us really
had enough of either to spend on it.
Our charter membership in 71 consisted of people from both the military and
civilian high performance aircraft communities. Many of us were from the
demonstration community. Many of the major military aerobatic teams in the
free world signed on.
The Thunderbirds were members, as were the Blues, The Red Arrows, and The
Snowbirds. Many professional organizations were members. The Naval Test
Pilot School is representative of our service professional charter
membership.
Individual members were either military, or if civilian pilots like myself,
mostly from the research, science, engineering, and test communities. ALL
of us shared the one common requirement of having flown high performance
airplanes professionally. Having flown combat in a fighter was NOT a
requirement. Naturally, many of our members had flown fighters, (hence our
name :-) but we had members from the "heavier" aircraft communities as well.
Membership was by invitation only, and that invitation had to come from the
entire group.
Our letterhead carried the following statement;
"It is the purpose of the International Fighter Pilots Fellowship to
identify with pride the pilots who fly the world's greatest high performance
aircraft; and through the establishment of a world-wide non political
fraternity of these pilots, to help promote and achieve better understanding
as the direct result of improved professional and personal communication"

I hope this information has been helpful in clearing up any misconceptions.

As for Ed Rasimus. I'm fairly certain that had we known Ed at the time, we
would have offered him an invitation. I'd like to think he would have
accepted. We were a good group of people. Many of us remaining still are.

All the best,
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
For personal email, please replace
the z's with e's.
dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt


Sorry, as far as I'm concerned, you shouldn't be in any "Fighter
Pilots Fellowship" unless you are or were indeed, a fighter pilot.

Just my 2 cents,

A fighter pilot.