War On Terror

One of the better Iraq composite video's that I've seen.

C-17 Belly Landing (Update)

Great pic from Avweb, If you were flying this jet how could you ever explain the gear handle bein in the up postion?

Iwo Jima 64 Years Ago

Feb 19 was the 64 anniversary of the start of the battle for Iwo Jima. United States Marines stormed ashore unto the black volcanic sands that ended in an epic victory for the Corps and a new emergency landing field for B-29 coming back from Japan. Many hero’s were made in these dark days were the Marines lost 1,000 men a mile but never lost their spirit. Men like Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, Medal of Honor winner at Guadalcanal whose heroics on Feb 19 led to the the posthumous award of the Navy Cross

Semper Fi

Quote Of The Day

Excerpts from Ronald Reagan's first inaugural speech. What a great man and patriot he was. Especially after all of the B.S. that has flowed from Washington the last three days.


In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.

But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.

Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery with its row on row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom.
Each one of those markers is a monument to the kinds of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.
Under one such marker lies a young man—Martin Treptow—who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.
We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."
The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God's help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.
And, after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans. God bless you, and thank you.

Fire Trucks

For the fire truck buffs a couple of pictures of some of the rigs at my station.
The engine is E31 our first out. It is a 2006 E-One Typhoon custom. It is equipped with a 535 hp diesel, 2000GPM Hale pump with the Hale Foam Pro CAFS. It has a 6-man cab with two extra pull down jump seats, internal intercom with headsets for all crewmembers; a 1000-gallon booster tank and all the ladders are carried internally. The second is Tower 31 it is a 1997 Sutphen 75+ elevated platform. It has a 1500 GPM pump and both straight stream and fog nozzles pre-piped. It has a small 300 gallon booster tank but it does carry it’s own 5 inch supply line.

Quote Of The Day

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
~Winston Churchill

Wing Suit Base Jumping

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo

C-17 Belly Landing

Talk about a bad day, a C-17 landing at of Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, made a belly landing on Wednesday of this week. After much effort the big boy was raised and cleared off the runway. I wonder if the crew was wondering about the noise of the gear warning horn blaring that was silenced. Purely speculation on my part but it’s a little hard to believe that in the event of a total gear malfunction a C-17 does not have some kind of alternate extension method that forces the gear door open and allows the gear to deploy. I’ve never worked heavies so I don’t know if they have this system. Judging by some of the crew related accidents over the last few years I would not be surprised if there was a little crew coordination problem.

(Photo USAF)

More On The U.S.S. Cole Bombing Mastermind Trial

Here is a video of the interview on FOX news of a mother who son was murdered by the terrorist scum who bombed the U.S.S. Cole. She is a brave, angry and upset women who needs to have closure. Suspended these trials and closing Guantanamo is a huge mistake by Obama.

Clcik the title to go to the video

Obama, The Lack Of Serious Thought On Terrorists

Today the Military Tribunals under pressure from the Obama administration dropped the charges against U.S.S. Cole bombing mastermind Rahim al-Nashiri. His was last the active trial going on at Guantanamo and he was supposed to be arraigned Monday.
While the charges can be refiled there is no excuse for what The President has done, These scumbag terrorists have murdered Americans in this case Sailors some of whom were sleeping in their berths when the bomb went off, How can this man face the families and the now retired C.O. later today is beyond me. These scumbags do not have any due process rights; they are non-unformed enemy combatants and should be treated as such.
I fear that the Obama administration will due like the Clinton and try and take on terrorists with a law enforcement approach. The closing of Guantanamo with no plan and the delay of the tribunals are two good examples of this. This kind of approch is what led to the death of 3000 people on 9/11.
Today I feel that Dick Cheney may be right, with this naive and inept team in charge we will suffer the horror of a WMD attack in this country

Blast From The Past, F-89 Scorpion

When I first started looking for information on the F-89 what amazed me was the number that were built 1050 total, an absolutely staggering number of aircraft compared to today’s 183 F-22 build.
The F-89 was a twin-engine, all-weather fighter-interceptor. The Scorpion was crewed by a pilot in the forward cockpit and a radar operator in the rear who guided the pilot into the proper attack position. The first F-89 made its initial flight in August 1948 and deliveries to the Air Force began in July 1950 The major production model was the F-89D, which first flew 23 October 1951 and entered service in 1954. It did not have a cannon but instead mounted a Hughes E-6 fire control system with AN/APG-40 radar and an AN/APA-84 computer. Armament was two pods of 52 2.75 in (70 mm) "Mighty Mouse" FFAR rockets, a total of 682 were built.
On July 19, 1957,The Scorpion did what no other fighter had done. It fired a nuclear tipped Genie test rocket Three hundred and fifty F-89Ds were converted to "J" models, which became the Air Defense Command's first fighter-interceptor to carry nuclear armament.
The Scorpion left active duty in 1959 but continued to fly on with Air National Guard units until 1969

Wing Span: 60 feet
Length: 53 feet, 10 inches
Height: 17 feet, 6 inches
Weight: 47,719 lbs. maximum
Armament: Two AIR-2A Genie air-to-air rockets with nuclear warheads plusfour AIM-4C Falcon missiles
Engines Two Allison J35 engines with 8,000 lbs. of thrust each; with afterburner

Maximum speed 630 mph
Cruising speed 465 mph
Range 1,000 miles
Service Ceiling 45,000 feet