Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
More on Chevalier here…I’m amazed sid hasn’t beaten me to this!
Shipmates,
What I would dearly love to see, however, is the sea trials when the Russians or the Chinese take their first carrier to sea and try those same landings and launches….
I mean, to be ringside with a camera and sound system. To record their trials and tribulations.
Carriers and Naval Aviation are a product of a society where free expression and courage are respected. Where those with an idea are allowed to experiment, where they are allowed to fail. Thus the American, the British, and thre Japanese. Pioneers all. Courage, faith and the recognition of the right to fail. Hallmarks of civilised nations.
Compare that to the Soviets, the Chinese, the French. Socialist nations eschew failure, denigrate the individual and punish thinking outside the box.
Efficient carrier aviation can only exist in a society that values the courage and the right to try, and fail, of it’s warriors.
All others will be imitators, second-class copyists, where naval aviation is a bauble on the fleet awards list, but nothing of any true worth.
Respects,
AW1 Tim
Navy flyers are the most amazing people in the world! I just wish the F-14 was still around.