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
1. Thank goodness the tanker is an “F” Gotta have that WSO to make sure the right amount gets passed.
2. Any chance of seeing 10-12 in a big circle all passing gas to each other? And what would we call that?
Nose
You’re getting downright nasty, Nose.
Yep, nasty. LOL
I wonder what Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jarod Hodge was riding in? Whatever it was, I guess it didn’t need gas.
Isn’t that incest?
Nose you slay me!
I thought the Super Bugs larger wings were supposed to hold more fuel…so they didn’t launch and land pitot tube first….
Say it isn’t so, that another big lie on endurance got thru!
I’d call it a painting by MC Escher.
Yep, incest.
That is the only word to describe it…
Nose, I’d call that the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles.
The self licking ice cream cone…………….
Cap’n,
It still looks like an unnatural act to me.
Baby sips …. just baby sips …
Caption winner: P-3W. LMAO!
Reminds me oh so much of these….
Offloading the beer from Tailhook
Where’s the KA6D??!!??!!? When you really need one.
Atkron One Four Five 79-82, Atkron One Two Eight 82-85, 89-92.
Just check with Pinch from his Tomcat(Any Time, Baby?) days.
… or is the little guy giving the big guy a push?
Cheers
Damn, Sid, I felt that one!
On the road, but I’ll rise to the challenge. BTW- great 9-11 tribute lex.
That picture should be titled “Levitating”.
Remember those Hornets on Stennis a cuppla weeks ago who had the midair and diverted to Guam?
If a real organic and persistent overhead tanker hadn’t been in that airwing, 1 0r possibly 2 little Hornet drivers woulda went swimming…
Guaaranteed.
The reality: The price to pay will come due…soon. Or the mitigators will gloss this one over by not really operating ‘Bluewater”.
Those that know- know.
b2
No further comments?
figures…
b2
Twenty comments isn’t bad for one line of text and a picture. I’ve labored harder for less
Lex,
That hollow plea wasn’t directed to you, per se. I’m just frustrated there isn’t anyone here that asks questions or thinks “what if?”….
Not a lot of imagination or just plain curiosity in the younger professional crowd…they just accept the “status quo”.
You, on the other hand, Know, but accept!
BTW, do YOU get my point about “Bluewater Ops” with and without Superhornet tankers? IE, as in “Bluewater Minus”. I couldn’t expect Skippy or the other E-2 bubbas to really understand or give it much thought.
b2
I don’t know that I know what you know. The SuperHornet can fly fast and transfer a lot of gas.
Anyway, if they’d have gone splash after a midair collision they wouldn’t have been the first to do so, nor are we done putting jets in the water I don’t think. Any flight that’s within divert range of an airfield ashore isn’t really blue water, by my lights.
The definition of blue water just changes with the amount of gas you can put in the air, I guess.
Anyway, I’ve got my own windmills to tilt at
In the unique carrier environment overhead tanking world, a save is a save..there will be less of them in the future. You have been saved..I’m sure..but think about it in a broad sense… You know about saves having been an CV Ops O.. However, you had the luxury of possessing a better tool in the toolbox for the job and didn’t have an all-Hornet & Growler thirsty airwing.
I predict what constitutes Bluewater ops will evolve into less x than what was before. To me, that distills down to lesser expectations in a WAS with the PRC or USSR the II. You be the judge CAPT. You and your peers at work will sign off the risk AND come up with the mitigating procedures as they develop. I just look downstream further Lex and try to ask “what if?”. Ever read “The Art of the Long View” by Peter Schwartz.
re- “The SuperHornet can fly fast and transfer a lot of gas. ”
Great mission tanker, I’ll concede. Horrible overhead tanker..Even full it wouldn’t have much give for a 650 nm divert..even clean. Dirty? No way. Splash one Hornet. Cost of doing business? Unacceptable.
We should NEVER go backwards in capability OR safety.
Tilting windmills? Sure I am. I freely admit it. Of course the die is cast- however that won’t ever keep me from pointing out what I think is important. In the genes.
b2