Good points. I’m pretty sure that “whilst” writing on a blog with an anonymous name, you are not “in uniform.” Keep talking my friend! I don’t think Mikey M. will mind…

Best,
Nose

… because they know that two irresistible forces meeting two immovable objects will lead to a space/time disruption that only the two of them will survive.

/sorry, I got nothing to add to the actual discussion of Sen McCain’s military service.

Flit: I can only second Sid and Snake’s comments on your goofy diatribe.

First off, it wasn’t a MK 82 cooking off. It was left over WWII Comp B stock that was loaded in the Phillipines to meet the numbers, as they had run out of the MK 80 series bombs. The crew had approached the fire thinking they had ten minutes of working time to get the fire out, before the MK 80 series ordnance would cook off. The old bombs somehow didn’t get the word.

Second off: The proximate cause of the missile firing was a no kidding stray volatage issue. Blend in the first LANT CV to enter the fray and wanting to show off how they could compete and excel against their already experienced brethen on Yankee Station. Part of that was blowing by the rule of not connecting the ordnance until on the cats. At least there, a loose missile just scares the guys near the pointy end, but shouldn’t impact anything but maybe the deck on it’s way off the rail. The FID crew decided that would slow the launch cycle. They tried something else…and another lesson learned written with spilled blood.

Facts: They kinda spoil your own illogical thoughts….

The Zuni in question fired because of a defect in the armament system in that aircraft and in the rocket pod itself. I had the fortune of speaking with a very smart AOC a while ago who discussed with me the scenario.

Apparently, the F-4 had a problem where it would periodically pop armament system circuit breakers when it was going from ground to aircraft power. The solution was to just push these things back in and call it even. Unfortunately, the Zuni pods in question had an issue where you could not tell if they were armed simply by looking at them, this of course predating the days when we have safety pins and better mechanical interlocks. Once those breakers were pushed back in, they would (on occasion) send a voltage pulse through the system and to whatever ordnance happened to be on the wing at the time.

In the case of the Forrestal, we have a perfect storm: Armed and loaded pod. F-4. Blown breakers. Pilot pushes them back in.

I (like others above who came before me) saw this video in 1993 during basic and recall to this day the sense of sheer, unadulterated horror of what exactly can go wrong on a carrier flight deck.

Today we have checklists, stray voltage checks, better systems, and an understanding of what can really go wrong. This is not to say that we can allow the margin for safety give us a false sense of security.

Insofar as the rest of the discussion here? You’ll have to excuse me from commenting on things until after November. Admiral Mullen had a thing or two to say about espousing political viewpoints whilst in uniform not too long ago.

Lex is right, listen to him – this is far, far from your best work. I’ve not written and or deleted several posts over the last couple of days and avoided making a couple of remarks when passing by colleagues engaged in public partisan conversations and have been better for it. Best to sing the “I’m sorry song” and make a fresh start
tune here (starting at 32 seconds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UhpnQ1Rsc&feature=related
lyrics here
(about 20% down the page) – you could consider this a twofer for the revelation about Palin being a member of the Alaska Independence Party, non?
Sincerely,

David