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
Please tell me that’s the ‘before’ picture, otherwise I question SGT Kaitchuck’s understanding of such things.
It would have to be….I would be surprised if any crew has pink paint over here….I think they would paint it standard colors if they really were “sanding the gay” out of it…
Or they thought this was a fitting treatment for the Marine Fighter….after all, it is really all ARMY/AIR FORCE here at Kandahar…not to many Marine Air Jets here…lotsa Marine Rotor here though – Ospreys all over the place…
if it isn’t, that’s one shoddy paint job. You can see streaks or scratches on it in several places even in this small picture.
But would be a nice gesture to paint it pink after he failed to put his pecker in the proper receptable
That’s a nice shade of pink. I’m sure all the hazardous materials were handled within the applicable TO’s and regs.
Sidenote – in WWII, there were many experiments on how to make an aircraft “invisible”. Some of the tests were on a modified B-24 Liberator (Now that is the name they should have used for the B-2!). The USAAF determined the best color to make an aircraft difficult to detect visually was pink.
That would have been following in the footsteps of a British pioneer in the field – some photo recon Spitfires were painted a pink shade on their underside and pretty much disappeared against the clouds after takeoff.
Ack, the g-word. Away the emergency diversity team, away! If we can have a s__tail with somewhat dubious credentials in command of a carrier strike group we should surely be able to “diversify” our aircraft paint schemes to more accurately reflect our gender/diversity/inclinations.
CNO approved it is.
Not to carry off too far on this tangent, apparently CNO doesn’t agree about RDML Tyson’s quals. If she measures up, then more power to her.
She’s certainly getting rave reviews in the comments. Hope she’s as good as she seems–it would be a joy to be able to be proud of her position.
Good question: What shade of gray will be used for gay aviators?
That would explain a lot…
Having said that, I do recollect that the LRDG and SAS in North Africa during WWII painted their vehicles with pink and tan. IIRC that is.
Not that I was there, mind you.
Glad I never served on a ship painted Mountbatten pink! Supposedly it was very hard to see on the horizon. Must be a British Empire thing.
I wasn’t there either, but years ago Strategy & Tactics magazine mentioned some Egypt bound Grant tanks were diverted as emergency Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union in 1942. THe article noted the desert pink camouflage worked well in a winter setting, even if the tank performed poorly.
And then there is always the pink sub of “Operation Petticoat” fame, NaCly.
Well, the US Army used to wear Pinks and Greens….
and it was a sad day they chunked those uniforms for a nice corporate dullness. You could look at someone in that outfit, and know they were US Army. The mess they have now is indistinguishable from most third world dicatators’ kit.
TOTALLY agree, Scott. Now it’s the “Park Ranger” Smoky-the-Bear look. Can’t beat the Pinks& Greens. Would bring them back in a heartbeat were I El Cid. (along with ditching that damn beret for the general Army and letting it remain the exclusive domain of the elite units)
Serious? I thought the USN used to have White or Pink dress uniforms depending on the season.
Speaking of uniforms: MCPON in his pseudo DigiCammies
IIRC, the best color for night ops is NOT jet black (the colors we have painted all night fighters from the P61 Black Widow thru the B-57 to the F-117 & B-2) but a pinkish dark gray. I recall it explained recently in some art. that the big kids refused to use that scheme for the 117 because “fighter-pilots don’t fly pink jets.” (evidently neither do bomber pilots, lol) Talk about preferring to risk death over style! I’ve got as much testosterone as anyone, (well, these days at my age maybe that’s not true any more
) but I’ll fly a “pink jet” any day if it’ll keep me alive! Idiocy.
The RAF paints their training aircraft glossy black because it’s the highest visibility paint they could find (better than dayglow orange even), at least in daylight.
I think he missed a spot. Lucky for the pilot that no glitter was handy, though.
Thankfully, for the CO, the old at sea tradition of landing on a Carrier to which one is not assigned did not come into play here. Clearly a case of when the cats away…
UBANGI! I thought my late father made up that word as he’s the only person I ever heard use it.
Daryle, see: http://www.va12.com/
Dad didn’t serve with them. But now I was moved to look it up and learned that it’s a river in Africa. You learn something new everyday.
When was that? My dad was on the Coral Sea when I was born…a LOOOOOONNNNGGG time ago…
Saw a NJ vanity license plate on a car awhile back labeled “CVB-43″. I’ve regretted not mentioning to the owner ever since that this former zoomie knew what that meant.
The ship was still a straight deck when this happened, and I’m guessing 1955-1956. A montage of USS CORAL SEA pictures from the 1950′s for those so interested.
When I was on SARA we had an A-7 from JFK check into our pattern on his way home from a strike during the Gulf War. The illusion of the right home plate was maintained until he was on the wire and had shaken off the sudden stop. When his eyes met the big “60″ on the island his right hand executed a priceless forehead slap.
After being duly paraded about, gassed up and, um, redecorated, he was sent on his way.
On the Midway during the Desert Storm we had an S3 make 3 day passes before he figured out he was looking at the wrong boat. Each time he came down the chute and didn’t get aboard you could hear “Damn” eminating from all the ready rooms. Bags full of zappers were ready for deployment. If only…
…and Dogs go astray
Similar story to an offender of my acquaintance yclept “Pistols”. Flight Lead had frequent opportunities to interact with said lost soul, where he never missed to chance to drop his former fighterpilotness into any conversation, any presentation. I gave her the ammunition to make him go ziplip, but she never saw it necessary to use it.
Forgive another OT tangent here: Whilst reading towards the end of an article about the CSG Commander for CVN-77 and company, mine eyes fell upon a disturbing link…related to how one goes about killing an Aircraft Carrier in these modern times. Not very much makes me shudder these days as this article might, aber dees vun und dat vun sure did. Game changer pretty much covers it!
I can’t get all that worked up about it. The Navy has shown a far greater ability to shoot down ballistic missiles than any one else, and a better ability to shoot them down, then the Chinese have shown to hit targets.
Careful … There is cause and area to be concerned.
The DF-21 isn’t necessarily “old news” but I wonder why all these articles are coming out now when it’s something of a watercooler discussion topic at the five sides squirrel cage, and has been for years.
I hope the Maintenance Officer doesn’t have to ultimately appologize for offending anybody!
I’ve always argued that instead of “Sensitivity Classes” the youth of America should be taught in “Insensitivity Classes”. Toughness matters.
IIRC, the “pinks” used in uniforms back in World War II were khaki tan with a kind of warm pink cast to them. I had a pair of officer’s pink trousers that I thought were ‘the cat’s meow’ to use a phrase popular at the time. Anyway, what’s so bad about pink? Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona has all the illegal felons he imprisons in his tent-city jails wearing pink unmentionables, just so he can pick them out as they run away. I understand that the felons involved are very humiliated. But what’s so bad about a little humiliation when one breaks the law?
We used to put offenders in ‘the stocks,’ so the populace could come by and throw rotten eggs and tomatoes at them. Is that so Wrong?
Marianne
My understanding is that the pink has an additional psychological effect–they are less violent and aggressive when wearing it.
No, FbL, the sports-psychologists (from whence these studies emanate) make the point that the wearing of these colors makes one’s OPPONENT less aggressive. (he’s the one constantly looking at it–which is why some schools have actually painted the visiting teams’ football dressing rooms pink) The wearing of red is also said to unsettle one’s opponent psychologically, much as it enrages the bull in the rink.
*ring* viz rink–oops–apologies to Ferdinand and the rest of the bulls..
Though I must say, the thought of bullfighting on ice is…amusing.
But Jeff, do we give skates to the bull as well as the Matador to give him an fair chance–or are the odds of teaching our bull to ice-skate the same as those of teaching a pig to play the piccolo with those cloven hoofs–even if enrolled at the Julliard School of music and a highly intelligent and motivated pig?
I’m sure you were thinking of Roller Derby. So runk would have been correct in that context.
Rink vice runk.
I bet you would like this camo, Marianne: http://halloweenmart.com/media/core/CQM6010_PINK_ARMY_GIRL_FRONT.JPG.jpg
Of course, hard to beat this classic from 1902: http://www.dm1975.com/Spanam%20uniforms/1902dress.jpg
Mr. Joe,
The first link is a mighty fine piece of art.
Very fine art.
Both traits highly undesirable in fighter pilots!
Greetings:
As gravity never sleeps, I think it’s important that maintenance crews never fag out.
G-Man … I would hope that all fighter pilots in our military who are defending fragile Old Me would have a plentiful supply of ‘violence and aggression.’ I don’t think a wussy fighter pilot would be a very good one.
Nor would he last very long.
Marianne
The pink is very funny. Knowing Marines I have to believe the CO of the land based Marine FA-18 squadron was tweaking the carrier based Marine squadron CO, who may be his/her old school chum.
Like my old man used to say “You can always tell a Marine – you just can’t make him listen.”
Hey what gives?…I thought “Gay” in Navy babble/baby lingo is spelled and pronounced… “Gh-ey” or some such…no matter…
…it just warms this old Dogs heart to see Lex clearly back in the saddle again along with his posse engaging in some good natured internecine warfare with the step children…
…good weekend all. Best
I am going to report those maintenance types to I MEF (FWD) Kandahar just as soon as I finish my Tim’s
BTW, like the whole MAR LOG is here and at least the grounded aviators have the north DFAC. Where are the hot chick F-18 pilots anyway? I don’t see them in the NATO Gym.
Pics, if you find any. Or it didn’t happen.
Two thumbs up, I’m waiting for pics as well!
Poor Marines
To comment way out from my left field, the poor bastards (or, rather in all honestly, lucky dogs) are still using legacy NALCOMIS. No OOMA for you!