The Navy and Air Force just finished a big exercise in the Western Pacific- Here is the graduation picture 🙂
And yes, that really is a B-52 in the center of the flight formation and this year marks the B-52’s FIFTY-SECOND anniversery of service!
Folks, you really should be proud of the officers, men and women who crew these ships, aircraft and submarines. They work their butts off an average of 12 hours a day underway, in a hostile environment, for low pay AND have to put up with the crap from the likes of Reid/Kennedy/Pelosi…
These assets are getting old and tired (like the B-52) and maintaining them is a stone bitch! Also the Optempo/Perstempo is pretty high due to the cutbacks before 2000 in all the services. Many of these folks have also done tours in the Gulf and ashore in the Sandbox supporting a variety of organizations; yet they do so proudly! I know, I’ve worked with more than a few of these folks over the last few years.
A caveat here- You must remember…
A Happy Sailor is a bitching sailor; when they get quiet is when you have to worry! (Trust me- Been there, done that)
On another note- We have been having some sidebars about losing military folks. I would like to ask you, if you know a WWII, Korea, Vietnam or Gulf War veteran to try to get them to support the Veterans History Project being run by the Library of Congress.
Also, if you have military items from a family member you no longer want, or don’t plan to pass to others, rather than throw them out, please contact one of the service museums- They are always looking for donations for exhibits and historic artifacts. Here are links for the services museums
You probably did fly with me. . I did almost every other leg on the Shorts out of SFO. . before we got the Brasilias and the Bae146’s (the BacRoach). We only had four women pilots and I was the only tall redhead.
I had 20/400 vision so the majors weren’t talking to me.
Did you ever fly out of Whidby?
LOL- Small world… Yep I flew a many a det out of Whidby, and Kodiak, and Adak, and Eielson, and Elmendorf. Basically anywhere we could park 135,000lb of airplane. I remember flying on one of those BAE146’s down to San Diego once for a meeting, it was like being in a mini C141- Rattled, shook and was colder’n hell in the back… 🙂
a blog for you. . a friend. not a pilot but a teacher. . but I think, like mine and the nurse blogs, you’ll appreciate her wit, her background and her experience of the life that we’ve all had.
http://allrtee-publicpondering.blogspot.com/
Thanks! I’ll hope over right now and take a look.
B-52’s. Is there anything they can’t do?
BTW, thanks for the blogrolling me. It has been reciprocated.
No problem Wyatt…
The B-52 is an amazing beast. It’s old, clunky, all the paint is worn off most everything, but put a couple of MPD’s in, add new electronics and away they go! again… 🙂