*Shrug* Who knows what is going on out at Joint Base Andrews in the Metro DC area? We have a correspondent there who tells us that at first they were told that it was an exercise, then he got a “shelter in place” order. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, told a Senate committee that it’s a “real world” situation.
Folks on the news are saying that it’s an exercise, but not everyone got the word. Folks there, looking at the cable TV news footage, don’t seem too concerned. So your guess is as good as mine.
Someone on the third floor of the medical facility saw two people walking across the base with long guns. The person didn’t know there was a drill planned and called in the active shooter report, law enforcement officials told NBC News’ Pete Williams.
Who knew there were irrational Drama Queens in DC?
What follows will seem fantastic – much like any other “no sh!t” story. But with this tale there’s a difference.
In this case, what I’m about to describe actually happened. And it’s fully documented.
I’m about to relate the story of the US Air Force’s “Cornfield Bomber.”
. . .
On 2 February 1970, four F-106As from the 71st Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, were scheduled for a training mission. The mission was to make history – but in a way that none could foresee.
The mission was scheduled to be a “2-on-2 combat maneuvering exercise”. As the name implies, two teams of two aircraft each would engage, attempting to get in position to score a simulated air-to-air “kill”.
Before takeoff, one aircraft experienced a mechanical issue – an on-ramp drag chute malfunction. To preclude scrubbing the mission, the day’s flight activities were altered to “2-on-1 combat maneuvering exercise”.
The remaining 3 aircraft took off, ascended to altitude – and engaged. The single aircraft made a high-speed approach at the other two, then went vertical. His two opponents followed.
. . .
In the maneuvering that followed, the pilot of one aircraft in the two-plane group – Capt. Gary Faust – appears to have “pushed the envelope” a bit too much while maneuvering. His aircraft stalled, then entered what aviators term a “flat spin” at approximately 35,000 feet elevation.
Now, I’m not a pilot. But even I know that a flat spin is some seriously bad juju. It’s essentially God (or Budda, Rama, Fate, Gaia, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whoever/whatever entity you choose to worship) telling you, “You are now in deep (trouble). You have a very short time to figure this out or we’ll be meeting in person.”
Faust attempted to recover. He was unsuccessful. So after falling somewhere between 21,000 and 27,000 feet while in said flat spin, he ejected.
Faust’s ejection was successful. He deployed his parachute, and drifted in his parachute into the local Bear Paw Mountains. He was rescued by local residents using snowmobiles.
. . .
Now, when an aircraft’s pilot ejects three things happen to the aircraft. First, the weight and center of gravity change. Second, the ejection seat imparts a substantial downward force to the front of the aircraft. And, third, loss of canopy changes the aerodynamics of the aircraft somewhat.
The combination of those changes caused something quite remarkable. On its own, Faust’s aircraft came out of its spin. It then began to glide – straight and level – at around 175 knots.
It seems that one of the things that Faust had done during his attempts at recovery was to put his aircraft’s control surfaces into “takeoff trim” settings. These settings turned out to be virtually perfect on the F-106A for gliding under the conditions the bird now exhibited (no pilot/ejection seat/canopy, idling engine producing minimum thrust, straight and level).
The aircraft – now somewhere between about 8,000 and 14,000 AGL (accounts vary), then flew/glided, straight and level, for a number of miles. It approached the ground in farming country near the town of Big Sandy, MT.
Being February in Montana, the ground was covered with several inches of snow. The aircraft touched down in a farmer’s field (one account says alfalfa, another wheat).
After touching down, the aircraft skidded a substantial distance along the snow-covered ground. A low stone wall was blocking its path. Somehow, with no pilot it turned about 20 degrees right while skidding and skidded through a gap in the wall. It came to rest.
The engine was still running when local LE authorities reached it. They contacted the USAF, who advised them to simply let the aircraft continue to idle until it ran out of fuel – which it did, about 1 hour and 45 minutes later.
. . .
USAF personnel went to the site afterwards and inspected the aircraft. It indeed seemed effectively intact. However, there was no good way on-site to determine the amount of damage to the aircraft’s underside.
The aircraft was partially disassembled, then recovered by the Air Force. Amazingly, there wasn’t much more than minor damage to the underside of the aircraft. One of those involved with recovery efforts reportedly commented that if there had been any less damage, they could have simply flown the aircraft out (there was a paved road nearby that was straight and level enough to allow that).
The aircraft was sent to McClellan AFB, California, for depot inspection and repair. (Ya think?) It was determined to be repairable, and was indeed repaired and return to service. Capt. Faust reportedly later flew the same aircraft while the aircraft was assigned to a unit at Tyndall AFB, Florida, and he was TDY there for training several years later.
. . .
Well, “That’s the story, and I’m sticking to it.” (smile)
But perhaps you think I’m “BS-ing” you? Well, if you think that – read/watch the links/videos below. They document the fact that the incident described here really happened.
The aircraft in question was tail number 58-0787. For unclear reasons, it came to be known as the “Cornfield Bomber” – though it was not a bomber and did not self-land in a cornfield. It today is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Sometimes truth is seriously stranger than fiction.
Author’s Note: the title of this article is one version of the reported radio transmission made in jest by USAF Maj. Jimmy Lowe, flying as Faust’s wingman that day, on observing the aircraft come out of its spin and fly away on its own after Faust ejected.
It was an especially tough day to survive in the military yesterday. According to CNN, an Air Force Thunderbirds pilot safely ejected from his F-16 jet over Colorado, while a Navy Blue Angels F-18 pilot wasn’t so lucky over Tennessee.
The pilot of a Blue Angels jet was killed Thursday during practice for a weekend air show, hours after a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed following a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement ceremony attended by the President, officials said.
The Navy said the Blue Angels pilot died from injuries suffered in the crash in Tennessee.
The Thunderbirds pilot safely ejected before the plane went down in Colorado, officials said.
Meanwhile at Fort Hood, Texas, flash flooding took the lives of at least five soldiers according to the Killeen Daily Herald;
Five Fort Hood soldiers were killed and four others were missing Thursday after the armored vehicle they were in overturned at a low-water crossing during a training mission.
[…]
Three soldiers were in stable condition Thursday evening at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on post. They were rescued from the water near the vehicle and immediately transported to the Coryell Memorial Healthcare System in Gatesville before their transfer to Darnall.
Flash flooding was one of many reasons I hated Fort Hood.
A reminder that training for war can be as deadly as the war itself.
Chief Tango sends us a link to the Washington Post which reports that Air Force Lieutenant General John W. Hesterman will keep his rank through his retirement despite the fact that he was fired from his position as assistant vice chief of staff for conducting an unprofessional relationship with a subordinate officer and demonstrated conduct unbecoming of an officer.
The investigation into Hesterman was launched after a complaint was registered in August that he carried on an unprofessional relationship with a subordinate and meddled inappropriately in the assignments of her husband, who was an Air Force colonel. The husband alleged that a relationship between his wife and Hesterman dated to at least 2007, when the general was a one-star officer and commander of the 48th Fighter Wing in Britain.
Hesterman denied that a sexual relationship took place, but emails that were entered into divorce proceedings between the female officer and her husband were examined by the inspector general and ended Hesterman’s career.
The decision, according to the Post, is worth about $18,000/year to Hesterman – the difference between two-star and three-star retirement pay. The savings for Hesterman is just a hair below my entire retirement pay check for the year.
By the way, Air Force, don’t come crying to me when Congress finally sticks it’s nose into your sexual harassment assault response and prevention business when you do things like this. The husband was clearly mistreated by the general so the flag officer could carry on a sexual relationship with the colonel’s wife. The Air Force Secretary and the Defense Secretary signed off so the general could keep his full retirement pay.
Marine_7002 and Chip send us a link from Fox News which reports that 60th Air Mobility Wing public affairs office posted photos of their airmen playing games like a life-sized “Hungry, hungry Hippos” for team-building activities day, Wingman Day;
“Airmen launch into a life-size version of ‘Hungry Hungry Hippos’ as part of a team building experience during Wingman Day activities,” a caption reads. “The Wingman Day program provides training, and hands-on participation exercises for Airmen and frontline supervisors to enhance their ability to recognize and effectively intervene with other Airmen in distress, utilizing the PRESS (Prepare, Recognize, Engage, Send, and Sustain) model.”
Wingman Days in the past have included team 5K runs, where airmen are tied together during the race.
Silly us. We played like football and baseball for our “Organized Grab Ass” days or “Mandatory Fun Days”. The article points out;
Workers at the Veterans Affairs administration came under fire last year when a video emerged of them playing a life-size version of “Hungry Hungry Hippos” that lasted most of the work day on the taxpayer’s dime.
Of course, the Air Force actually accomplishes it’s missions, so they should have a little fun. They don’t have hundreds of thousands of people waiting in line while they’re playing.
Fox News reports that the Air Force is suffering so badly from budget and manpower cuts that Congress and the White House have accomplished that which our nation’s enemies have only dreamed about – the US Air Force has been nearly neutralized by politics and sequestration;
Many of the Airmen reported feeing “burnt out” and “exhausted” due to the current pace of operations, and limited resources to support them. During the visit to Ellsworth earlier this week, Fox News was told only about half of the 28th Bomb Wing’s fleet of bombers can fly.
“We have only 20 aircraft assigned on station currently. Out of those 20 only nine are flyable,” Pfrommer said.
“The [B-1] I worked on 20 years ago had 1,000 flight hours on it. Now we’re looking at some of the airplanes out here that are pushing over 10,000 flight hours,” he said.
“In 10 years, we cut our flying program in half,” said Capt. Elizabeth Jarding, a B-1 pilot at Ellsworth who returned home in January following a six-month deployment to the Middle East for the anti-ISIS campaign.
[…]
The B-1 issues are a symptom of a broader resource decline. Since the end of the Gulf War, the U.S. Air Force has 30 percent fewer airmen, 40 percent fewer aircraft and 60 percent fewer fighter squadrons. In 1991, the force had 134 fighter squadrons; today, only 55. The average U.S. Air Force plane is 27 years old.
After 25 years of non-stop deployments to the Middle East, airmen are tired.
“Our retention rates are pretty low. Airman are tired and burnt out,” said Staff Sgt. Tyler Miller, with the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron based at Ellsworth.
At least at the end of the Clinton years, the year-to-year budget was balanced on defense cuts, but this administration uses the “savings” from slashing our national security for more social spending driving us further in debt. This is what the end of a Jimmy Carter second term would have looked like. I don’t see a light at the end of a tunnel. The same people who gave this administration a second term will choose poorly in November.
According to the Washington Post, Tech. Sgt. Matthew J. Greiner, Senior Airman Dustin H. Temple and Senior Airman Goodie J. Goodman have been awarded valor medals for their actions in a Sept. 27, 2014 battle in Afghanistan. Temple was awarded the Air Force Cross while the other two received the Silver Star Medal.
It turned into a fight for their lives, three U.S. Special Operations airmen involved in the battle recalled Tuesday. The insurgents, numbering close to 100, sprung a fierce attack in which they not only launched a barrage of fire on the Americans, but made plans on the radio to overrun their position and take them hostage, the airmen said.
“They were much, much more brave than any insurgent that I have ever had throughout my deployments there,” Senior Airman Goodie J. Goodman told reporters in a conference call Tuesday. “They didn’t seem like they were willing to quit until the last soul.”
Temple, in addition to calling airstrikes, repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire, resupplying his team and retrieving a mortally injured soldier.
[…]
More than 100 insurgents were ready for the fight and began with most of their fire focused on Temple’s element. He directed close-air support from F-16s, AH-1s, AC-130s and an MQ-1 as the men faced overwhelming fire. When a soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Weathers, was hit by a sniper, Temple ran into enemy fire to return him to safety.
“Airman Temple helped keep him alive so his family was able to fly to Germany to see him alive one last time,” Army Capt. Evan Lacenski, the team leader of 7th Group Special Forces and leader of the mission. said during the medals ceremony.
When Temple returned to his team, the enemy fighters surged within 40 meters. The group’s interpreter captured the insurgents’ order, “Take the Americans alive.” The team fought the insurgents at close range, keeping them from “climbing through murder holes” in the team’s compound, Lacenski said.
There’s a more complete narrative of the battle and the airmen’s actions at the Air Force Times link.
DocV sends us a link to the CNN story about Air Force Master Sergeant Daniel Raimondo who was in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek when he saw smoke billowing from a building, so he went to investigate. He saw a young mother and her three children trapped on an upper-floor of the building. He organized onlookers so that they held the edges of a blanket to catch the victims of the fire.
Onlookers scream and wave their hands as the 30-year-old mother holds out the terrified infant — the child’s legs kicking furiously — before dropping her to the crowd.
Another child follows, then another, before the woman herself leaps from the window — the only escape route.
Remarkably, all survived without injury Saturday, caught safely on blankets in a rescue effort orchestrated by passing U.S. service personnel stationed at nearby Osan Air Base.
There’s video of the mother dropping the kids and then finally dropping herself at the link.
