Category: Air Force

We’ve talked about how the A-10 Thunderbolt is a durable air frame, so durable that even the Air Force can’t shoot it down. Every time that the Air Force tries to rid itself of the close air support aircraft, the world changes and the Warthog proves that it’s irreplaceble on the modern battlefield because it can fly low and slow over the battlefield for a particularly long time while it delivers ordinance to the enemy.

Chief Tango sends us a link to Military.com which gives the Pentagon’s latest vacuous excuse for dumping the aircraft;

In the Pentagon’s most recent effort to argue for the A-10s retirement, the head of the Joint Strike Fighter program, said the failure to start retiring the A-10 has delayed the F-35 because A-10 maintainers haven’t been able to move to the F-35 program.

I guess that’s because the Air Force can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. The A-10 has been in the inventory since the late 70s, how many other aircraft have been added to the force since then without having to suck mechanics away from the A-10 program? And what’s the Navy’s excuse for failing to complete their portion of the Joint Strike Fighter program? They don’t have A-10s.

But the good news is that A-10s have arrived in Iraq to do what they do best to ISIS – ultimately that’s what it’s all about.

ABC News talks to the first drone operator to fire a Hellfire missile from a Predator platform, you know, since it’s becoming popular to talk about your secret operations these days. He says that he once found Osama bin Laden a year before the 9-11 attacks made bin Laden a priority target. However the drones didn’t carry missiles in those days. A year later, he had his opportunity to shoot at a different target;

“We had spent many hours preparing for this moment, but a palpable sense of apprehension hung in the air,” Swanson writes. “The Predator system was by no means mature; it was little more than a prototype… I pulled the trigger, called ‘weapons away’ and flew straight and level.

“The time until impact seemed an eternity; then, in an instant, the screen was filled by a bright white bloom of light. As the bloom dissipated, we saw an object move quickly across the screen, flailing like a ragdoll tossed in the air. It was a body, twisting and contorting and glowing from the heat of the blast. Nearly a decade-and-a-half after that first-ever intercontinental air strike by UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle], that fleeting image remains burned in to my memory,” he writes.

Scott Swanson who says that he “cringes” every time he hears the word “Chairforce” says that he’s coming out now to counter the myth that operating a drone isn’t like a video game;

“[T]o all of us who fly or have flown armed UAVs, one thing is as clear as the sharpest video image: war is not now, nor will it ever be, a game,” he writes.

Yeah, well, maybe they should stand during their entire shift. Unless the Duffel Blog is lying, they’ve already done away with chairs.

“This isn’t about posture. The Colonel’s just plain sick and tired of this ‘Chair Force’ moniker. Being around all these CENTCOM doorkickers all day long means we have to put up with all their crap.”

Richoux denied that this had anything to do with the “unofficial Air Force nickname.”

“Our Airmen, whether they are flying jets, piloting UAV’s, or gathering intelligence, are always sitting down. This stuff has got to be bad for their back.”

Some airmen at the command were angered.

“How the hell am I supposed to work under these conditions?” said Senior Airman Gregory Jones. “So we use chairs. Big deal. It doesn’t mean we all should be at standing desks like a bunch of idiot hippies.”

NBC News reports that the unmanned X37B space plane landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California yesterday morning after 647 days of circling the planet.

“The 30th Space Wing and our mission partners, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, Boeing, and our base support contractors, have put countless hours of hard work into preparing for this landing and today we were able to see the culmination of that dedication,” Colonel Keith Balts, 30th Space Wing commander, said in a release.

I don’t know what it does, but I guess that was the end of it’s third flight. Some speculate that it’s some sort of weapons platform, others think it’s a spy plane, but whatever it’s for, I’m glad we’re the ones who built it.

I see that the Air Force is back to making itself a laughing stock and a caricature of itself again with this new medal, the Nuclear Deterrence Service Operations Medal. From the Stars & Stripes;

The new award, first announced in May, was created after an internal review determined that many airmen involved in the nuclear enterprise felt ignored and underappreciated in the post-Cold War era in which nuclear combat is considered a remote possibility. The review was prompted by a scandal in which nearly a hundred officers were implicated in a cheating ring surrounding nuclear launch tests.

I guess all of the beret colors were already taken. So, if you think that your career field isn’t getting the recognition it deserves in the Air Force, you just need to screw up bad enough that the story gets in the New York Times and Big Air Force will create a new medal for you.

By the way, eligibility has been made retroactive to 1991, so if you were in one of the affected career fields and still feel unappreciated after more than 20 years, viola!

The Stars & Stripes reports that some former members of the AIr Force were misled when they were involuntarily separated from the Air Force this year in regards to their health benefits;

A captain who left the Air Force late last month said he had been promised 180 days of medical coverage, but learned when he separated that wouldn’t be the case.

“It’s a hit in the gut,” the Times quoted him as saying. “It’s terrible. They asked us to get out, and the last day you go and they say, ‘You don’t get this.’ ”

A major who separated Sept. 29 said he had gotten mixed messages about extended health care, and recently was told he would have coverage, the paper reported.

“I’ve been told conflicting things since April,” he said. “Nobody had any guidance until two or three weeks ago. The family center that does transition, they didn’t know, and didn’t get a list of what benefits would come. They defaulted to the line that if you volunteer, you don’t get six months medical. As we’re following up, in the last month or so [before separation], my wife called the DEERS field office, they looked at the code, and said, ‘Yeah, you’re entitled to the benefits.’ ”

Well, apparently, the rule is just like he ones when you enlisted – if it’s not in writing, it was never valid promise.

Pinto Nag sends us a link from MSN which tells us how “Emotional toll taxes military drone operators too”.

While drone operators are not physically in harm’s way — they do their work at computer terminals in darkened rooms far from the actual battlefield — growing research is finding they too can suffer some of the emotional strains of war that ground forces face.

“It can be as impactful for these guys as someone in a foxhole,” said Air Force spokesman Tom Kimball.

Well, then their supervisors should stop shooting at them while they’re working. I see no need for that.

And here comes our old friend Brandon Bryant with his bullshit stories;

Brandon Bryant manned the cameras for pilots at Air Force bases in Nevada and New Mexico for about five years.

He said he still suffers from insomnia, depression and nightmares three years after he participated in his last mission. He witnessed the direct killing of 13 people, and his squadron was credited with killing 1,626 enemies.

“I would go to sleep and dream about work, the mission, and continuously see the people I’d watched on the screen earlier now in my own head repeatedly being killed,” he said, adding that he felt alone and that no one wanted to talk about it.

Bryant, 28, said he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by the Veterans Administration.

He said the military’s drone community has shunned him for speaking out.

No, the drone community has shunned him because he’s completely full of shit. We talked to some of them a few years ago. And, oh yeah, Bryant is a fan of Brad Manning and Edward Snowden.

I respect and I’m grateful for the jobs that drone operators are doing, but they probably need to shut this fool off or no one is ever going to take them seriously.