Wow
PENSACOLA (NNS) -- The commanding officer of the Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron was relieved of command by chief of naval air training May 27.
Cmdr. Dave Koss requested that Rear Adm. Bill Sizemore relieve him of his command following a lower-than-normal maneuver during the team's last performance at the Lynchburg Regional Air Show May 22.
Amazing. CDR Koss' relief means the Blues will cancel two shows. I'm so stunned I can't even come up with any appropriate Air Force/Navy or T-Birds/Blues snark. Just... wow.
I wonder, if he was asked to fall on his sword?
ReplyDeleteBTW - the T-birds are flying the Redding Airshow this September.
dignity
ReplyDelete1. bearing, conduct, or speech indicative of self-respect or appreciation of the formality or gravity of an occasion or situation.
2. nobility or elevation of character; worthiness: dignity of sentiments.
BTW, Buck, off topic but is it just me but is there way less Memorial Day coverage/posts than normal?
Other than work, I have no excuse for not posting something myself, but I look forward to all the great stuff this time of year and… Odd.
Have a great weekend. Off to the lake to catch some pike, drink some free beer (Bro’-in-Law wokds and Genny) and tell lies around the fire.
Skip: I don't think the CO was asked to resign his command. Based on what I know the Navy doesn't work like that. One DOES wonder if there's more to the story, tho.
ReplyDeleteSmall-Tee: I save my Memorial Day posts every year for the actual holiday, which is why you haven't seen anything here. I have noticed a drop off in e-mails related to Memorial Day, though, so you may have something.
Have a GREAT time at the lake!!
What all I have read about this is that the Skippers head was not fully into this kind of flying and that only leads to people dying. So I think he did the right thing to get himself relieved and get the XO in the #1 Aircraft. I am guessing there are family issues or some other personal issue that is eating away at the Man and he did not want to kill any of his team because of it and that is what happens. They all key off what he does so if he is way too low then someone augers in. The real story will come out, just a matter of time.
ReplyDeleteBT: Jimmy T sends.
I hear ya, Jimmy. Bad things DO happen, especially when Number One gets it wrong, or there's a malfunction in the #1 aircraft. I'm speaking specifically of the infamous Diamond Crash of 1981. THAT was ugly.
ReplyDelete"Wow" is right!
ReplyDeleteI had about 5000 flying hours (crew not driver) and one thing I can tell you, is people (other crew) think you can't do wrong with that level of experience.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you, I found myself doing stuff that was not in any checklist, and I always counseled myself severely even though I got away with it.
I was on a flight where I had to unhitch my safety line because an oxygen tank broke loose and was bouncing down the floor. Just then the plane nosed up and I was headed for blue space (although with a parachute), then the plane pitched over and I was a save. Lost the damned oxygen bottle out the door though. I didn't hear of any Army troop getting conked on the head down below.
No one saw me, so it was a secret that would have caused me great loss of respect. Only idiots disconnect their lanyard with the doors open. Statute of limitations being over now...
It's not that we didn't know how to parachute (we had annual training on that), but the Flight Engineer would have been pissed if he had to get up from his box lunch and go close the doors after I was gone :-)
Then too, if you parachute in with the Army, you are now Army for the duration of the mission!
I wondered about this myself.
ReplyDeleteThat is one scary story, Anon!
Anon: What Moogie said.
ReplyDeleteMoogie: I wonder if there's "more to the story" as Jimmy T suspects.
Blown away. Because of it being the Blue Angels. They have standards that are a step above the rest of the Navy.
ReplyDeleteAnd as one who was in an Attack Squadron when our Skipper was relieved by Commander, United States Pacific Fleet in 1986. Sets the outfit back a bit. And we were in the work up cycle in preparation for deployment.
This was the generic....loss of confidence line as stated by CinCPACFLT.