Not Much In the Overnight Mail

Well, not much that would be of general interest, anyhoo.  That said, there was this from the Usual USAF Source:

US Air Force crews ferried two MC-130J Commando IIs, assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command, including the one shown here, from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility in Marietta, Ga., on Dec. 5, 2014, to RAF Mildenhall, England. Lockheed Martin photo.

That looks like a giant slinky trying to eat a Herky-Bird.

The only other thing in the overnight mail was a link to a short article at NPR about catalogs.  The first grafs:

Many things made with paper have become relics because of computers and the Internet: the Rolodex, multivolume encyclopedias, even physical maps.

Now take a look in your mailbox or somewhere around your house. There's a good chance you'll see a shopping catalog, maybe a few of them now that it's the holiday season.

OK, I looked and found four catalogs... one from LL Bean, one from Land's End, one from cigar.com, and another cigar catalog from an outfit called Thompson's.  That was it, and I haven't cracked any of those as yet. That doesn't mean I don't use 'em; I do.  My catalog consumption is way, waaay down from Former Happy Days when I'd receive at least 15 to 20 of the things each and every month.  And I remember, quite fondly, the day the Sears Big Book hit our mailbox back when I was a kid... especially when the fam'bly was stationed overseas and we pretty much LIVED out of the Sears Roebuck catalog.  There was a reading/browsing hierarchy associated with the Sears catalog: Mom got it first, then Dad, then us kids.  Woe be unto you if you tried to browse the catalog before Mom said you could.  Death would have been preferable to what would have happened to you...

And so it goes.  I might be back with a video later; it seems The Tube o' You isn't functioning properly at the moment.

An Update to Virgil's Air Force 3 Tale

Coz we're all about "the rest of the story" (with apologies to Paul Harvey).  Here's Virgil (the first part of the story is just below):

Virgil flew F-4s out of RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge

I also left out what really is the kicker. You see, I (and another guy in my squadron) were on the Wing Commander's sh$$t list. He wanted to jerk our wings for some, um, "unauthorized" tangling with some RAF (English) Electric P1 Lightnings in mock air-air combat. Now, I didn't ask for my cousin come to come to my aid--I didn't even know he was coming and he knew nothing about my travails, but everyone on the base assumed that was what he was there for--especially when the Wing Commander showed up at the O-Club in dress blues to greet the General. As one 2nd Lt in the 92nd TFS (who knew of my situation) assigned to the command post said later: "I thought Virgil was in really deep serious, but after we got that call from Air Force 3 I realized he didn't have any troubles at all." LOL!

What was REALLY interesting was the "repartee" between the Wing Commander (O-6) and my Cousin (O-7) and myself at the O-Club bar before my cousin and I went to dinner. The Wing CO trying to suss out how much the General knew of his attempts to ground me, and my cousin's realization that there was a "disturbance in the force" but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. A very stilted "polite" conversation all round.

One assumes Virgil didn't get grounded, after all.

Clever

Via Digg, where they say:

WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT

Can You Spot Every Reference In This Brilliant Animation?

The music video for Cruisr's "All Over" is one cultural reference sliding into another. And another. And another. Good luck keeping up.

I think I got most of 'em and there were a lot!  That said, if the pairs of heads were cultural references it's time to put me out to pasture coz I didn't recognize a single one.

In other news... we went down early again last evening, i.e., 2230 hrs, with predictable results: my eyes popped open at 0430 hrs and simply refused to close again.  Boy, do I EVER hate it when this happens.

In other, other news... Occasional Reader Virgil Xenophon left this comment on yesterday's post titled "Ike's B-25" and I thought it deserved promotion to the main page.

"...use by lower-ranking generals."

Most people know that Air Force 1 is the designation of the Presidential plane and Air Force 2 that of the VP, but did you know that there is an "Air Force 3?" That is the designation given to a similarly-equipped aircraft for the use of members of the JCS or the Heads of the major commands. From this I'll relate a funny story. At the time I was stationed in the UK my 1st cousin, then a Brig General, was the Deputy Commander for Ops, (DCO) HQ USAF in a 2-star slot. As such he was technically the # 3 guy in the Air Force (working directly under the CinC and ViceCinC USAF (despite the presence of many 4-star generals in the major commands. From all this I have a story:

One night I returned fairly late to the O'club @ RAF Woodbridge after drinking at a local pub: "Jesus Christ, Virgil" they said, "call the command post IMMEDIATELY, the Wing Commander has been rising hell trying to find you!" Turns out the Wing CP had gotten a call from "Air Force 3" en route requesting that I be located so that the DCO, HQ, USAF (my cousin) could have dinner with me. LOL! Of course they didn't know that he was my cousin, and that he was on his way to a USAFE conference in Wiesbaden, so they--including the Wing CO--were jumping thru their a-holes trying to locate this Jr Capt that must have SOME KIND OF PULL! With failure to do so perhaps seeing certain careers sink before their very eyes. The situation was saved only by the wx which caused AF 3 to divert to RAF Mildenhall, from whence Maurice was driven down to Bentwaters by staff car. There were some puckered you-know-whats for a while on that dealieo, lol!

Virgil has the BEST stories.

Ike's B-25

Air Force Magazine has an interesting article on one of General Eisenhower's personal transport aircraft during WW II (well, interesting if you're an aviation buff, which I am, sorta).  The first few grafs from said article:

As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower needed to be able to travel—quickly—to meet with top alliance leaders and field commanders and get a close-up view of the unfolding war.

Eisenhower had an eclectic collection of aircraft at his disposal for a variety of uses, but only one was specially made for him. It was a heavily converted B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, built and modified by North American Aviation, the same company that produced the B-25s that attacked Japan in 1942 in the famous Doolittle Raid. Eisenhower's B-25—serial No. 43-4030—is poorly documented and deliberately so.

The year it was built, American P-38 pilots in the Pacific executed a daring, long-range mission to shoot down a bomber known to be carrying Japanese Adm. Isoruku Yamamoto, who had planned and carried out the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. His death was a severe blow to Japan's strategic effort and morale. Army censors did not want German pilots to be able to repeat that success by shooting down Eisenhower, and so photography of his aircraft was severely restricted—especially because it had a unique profile.

Although by early 1944, B-25s were rolling off the North American-operated Kansas City plant at a sustained pace of about 300 per month, a VIP version of the Mitchell was a wartime rarity. Serial No. 4030 came to be known as RB-25J(3), denoting that it was a rebuilt airplane and only the third Mitchell to be specially modified.

Note the article sez "wartime rarity," not unique.  General Hap Arnold, chief of staff of the wartime Army Air Forces had one, too.  General Arnold got his personal B-25 before Ike got his, actually.  From another article (link below) on B-25 executive transports:

The second B-25 modified by North American belonged to USAAF General Henry "Hap" Arnold- visiting the Inglewood facility at Mines Field one day, Arnold got to see the Whiskey Express and as the Chief of Staff, he decided he needed one, too. This was 1943 and production was rapidly accelerating in the B-25 program, so it was easy to divert a B-25C from production to be fitted out by North American to a similar standard as Whiskey Express. After the war, General Arnold's personal transport was purchased by Howard Hughes who used for another twenty years before it was retired. 

The same year Arnold got his own B-25, a B-25J was taken off the production line in Kansas City and flown to Inglewood on a "secret" mission. Tail number 43-4030 was fitted out to become the personal transport for General Dwight Eisenhower. Unlike Arnold's B-25 which had olive drab upholstery, Ike's Mitchell had a more stylish blue interior. Clamshell doors were fitted to the nose for easy access to the extra communications and navigation equipment and more floor space in the aft fuselage was created by moving the gunner's aft hatch further back, giving the rear cabin more seating and a drop leaf table. Overhead luggage racks were also fitted and extra fuel tanks were fitted to the bomb bay to give it more range. Officially it was designated an RB-25J to hide its true nature as Ike's personal transport, but as the war in Europe progressed, it was redesignated CB-25J and when Eisenhower moved up to larger aircraft as the Supreme Allied Commander, the CB-25J was passed on for use by lower ranking generals and was used by the USAF postwar until it ended up in the possession of the South Dakota Air and Space Museum where it can be seen today. 

Most interesting.  While the Air Force Magazine article is a good read, the second article ("The First B-25 Mitchell Executive Transport") is much more comprehensive and detailed.

Clever Title

That would be this, from the Usual USAF Source:

Jurassic Raptors

Air Frame: F-22 Raptors fly in formation near Hickam AFB, Hawaii, Oct. 21, 2014. (Lockheed Martin photo by Liz Kaszynski)

The overnight mail isn't completely in at this early hour so it's quite likely we'll have more, later.  And you might ask "just what in the Hell are you doin' up at this hour, Buck?"  Well, sometimes it just bees that way.  The eyes pop open and sleep is impossible after that.  That's why.

A Passing

This lil blurb from the Usual USAF Source caused a twinge of something like regret and/or sadness in me this morning:

One-Ring Circus

Workers at Misawa AB, Japan, began a year-long project to demolish the base's "Elephant Cage" antenna that the Air Force used for gathering radio signals intelligence for nearly 50 years, announced base officials. "During its long life, the antenna played a major part in the Cold War and beyond," said Col. Andrew Hansen, vice commander of Misawa's 35th Fighter Wing. "However, the technology has outlived its usefulness," he said in the Oct. 17 release. The three-ringed, 137-foot-tall AN/FLR-9 antenna was part of a global network that intercepted and pinpointed the location of Soviet and Communist-bloc radio communications. The array, completed in 1965, could detect and locate signals from up to 4,000 nautical miles distance, according to the release. Misawa's 373rd Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group controlled the antenna until demolition work began on Oct. 15. A similar antenna at JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, is the only remaining AN/FLR-9 worldwide, said officials.

The FLR-9 was the "sister system," if you will, to the FLR-12 I worked on back in the day (see here, that's the FLR-12 antenna farm and ops building at Wakkanai, Japan).  But back to the FLR-9... From The Wiki: 

FLR-9s were constructed at the following places:

USASA Field Station Augsburg (Gablingen Kaserne), Germany
Chicksands, England
Clark AB, Philippines
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, USA (formerly designated as Elmendorf AFB)
Karamursel, Turkey
7th Radio Research Field Station/Ramasun Station, Udon Thani Province, Thailand
Misawa AB, Japan
San Vito dei Normanni Air Station, Italy

Advances in technology have made the FLR-9 almost obsolete.

"Almost obsolete" is prolly being too kind.  That said, I've roamed around the vicinity of the elephant cages at Chicksands, Karamursel, and Ramasun Station and it grieves me to know the old world is fading fast, if not gone.  But Hey!  All things must pass.

Not Your Father's Air Force XXXVII

And now airmen can get a medal for sitting in a hole...

Criteria for New Medal Announced

The Air Force last week announced the criteria for the new Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal, which Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James approved in late May in an effort to acknowledge and help retain high-caliber airmen in the nuclear mission. Airmen who were assigned, deployed, or mobilized on a nuclear mission to a wing, center, or below for 120 consecutive days or 179 nonconsecutive days are eligible to receive the award, retroactive to Dec. 27, 1991, according to a release. "This service medal provides a clearly visible way to recognize the dedication and professionalism of our airmen who are the guardians of our nation's nuclear deterrence. Because of our success, often times nuclear deterrence operations can be overlooked as a critical function," said Col. Zannis Pappas, the missile operations career field manager. "The medal acknowledges the special challenges faced by those airmen charged with supporting the nuclear enterprise and will be a point of pride by all who wear it." The medal is expected to be available in March 2015. Nominations for current airmen are to be processed through the normal chain of command. Retired or separated airmen and families of deceased airmen can submit requests to the Air Force Personnel Center, states the release.

Airmen performing nuke missile duties will get more money, too.  Fame and fortune, USAF-style.  

Apropos o' not much, one wonders if USAF will award the medal to the guys who loaded nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on a BUFF that flew from Minot to Barksdale without the aircrew knowing they had live weapons aboard.

And then there's this in other, better, USAF news:

Three Million and Counting

—Marc V. Schanz

The MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper family of systems and its variants have amassed three million flight hours, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems announced Oct. 14. Of the nearly 222,000 total missions completed in MQ-1 Predator/MQ-9 Reaper and Gray Eagle aircraft as of Oct. 2, almost 90 percent were flown in combat. The milestone represents the widespread usage and growth of remotely piloted aircraft systems for applications from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance gathering to strike operations. Flight hours have grown at an explosive clip for the systems, with just 500,000 hours flown as of 2008, a million two years later, and two million in 2012. The Air Force's own MQ-1 and MQ-9s hit two million flight hours last October. According to the company, it has produced a total of 700 airframes of the various types to date, and is currently testing upgrades and modifications to add range and capacity to the Reaper.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: I get a serious case o' the willies whenever I'm out at Cannon and see a Predator shooting touch 'n' goes in the pattern.   I suppose that's yet another example o' Ol' Fart Syndrome rearing its ugly head.

More Bits and Bytes

There was a lot of interesting stuff in the overnight mail today.  Herewith three of those items...

First... a political 'toon.

Heh.  I'll spare you the double-entendres that immediately came to my mind.

No dysfunction HERE:

Air Frame: A B-1B Lancer flies over northern Iraq after conducting air strikes in Syria against ISIS targets, Sept. 27, 2014. The strikes were conducted as part of the President's comprehensive strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist organization. (Air Force photo by SrA. Matthew Bruch) (click to embiggen)

Bad to the BONE... make sure you embiggen this pic.

An altogether different flying experience... which would be a suite at 30K feet.  A couple o' screen caps from a VERY interesting article:

This piece might be the most extensively-documented photographic essay I've ever seen, on any subject.  See "What It's Like to Fly the $23,000 Singapore Airlines Suites Class" here.  It's simply freaking amazing; the food alone might be worth the ticket price.

In other news... we got our inter-tubes connection upgraded from 5 Mbps to 100 Mbps this morning.  The difference is astounding... web pages don't load on the screen now, they POP.  I think this is pretty amazing for a dusty lil rural town of only 12 and a half thousand people.

More Than 3800 Sorties

A few items from the Usual USAF Source about the current unpleasantness over Iraq and Syria...

Airpower in Action

—Amy McCullough

The US Air Force has conducted nearly three-quarters of the strikes conducted in Iraq and Syria and roughly half of the strikes in Syria so far, said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and requirements on the Air Staff. USAF aircraft also have conducted 70 percent of the more than 3,800 sorties flown in the two countries; 95 percent of the nearly 1,300 tanker sorties, and more than 700 ISR sorties supporting the operation, Harrigian told reporters on Sept. 29. "We are part of an integrated coalition effort, and this broad coalition has been and will continue to be the cornerstone of the strategy against ISIL," said Harrigian. "From an airman's perspective, we have worked for years to develop relationships across the theater with our fellow airmen, much like our sister services have done. Training with them both in theater and in the states to allow us the flexibility to seamlessly integrate them into the operations that we've been executing."

F-22 Still Flying Over Syria

—Marc V. Schanz

The F-22 is still flying sorties over Syria, in addition to last week's strikes on targets in and around Aleppo, said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and requirements. Giving the first detailed comments by a senior official on the fifth generation aircraft's mission in the Middle East, Harrigian—a veteran F-15 and F-22 pilot—said planners examined both the threat environment and the mission tasks on the first night of the campaign and decided the F-22 needed to be part of the package in order to deliver the "desired effects." "They wanted to ensure that they used the right capabilities in the right location," Harrigian told reporters on Sept. 29. The F-22 has both speed and stealth, but it also has an integrated avionics package, which greatly improves situational awareness, not just for the pilot, but for the "entire [strike package] that's going to execute the mission." Harrigian said the Raptor continues to fly over Syria, though he noted the aircraft have not dropped munitions on every mission. Planners are taking a look at the "specifics of each mission and determining if they need them or not," Harrigian said, depending on targets, where they are located, and what the "environment" is like.

And this... 

Mabus: Naval Aircraft Flying One Quarter of ISIS Mission

—Otto Kreisher

​

USMC AV-8B

The Navy and Marine Corps have provided about one-fourth of the airstrikes against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria since the new campaign started last week, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said Sept. 30. Most of the Navy strike missions, flown primarily off the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush operating in the Persian Gulf, were at the beginning of the campaign, "because we were there and could begin instantly when the President gave the order," Mabus told reporters during a breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C. Now the Air Force is flying more, but Navy aircraft are flying some ISR missions, he added. Some Marine AV-8Bs have flown strike missions into Iraq from the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan, which also is in the Persian Gulf. Navy warships in the Red Sea and the Gulf also fired 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles in the opening attacks on ISIS in Syria. The additional cost to the Navy so far has been about $100 million, primarily for the weapons expended, Mabus said. The Navy can sustain its current operations against ISIS "for as long as it is needed," he said. The USS Carl Vinson is on its way to replace the Bush, Mabus noted.

This campaign against ISIS/ISIL is beginning to be a rather expensive proposition.  One wonders just how many sorties have been flown by the coalition... specifically our Arab allies... that Obama seems so proud of.  Information on THAT subject is pretty damned hard to find.  

Apropos of the Mabus blurb... My Ol' Man used to refer to the AF's sister services... meaning the Navy, Marines, and Army... as "our allies, most of the time."  Me?  I prefer the more traditional "squids," "jarheads," and "ground-pounders."  (Said the Zoomie.)

Night Refuel

From the Usual USAF Source...

An F-22 refuels before strike operations against ISIS in Syria, Sept. 26, 2014. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Russ Scalf

I'm beginning to wish I had been a boom operator in my past life.

Get Some!

From the Usual USAF Source...

Here's a link to the photo above.  And then there's this:



Apropos o' not much... those F-22s are SN1's jets, assuming the maintenance guys own the jets and let the pilots fly 'em.  That's the way it works.

Not Your Father's Air Force XXXVI

Yet another brick in the wall we call "Not Your Father's Air Force:"

That's a screen shot of a blurb in AFA's Daily Report.  The subject of the article... changes to the promotion system on the E-side of the house... obviously doesn't concern me anymore.  I noted with some interest the current system has a maximum rating of five in the various evaluation categories; in my day we used a 1 - 9 scale, nine being best, but that's neither here nor there.  I clicked on the photo accompanying the article to get a better view of CMSAF Cody and then went off to AF.mil to read his bio, among other things.  Here's Chief Cody's official mug shot:

And here's a detail from that mug shot:

There's this, for those of you who aren't familiar with what all those pretty pieces o' cloth mean:

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
Legion of Merit
Meritorious Service Medal with seven oak leaf clusters
Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters
Air Force Achievement Medal with five oak leaf clusters
Outstanding Airman of the Year Ribbon

Those are the MAJOR decorations, you'll note Chief Cody actually sports 25... count 'em... 25 ribbons.  Contrast the above with the Air Force's first-ever Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force (the CMSAF position was created in 1967), Paul Airey:

Chief Airey's decs:

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster
Meritorious Service Medal
Air Medal with oak leaf cluster
Air Force Commendation Medal
POW Medal

(a total of 16 awards and decs)

You'll note both Chiefs were awarded the Legion of Merit.  There's this about CMSAF Airey's LoM:

During the Korean conflict, he was awarded the Legion of Merit while assigned at Naha Air Base, Okinawa. The award, an uncommon decoration for an enlisted man, was earned for creating a means of constructing equipment from salvaged parts that improved corrosion control of sensitive radio and radar components.

Key words: "uncommon decoration for an enlisted man."  Apparently the LoM ain't exactly uncommon any longer.

We've gone on (and on) about "medal creep" a lot here at EIP and this just adds more fuel to my fire.  It's bad enough when our generals walk around with more medals than yer average South American dictator (or Rooshian marshals, see link) but when our senior NCOs sport 25 medals and ribbons, well... I guess my point's made.  And don't get me started about the current CMSAF's ridiculous chevrons.

(No, it's NOT sour grapes.  I know what yer thinkin'.)

T-Birds!

From the Usual USAF Source...

Air Frame: F-16 Fighting Falcons Thunderbirds perform a five-ship formation after refueling from a 92nd Air Refueling Wing KC-135 Stratotanker on Sept. 1, 2014, over Glacier National Park, Mont. The Thunderbirds were making their way back to Nellis AFB, Nev., where they are assigned to the 57th Wing's U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron. (Air Force photo by A1C Janelle Patiño)

Note the photo credit.  I think bein' a USAF photographer HAS to be the best job on the E side o' the house and boom operator would be a close second.  Fixing heavy ground radar would be somewhere near the bottom of the pile.  Go on... ask me how I know about my last.

Nice Shot

From the Usual USAF Source...

Edwards to Dismantle Icon of the Manned Space Program

Technicians at NASA's Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, later redesignated Armstrong Flight Research Center, began mounting the Space Shuttle Atlantis atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., following its STS-44 flight in 1991. NASA courtesy photo. ​

An iconic structure at Edwards AFB, Calif., that is symbolic of the glory years of NASA's manned space program, is about to be dismantled and turned into scrap. The towering structure, called the Mate-Demate Device, was used to service a space shuttle that had to land at Edwards after a space mission, then lift the space ship to mount it atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for a return flight to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Built in 1976 for $1.7 million, the device was used 59 times from 1977 to its last shuttle lift in 2009. After a study of possible alternative use, the MDD structure is being dismantled under a $178,700 contract, three years after the last shuttle mission ended the US manned space program launched in 1961 by then-President John F. Kennedy. "People at this base know that the MDD has definitely become a part of the landscape. When you drive onto the base, it's one of the landmarks you see, and it will leave a hole in your heart when it's gone," David McBride, NASA Armstrong Center director, said in release.

The blurb above is there mainly to explain the photo, which I think is quite beautiful.  There's just sumthin' about big-ass aircraft and sunrises/sunsets.

Not Your Father's Air Force XXXV

From the Usual USAF Source...

SrA. Shabree N. Heasell, a geospatial intelligence analyst with the 603rd Air and Space Operations Center at Ramstein AB, Germany, is one of the Air Force's 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2014. As a tactics and training analyst, Heasell identified 43 smuggling routes across a 193-square-mile area, leading to the discovery and elimination of 12 enemy workshops, 20 improvised explosive devices, and 50 weapons caches. She developed nine primary and alternate evacuation routes for the Secret Service, ensuring the safety of the President of the United States and 223 staff personnel during the President's diplomatic visit to Africa. Heasell also volunteered 1,270 hours for 15 organizations and led 350 volunteers through 53 events, raising more than $2 million in sales and proceeds that were donated to local schools and charities. Air Force Magazine is shining the spotlight on each OAY in the days leading up to AFA's Air & Space Conference that starts on Sept. 15 in National Harbor, Md. AFA will honor these airmen there.

First of all: congratulations to SrA Heasell on her selection as one of USAF's 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year.  That's a Big F'in Deal (as Uncle Joe would say).  That said, take a look at the right hand screen the SMSgt is using.  Wikipedia?  Wiki-Freakin'-Pedia?  This photo is supposed to represent intelligence operations, innit?  And The Wiki is a source?  This is the sorta thing that makes me entreat The Deity At Hand to save us.  Please.

Sixty Years

From the Usual USAF Source:

C-130 Marks 60 Years in Production

Archived photo of the YC-130 Hercules during its ferry flight from Burbank, Calif., to Edwards AFB, Calif., on Aug. 23, 1954. The C-130 is still in production today, making it the longest running military aircraft production line in history. Air Force photo. ​

In 1954, Dwight D. Eisenhower was in his first term as President and an expansionist Soviet Union was generating global tensions in the emerging Cold War. On Aug. 23 of that year, a four-engine turboprop transport took its maiden flight at Lockheed Martin's plant in Burbank, Calif. Sixty years later, the C-130 Hercules still is in production, making it the longest running military aircraft in continuous production in history. The Air Force took delivery of its first C-130As in December 1956, and a total of 428 different models of the Hercules are being flown by nearly every major Air Force command, the Air Force Reserve, and the Air National Guard. Hercules also are operated by the US Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard and are in military or civil use in 70 countries. According to Lockheed Martin, a total of 2,471 have been produced. And the latest model, the C-130J Super Herc, continues to roll off the assembly lines. "In its first six decades, the C-130 shaped aviation history, redefined industry standards and exhibited flexibility that other aircraft have yet to match," George Shultz, Lockheed vice president and general manager C-130 programs, said in a company release. (USAF release).

Note that Mr. Shultz  said "its FIRST six decades."  I don't have much doubt the ol' Herky Bird will still be flying somewhere at the end of the 21st century.  The aircraft will most certainly have a longer life than I will.

Keepin' It Clean...

First, there's this from the Usual USAF Source:

Air Frame: A KC-135 Stratotanker taxis through the wash rack, also known as a bird bath, after a mission Aug. 18, 2014. The KC-135 is assigned to the Tennessee Air National Guard's 134th Air Refueling Wing. (Air National Guard photo by TSgt. Jonathan Young)

I learn sumthin' every single day; today I learned there actually IS a way to wash airplanes that doesn't involve two or three one-stripers, brushes, buckets, and hoses.

And there's this, in the not-so-clean category: "The complete guide to swearing at work," from Quartz.  An excerpt:

Modern media tell us that workplace swearing is cool. Take Martin Scorsese’s latest movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, whose brash yet professionally successful characters dropped 506 f-bombs, a record for a feature film. In a 2006 survey by Associated Press/Ipsos (pdf), 74% of Americans said they encountered profanity in public frequently or occasionally and 66% said that as a rule, people curse more today than 20 years ago.

There are some prominent examples. After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, US president Barack Obama famously commented on the Today show that he’d been talking to experts about the spill to figure out “whose ass to kick.” T-Mobile CEO John Legere, a renegade executive known for his potty mouth, badmouthed competitors AT&T and Verizon at a recent press event by saying that “the fuckers hate you.” Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz once told her staff at an all-hands meeting that she’d “dropkick to fucking Mars” anyone whose company gossip ended up on a blog (which her comments promptly did).

The article is fairly interesting, what with its links, statistics, studies, and recommendations.   I agree that a well-placed f-bomb can do wonders in getting your message across and I used that tactic more than a few times in my civilian career.  We won't talk about my Air Force career, where it seemed like every other word outta my mouth could be described as "purple prose."  I'm tryin' to clean my act up now that I'm fucking retired. 

Problem/Solution

The problem...

Part of the solution...

Air Frame: Capt. Andrew Glowa, lead, and Capt. William Piepenbring, both with the 74th Fighter Squadron out of Moody AFB, Ga., launch flares from two A-10C Thunderbolt II over the skies of southern Georgia, Aug. 18, 2014. (Air Force photo by SSgt. Jamal D. Sutter)

The full-scale image is impressive, which is why I've included two shots.  The second is a partial full-scale screen shot (which Blogger may or may not down-size), which you can find here. 

Get Some!

A Passing

From the Usual USAF Source:

Last Crew Member of the B-29 Enola Gay Has Died

Enola Gay crewmembers (l-r) Maj. Theodore Van Kirk, Col. Paul Tibbets Jr., and Maj. Thomas Ferebee. File photo.

​The last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, to accelerate the end of World War II, has died. Theodore Van Kirk died July 28 at a nursing home in Stone Mountain, Ga. He was 93. Van Kirk, known as "Dutch," was the navigator in the Enola Gay crew, led by Col. Paul Tibbets, who commanded the 509th Composite Bomb Group, which was formed to conduct the atomic bomb missions. Flying from an airfield on the captured Japanese Island of Tinian, the crew dropped the 9,000-pound weapon, called "Little Boy," over Hiroshima early on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, another B-29 from the 509th dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered Aug. 15. The Enola Gay was snarled in controversy in 1994 when the Smithsonian Institution planned to use it in a display that would have depicted the Japanese as victims. A campaign led by Air Force Magazine forced the Smithsonian to cancel that exhibit, and the bomber became a popular attraction at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Van Kirk always supported the atomic bombings for avoiding an invasion of Japan that could have killed hundreds of thousands of allied troops and Japanese. (See also Atomic Mission from the October 2010 issue of Air Force Magazine.)

RIP, Mr. Van Kirk.   

That photo makes me nostalgic for a time I didn't live in, mainly for the simplicity and great good looks the uniform had in days gone by.  Note the fact these officers had something like 14 ribbons between the three of them and this photo was prolly taken during the last days of WW II, meaning all three gentlemen had LOTS of hours in combat.  Any given USAF major today has at least 14 decorations on his/her chest.  Think I'm exaggerating?  Check out the major's rack on my sidebar.

Weird Al's "Mission Statement"

Anyone who's ever had to deal with dumb-ass mission statements will appreciate this:


 
I think Al hit ALL the buzzwords.  Apropos o' not much, on one unfortunate occasion I was tapped to participate in writing a mission statement after yet another in a series of endless corporate reorganizations.  That episode was painful beyond belief, aside from being a flaming waste of time.

No, that wasn't in the Air Force.  But there's this about that:

In Full Unapologetic Ranting Cranky Old Man Mode

So, I read over at The Officers Club (ed: a defunct blog) that the USAF has a new mission statement, to wit:

The Air Force changed its mission statement yesterday. The old MS reads:

The mission of the U.S. Air Force is to is to defend the United States through control and exploitation of air and space.

The new mission reads:

The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace.

I'll begin with the only good thing about the new mission statement: at least The Management incorporated the old, unofficial mission statement: "To Fly and To Fight." So much for the good stuff.

Let's begin the rant.

Just what the HELL is a "sovereign option?" A military option that's exercised by the United States as a sovereign nation? Meaning we don't have to run it by the UN or France first? There's a good idea! Or options that are above all others, e.g., "superior" or "leading," as opposed to "ill-considered" or "secondary." I certainly HOPE we'd offer the country the best air and space defense options we have, to do less is dereliction of duty. Let's not quibble about words, however, let's just come right out and say it: It's STUPID and obfuscatory. Substituting "...deliver sovereign options for the defense of..." for the previous statement's "defend" makes the USAF sound like the freaking Chicago Board of Trade.

Let's pick a nit: how does one fly in "cyberspace?" Or, for that matter, how exactly do we fight in cyberspace? Networked video games? You can say we engage in space flight, but cyberspace-flight? Who are we trying to kid with this word? Including "cyberspace" in the mission statement isn't cutting edge, guys, it looks like what it is: a failed attempt at being cool. I can just hear it in the E-ring: "Air power is just SO passe on its own, we need something more au courant, something that sings! Let's work 21st century technology into the statement somewhere, OK? Get back to me." And so they did, by using a buzz word from the '90s. Shame on you.

And then there's this: Economy of Expression. Whenever you add 12 words to a sentence to express the same idea, you've taken a GIANT step backward. I personally think the old statement's 23 words was too verbose. 35 freaking words is beyond verbose, it's language-crime.

My last point. Anyone want to hazard a guess how many colonels and generals were tasked with writing the new statement? How much time was spent "staffing" the language and briefing it to the boss? I've played in some of these exercises, albeit at a much lower level, and I can tell you with some certainty the answer is: A LOT.

I could think of lots of better ways to burn cycles. Most of 'em have to do with winning the freaking war. Another good use of time would be convincing the doubters (senior DoD guys, congress) we absolutely need the F/A-22, in the numbers we've asked for. I use "we" because it's still MY Air Force, too.

/rant

And then there's this:

How did I miss this?  Specifically, "New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions," mentioned in the post immediately below.  "DWS" prolly has sumthin' to do with employment statistics, job opportunities, and the like but one cannot rightly tell from the pompous title.  I was thinkin' any organization with a title like "Workforce Solutions" just had to be ate up with the dumb-ass.  And I was right.  Witness:

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions is a World-Class, market-driven workforce delivery system that prepares New Mexico job seekers to meet current and emerging needs of New Mexico businesses; and ensures that every New Mexico citizen who needs a job will have one; and every business who needs an employee will find one with the necessary skills and work readiness to allow New Mexico businesses to compete in a global economy.

That's their "vision statement," and they also have a mission statement, of course:

Enhance productivity and competitiveness of New Mexico business and industry by improving the quality and availability of the New Mexico workforce. We will accomplish this through a system that offers universal access to lifelong learning based on relevant local and regional labor market needs, via integrated, customer-focused accountable service partnerships. 

We ALL know any gub'mint org and most Fortune 500 companies need vision and mission statements chock-a-bloc with the latest and greatest in biz-school buzz words.  It's just too damned bad those things don't SAY or MEAN any-gotdamned-thing.  I can recall MANY painful hours working in ad hoc task forces chartered to develop such "statements" from my days with Ross Perot's Excellent Data Company... AFTER Mr. Perot left, of course.

"Mission Statements" might just be one o' my biggest hot buttons.