You should make sure you know what you are talking about when you attack. In this case, you are very foolish.
There are internet rumors and such but this missive is most certainly not some internet hype and can be easily verified. Heck, you can find his contact details and ask him yourself.
I posted it because I know Hands and we are good friends. He is a patriot and to attack him from a position of ignorance like you have done speaks to your character.
Hands sent it direct to me and a few other friends. So, you are wrong to imply it is made up by some guy no one ever heard of or someone with no credibility. You are very wrong. As wrong as you can be.
I will be sure to let Col Handley know your emotions. Better, you should contact him direct and call him on his supposed ignorance. (Or at the very least, be noble and let him know someone is using his name).
I shall also let my A-10 buddies know you think their sacrifice is not appreciated, and in fact, dismissed:
http://www.2951clss-gulfwar.com/a10_combat_losses.htm
I would also like to tell Capt Steve Phyllis, a former student of mine, but he was killed flying in Gulf War I (as noted in the link above)
Are you a fighter pilot? No, you are not. You have no idea what you are talking about, neither do your ‘friends.’
If they haven’t heard of him it is because they are truly not in that world.
Because you and your supposed friends don’t know of him, this means the Dogfights TV show made up Hands and make up his record-setting gun kill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2y_B_uFTNw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPLZazga4RM
In Afghanistan high-speed low altitude passes are used, followed by strafe runs if necessary. Of course you already knew that, serving for 29 years as a fighter pilot and with combat experience flying the jet.
Colonels are top 5% of the rank structure in the Air Force. I suppose you being a fighter pilot that hasn’t heard of Hands and after your supposed 29 years service, that would mean you had to have made flag rank.
So, your ignorance is on full display. Your choices are:
a) respond because you have an over-powering juvenile need to have the last word
or
b) let it go and let thinking people decide for themselves if Hands is a made up character of no consequence as you allege.
It does appear that you’ve flushed out another sleeper goon working for the criminal regime. Good job, and thank you for your service to The Republic.
“You should make sure you know what you are talking about when you attack. In this case, you are very foolish.
...
you are wrong to imply it is made up ... (Or at the very least, be noble and let him know someone is using his name).
...
Are you a fighter pilot? No, you are not. You have no idea what you are talking about, neither do your ‘friends.’
If they haven’t heard of him it is because they are truly not in that world. ...”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
How precious. The fighter pilotry wails in dismay if someone dares to point out the Emperor ain’t wearing much.
The fighter mafia has always believed it’s the center of the known universe. May other members of the forum pardon my yawns; it’s precisely what I came to expect. What remains unexplained is why so many who are not fighter pilots continue to worship at their feet. When one attempts to divine what virtue lies in such self-abasement, the imagination balks.
I know more about every fighter system and subsystem that has been in inventory since 1960, than I really care to. Lots of stuff I cannot forget, much as I might wish.
Don’t know what Hulka’s background is, but I’d give odds that he doesn’t hold multiple advanced degrees in aero engineering, propulsion engineering, electrical engineering, explosives engineering, interior and exterior ballistics, survivability/vulnerability analysis, computer science, digital signal processing, control theory, radar engineering, communications engineering, data collection, stochastic analysis, and other fields of study I cannot succinctly summarize just now. Perhaps he can bone up on a few of the basics in a couple of those areas, and then tell us why he deserves the credibility he’s already laid claim to.
Hulka has made a common error: conflating battlefield prowess with good character. And with the ability to lead. He breezily assumes items Two and Three follow item One as night follows day.
I concede the truth of Hulka’s guess: I am not a fighter pilot. His response is hardly unprecedented; I confess I’ve always been mildly amused that the fighter pilotry - believing themselves so greatly superior to all others at all times, in all circumstances and all venues - react with an outrage so predictable it’s become tiresome, when one of us lesser mortals fails to bend the knee.
If we are so unimportant, how could they deign to care what we think?
From the early 1980s until the late 1990s, duty demanded my presence at a great many events and activities that involved fighter pilots (plus a pretty fair cross section of all USAF technical specialties, our opposite numbers from every other US DoD service component, every intelligence organization in the national security establishment, and fellow functionaries from a number of allied nations).
Working with fighter pilots was unavoidable much of the time. I did so on a daily basis, for weeks on end. They demanded the most deference, the most attention, for the least justifiable reasons, even as they brought less value to the table than anyone else.
Bad enough at first blush. More disturbingly, the conclusion I reached - at great length and with more than a little reluctance - was that the rest of us could never be sure when a fighter pilot was lying, and when he wasn’t. I witnessed fighter pilots perpetrating a sufficient number of dishonorable acts, that I now judge them guilty until proven innocent.
So it does not really matter if Col Handley exists or not. Still less does it matter what I think, minor cog that I was. Hulka is free to bluster as much as it pleases him.
Abjurations to “be noble” merely sound silly. Wouldn’t do any good if I tried; I’d simply get run over, backstabbed, cheated, stonewalled, and lied to. Again.