Fighter Pilots Are Sissies, Says Theater Critic - BEST O THE WEB

OpinionJournal.com ^ | September 7, 2004 | James Taranto

[devolve]

Slick Willie also took the surname of the drunken stepfather Clinton who used to beat his dear mommy.

Why? "Blythe" was not a good political asset name so he picked "Clinton" which evoked historical politicians.

Irish Catholics do not

like being Kohned

by John "V" Kerry!

[Tallguy]

Went to see 2 P38's flying this past weekend.

D@mn! I didn't know that there were two of them still flying! Saw a program about the guys that rescued that P-38 from a Greenland glacier. They eventually restored that one to flying condition. I think that they said that there was only one flying at that time. Anyway, restoring that P-38 'bout bankrupted the lot of them. IIRC some millionaire picked it up when the original consortium ran out of $$$$'s.

[donozark]

OK! Thanks. My experience in/near Chinooks goes back to the last century. Or was it the century before? Great birds. Always remember the "lift" they had! Tremendous capacity as well.

[snippy_about_it]

They all loved their Flight Surgeon...

We do too. :-)

[mondonico]

Thanks.

[cookcounty]

From the Air Force Safety Center via The Lincoln Heritage:

"Even in peacetime conditions, F-102 pilots risked their lives on every flight. Only highly-qualified pilot candidates were accepted for Delta Dagger training because it was such a challenging aircraft to fly and left little room for mistakes.

According to the Air Force Safety Center , the lifetime Class A accident rate for the F-102 was 13.69 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours, much higher than the average for today's combat aircraft. For example, the F-16 has an accident rate of 4.14, the S-3 is at 2.6, the F-15 at 2.47, the F-18 at 4.9, and the F-117 at 4.07. Even the AV-8B, regarded as the most dangerous aircraft in service today, has an accident rate of only 11.05 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours.

The F-102 claimed the lives of many pilots, including a number stationed at Ellington during Bush's tenure. Of the 875 F-102A production models that entered service, 259 were lost in accidents that killed 70 Air Force and ANG pilots.

[CholeraJoe]

AWWWW, thanks, snippy. (blush)

[secret garden]

The picture of Bush is the flight suit is what really chaps Frankie.

[GBA]

"Of the 875 F-102A production models that entered service, 259 were lost in accidents that killed 70 Air Force and ANG pilots."

Whoa...

[reagandemo]

Yep the two P38's were the Glacier Girl that was rescued from the ice and Porky's II. Even got to meet the owner which was the guy that bailed the recovery team out. He is in bad health and has set up a Glacier Girl foundation and museum and donated the plane to it. The man is the real thing in doing this. Let me tell you there is nothing like standing 200 feet from 2 P38's coming down the pike at full bore at 50 feet. What a great sight. My two sons were having the time of their life.

[GBA]

What a sight! And sound!! I think it's great that both you and your sons are fortunate enough to have that experience! I know I'm jealous. In the pit area at one of the few Phoenix 500 air races, I ducked out of the rain by standing under the wing of Lefty Gardner's P-38. It was like being in church. Speaking of sounds...before my last computer crash, I had the sound of a merlin starting playing as Windows loaded.

[reagandemo]

It was a great experience! I understand that there are only 4 that are still flying in the world. I was talking to the guys that restored the Glacier Girl and asked why someone had not gone back and retrieved the other P38's. They said that the one they got was dead sticked in and did not crash while the other ones powered in and all messed up their engines and some flipped. The Glacier Girl is the only P38 in the world which is original which makes it's value at over 6 million. The other ones would; be worth 2 to 3 million after restoration. It would cost well over a million each to retrieve them and then millions to restore them. That makes it economically unfeasible. Too bad, would be cool. If I hit the lottery I would get them along with the B17.

[CedarDave]

Part of the problem was the candidate. Kerry rarely opened up about Vietnam, leaving the glory for his crewmates to share. But he concentrated on overcoming his own Brahmin-bred modesty, advisers said, talking more than ever about how he had "bled for his country" and killed Viet Cong.

Boy, if I ever need a good PR agent, I'd look up this one. He can make a barnyard pig smell like a rose!