Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Prayers urgently Requested! F-18 Crashed into Apt Complex in VA Beach
Vanity | 04/06/12 | pgkdan

Posted on 04/06/2012 9:53:59 AM PDT by pgkdan

No other details as yet. Just reported as an emergency blurb on local radio. Prayers requested for all affected!

A Navy F-18 out of NAS Oceana has crashed into an apartment comp0lex in Virginia Beach VA at the intersection of Birdneck Rd and I 264.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: f18; jetcrash; nasoceana; navair; planecrash; usnavy; vabeach; virginia
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-186 next last
To: cva66snipe

The rationale for dispersing assets is so that you can’t wipe out an entire military capability with a single attack. It’s just as valid today as it was during the Cold War. The current mantra of consolidating assets to save money is downright suicidal. Do you want al Qaida to be able to shut down the entire Air Force with an attack on a single building? The senior leaders have dropped deep into denial. We’re 90% back to the pre-9/11 “it can’t happen to us” mentality.

(And it really pisses me off when even pro-military press and entertainment refer to Cold War “paranoia”. When the Russians are stating publicly, “Just wait America, just wait. You WILL be ours. Maybe not today, but it WILL happen.” The Chinese and al Qaida are saying the same thing today, and our leaders are choosing to pretend otherwise.)


161 posted on 04/06/2012 10:58:33 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 155 | View Replies]

To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Cold War we kept a whole lot more ships deployed which made a Pearl Harbor type damage to the fleet as a whole more unlikely. Now it is possible under the right conditions to take out nearly half the USN fleet. USN kept a two carrier presence in the MED Sea operations area. Even three carriers in port at Norfolk at the base was an exception and not the rule.

One thing that changed under Reagan Navy wise I don't agree with was using the Suez canal for carriers again. Even when the Iranian hostage crisis broke out in 79 the JFK went around the Horn to get to the Persian Gulf. The first one too transit Suez since the 1960's was America in 1981.

It seems as well the safety in numbers policy got abandoned somewhere along the way resulting in fleet being over a day out from the COLE when it was attacked in Yemen. Cole should have fueled at sea. Next is the shipyard in the UAE. Anyone think it was just beginners luck Cole got hit where it would go dead in the water?

Hampton Roads though has been a disaster waiting to happen for several decades. The base closures and consolidations into one general area have only made matters worse risk wise. For those Freepers living there this is not to knock your home turf. It is simply the reality of it. You can see the carrier fleet from Hampton Roads I-64 Bridge and Portsmouth Yard from the by-pass I'm pretty certain. Most of the east coast fleet and Naval aviation assets are in a 10-15 miles circle. That policy needs to change fast.

162 posted on 04/07/2012 12:07:52 AM PDT by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 161 | View Replies]

To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

From what I’m reading the pilots {trainer and instructor} rode it out as long as possible and were dumping fuel as well on the way down. It would have had to have been a near ground jetison because they landed near the complex. If they hadn’t dumped the fuel the explosion & fire would have taken out several blocks with a likely tripple digit fatality count. From reading this article the cut it about as close as you can get. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/apr/06/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-2-pilots-eject/ It sounds like the three explosions were the jetison, impact, and explosion, of what obviously little fuel remained. It could have been a lot worse outcome.


163 posted on 04/07/2012 12:19:25 AM PDT by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 160 | View Replies]

To: Grandma Pam

Lord forgive me but my first thought after about the crash was that Obama would use it as an excuse to close yet another base.

Lord look over those who are hurt, especially the pilots who will hold guilt from this accident for their entire lives.


164 posted on 04/07/2012 3:33:08 AM PDT by Brytani (Liberals - destroying America since 1776)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
I find it pretty insulting to suggest that the aircrew wasn’t doing their job and going against their training by not riding the jet into the fireball. They did everything they could before they punched out.

Well, tell it to those who are suggesting that.

165 posted on 04/07/2012 5:19:15 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 160 | View Replies]

To: caww

Calling me an idiot is not only disrespectful and totally uncalled for, but indicates a serious lack of formal education and the inability to engage in intelligent discorse.


166 posted on 04/07/2012 6:54:49 AM PDT by IbJensen (We now have a government requiring citizens prove they are insured but not that they are citizens.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 149 | View Replies]

To: metmom

You said it, so you need to own it.


167 posted on 04/07/2012 7:38:46 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 165 | View Replies]

To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

SAID what?

I asked a question because I didn’t know something.


168 posted on 04/07/2012 8:39:59 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 167 | View Replies]

To: pgkdan

If you search Google Maps for 36.851255,-75.992825 and use the satellite view, you can see the middle of the courtyard where the plane ended up. Amazing.


169 posted on 04/07/2012 9:31:57 AM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0407/Virginia-Beach-Navy-jet-crash-No-loss-of-life-in-Good-Friday-miracle

It appears that no one has died. Praise the Almighty!


170 posted on 04/07/2012 9:58:30 AM PDT by GenXteacher (He that hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 169 | View Replies]

To: LUV W

They have updated that info today and the fire chief says he believes he has talked to everyone at the complex. No fatalities or serious injuries. Thats a Good Frday Miracle.


171 posted on 04/07/2012 10:47:42 AM PDT by pgkdan (Rick Santorum 2012. Conservative's last, best chance!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 152 | View Replies]

To: pgkdan
They have updated that info today and the fire chief says he believes he has talked to everyone at the complex. No fatalities or serious injuries. Thats a Good Frday Miracle.

It sure is.

Thank God!!!!

172 posted on 04/07/2012 11:52:13 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 171 | View Replies]

To: wolfman23601

It seems there was a chance there would be no loss of life and that chance became a reality.

Thank God!


173 posted on 04/07/2012 11:52:13 AM PDT by jazusamo (Character assassination is just another form of voter fraud: Thomas Sowell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen
Calling me an idiot is not only disrespectful and totally uncalled for, but indicates a serious lack of formal education and the inability to engage in intelligent discorse.

You should have considered such with the derogatory remark you made, concerning the pilots decision to eject, in the first place.......

Your remark as follows:

"Not a good, nor an honored way, to ditch your fighter plane!"........103 posted on Friday, April 06, 2012 12:27:14 PM by IbJensen

Everything thereafter was in response to that statement and rightfully so....which had nothing to do with ones education, (not even a nice try), nor "engaging in intelligent discourse" and zip-zero evidence it was no more than an unjustified, premature, remark against the pilot.

Your statement ,and that without knowing the situation or the facts of...remains the same...it was "idiotic"...and gave zip zero evidence of any desire for "intelligent discussion" as you now claim in order to excuse your remark....and attempting to do so is deceptive at best.

Claiming further , after the fact,, to be a Pilot yourself and serving or not in Korea does not excuse the remark...in fact if true, you should have known better than to jump to the conclusion you gave in that remark.

174 posted on 04/07/2012 12:11:57 PM PDT by caww
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 166 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen
Calling me an idiot is not only disrespectful and totally uncalled for, but indicates a serious lack of formal education and the inability to engage in intelligent discorse.

You should have considered such with the derogatory remark you made, concerning the pilots decision to eject, in the first place.......

Your remark as follows:

"Not a good, nor an honored way, to ditch your fighter plane!"........103 posted on Friday, April 06, 2012 12:27:14 PM by IbJensen

Everything thereafter was in response to that statement and rightfully so....which had nothing to do with ones education, (not even a nice try), nor "engaging in intelligent discourse" and zip-zero evidence it was no more than an unjustified, premature, remark against the pilot.

Your statement ,and that without knowing the situation or the facts of...remains the same...it was "idiotic"...and gave zip zero evidence of any desire for "intelligent discussion" as you now claim in order to excuse your remark....and attempting to do so is deceptive at best.

Claiming further , after the fact,, to be a Pilot yourself and serving or not in Korea does not excuse the remark...in fact if true, you should have known better than to jump to the conclusion you gave in that remark.

175 posted on 04/07/2012 12:12:31 PM PDT by caww
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 166 | View Replies]

To: caww
Do what I did before I posted the first comment. Have a few martinis. It helps forget the horror of war and the horror of the incredible mess of a man who currently occupies the White Hut and the nation he has ruined, for the next few decades at least.

We could go on and on, I suppose, and continue to parse the words of an old man (me) until we get blue in the face and have to be resuscitated, but what's the use? Since this is the hill on which I don't wish to die, I must do something that's against my oath: surrender.

Believe me, whoever you are, intelligent discussion is not what we have both regurgitated on this site. Rather we have engaged in picayune sophomoric twaddle.

No. Go to Church, grab your Easter basket and eat until you get a tummy ache.

176 posted on 04/08/2012 5:21:29 AM PDT by IbJensen (We now have a government requiring citizens prove they are insured but not that they are citizens.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 175 | View Replies]

To: cva66snipe

there will never be the numbers of ships to justify all
the bases from WW2 that were closed during BRAC nor the
need for 10M man armies. If the war gets to all-out destruction-of-enemy mode, the nukes will fly and Fun City
will look as if from Planet of the Apes.


177 posted on 04/08/2012 2:35:46 PM PDT by RitchieAprile
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 162 | View Replies]

To: RitchieAprile
How many active duty total all services do you think we had at the height of the Reagan years lets say in 1987? It wasn't anywhere 10 million. It was 2,174,000. How many active duty military today? Active Military: 1,477,896 [2011]. A downgrade of almost 700,000. The result of that? For over 20 years the troops we have now have been over deployed and over extended. Troops today in some units are seeing more combat time {5- one year long deployments into Iraq, Afghanastan, wherever} than any time in U.S. military history.

BTW we didn't have 10M active even in WW2. The highest it got in WW2 was 8.7M in 1941. Granted we do not need that many now with todays technology. But we do not have enough manpower now to properly man our military either. The cuts were way too deep.

As for ships? If you want to be able too deploy 100 at any given time you best have 400 ships. That is still below Reagan's 595. Anything less {and we are at 285 now as of 2011} is a disaster in the making. I don't care if it's nuclear propulsion submarines, carriers, cruisers, or destroyers the facts of needed maintenance and training times still apply. No ship can deploy indefinitely not a one. Your aircraft in the air force I'm betting about the same ratio applies for maintenance and training.

Which do you really thinks China wants? To nuke us and be unable to use our labor and resources, or march in and take over the nation and all resources? Only the radical fanatics like rouge Islamic nations now pose the nuke threat.

Our governments number one Constitutional duty is defense. It makes no sense to short defense.

178 posted on 04/08/2012 8:57:43 PM PDT by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 177 | View Replies]

To: cva66snipe

Armed Forces Strength: 1945 (from US DoD)

Army:8,266,373
Navy:3,319,586
AAF:469,925

Total 12,055,884


179 posted on 04/09/2012 8:15:08 AM PDT by RitchieAprile
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 178 | View Replies]

To: RitchieAprile
I realize I got the WW2 numbers wrong. But the fact is our military is undermanned and under equipped. Placing the majority of Naval assets in Norfolk Virginia is insanity. Granted some bases needed closing, some ships needed to go. But Poppy's term had cuts and even deployment polices then destroyed a carrier. Next came Slick Willies cuts six years of them under a GOP congress. BTW we are still at 1996 ETS. Then came W who decided to cut yet more and of course Obama who is cutting yet more. All this time we are deploying into combat responding to every little flare up & had at least a two nations war going as well.

We can not keep up the pace with what we have something is going to have to give. We need to rescind at least half the cuts in all services to be reasonably functional.

180 posted on 04/09/2012 9:20:23 AM PDT by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 179 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-186 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson