Pilot: Flying Bush was 'just awesome'

usatoday.com ^ | 2/05/03

[Jakarta ex-pat]

Navy pilot John "Skip" Lussier has made hundreds of aircraft carrier landings but none like his pressure-filled touchdown on the USS Abraham Lincoln with President Bush in the cockpit.

"The pressure was ratcheted up just a little bit, but I tried not to think about it," Lussier said Friday on ABC's Good Morning America. "I just wanted to focus on it as a mission and make sure I got the president aboard safely."

[MattGarrett]

Dude, don't give up your day job.

"I thought it was the Imperial March from Star Wars....."

[EricT.]

I am really impressed in how many pictures I am seeing of Bush hanging out with raghats (enlisted sailors). Most VIP's stick with the KhakiKrowd (officers) and treat the deckplate sailors like part of the scenery.

[EricT.]

Just like the marines, if the CnC is surrounded by thousands of marines, there is no safer place for him to be, I think the Secret Service is a little bit of an overkill in that situation. LOL

I saw the Secret Service agents around the POTUS while he was meeting the Lincoln's crew. They did their job professionally and thoroughly even though he was in the safest place possible for him. These guys just aren't willing to take a chance with the leader of the free world. Let us not forget that little episode with that grenade weilding Islamofascist Army Sgt. in Kuwait.

[ffusco]

I think you misunderstand my sense of humor:

...... the Commander -in-Chief descended from Valhalla and alighted on the Floating Fortress. Behind him emblazoned on the Tower of the Abraham Lincoln, the Sacred Winged Anchors, a symbol of his glory and the declaration "Mission Acomplished".........

W'08!!!!!

[HardStarboard]

>>>Try the three wire. <<<

I have coffee most every morning with a Nam era F-4 carrier pilot. He was laughing at the landing - "he just barely caught the 4 wire", he said.

I'm no pilot but I was doing a wave-off at the TV when the President came in....the Viking looked high. My friend said he really had to flare heavily at the last just to get the last wire.

The pilot was under a "bit" of pressure - but he got our President down safely. Thats what counts. I can't imagine the pressure of landing on a carrier....then you add having the Prez aboard and its a biggie.

[HardStarboard]

>>>Well technically I guess it did catch the last one BUT IT ALSO CAUGHT THE OTHER THREE<<

Huh? The wire closest to the stern (thats the back of the boat) is the "one wire". The wire closest to the bow (yep...the front) is the "four wire".

The President's Viking caught the "four wire". The other three were unmolested.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

And I see cnn can't stop their bias either because instead of running the wonderful positive footage of our wonderful GWB aboard the U.S.S. George Washinton, they keep harping on the comparison of GWB to the first President Bush that they sooooo want to happen. Their segments keep pointing out how good GWB's father's poll numbers were after the first Gulf War and how it didn't help him in the end (cnn keeps emphasizing that last part, the morons). I guess cnn and the other liberal press think the more often they talk about this "comparison" (replete with footage of the first Pres. Bush smiling and hand shaking with the Gulf War I soldiers), the more they can wish a demoncrat into the presidency in 2004, as if their idiotic repeated chanting is magic or something.

[GailA]

USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72)
CLASS - NIMITZ
Displacement 91,300 Tons, Dimensions, 1088' (oa) x 134' x 37' 8" (Max)
Armament 3 Sea Sparrow-SAM, Starting with CVN-70 4 20mm CIWS, 90 Aircraft.
Armor, Unknown.
Machinery, 260,000 SHP; 2 Westinghouse (A4W) Reactors Driving Geared Turbines, 4 screws
Speed, 35+ Knots, Crew 5617.

35 knts = 40 mph

[whadizit]

What a chill-bumply event! It was so obvious that he was having a glorious time, and, if anyone deserved to have some fun, it was he!

He makes me proud!!

[ewing]

I was thinking the same thing, Dubys did all the pictures with the enlisted men and enjoyed hanging out with them.

[zip]

Since you are always sniping at anything conservative, why don't you just stay on DU while listening to the boss and ditzy chix?

[Doc On The Bay]

"...Scare the Secret Service a Bit...!"

& You Don't Think that the Secret Service had to Serially Clean Their Pants as they watched "W" "Trap" last night??

"W"'s Carrier Landing was SO DANGEROUS, that He HAD to HAVE OVERRULED objections by the SS!

This was "W"'s Show--& he Had to have Overruled the Secret Service to do It!

Perhaps He "did It" because he's a "Fighter Jock;"--or perhaps He "Did It" for "The Publicity!"

Believe What You Will--IT WORKED!!

Having been associated with the community of Fighter Pilots, I am inclined to believe that "W"'s "Gesture" was ENTIRELY HONEST.

Mr Bush is "One of Them;" he FULLY UNDERSTANDS that the "Pro's" have a HIGHLY ACCURATE "BS METER!"

Those who voluntarily place their Lives "on the Line" for the Principles They Pledge to Defend DO NOT "Suffer Fools Lightly!"

"W" just demonstrated that he Understands the Seriousness of Their Commitment!

I Believe that our Military would follow "W" into "HELL," & expect Him to lead them back!

Doc

[gitmo]

I was wondering how that could be. The jet was doing 2 Gs, and Bush flew 1/3 of 30 miles. What would that be, about 2.3 seconds?

[Destro]

I am more conservative than you--I can prove it-no women in the military--period--beat that.

[Wolfstar]

"That was certainly the first time for him, the first time for a sitting president, the first time an aircraft has been designated Navy One," the pilot said. "It was just awesome."

I hope someone has the presence of mind to preserve that aircraft just as it was yesterday so that it can one day be displayed either at the George W. Bush Presidential Library or at the Smithsonian. It is now a truly historic aircraft.

[zip]

The jet was doing 2 Gs

That was a measurement of force exerted when stopping, not flying..

[PFKEY]

Thanks.

Laughing too hard.

[Wolfstar]

Whatever wire it caught, it was a picture-perfect landing, one for the history books. I'll never forget my excitement watching it live on TV as that plane came in straight, level and smoothly. That's good enough for me.

[Incorrigible]

Lussier's military career began with the Navy ROTC at Marquette. He earned a degree in computer science in 1985 and then went to Navy flight school.

Hey SteveO!!!  You know this guy?

[Wolfstar]

I will never tire of seeing the respect and awe on the faces of those sailors and Navy fliers who just came back from a war. That's what the media, in its blinding arrogance, missed. The Commander in Chief's gesture to the Armed Forces he commands was to assume at least a little bit of the risks he asks them to face. The last Commander in Chief who did that was George Washington.