The FReeper Foxhole Studies Aerial Demonstration Teams - Part Two - Thunderbirds - Dec. 5th, 2003

www.airforce.com ^

[SAMWolf]

Celebrating the Thunderbirds



The Thunderbirds squadron is an Air Combat Command unit composed of eight pilots (including six demonstration pilots), four support officers, three civilians and more than 130 enlisted personnel performing in 25 career fields.

A Thunderbirds air demonstration is a mix of formation flying and solo routines. The four-aircraft diamond formation demonstrates the training and precision of Air Force pilots, while the solo aircraft highlight the maximum capabilities of the F-16.

The pilots perform approximately 30 maneuvers in a demonstration. The entire show, including ground and air, runs about an hour and fifteen minutes. The season lasts from March to November, with the winter months used to train new members.



Officers serve a two-year assignment with the squadron, while enlisted personnel serve three to four. Replacements must be trained for about half of the team each year, providing a constant mix of experience.

The squadron performs no more than 88 air demonstrations each year and has never canceled a demonstration due to maintenance difficulty. More than 280 million people in all 50 states and 57 foreign countries have seen the red, white and blue jets in more than 3,500 aerial demonstrations.

In addition to their responsibilities as the official U.S. Air Force aerial demonstration team, the Thunderbirds are part of our combat force. If required, the team's personnel and aircraft can be rapidly integrated into a fighter unit at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Since the aircraft are only slightly modified, they can be made combat-ready in less than 72 hours.

USAF Aerial Demonstration Teams
"Thunderbirds"

"Thunderbird" pilots in F-84s perform the spectacular "bomb burst" maneuver (1956). Organized in 1953 at Luke AFB, Arizona, the "Thunderbirds" team today is the official USAF aerial demonstration team.

Soot from the lead F-100's engine and smoke pipe blackens the vertical stabilizer on the "slot" aircraft, showing how close the "Thunderbird" team's intricate maneuvers bring aircraft to each other (circa 1967).

A "Thunderbird" F-4E makes a low altitude inverted pass over the flight line at Indian Springs AB, Nevada (1972).

"Thunderbird" T-38As photographed with a wide angle lens from the cockpit of another T-38 over Hamilton AFB, California (1974).

"Thunderbird" F-16s in a delta formation during a practice flight. The team began flying F-16s in public appearances in 1983.

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

www.airforce.com/thunderbirds/2003history.htm

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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[SAMWolf]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Morning Everyone

If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, SAMWolf
and everyone else at the Freeper Foxhole.

[Samwise]

You can't tell me military planes don't have ailerons. I've seen these babies fly. :^)

[Darksheare]

Hmmmm..

[Darksheare]

They have ailerons..
but why use 'em?
(G-suits are for wimps!)
*snicker*

[Samwise]

We are not all Kentothians.

[Darksheare]

*chuckle*
The blue angels, last I heard, don't use the G-suits to resist blacking out from high-G turns.
They have this odd mentality of "Huh, whazzat?" about them.
They use a method called 'suck & grunt' to resist blacking out.
You push against the seat harness, tighten your calf and thigh muscles and your gut, and basically inhale and hold your breath.
*snort*
Think there was a samll article or book on it, "Real men don't use G-suits"

[The Mayor]

In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Prayer should be our first response rather than our last resort.

[The Mayor]

Hi all, just wanted to let you know I didn't fall off the face of the earth.
I had an opportunity to do some work and jumped at the chance.
I'll be cutting out of here shortly to finish a small job.
At this point I'll jump on what ever work I can get.

Great Thread today like all, I love the Thunderbirds.
Have a great day.

[GailA]

Good Morning FRIends

[aomagrat]

Today's classical warship, USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

Pennsylvania class battleship
displacement. 31,400 t.
length. 608'
beam. 97'1"
draft. 28'10"
speed. 21 k.
complement. 915
armament. 12 14", 14 5", 4 3", 4 3-pdrs., 2 21" tt.

The USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was laid down 27 October 1913 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; launched 16 March 1915; sponsored by Miss Elizabeth Kolb; and commissioned 12 June 1916, Capt. H. B. Wilson in command.

Pennsylvania was attached to the Atlantic Fleet. On 12 October 1916 she became flagship of Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, when Admiral Henry T. Mayo shifted his flag from Wyoming to Pennsylvania. In January 1917, Pennsylv ania steamed for Fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean. She returned to her base at Yorktown, Va., 6 April 1917, the day of declaration of war against Germany. She did not sail to join the British Grand Fleet since she burned fuel oil and tankers could not be spared to carry additional fuel to the British Isles. In the light of this circumstance, only coal burning battleships were selected for this mission. Based at Yorktown, she kept in battle trim with Fleet maneuvers, tactics, and training in the areas of the Chesapeake Bay, intervened by overhaul at Norfolk and New York, with brief maneuvers. in Long Island Sound. Pennsylvania briefly cruised to France in December 1918.

Transiting the Panama Canal to the Pacific early in 1921, she became flagship of the newly-organized Battle Fleet. During the next eight years, she led the Navy's battleships in maneuvers in the Atlantic, Caribbean and in the Pacific, including a cruise to Australia and New Zealand in mid-1925.

From June 1929 to May 1931, Pennsylvania received an extensive modernization at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania. She emerged with new "tripod" masts, improved combat systems, and an enlarged armored conning tower to better support her mission as fleet flagship. Through the following decade, Pennsylvania continued her pattern of drills, at-sea exercises and periodic major "Fleet Problems" conducted to refine the Navy's war plans.

At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, Pennsylvania was in drydock in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. She was one of the first ships in the harbor to open fire as enemy dive bombers and torpedo planes roared out of the high overcast. They did not succeed in repeated attempts to torpedo the caisson of the drydock but Pennsylvania and the surrounding dock areas were severely strafed. The crew of one 5-inch gun mount was wiped out when a bomb struck the starboard side of her boat deck and exploded inside casemate 9. Destroyers Cassin and Downes, just forward of Pennsylvania in drydock were seriously damaged by bomb hits. Pennsylvania was pockmarked by flying fragments. A part of a torpedo tube from destroyer Downes, about 1000 pounds in weight, was blown onto the forecastle of Pennsylvania. Shed had 15 men killed, 14 missing in action, and 38 men wounded.

Her relatively light damage was repaired over the next few months, and she operated along the U.S. west coast and off Hawaii until October 1942. Following an overhaul that significantly updated her secondary battery of 5" guns and added many anti-aircraft machine guns, Pennsylvania went to Alaskan waters, where she participated in the recapture of Attu in May 1943 and Kiska in August.

In November 1943, Pennsylvania bombarded Makin during the amphibious assault on the Gilbert Islands. She repeated this role a few months later at Kwajalein and Eniwetok, and in June and July 1944 at Saipan, Tinian and Guam. Her guns supported landings in the Palaus in September 1944 and at Leyte in October. When the Japanese Navy responded vigorously to the latter operation, Pennsylvania helped to destroy part of the enemy fleet in the Battle of Surigao Strait.

On 25 October 1944 Pennsylvania and five other battleships (5 of the 6 battleships were veterans of Pearl Harbor), with cruisers and destroyers of Rear Admiral Oldendorf's Force, were steaming slowly back and forth across the northern entrance of Surigao Strait, awaiting the approach of the enemy. That night, American motor torpedo boats stationed well down in Surigao Strait made the first encounter with torpedo attacks. Destroyers of the Force, on either flank of the enemy's line of approach, followed with torpedo and gun attacks. At 0353, 25 October, USS West Virginia opened fire, joined shortly thereafter by other battleships and cruisers. The Japanese had run head on into a perfect trap. Rear Admiral Oldendorf had executed the dream of every naval tactician by crossing the enemy's "T". The Japanese lost two battleships and three destroyers in the Battle of Surigao Strait. Cruiser Mogami in company with a destroyer, all that remained of the enemy force, managed to escape. Rear Admiral Oldendorf's Force did not suffer the loss of a single vessel. (The age of the Battleship ended here, as this was the last battleship vs. battleship battle in history.)

In January 1945, Pennsylvania took part in the Lingayen Gulf invasion. Freshly returned to the combat zone after another overhaul, she was seriously damaged by a Japanese aerial torpedo off Okinawa on 12 August 1945, the last major Navy ship to be hit during the Second World War. Twenty men were killed and ten injured. Too old for retention in the post-war fleet, Pennsylvania was repaired only enough to fit her for target duty. She served in that capacity during the July 1946 Bikini atomic bomb tests. Subsequently moored at Kwajalein for studies of residual radioactivity, USS Pennsylvania was scuttled at sea on 19 February 1948. She was struck from the Navy List 19 February 1948.

Pennsylvania received eight battle stars for World War II service.

[Darksheare]

Okers, good luck.

[Soaring Feather]

Good Morning Everyone in the FOXHOLE!

[Darksheare]

Morning.

[Soaring Feather]

Howdy!

[Darksheare]

I just had to do the menaest thing ever: I had to bath my cat.
SOOoo, I am currently awaiting the fiendish little monster to decide to kill me.
We'll see.

[Soaring Feather]

Oh, that is a risky job at best. radu has years of experience with cat bathing and the scars to prove it.

[Soaring Feather]

Hey snippy, radu, Lookie what I found!