fact sheet
Posted on 11/02/2007 1:36:49 PM PDT by DesScorp
It’s more like the “corporate branch”. :)
Very true!
I'd rather abolish the IRS, the welfare state, and the St. Dept....
...for starters.
Do we have an Air Force?
Exactly.
Good Lord! but there is a lot of stupidity on this thread.
The reason we need an independent Air Force is that the Army is clueless about airpower.
The best employment of CAS is to prevent the Army from ever encountering the enemy. You do this by bombing the enemy BEFORE they become ‘close’. Remember when our troops in Iraq were stuck in a ‘quagmire’? The press said that because our troops were not advancing - but during that ‘lull’, the USAF was pounding the enemy. When our troops started moving forward, their path was clear of main Army units.
Where did I learn this lesson? 3 rotations at NTC.
Ground pounders are not qualified to think on how to employ fast moving aircraft. That’s OK - I wouldn’t want a bunch of Air Force folks in command of a tank unit.
The main job of the USAF has NEVER been to strafe the enemy, nor should it be. CAS is not the main job of the USAF, nor should it be - that is a TERRIBLE way to employ airpower. Marines can get away with it only because the USAF is doing the job for them past the FEBA.
As for Iraq and Afghanistan - in case y’all missed it, the overall commander is an ARMY general. I remember making a Brigade CC pissed when I told him he wouldn’t get air support because he wasn’t the priority.
“Who in the hell are you to tell me that?”
“Sir, that is per the written orders of the DIVISION/CC.”
“Well”, said the Brigade CC, “I’ll be talking with the Division CC tomorrow!”
Two days later, he told the staff to take into account the fact that we were not the priority of effort and that Division assets might not be available...
If you think Army comm jamming is equivalent to USAF comm jamming, you are too ignorant to have any business posting.
You can't equate the job or skills of a Navy Plane Captain and a USAF Crew Chief.
True, but the guy that lovingly belts the pilot in and pats him on the head before he goes to rain death on the enemy is an E-2 or E-3 in the Navy. Or used to be. Things may have changed since my day.
Only after both NEA’s have been abolished!
Excellent!
Thanks for the ping! (I got hungry for some pizza, so I came back....)
Umm...I don’t want to know about ‘the guy who lovingly belts the pilot in’.
Maybe it was because I was an EWO/WSO, but I always strapped myself in!
Although there was a gal in life support in Prowlers, who could adjust my G-suit anytime she wanted...
Well, speaking as an Air Force veteran, Vietnam days, I can say without reservation that you’re a clueless dolt. Have you any idea what scares the shit out of anyone who wishes us ill is? It’s not a grunt toting a rifle (though such a grunt is an awesome instrument of war), it’s having hell rained down on them from above. Go ask an NVA survivor about an arc light experience.
In my A-7 squadron we used to climb up the side and help the pilot get the shoulder straps clicked. The last person to talk to them face to face before the flight.
And they court-martialled Billy Mitchell because he pissed-off the conventional brass by sinking a warship from the air (something the Navy said could not be done) and then pretty much calling that same brass moronic and short-sighted.
Tell you what: Have the infantry move to take out an inland target without having first had air interdiction, and then ask the survivors of that infantry, if there are any, if they would have liked to have had their objective softened up by “tough love from above” before they ever went in.
There is nothing more satisfying and comforting than looking up and seeing the sky above you filled with a real “reach out and touch some one” force that is on your side.
All MY pilots and aircrew members got a major kick when I had to “lovingly” see them off, although it would never have occurred to me to pat them on their helmets...
They knew that I knew what their actual expected mission attrition rates were.
They also knew I had a fear of heights.
Nothing beats pouring a playfull fighter pilot into an F-15, while both of us are in full chemical gear, and watching his face change when I tell him what his new mission is ...LOL!
“In fact, the AF is morphing into Space Command. This is the same boneheaded thinking that prevailed when they talked about missiles eliminating the need for guns on fighters.”
I heartily agree with the second part, but as to the first...why should USAF get to monopolize space? As a writer in Proceedings Magazine put it, Space is a giant ocean, and oceans are where Navies go. If we ever truly militarize space beyond our orbit, the Naval model is certainly the logical one; the economics and realities of space travel favor the large traveling, self supporting ship model more than a model on the small craft squadron that would require a base somewhere.
Naw...I’m USAF, although I did some time in a Navy squadron. It actually has to do with how hard it is to get to the harness buckles. In aircraft where it is pretty easy, the pilot (or WSO) does it himself. In others, the crew chief assists.
Personally, I always pulled the buckles first (to make sure no one had cut them then re-inserted them...something that bought a bitter crew chief in F-4s some jail time), and left enough slack that I could get to them.
Back to the past? The Air Force was separated from the Army because Army commanders always wanted first priority use of airpower in their own geographical area.
Any strategic use of airpower, such as bombing Iraq and Afghanistan from bases in the CONUS, requires that it be a separate service with its own chain of command. The same is true of long-range airlift and air refueling and air rescue.
And it is essential to establish air superiority before the use of any ground forces other than special ops, or they will be chewed to pieces by enemy airpower. That takes fighters, with massive coordination through their own chain of command, as we saw before the invasion of Iraq.
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