Free Republic

By November 1944, almost in a cruel and desperate afterthought to what seemed a lost cause, balloons launched from Japan and carrying explosive and incendiary bombs drifted east on the jet stream to the United States. Once again, the goal was to start forest fires and wreak devastation. On December 6 after a "mysterious explosion" in Wyoming, officials found balloon parts and bomb casing fragments from what had been a 33 pound high explosive bomb. During the next several months, Japan launched over 9,000 balloon bombs resulting in over 342 incidents registered throughout western United States and Canada. Oregon alone...

As Joe Kittinger found out in 1960, it’s hard to jump from a height of 102,800 feet—let alone in an open gondola, in minus 100 F temperatures, wearing 160 pounds of equipment—and survive. As Michele Fournier reaffirmed this weekend on an airfield in Saskatchewan, it’s even more difficult to break that 50-year-old record for the highest free fall. The French parachutist attempted, for the fourth time, to rise to a height of 130,000 feet in a pressurized capsule dangling beneath a high-altitude air balloon, then step out of it and hurtle toward Earth at supersonic speed, breaking the sound barrier....

On August 16, 1960, Kittinger made his most famous free-fall. In this flight, he made it up to an altitude of 102,800 feet, breaking a previous record made by David Simons during Project Man High. He stayed at this altitude for about 12 minutes, which must have been very unpleasant – not only was it as cold as 94 minus Fahrenheit, but he had a severe pain in his right hand from a malfunctioning pressurized glove. Then, he jumped. He fell for almost five minutes before reaching a safe altitude to open his main parachutes and float down to the...

FIFA bans high-altitude matches without acclimatisation by Shigemi Sato Sat Dec 15, 8:51 AM ET Football's governing body FIFA on Saturday banned all matches it sanctions at an altitude of more than 2,750 metres (9,022 feet) "without acclimatisation", relaxing its earlier limit. It also set up a 40-million-dollar referee training project and increased from 10 to 15 percent the share of FIFA's subsidies that must be spent by each national association to promote the women's game. The decisions were made by the body's executive committee, which met on the sidelines of the Club World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said....

The Colorado Army National Guard will maintain its annual high-altitude helicopter training on Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands in Eagle and Garfield counties at 3,000 hours. The Guard also has agreed to additional stipulations in order to protect wilderness areas, wildlife and livestock, the White River National Forest and BLM announced today. The military believes high-altitude combat training is vital for the protection of pilots and aircrews. In combat, aircrews trained in high-altitude aviation have a higher mission success rate as well as fewer accidents. As such, the Army had asked for 6,000 hours that could...

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - Celebrity sightings may have been scarce, but the annual gathering of the world's most powerful people in Davos still managed to wrap its air of serious debate in a sheen of glamour. For all the grave talk about the dangers of climate change at the four-day meeting of corporate and political leaders, petrol-guzzling limousines and SUVs remained the transport mode of choice for the vast majority of participants. For the really "serious money," the road was left behind altogether in favour of a helicopter entry and departure to the small ski resort high in the Swiss...

Preparations are well under way for the Valley's premier aviation event - the Edwards Air Force Base Open House and Air Show. The free two-day event is set for Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 28 and 29, at the base that has been home to flight testing nearly every aircraft in the Air Force inventory - past, present and future. That heritage is reflected in the event's theme - "The Edwards' Edge: Making History, Reaching New Heights." This year's festivities also will honor the 60th anniversary of the Air Force, one of the first official events to do so. Headlining the...

<p>NATO said it won a great victory, but the war did very little damage to Serb forces. By not conceding this, the Pentagon may mislead future presidents about the limits of U.S. power. A NEWSWEEK exclusive.</p> <p>It was acclaimed as the most successful air campaign ever. "A turning point in the history of warfare," wrote the noted military historian John Keegan, proof positive that "a war can be won by airpower alone." At a press conference last June, after Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic agreed to pull his Army from Kosovo at the end of a 78-day aerial bombardment that had not cost the life of a single NATO soldier or airman, Defense Secretary William Cohen declared, "We severely crippled the [Serb] military forces in Kosovo by destroying more than 50 percent of the artillery and one third of the armored vehicles." Displaying colorful charts, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Henry Shelton claimed that NATO's air forces had killed "around 120 tanks," "about 220 armored personnel carriers" and "up to 450 artillery and mortar pieces." An antiseptic war, fought by pilots flying safely three miles high. It seems almost too good to be true—and it was. In fact—as some critics suspected at the time—the air campaign against the Serb military in Kosovo was largely ineffective. NATO bombs plowed up some fields, blew up hundreds of cars, trucks and decoys, and barely dented Serb artillery and armor. According to a suppressed Air Force report obtained by NEWSWEEK, the number of targets verifiably destroyed was a tiny fraction of those claimed: 14 tanks, not 120; 18 armored personnel carriers, not 220; 20 artillery pieces, not 450. Out of the 744 "confirmed" strikes by NATO pilots during the war, the Air Force investigators, who spent weeks combing Kosovo by helicopter and by foot, found evidence of just 58.</p>

Following is quoted the middle of the entire report. Note: Detailed planning for the Kosovo campaign was ordered by Clinton in Mid-1998, the campaign itself started in March 1999, immediately after Clinton's impeachment, and slightly before Hillary began her NY Senate campaign. Reference numbers in the text are to footnotes in the orginal Army War College report. The Views of General Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander, NATO It is important to note that this analysis is simply an attempt to express the concern generated by sets of figures that do not correspond to one another. It is not an attempt...