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Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 07/09/2019 09:47:08

Good Morning.

I was skimming my usual websites this morning, and this puffery was at the top of the page. Somehow, I think this tells us all we need to know.


Score a win for the Viper pilot in the battle over which Air Force fourth-generation aircraft brings the heat.

1st Lt. Wade Holmes, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot, recently beat his dad, Air Combat Commander Gen. Mike Holmes, an F-15 Eagle pilot, in the game Ace Combat 7, according to a service release.

The two pilots flew their respective aircraft during the hour-long game June 29. The event was live-streamed on Twitch so viewers could watch and call in, asking the pilots questions about flight training.

Ace Combat 7 takes place in a fictional world in which pilots attempt to secure the skies during an air campaign between two sparring rivals. Holmes and Holmes played on an Xbox One system.

Lt. Holmes, who is in the Air National Guard and stationed at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, noted that the realism of the game was better than some training simulators he's used as a pilot. Gen. Holmes, however, pointed out that the purpose was different, and that the hand controls didn't have the same functions. At one point during the game, the two swapped aircraft and flew each others' fighters.

The two discussed topics ranging from what it's like to work with air battle managers in hot zones like the Middle East running air wars to air-to-air combat training and the high G-levels they've sustained in flight.



War is a game. War is reported like a game. Actual pilots are now gamers.

This strikes me as a microcosm in so many ways about what is completely wrong with our military-driven society today. After actual soldiers, sailors, and airmen complete their missions, they're done with the "game" and fade into obscurity. They become very easy to overlook at this point - something many previous "administrations" excel at.

To whit - you might want to take the extra few minutes to read this lengthy story. Even after serving, some veterans are subject to brutality from their own. Perhaps you are aware, if a member of the armed forces is dishonorably discharged, they are not entitled to any sort of V.A. benefits. And there is a police force out there to make sure they do not try.


DERRICK HATHAWAY SERVED multiple tours in Kosovo, contributing to a NATO peacekeeping mission aimed at preventing ethnic cleansing. While Hathaway envisioned his Marine mission as a humanitarian one, he soon became ashamed of his work. In the course of mapping safe routes for NATO forces, Hathaway’s platoon would perform no-knock home raids to search for weapons or contraband, leading to tense confrontations with frightened families.

“It was martial law,” Hathaway said. “That left a nasty taste in my mouth. All we were doing was feeding a new form of hate.”

Still, Hathaway followed orders and earned a number of awards for his military service, including the Good Conduct Medal, which is given to recognize “good behavior and faithful service.” But after half a decade in uniform, Hathaway was given a bad conduct discharge in February 2005. He got the boot after failing a Department of Defense drug test administered shortly after a rowdy weekend in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Among other things, this denied him access to mental health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For years, veterans advocates and policymakers have worked to open the VA to the half-million so-called bad paper veterans like Hathaway. Last year, Congress directed the VA to offer more mental health care benefits to this neglected population. For Hathaway, however, it was too little and too late.

“The military threw me to the wolves,” Hathaway told The Intercept. “I couldn’t get counseling. I was abandoned by them.” Desperate for help, Hathaway visited his local VA hospital in Phoenix and would occasionally receive care on humanitarian grounds.


Finally, I'll pivot to equipment; of course you know my favorite whipping post of late. But now I"m reading that the Air Force is turning to 60-year-old technology in an attempt to increase flight time for the F-35. It's called "hot refuelling", and it's exactly as dangerous as you think it sounds.


The Air Force is turning to half-century-old refueling equipment to get its pilots off the flight lines and back up into the air as quickly as possible.

The U.S. Air Force has used hot refueling in recent years -- a technique that fuels up a plane while its engines are on -- in an effort to save time. Now the 366th Logistics Readiness Squadron, based at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, is the first Air Force unit to take hot-pit refueling old school.

The squadron, known as the 'Gunfighters,' began using a Type 1 hydrant system from the 1950s and hose cart from the 1970s to refuel F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that stop at the base, according to a service release.

The systems connect directly to 500,000-gallon tanks, refueling a plane in roughly 15 minutes without requiring its engines to be shut off, the release states.

"Mountain Home Air Force Base is proving that we can still fuel F-35 aircraft right off the production line with some of the oldest equipment at unheard-of turnaround times," Tech. Sgt. Zachary Kiniry, 366th LRS fuels service center noncommissioned officer, said in the release.


Sounds like an accident waiting to happen to me.


 
 

24 comments (Latest Comment: 07/09/2019 20:45:53 by livingonli)
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Comment by Scoopster on 07/09/2019 13:14:12
Gooood mornin' all!

There's a lotta parallels between the Jeff Epstein thing and teh Harvey Weinstein thing. Hopefully the fact that the influence of power didn't save Harvey bodes well for justice not being sidelined in this new/old case.

Comment by wickedpam on 07/09/2019 13:33:42
Morning

Comment by Will in Chicago on 07/09/2019 13:40:08
Good morning, bloggers!!!

TriSec, I fear where our culture is headed. It is as if everything is becoming a game and human beings are devalued. Perhaps we have forgotten the right to respect.

It is very easy to treat people as things. This seems to be a commonality between veterans getting poor treatment and the Epstein case. There are people who do not think of others as human. As soon as anyone is dehumanized by the powerful, abuses occur.

Comment by wickedpam on 07/09/2019 13:43:04
So looks like Felix Sater is testifying tomorrow morning. To bad once again, ITS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.

This is so frustrating!

Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 14:10:07


Good Morning!

Comment by wickedpam on 07/09/2019 14:13:12
Tom Steyer, not helping dude.

Comment by Scoopster on 07/09/2019 14:19:53
Just saw that H. Ross Perot has died at age 89.

Comment by Will in Chicago on 07/09/2019 14:20:58
Quote by wickedpam:
Tom Steyer, not helping dude.

He could do more good funding progressive media. Chicago has WCPT, but the signal is not that strong outside the city. Many progressive stations have folded and many hosts can only manage to keep things running thanks to their listeners.

Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 14:24:34
Quote by Scoopster:
Just saw that H. Ross Perot has died at age 89.

Woah

Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 14:25:51
Quote by wickedpam:
Tom Steyer, not helping dude.

This pisses me off.

Maybe he should try running for the Senate.

Egotistical Jagoff.

Comment by BobR on 07/09/2019 14:46:09
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Scoopster:
Just saw that H. Ross Perot has died at age 89.

Woah

I didn't know he was still alive

Comment by wickedpam on 07/09/2019 14:52:21
Quote by BobR:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Scoopster:
Just saw that H. Ross Perot has died at age 89.

Woah

I didn't know he was still alive

Same.

Comment by wickedpam on 07/09/2019 14:53:49
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Tom Steyer, not helping dude.

This pisses me off.

Maybe he should try running for the Senate.

Egotistical Jagoff.



So many of they should be running for Senate! Love that they all want to jump in and steer the ship but we really need the Senate and to keep the House to get anything done.

Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 15:11:21
This is a great story.
Every October, students in Lisa Neubauer’s third-grade class at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic School in Cincinnati were assigned to pick a biography of a personal hero and, in the spirit of Halloween, present a book report while dressed as that person.

In October 2003, 8-year-old Rose Lavelle chose to read about women’s soccer legend and two-time World Cup champion Mia Hamm. Lavelle, who cried when the U.S. lost to Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup earlier that month, showed up to class wearing Hamm’s No. 9 U.S. Soccer jersey and white shorts, with a gold medal draped around her neck.

Neubauer was delighted to see one of the girls in her co-ed class of about 20 students pick an athlete for the project, but later that school year, she grew concerned that Lavelle was dedicating too much of her time to soccer, even missing school on occasion for tournaments with her club team.



Comment by Scoopster on 07/09/2019 15:12:28
Awwww yeah just got my ITMFA hat & shirt!

I didn't even get a notification that it had shipped tho.

Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 15:22:11




Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 15:38:43
Quote by Raine:



more about this.

Former FBI Assistant Director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi was one of many to point out that Barr’s father, Donald Barr, hired Esptein decades ago to teach teens at the prestigious Dalton School. Donald Barr was the headmaster at the school from 1964-1974. Epstein, a college dropout, taught calculus and physics at the elite Manhattan school from 1973-1975.



Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 18:24:23

I wonder how this can be enforced.

Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 18:28:43
Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 19:49:56
Comment by Raine on 07/09/2019 19:55:57


The majority leader's great-great-grandfathers, James McConnell and Richard Daley, owned a total of at least 14 slaves in Limestone County, Alabama — all but two of them female, according to the county "Slave Schedules" in the 1850 and the 1860 censuses.






Comment by BobR on 07/09/2019 20:17:52
Quote by Raine:

I wonder how this can be enforced.

Perhaps Twitter can set a flag on tRumpy's account preventing him from blocking anyone

Comment by livingonli on 07/09/2019 20:45:53

Get him out in 2020, and hopefully he goes to jail in 2021.