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.
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.â€
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.
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.
Quote by wickedpam:
Tom Steyer, not helping dude.
Quote by Scoopster:
Just saw that H. Ross Perot has died at age 89.
Quote by wickedpam:
Tom Steyer, not helping dude.
Quote by Raine:Quote by Scoopster:
Just saw that H. Ross Perot has died at age 89.
Woah
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
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.
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.
Seems as though @realDonaldTrump has asked Barr to un-recuse himself from future Epstein case proceedings. That’s obstruction of justice if Trump is a target. And WHY would Trump care if his AG were or were not recused from this particular case? (Oh, I know!) https://t.co/i9azG6iSZq
— Mueller, She Wrote Podcast (@MuellerSheWrote) July 9, 2019
Quote by Raine:Seems as though @realDonaldTrump has asked Barr to un-recuse himself from future Epstein case proceedings. That’s obstruction of justice if Trump is a target. And WHY would Trump care if his AG were or were not recused from this particular case? (Oh, I know!) https://t.co/i9azG6iSZq
— Mueller, She Wrote Podcast (@MuellerSheWrote) July 9, 2019
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.
Quote by Mondobubba:
Breaking: 2nd Circuit Court sez Trump can't block people on the Twitters.
Quote by Raine:
This MOFO criminal racist passive aggressive shit stain.
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.
Quote by Raine:Quote by Mondobubba:
Breaking: 2nd Circuit Court sez Trump can't block people on the Twitters.
I wonder how this can be enforced.
Quote by Raine:
This MOFO criminal racist passive aggressive shit stain.