Wild Walrus

    According to this story, the DoD is going to try to see if it can equip F-15Cs with an air-launched version of our most advanced surface-to-air missile, the PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability-3).  This is a sort of spin-off idea from the days of the anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon.  Instead of shooting at satellites, the flying tennis courts will now shoot at incoming ballistic missiles.     

    As most of you know, F-16CJs missions are primarily suppression of enemy air defense, and we refer to our missions as "Wild Weasel" missions. 

    I propose we refer to these absurd (yet potentially useful) missions as "Wild Walrus."   

    It’s hard to believe the F-15C community is going to have to shoulder this.  I can’t wait to rub it in! 

    How is it that Lockheed Martin ends up getting a contract to integrate a Raytheon missile on a Boeing airframe? The F-15 radar is made by Raytheon.  That’s about the only pairing that makes sense in this endeavor.  

    I certainly don’t see this going onto an F-22 or F-35.  At least there will be some work for the legacy aircraft well into the future.  Then again, I’m surprised they didn’t try to throw this contraption onto a modified RQ-4 Global Hawk.
 

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You Know You’re Truly Successful When. . .

    . . . your name is on the building.  It’s the last part of an old adage, you’re least successful when your name is on your shirt, moderately successful when your name is on a parking space, and truly successful when your name is on the building.

     The Iraqi Police in Ramadi named one of their police stations after Travis Patriquin. 

Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs, US Army | 2 Comments

Turn the Tide of the Debate

    It looks from this report like scientists may have found viable stem cells from ambiotic fluid, or something like that.  

    So add this source of stem cells to the cells you can get from umbilical cord blood and adult stem cells, and stop destroying embryos to harvest their stem cells. 

    I don’t get passionate about many things, but embryonic stem cell research to me is as bad as some of the "medical research" events that occurred at Auschwitz/Birkenau.  Horrific might nearly be a suitable adjective.  Call it what you will–it’s destroying a human life in the name of science.

    There are a lot of hideous diseases out there.  I’d rather have them all simultaneously than know that the cure to all of them lay in embryonic stem cell research.  This rings especially true when there’s the possibility that science may not need embryos to get stem cells for research. 

    I know a certain actor and I would have words over this.  If you’re on his side of the debate, fine.  If you’re on my side, great.  Don’t deride the actor for wanting relief from his suffering.  He’s just an actor, not a fighter pilot.  Some people can take the pain better than others.

    I realize that’s easy for me to say that I’d take diseases over research.  But then, that’s why God invented codeine, demoral, and morphine. 
 

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Honoring the Fallen

    Tomorrow (Sat, 6 Jan 2007), the State of Illinois will fly flags at half-staff in honor of Travis Patriquin.  

    Thanks! 

***************

Click here for info on how to make a donation to Travis’ kids’ trust fund.   

Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs, US Army | Comments Off on Honoring the Fallen

Ski Appi

    Christina and I took a day off (finally) and went to the Appi ski resort.  Christina has been skiing most of her life, and she’s pretty good at it.  I ski once every three years on average, often enough only for me to quickly get my confidence back and wear myself down so I’m tired when I try the more challenging slopes.  Christina followed behind me and offered helpful tips to get me started again.  By the early afternoon, I felt ready to try my first black (easy black-diamond equivalent) slope.  

    I only slid a quarter of the way down on my back.  The rest of it I managed to stay up.  Unfazed, we tried another one, which I slid halfway down on my side.  

    We went back to the blue slope, skiied down the hill, and called it a day after that! 

Posted in Asia/Pacific, Family & Friends, Fitness & Health | Comments Off on Ski Appi

Verily and Forsooth

    After piecing together a patchwork of time spanning about a year, I finally finished reading Cervantes’ masterpiece Don Quixote.  I found it lively and quite entertaining, and wish I’d had time to read it all at a stretch. 

    The reason I found it entertaining was because I feel like the early part of my adulthood might have been taken right out of this book. 

    I haven’t forsworn books of chivalry quite yet, though. 

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Let There be (a) Flight!

    Back on 21 Dec, I got to fly for the first time in six months.  "Ski" and I hopped into a pair of Yellowtail F-16CJs with the primary mission to regain my long-lost landing currency, and also to familiarize me with the newest F-16CJ avionics–the LINK-16 inflight datalink, the Helmet-mounted Cueing System (HMCS), and the Advanced Identify Friend-or-Foe Interrogator (AIFF).  

    It was my first takeoff in a GE110-129-powered Viper in over four years.  After spending some time getting the LINK-16 up-and-running, we rocketed into a gloriously blue sky pocked with only few clouds here and there, unusual for this part of Japan this season.  The LINK-16 showed where all of our squadron mates were.  I PDLTd Ski, and was rewarded with a situational awareness mark viewable on the horizontal situation display, and when I looked at him through the heads-up display (HUD) or through HMCS, there was a small circle superimposed right over him.  We interrogated IFFs a couple times on the departure.  Not only could we see who was where, we could tell what they were ‘squawking!’ The avionics upgrades certainly make today’s Block 50 much better at helping the pilot maintain situational awareness!

    We flew over to Chitose, a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) base on the island of Hokkaido.  We meant to fly a TACAN penetration to a TACAN final, but we ended up essentially coming up on a VFR straight-in, since Chitose only has category A through D TACAN approaches, and the Viper is a category E instrument airplane.  That done, we blasted out of there and over to Draughon Range for a range familiarization. 

    Ski walked me (so to speak) through the conventional and pop patterns at the range, and I got to see the targets and strafe pits.  We both had hot guns, but we hadn’t had time to mission plan strafing on top of the local area orientation items, and we didn’t figure we could answer the mail had something bad happened, so our risk management calculations sadly prevented us from pointing our noses at the ground and letting the 20mm fly.   Once we finished three passes, we launched out east over the ocean and picked up vectors to an ILS back at Misawa. 

    After updating my precision approach currency, we launched up into the simulated flameout (SFO) pattern and shot two SFOs, then went around the pattern and came up initial, pitched out, and landed.  I smoothly hit the tarmac at a credible 669′ down the runway, thus successfully updating my long-since lapsed landing currency.

    Mission accomplished.  I may not get to fly again for another few months now.  Rats! It was a great thrill to finally get airborne in any case. 

Posted in F-16 Operations, USAF | Comments Off on Let There be (a) Flight!

The Fabled PowerPoint Presentation

    Travis’ PowerPoint Presentation, for those of you who missed it at the more popular blogs. . . .
How to Win in Anbar

    Thanks again, Jim! 

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The Travis Patriquin Family Trust Fund

    I have a mailing address for the trust fund for Travis Patriquin’s family established by Travis’ father Gary Patriquin:

Travis Patriquin Family Memorial Trust Fund
Harris Bank
111 West Monroe-111/1C
Chicago, IL 60603

    Mr Patriquin is also trying to put a book together for Travis’ kids.  If anyone would like to share anything else with me, please give me specific permission to pass your thoughts along.  For those of you who have already posted thoughts, please also let me know if it’s okay with you to pass those comments along.  If possible, I’ll contact the folks downrange and see if I can get any specifics, if they haven’t already done that. 

    Thanks in advance for your prayers, thoughts, and donations. 

    Click here for the virtual cemetery.   

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10 Jan 2007 Update:   Travis’ father has set up a link to PayPal (PayPal account required).  You can donate to the trust fund.  Click the ‘Send Money’ link, and use his e-mail address, gary112251 – at – America Online – dot – com.  Thank you!

Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs, US Army | 6 Comments

Explanation Deferral

    I think I owe my buddy Jim a longer explanation regarding what I think about Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and its place in the overall GWOT.  It’s going to take an essay-length explanation (maybe more).  The essay would only be my opinion. . . it would take months to do the research on the background facts.  I realize I may owe you all that, too. 

    It’ll take time.  Something tells me the war won’t be over by the time I get around to it. . . !

Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs | Tagged | Comments Off on Explanation Deferral