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I am guessing that the flight profile of a 1200 mile ballistic missile diverges fairly quickly from the flight profile of a 6000 mile ballistic missile.

It probably has more to do with tradition than anything else. Possible other reasons would be the side that they typically approach ships from for landings, access to instruments/controls/systems from the two seats, visibility differences due to location of external stores/equipment, location...

Sounds like a good reason to continue with the ABM research.

Duh!! The left seat faces aft, and the right seat faces forward. That way no matter which rotor fails, the helo will rotate to the right for one of the pilots. Unless they are in the Southern Hemisphere. Which is why Russian ships rarely cross the equator.

Navy/USMC helos typically have virtually the same controls/instrumentation on each seat, so there isn't an advantage there as there would be in a lot of helos. In squadrons I was in, if a lot of landings were going to be done, the junior pilot would typically be in the right seat, day time...

Sec Gates has stated that we will not attempt to shoot it down.

Do they still use a combat-readiness matrix in the Navy squadrons, with a crew needing a certain number of points to be combat ready, and a certain number of combat-ready crews for a squadron to be combat-ready? And do the USMC squadrons do something similar?

3 crewmembers minimum for most of the helos - 2 pilots and an aircrewman

That's what they told us when it happened (it was about 1984 or thereabouts.)

You can go to the ceremony yourself.

There are several great "horse's ass" comments just begging to be posted!

The best gift I can think of would be to give your father's wings to your son.

They are pretty common in Florida, or least they were 25 years ago. I forget the name of the National Guard base a few miles from JAX, but we would see a lot of them down there around the lake when we would fly there.

You say that as if it's a good thing!!

Agreed on both counts, but I suspect that it would be practical within the 5-10 year time frame if they continue the research.

They have made huge advances in the laser technology over the past ten or so years as part of that project, with being able to get a powerful enough beam from a reasonably portable power source.

Walk on your breaks at work. If you have a half hour or more, go for a short jog. And there are exercises you can do at your desk or while driving.

Yeah, and if Montgomery had been given all the supplies, the war would have been over in Nov 1944.

Captain to the Bridge!!

I agree; Enfields are very nice.

Hey, we have to find the money for national pre-school somewhere!

That's one of the proposed new uniforms.

They can do whatever they can get away with, which is (apparently) what they are trying to do. And if they start refueling in Cuba, then they can stop doing that in exchange for us doing something they want. We can do the same thing, and do. But we "have to" (due to the way our political...

Well, when there is a "rash" of aviation mishaps, even if they appear to be unrelated, typically there is a "safety standdown" to get everyone's focus back on the important things. Is there an equivalent in the surface and sub communities?

"What intelligent political decision could possibly be made where someone in Russia would say "You know, flying these bombers into Cuba would enable our objectives perfectly"?" Plenty - the Russians have also been cozying up to Chavez and Venezuela. They have been flexing their muscles with...

"Oops!"

Op-eds are not inherently more biased than a paper's front page articles; it depends on the paper and the editors. In fact, as a whole, an editorial page probably has less bias than the front page. The headline and placement of a "news article", what is included and left out, specific words...

"This is op-ed from a conservative paper and thus biased." As opposed to op-eds from the New York Times?

Not actually military, but look up some of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, particularly the "Spaceman Spiff" ones. Sort of an aviation theme, and very funny. The "Day by Day" strip by Chris Muir occasionally had some with a military theme; generally with a conservative political "message"...

How important is a Navy career to each of you? How long of a minimum commitment will each of you have? What are your plans re having children? I have known two couples where the husband flew in the Reserves, and the wife was career Navy (in one instance a doctor, in the other a maintenance...

The forum it provides for discussions is better than not having anything at all. (Yes, I know how skewed it can be.) Not sure if that offsets the negatives, though, such as the legitimacy U.N. involvement provides to some definitely "are not worthy."

Are we allowed to speculate about the cause of Iranian drone crashes? http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/us-jet-shoots-d.html

It might be cheaper to put a flight suit on it, and send it to the nearest F/A 18 ready room.

"Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" is a great book; is "Ship of Ghosts" of the same level quality?

Well, it's great to see that the Marines don't waste time learning how to spell.

Probably dress slacks and nice shoes, a sports jacket and tie. Make sure you shave if you are shaving yet. Do you know anyone who went through the process in previous years? If so, they could give you an idea of what to expect in the interview. You can also ask them about the program - what...

You had your leg pulled. The sonar on those aren't anywhere close to that powerful.

Icing after every run will help keep shin splints at bay. Strongly recommend you go to a local running shoe store and have them recommend a particular type of shoe. Different people stride differently, and the shoes can help or hurt when it comes to shin splints/other leg and foot issues.

Figure out your goal (make it a realistic one!) Here is a suggested 5K training schedule to use as a guideline - you can see that the basic idea is to do a combination of slower distance work, "sprint" workouts, and rest days. Hills are part of this...

Oh, just wait until one of your kids gets a broken arm or a black eye!!

Taking your children places and teaching them how to behave in public, in various environments, is a very important part of their education as they are growing up. They need to learn that you act differently in church, at the library, at the playground, at a ball game, or in the hangar at...

That got a lot of local coverage here in San Diego when it happened.

What would Richard Gere wear?

Peggy Noonan had a very interesting column today on this: http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html

Psst - Treasure Island was listed in my post!!

We lived in a "fiveplex" on Yerba Buena Island at the very bottom right of that picture from 1989-1991 while I was at Alameda. Incredible view from the back porch - Golden Gate and Alcatraz in the middle, downtown SF/Fisherman's Wharf on the left, San Rafael Bridge on the right.

Thanks (and to A4s also) - I was lumping Fort Barry, Fort Baker, and Fort Cronkhite together, and couldn't remember any of the names.

Presidio is in SF itself, on the other side of the GG Bridge.

Yes - in addition to Alameda, there was the sub base at Mare Island, Hunter's Point ship yard, the Concord Naval Weapon's station, Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, and Treasure Island Naval Station. And not just Navy - the Coast Guard station on Yerba Buena Island, the Presidio (Army), the Army base (I...