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The unlimited motivational poster thread
- Thread starter RockyMtnNFO
- Start date
sodajones
Combat Engineer
No Navy-style "dip" in the piss-cutter, but a jaunty "old school" look nonetheless...and a GREAT 'stache!
I'm not the world's biggest "Blue" fan, but in my opinion, COL Robin Olds was the real deal. Had all the requsites of a super SHFP: Handsome w/ swingin' 'stache, heavy boozer, outstanding stick, fighter ace, combat leadership, movie star wife, & the heart/courage of a lion.
We were on the line during the wild summer of '67... when COL Olds and his Wing (w/ the WolfPack, Op BOLO, etc.) were doing their thing daily out of Thailand. We followed his exploits all throughout our deployment, and became admiring Olds fans. He would have made a great Navy fighter pilot, loved minglig/flying with our Miramar 'FighterTown' community/Top Gun fighter bubbas. One of a kind fer sure, would love to have met him!
I've sorta heard some of the story of the F-105 flyover the AF Academy he arranged, when he was the Superintendent. Seems they flew over supersonic doing considerable damage to the windows of the famous Cadet Chapel. Any of our VF types (R1, Cat) care to share particulars on this unusual "incident"?
BzB
Any of our VF types (R1, Cat) care to share particulars on this unusual "incident"?
BzB
"I know 'nuttink' about any AF Academy fly-overs!"
Only "slightly downside comment" I've ever heard about the good General is that when he went flying in a Navy F-4 out of TOPGUN (with an instructor RIO in his back seat), he was kinda-sorta pissed that the RIO had the affrontery to actually talk on the radio or say anything "directive" during the fight. Neither, I guess, were "the Air Force way" of doing things. That said, I wasn't there...and if that's the worst there is...well, fuck it.
6 min 14 secs in this vid may explain his dislike of chatty WSOs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9i4sD3dAFo
Thanks for that. Now I have less respect for him when he said "I turned off the kid in the backseat...". What did he think "the kid" was there for? Weight and balance?
Call me an "old school asshole" (you wouldn't be the first...), but any Navy RIO worth his flight pay was additive to the pilot's (and the flight's) SA...not a degradation. And, might I opine, to flying the aircraft to the fullest of its design capabilities.
If...and I reiterate "if"...we were just a bridge to the newer technology that fuses everything a RIO could see and sense and "do" in the aircraft that was outside of the pilot's overloaded capabilities "in the moment"...we surely earned ur place...during our time. I truly hope all the new "magic shit" works as advertised.
Don't mean to be "RIO-centric" here...same holds true for every NFO and every NAC flying every aircraft in which they have (or have had) a role. It's just that the discussion/video was pointedly about fighter backseats...
Harumph!
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
I would have thought a person would want to be able to use all the resources available to them, I will say when I was on the ship supervising the engineroom I wanted everyone helping out and keeping there eyes open, it could be some E-1 that would keep me from explaining how a piece of equipment failed.
I agree with Renegade, but to come to BrigGen Olds defense, we was old old old school and was used to flying alone and I'm guessing was not a fan of a crewed fighter. He was outspoken, stubborn and command hated him (I think he was a Col0nel for almost 25 years) but he got results. Many consider him the best USAF Wing Commander of the Viet Nam war.