Aviation Mishaps 10

by | Dec 17, 2024 | Military, Musings | 115 comments

I. Prologue – Requiescat in Pace

Life got in the way – I had an important motion due in a case – and thus there was a brief hiatus from writing my aviation mishap stories. Now we return with even more gusto! WARNING – the next few episodes, unfortunately, involve fatal mishaps; not the “fun” kind of “Approach” mishaps I started with, where everyone survives and has a great story (and a little PTSD) afterwards, but the kind of smashups where people die(d). To the extent there is any levity in them, I offer my pre-apologies to families of the deceased, should they ever happen upon these scribblings. In all of these incidents, I knew someone involved; each of them was a terrible and unique tragedy because of the people who didn’t make it.

II. Meet the North Carolina Lawn Dart

When I was in flight school, there had been a little bit of a “jet draft” when it came time for my year group at the end of Primary flight training to select among the choices of: Helos, Jets, or Props. By then, I knew that I wanted to be a Cobra pilot, but the “needs of the service” are ALWAYS paramount. i.e. The Marine Corps will stick you in whatever aircraft it needs you to fly and you’ll shut up and be happy about it.

When it came to selecting jets in the Marine Corps, you had two options: the F/A-18D Hornet – very sexy, but not very many slots – and a whole lot more of the AV-8B Harrier jump-jet. Unaffectionately known by a number of nicknames, such as the Widowmaker, the Scarier, or (my fave) the North Carolina Lawn Dart. The first two are pretty obvious, but the last one was a joke on east coast Harrier pilots who fly out of Cherry Point Air Station, located along the Neuse River about 40 miles east and north of New River as the crow flies. A guy at the Cherry Point O’Club once asked me if I knew how I could get a Harrier for less than $10,000 and when I shook my head that I didn’t know he told me the punchline: “Just buy some property along the Neuse River and wait… eventually a Harrier will crash into your yard.”

Har-de-har-har!

But seriously, if anyone thinks this is just a helo guy poking fun at the Harrier guys, please understand, the Harrier nickname “the Widowmaker” long predates me. Here is the Wikipedia article entitled “List of Harrier Family Losses.” It is not talking about the families of the deceased pilots, but losses by the Harrier family of aircraft. I would encourage the reader to just click on the link and take a gander at the list… and its length. Note that many have UK flags next to them, as the Harrier was originally a British jet that the US decided to but and began fielding in 1971, in the original the AV-8A variant.

All of that aside, one of the “neatest” aspects about being deployed in a composite squadron was that we had fixed-wing guys with us aboard ship. Because the Harrier can take off and land vertically, we had 5 of them embarked with us aboard the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) for our deployment in March 1995. This was something I hadn’t considered when selecting helos back in flight school and – as a helo pilot – I was curious about working alongside fixed-wing, “jet guys”.

III. Real American Heroes

My first intro to the iron gonads of our Harrier pilots came before I’d even gotten to know any of them very well. During our fly-aboard to the ship, the weather off the North Carolina coast was starting to degrade that late-March day, 1995. There are only 8 landing spots aboard a helicopter carrier, so each “wave” of aircraft has a particular window to get aboard, shut down, and quickly get pulled off of the spots (and stored) in order to make room for the next wave. The Cobra time slot was right before the Harriers and we managed to sneak in under the clouds.

But the weather was going to crap in a hurry as we helped the deck handlers button up our aircraft and get it off of the spot. I could hear the Harriers’ engines as they came in overhead, but I couldn’t see them because the cloud ceiling was already below 1000 feet – and dropping – as the ship continued steaming east toward the Caribbean, bound for Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, where we would go on-station in relief of the existing Amphibious Ready Group there.

As the Harriers came into the back of the ship, it went from bad –

To worse –

Just like that.

As unnatural as helicopters flying may be, hovering is our thing. I had zero envy for my fixed wing brothers as they tried to hover a jet with no horizon and then put it down safely onto the boat.

When they finally all got aboard, I went down to the Ready Room to shake their hands and express my appreciation.

After a couple of close calls in Sardinia in training (see AMST 9), my time with the British Royal Marines finally ended at the close of the exercise. We headed back to our own ship and got an appropriate send-off from the Royal Marines.

Low-middle are scattered, pasty-white, UK arses mooning us as a send-off

Note also the photo date stamp in orange in the lower right: ‘95 5 10 – May 10, 1995.1 A few weeks after this, we were in the Adriatic Sea – the body of water east of Italy that borders the coast of Croatia, Serbia, and Albania, among others. At the time, what used to be known as Yugoslavia was falling apart.2 Badly.

Our squadron got to be big heroes for rescuing an Air Force pilot (Capt. Scott O’Grady) after he was shot down over Bosnia.3 Much of the rest of the deployment was spent patting ourselves on the back, a few more exercises, some port calls, and then back home – without any mishaps or crashes. Yay, US! Bonus, we even got some fruit salad for our uniforms for the rescue!!

One of the heroes of that rescue operation, feted (justifiably) in the press afterwards, was Ron “Wiggy” Walkerwicz. Try saying his last name five times fast and you can appreciate why he let even junior pilots like me call him by his callsign. Wiggy was one of the senior Harrier pilots on our deployment, the Harrier “tactics guy,” and he had been selected for Air Force Test Pilot School (as a Marine) – a testament to what kind of pilot he was.

I don’t think I ever heard anyone in the squadron utter a bad word about him. Ever. He was a consummate pro as a pilot and officer, and an amiable colleague and friend. He roomed with some of the other Harrier pilots just around the corner from where me and my roommates lived, so we all got to know each other pretty well.

After we returned from what had to be called successful deployment and maiden voyage for the USS Kearsarge, we de-chopped from our composite squadron and everyone went back to their former units, including our new fixed-wing Harrier pilot friends. Two of the Cobra pilots on that deployment lived up close to Cherry Point and kept in touch with the Harrier guys, so occasionally I would hear about the goings-on. Additionally, now that I knew folks up there, whenever I did an exercise where I had to coordinate with Harriers, I could ask to talk to one of our boys, or mention a name, and have some cred. Somewhere in there I heard that Wiggy had gotten engaged to his longtime sweetheart.

A few months later, I was out testing a Cobra on a dreary Friday in February, with the clouds threatening to make my test hop a lot shorter than intended. I came back into the Ready Room and heard that a Harrier had gone down shortly after takeoff at Cherry Point. The aircraft was part of a division of three, IIRC, and as they all went up into the clouds, the last aircraft was struck by lightning, likely resulting in a complete electrical failure, as well as igniting a fire in a fuel nacelle.

The Los Angeles Times ran a story Dec. 2, 2002, entitled “More Than a Few Good Men,” profiling the 45 Marine aviators killed (to that point) in Harrier accidents since the first death of Major Michael Ripley on June 17, 1971. The story won a Pulitzer prize in journalism for highlighting the dangers of the Harrier. Near the bottom of that article is a bland explanation of how Ron “Wiggy” Walkerwicz died from a lightning strike to his AV-8B Harrier II aircraft on Feb. 16, 1996.

Walkerwicz was one of four Harrier pilots involved in the daring rescue of a downed Air Force pilot, Capt. Scott O’Grady, in Bosnia in 1995. The Harriers provided cover for the helicopter that plucked O’Grady from hostile territory.

Walkerwicz , 30, a Marine for eight years, had been obsessed with the Harrier ever since studying its use by the British in the Falkland Islands War, said his father, William Walkerwicz. He said his son “knew they were flying the most unforgiving aircraft in our arsenal.”

His AV-8B crashed after apparently being struck by lightning shortly after takeoff from Cherry Point in foggy and windy conditions. The lightning set fire to one wing, then part of the wing broke off. He never ejected from his plane.

Walkerwicz, who grew up in New York state, died two months before he was to be married.

The word from our Harrier brothers, in light of black box, tower data, and their benefit of the mishap investigation, while not conclusive, was that they believed that Wiggy likely could have safely ejected – the Harrier does “boast” the best ejection seat in the business, down to 0/0 – but he was over base housing and the elementary school and stayed with his bird to ensure it didn’t go down there.4

So, as is befitting a warrior of Captain Ron Walkerwcz’s status, I raise a toast to his memory, and ask for my God’s blessings on his family and loved ones: to Wiggy, a man who lived well and rightly.

1 Exactly one day short of four years of my commissioning as a Second Lieutenant of Marines aboard the USS Constitution in Boston.

2 The military requirement for acronyms meant that we called it all “the FRY,” as in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia.

3 When O’Grady was shot down in late May (I forget the exact day, but near the end of the month, ~27th), I was the Cobra schedule writer for the 8 of us on board. Which meant that I knew exactly who had already flown and who had crew day for that mission; I was among those who hadn’t flown, but the mission was scrubbed because his wingman reported he had not seen a ‘chute after O’Grady’s aircraft was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). We were the “asset on scene” when he came up on the radio 6 days later, but I was on the schedule to test the backup bird when the mission went down for real.

4 A 0/0 ejection seat means that a pilot can eject from zero feet of altitude (i.e. while the aircraft is on the ground parked), with zero forward airspeed and still get a full canopy of parachute over him to avoid being splattered on the concrete.

About The Author

Ozymandias

Ozymandias

Born poor, but raised well. Marine, helo pilot, judge advocate, lawyer, tech startup guy... wannabe writer. Lucky in love, laughing 'til the end.

115 Comments

  1. Ozymandias

    FIRST! (Looks around for Bro like John Travolta, wanders off.)

    • Sensei

      Give us some time to read the thing!

      • Ozymandias

        Oh, c’mon, Sensei. This was light on story and heavy on pictures. No wall of text this time.
        😉

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      So, Welcome Back Kotter Travolta, or Broken Arrow Travolta?99

      • Ozymandias

        I only acknowledge Vinny Barbarino Travolta. Everything else has been extraordinarily gay with the exception of Pulp Fiction.

      • slumbrew

        He was pleasantly menacing in Broken Arrow.

        Hush! Hush!

      • kinnath

        Face/Off

      • rhywun

        Everything else has been extraordinarily gay with the exception of Pulp Fiction.

        Oh, come on.

      • Ozymandias

        Thank you for backing me up, Zwak.

      • Ozymandias

        I’m sorry – that’s rhywun who came through with some extra gay Travolta.

      • Aloysious

        Travolta makes a great movie villain.

        Swordfish.

        I rest my case.

    • Brochettaward

      Ozy knows how to make me moist.

      • Ozymandias

        While I am mostly a seconder, I do recognize the glory of the First, so I tried to put a placeholder for you there, Bro!

  2. DEG

    So, as is befitting a warrior of Captain Ron Walkerwcz’s status, I raise a toast to his memory, and ask for my God’s blessings on his family and loved ones: to Wiggy, a man who lived well and rightly.

    RIP

  3. kinnath

    thank you for the stories.

    • Ozymandias

      Thanks for reading, kinnath.

  4. Sensei

    RIP William Walkerwicz.

    Yay, US! Bonus, we even got some fruit salad for our uniforms for the rescue!!

    I love that expression!

    the Harrier does “boast” the best ejection seat in the business, down to 0/0

    The one with the special watch you don’t want but will definitely wear?

    • Ozymandias

      I never understood the fixed-wing guy watch fetish.
      We helo guys are around driveshafts, gears, and lots of spinning shit, so watches are just one more thing that can either (a) be dropped into a transmission stack thereby FOD’ing the entire aircraft, or (b) caught on one of the many snaggy things that seem to be everywhere on a helicopter. (smooth surfaces don’t really matter to helos – we’ve got a lot of other drag problems).

    • rhywun

      I love that expression!

      Oofa, now I get it.

    • Evan from Evansville

      Word on Walkerwicz. His ‘choice’ to stay on board rather than ditch brought a slight mistiness to me. Already deserved a salute and hopefully folk could do something for his poor soon-to-be, but if that was indeed his thought process, in quick-and-‘terrifying’ real time (to Normal Folk).. uh. Damn. Medal+ something he enjoyed named for him.

      • Ozymandias

        Evan – Wiggy was that kind of guy. I know his squadronmates – and guys from our deployment – all were convinced that he stayed with the aircraft to avoid the school and base housing. I don’t know for certain, but he certainly had time to punch out, so…. the evidence strongly suggests he rode it in.

  5. Ozymandias

    No comments on naked Brits? Do we have any limeys in our midst who can defend the honour of those bare british bottoms?
    Gotta say, those guys were a riot to live with in the field. British Royal Marines are pretty effing cool, as a general matter.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Never mixed it up with the British Marines, but the ROK Marines were fun to train with. For large values of Fun.

      During Team Spirit ’88 in Korea, our squadron showed up nearly a month earlier than any other Marines. We left early so we could set up the gear for an airfield and get everything ready to fly in other units.

      The first month was end of Feb or so and still pretty cold. Especially compared to Okinawa. One day it was announced we’d be doing a joint PT run with some ROK Marine unit. We showed up in our sweats because of the cold. The ROK Marines had sweat pants and t-shirts.

      Of course, our Sgt. Major took a look at them and told us to doff our sweat shirts. Which made the Korean Sgt. Major to say something and all the Korean Marines took off their sweat pants. Several more iterations and we ran our 5K that day in just shorts and shoes.

      End of the run, we retired to our “maintenance” Quonset hut (which really was a bar and rec area, never doubt that the Wing always travels in style) with our new Korean friends and began drinking. Same silly bravado there too. Whiskey and soju were guzzled and swapped along with giant bottles of OB beer. Everyone who wasn’t on duty was knee walking drunk by noon.

      Good times.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Oooosh. 1988 Olympics in S Korea. That must have been extra fun/interesting. I’m sure there was still much hubaloo. Daejeon Stadium hosted some soccer prelims, now home to the Hanwha Eagles baseball team. The funnest of funs. Dana Eveland played for ’em when I was there. Saw my band play, bought me a drink and we chatted.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Evan:

        Some of us got a 96 hour leave to go to Seoul. We went to the Olympic stadium and village. While visiting I actually bought a cap with the Olympic logo in it.

        Later when we were in some market haggling about some sneakers, I told him he was asking for a price that would only be justified for the real deal and he was obviously selling knockoffs. He retorted that my hat was an obvious knockoff. When I told him that I actually bought it at the Olympic village, he got real excited.

        He ended up selling me the sneakers for a huge discount if I let him have the tags out of my hat. He wanted them to make his own knockoffs much more realistic.

        It is amazing to me how much that has changed about Korea. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, they were cranking out a lot of apparel and you could buy unlicensed knockoffs for very cheap. Now, Koreans are so rich, they don’t do that anymore. All of the apparel sweatshops went to China I think. There are still a few tailors making bespoke suits, but no more $5 pairs of Filas.

  6. SarumanTheGreat

    The continued use of the Windowmaker despite its accident record reminds me of the Arthur Miller play ‘All My Sons’.

    • Ozymandias

      I wasn’t familiar with that one, but after reading the wiki, I’ll say that this is an issue that will return – in Spades – in a future installment regarding a certain tiltrotor technology that shall not be named.

  7. SarumanTheGreat

    The continued use of the Widowmaker despite its accident record reminds me of the Arthur Miller play ‘All My Sons’.

    • Sensei

      It so dreadful it needs to be said twice!

      • Ozymandias

        Here, here!

    • juris imprudent

      The perfect warm-up act for the Osprey!

      • Ozymandias

        We’re still a few chapters away from my intersection with that thing, but yes, that is coming.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, but I said Voldemort.

      • Ozymandias

        LOL (nice)

  8. kinnath

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-vows-pursue-more-defamation-claims-after-abc-news-settlement-2024-12-17/

    President-elect Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and its former top pollster, the day after he stepped up his legal threats against news outlets and said he would also consider suing social media influencers for defamation.

    The lawsuit filed Monday night in Iowa’s Polk County seeks “accountability for brazen election interference committed by” the newspaper and pollster J. Ann Selzer over its poll published on Nov. 2. That poll showed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris leading Trump by 13 percentage points in Iowa.

    The poll was bullshit the moment is published. There was no possible way it was correct.

    So, either one of the best run polls in the country for half a century completely fucking blew it . . . . or it was intentionally bad.

    This will be interesting.

    • Ozymandias

      My initial, gut reaction is that this is a bad idea in the vein of “hard cases make bad law.” IOW, even if Trump wins, it will set a precedent that will undoubtedly get weaponized against his “Team” down the road.
      OTOH… I have to say I am pleasantly surprised that he took a chunk out of ABC’s ass and perhaps after some of Team Blue players find out how much it sucks to have lawfare perpetrated against them, maybe we can get back to governance… but I doubt that.
      I just see continued escalation until one or the other side dies off or kills enough of the other.

      • Sensei

        That was my initial thought too. OTH discovery will be a hoot!

      • juris imprudent

        As long as Marc Elias is alive, the Dems will not be giving up on lawfare.

      • kinnath

        The lawsuit is terrible for so many reasons.

        But, as an Iowa native, the Register poll has been a point of pride since started paying attention in the 70s. The day that poll was published was very, very sad day.

        And I want to see the people that did that get punished.

        But, I still don’t like the lawsuit.

      • Ozymandias

        Well, that was what caused ABC to crumble. And my guess is that Trump or his attorneys probably know something specific about that poll being hinky and so he picked it for a reason. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump runs off a string of wins with people tossing in the towel before they have to go through “electronically stored materials” discovery.

      • rhywun

        Meanwhile Trump says he’s not going to go after the perpetrators of the Russia hoax, the BS impeachments, etc. etc.

        Hm.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        So many liberals believed the Big Lie. That they had a stranglehold on the American electorate, and that Trump could never win again, now matter how badly they abused everyone. They never thought they’d be in a position to be called on their bullshit.

        They do not want to reach discovery.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        The only other way is the Prisoners Dilemma Basically, how do you get the other guy, in this case the D’s, to stop with this bullshit? If you do nothing, they will keep doing this, as they are rational actors, and it works to some limited degree. So, you reply in kind, as you are also a rational actor.

        This is a different tactic, and I think it will end as bad as you do, but, what the heck.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        “as they are rational actors”

        As a doktor of science, you should know they’re not really rational. One can only hope they chill, but I don’t think they will.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Rational actor as deals with money. They, especially the donors, do not like backing the losing horse, and will stop when it starts to cost them cash.

        And I am glad to see you recognize my Brain Science Genius(r).

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      One would think he’d have an easier row to hoe with the thousands of HITLER! references said in “news” outlets all over the country for the last year.

      • Ozymandias

        *That* also bothered me about this suit: of all the legal-defamation quality things that have been said about Trump, he goes after a shitty poll?!?! In an election he won and in a state that he won by a blowout. This one seems so far down on the list of offenses worthy of retaliatory lawfare.

      • kinnath

        The Register poll has a long and respected history of giving unbiased results that are usually right.

        This lawsuit is a direct attack against what appears to be naked political manipulation of the poll.

        They said Harris was up by 13%. Trump won by 13%. So they were off by 26%. This is unexplainable as incompetence instead of malice.

      • rhywun

        I jokingly suggested he should sue everyone who called him Hitler but I doubt very much it would “work” in court.

      • kinnath

        Trump, he goes after a shitty poll

        For the entirety of my adult life the Register Poll wasn’t a shitty poll. It was one of the few trustworthy polls out there.

        It didn’t matter what horseshit polls were published by the LA Times, NY Times, or Washington Post. The Register Poll could be trusted to represent what was really going on.

        Until 2024.

        I think that’s why Trump is going after them.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Yes. I don’t generally follow the (un)reliability of pollsters, but by all accounts, the Iowa poll was historically a very high quality poll. Megyn Kelley called it a gold standard of polling. That lady must have sold out something fierce to completely destroy her credibility, and that of a previously very highly regarded poll.

        I agree with Kinnath. A 26 point differential between a final poll and the election results is not some mistake. It’s malice.

      • Ozymandias

        I’ll concede – as I noted above – that I suspect he or his team *know* it’s dirty and that’s why they picked it.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Hilter can be waived away with 1st amendment protections, legal or not. It’s kinda like when a judge found Rachel Maddow so unconvincing as to be parody, and not news.

        This is something a bit different.

      • kinnath

        Note that Trump is suing the Register for election interference, not defamation.

      • Evan from Evansville

        I think being able to prove Team Blue’s TMITE committed “election interference” is an important blow to strike. A distinct event with a ‘controversial’ crime, vs HITLER! or Trump’s decapitated head on TIME that are in Free Speech grey areas is an easy choice, IMO. Folk talking about the Iowa poll’s credibility have a valid point: It would shake trust and rattle many heads if specifics of corrupt media action against Trump can be shown. The People are properly furious with Washington and The Media. They need to be exposed to ‘peak’ deception.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        “Note that Trump is suing the Register for election interference, not defamation.”

        I thought it had something to do with false advertising. Anyway, not sure you should be able to sue someone for being wrong.

      • kinnath

        The accusation was the knowingly published false information in hopes of swinging undecided voters.

        So election interference.

        I don’t see how they prove that without inside information.

      • Ozymandias

        kinnath – I knew the suit was for election interference, but that’s part of what has me curious. Is this the setup for more “election interference” suits? Because we all know that’s all team D does – at least for the last three elections. I mean, if Trump can win this suit on election interference, who on Team Blue isn’t in trouble for same?? All of the Media lying about him non-stop for 8 years has left a trail of evidence miles long. And what’s the state of limitations? Are the Comey Bros now in deep kimchi?
        If Trump wants to play like the donkeys and find amenable Team Red state prosecutors willing to make life hell on Dems, we could be looking at what amounts to open legal warfare as a now accepted form of governance. Please hear me clearly: I don’t care either way. I feel about our government the way atheists feel about ghosts, so they can burn it to the ground for all I care.
        But I do not think that this is all going to be the recipe for cake in the end. Trump will be without this power one day, too… in 4 short years.

      • Suthenboy

        “…we could be looking at what amounts to open legal warfare as a now accepted form of governance.”

        We are in dangerous waters, waters we crossed into in 2016. What we have seen regarding the press maligning Trump, Trump supporters and especially with the lawfare against trump this time around put us firmly in banana republic territory. We are not headed there, we are there. We were always different than everyone else but we let our culture slip away and that doesnt seem to be true anymore.
        Our founders notions of quasi-isolationism was wise for reasons we lost sight of. It is not the overseas entanglements that are the problem as much as how it shapes us here at home.
        I prefer the Jeffersonian approach: “You fucked with me. Now I shoot you. Now I go away.” Maybe I am just a simpleton.

      • Ozymandias

        Yeah, that’s even worse than a cold cat. Damn.
        Nosegear breaks and you know instantly that thing ain’t gonna make it into the air. Yikes.

    • Ozymandias

      Fishy – I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the O’Club in P’Cola, but back in the day they would have deck cam footage of epic mishaps playing on the O’Club tvs on a loop (much like the one you posted). I couldn’t believe it the first time I went in there on a Friday night and people pointing and laughing at horrible mishaps or close calls while getting shitfaced, but that was a part of naval aviation back in the day.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Never been to Pensacola (yet). And don’t think I’ve been in an Officer’s Club that’s still open like “normal” other than once or twice in Pearl Harbor 10 yrs back.

    • Ozymandias

      I’ll take your word on it – and it does add some additional color to the suit.

      • Ozymandias

        Whoops – this was a reply to Kinnath above.

      • kinnath

        I am, perhaps, a bit biased.

    • juris imprudent

      My brother would’ve been on board the Coral Sea at that time.

  9. Tres Cool

    So after 5 active Army years doing avionics (MOS 15N), my final stop was at Ft. Hood and the 6th Cavalry Brigade (air combat).
    We had the new-at-the-time AH-64. A lot of gunnery was done at White Sands, and one night in the officers club, I saw an AH-1 pilot and AH-64 pilot get in a serious knock-down/drag-out over who’s was better.

    • Ozymandias

      That is so funny. I liked Apache guys generally – fellow attack brethren and helo bubbas.
      When we would do cross-countries, I have to confess that I did like menacing Air Force pilots in their club, though. Pussies.

      • Tres Cool

        Does AF even spend much time with rotary wing? Im sure they have some, just like the Army has a few fixed-wing laying around.

      • Ozymandias

        They have the Pave-lows (MH-53) – the spec ops version of the giant H-53, and I know Hurlburt has some other “unusual” aircraft, but generally, no.

        Helicopter pilots frequently (and mockingly) refer to themselves as “helo trash” because fixed-wing aircraft cost a lot more $$. As a result, it is widely understood in the Navy (as one example) that if a helo is running low on gas and the carrier is in the middle of a launch and recovery of its fighters, those guys in the helo could wind up going swimming.

      • Tres Cool

        I was told by a friend that was involved in that pesky Panama business that when Noriega held himself in La Commendancia, CIA types tried to burn him out. But everything was wet. They tossed bales of straw against the building- they only smoldered. Then a CH-53 came in and just hovered, fanning the flames until things started to take.

        Anecdotal. But a story.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Fucking Air Force.

        In Okinawa, one of the prized things you could get was some TAD over in Kadena. Why? Because then you could get a “Club Card” which allowed you – a Marine – access to the AF E-Club. Which really meant you could get access to AF gals.

        Without a club card, Marines were banned from the AF E-club. Too many dustups between the Marines and AF guys. Especially bad were the grunts from Camp Hansen up in the north end of the island.

      • LCDR_Fish

        One reason why there’s always a small boy playing “plane guard”. Technically speaking they could do a temporary helo recovery or refueling as well if they were tracking.

  10. slumbrew

    Thanks, Ozzy, for this more somber installment.

    That Wikipedia entry on Harrier losses is bananas.

    I’d love to see a breakdown of non-combat airframe losses vs production numbers for military aircraft.

    I imagine the Harrier would be up there, for fixed wing.

    • Ozymandias

      Sb – I can’t say with any kind of statistical certainty, but as an aviation enthusiast of many years, to my eyeball, the Harrier’s record looks indefensible. Just death after death after death after engine problems after seat problems after… I’m probably biased in the wrong direction, but I suspect that a detailed analysis would only show that its acquisition and continued use was political and not the product of cold rational logic and analysis of available aerodynamic evidence.
      My basis for believing that will be made manifest in coming episodes.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Even if the Marines gave it up, I think the Brits would have been forced to keep it. Their carriers were (are? I haven’t been on the current generation) smaller than ours and I think they might have had issues with standard carrier jets.

  11. Tres Cool

    I love my UH-1 and my UH-60. Despite being a flying boxcar I love my Chinook.

    The CH-47D is the only aircraft I almost puked on.

    • Ozymandias

      The UH-1 “Huey” remains the most iconic of helicopters. I had about 30 hours of Huey time and it is an absolute blast to fly. Old school “stick and rudder” and, on the November models, in addition to collective, cyclic, and pedals, you also have to manipulate the throttle in autos in order to keep the turns in limits.

      The H-60 and the AH-1W both had the same engine twin-pack: the general electric T-700 (technically, it was the T700-GE-401).

      The 47s have massive power, but they are decidedly uncomfortable as a passenger. I don’t mean the seats, I mean that it flies through the air with this kind of rotating feeling, like you’re in a washing machine that’s flying forward. Me no likey.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Chinook is the only rotary wing I’ve flown on. Seemed fine from the back.

      I’ve puked on a C130 and commercial aircraft. Motion sickness sucks, whatever.

  12. Evan from Evansville

    “The Scarier” is my personal favorite. Boom. These are outstanding. I’d forgotten about how old the Herrier was, but I ‘enjoy’ the ‘awesome in theory, but we kinda just aren’t there yet’-attitude they were. I don’t enjoy how life-threateningly shitty they were to operate. Helo-pilots and them seem like strange dogs to each other. Kinda OK with another, but not, not really. People be people, with teams, teams.

    Your pics are astonishing. The asses, not so much from 1,000’+. That’s the perfect spirit, though. Groups of men = Children. See also: Sports. Being stupid is far more civil than alternatives.

  13. creech

    I’m researching “women of the Civil War” for a future talk. I came across Pvt. “Albert Cashier” of the 95th Illinois, born a woman (Jennie Hodgers), who was one of maybe 1,000 women who disguised themselves as men and fought in the War. So, the woke National Park Service writeup on “Cashier” uses, of course “he”, “trans” and “was assigned as female at birth.” This was obviously back in the days before anything could be snipped or added. “Cashier” made it through 40 battles without being discovered as a female. After the war, “Cashier” continued to present as a man and her real gender was not uncovered until 1910 when she was treated for a broken leg.

    • slumbrew

      So, not a woman by current standards. 🙄

      • creech

        Yes, isn’t it amazing how so many doctors fail to “assign gender correctly” at birth?

    • Gender Traitor

      creech, if your research can extend to Confederate spies, I commend to you the Moon sisters, especially Charlotte “Lottie” Moon. She, too was a master (mistress?) of disguise, though I don’t recall that she ever tried to pass as a man except with a nom de plume as a writer (after the war?) The family lived in Oxford, OH, so Lottie is the stuff of legend to Miami U students. She had one interesting encounter with Lincoln, but a couple of even more interesting encounters with Ambrose Burnside.

      • creech

        Yes, as a matter of fact, she is one of the twenty women I’ll be mentioning.

  14. Gustave Lytton

    Hotel bar was open tonight and don’t have to get up early. Tall pints, it is.

  15. Evan from Evansville

    Going through my FB to stash old Memories and snag all pics I can. Odd personal victory yesterday. “Dec. 16, 2015: Awesome day so far in Phu Quoc. Rented a scooter for the first time and…managed to only have one really harrowing moment!” Ex and I had been in Singapore a year at that point. I distinctly remember not being able to enjoy the scenery while driving. “Using. All. Energy. To. Focus..” <– Wise! Only one long country road, IIRC.

  16. Suthenboy

    Regarding my comment above on foreign intrigues: Just heard on the tv ‘news’ – a commentator just asked “We have the largest economy in the world by far so why do our streets and cities look like a third world country?”
    Lately the people running things looked like late stage aristocracy, but I recently heard a better term for them. “Denationalized elite”, it better points out that their priorities and agenda do not align with those of the country or the best interests of the American people. I think of them as the gold digger 25 year old that marries the rich old man and once they get their claws into the money are off to party with the cool crowd while the the old guy sits at home in a cold dark house asking himself ‘what the fuck was I thinking?’. There is no fool like the American citizen?

    • The Hyperbole

      Ain’t no such thing as the priorities and agenda of the country or the best interest of the American people.

      • The Hyperbole

        Dammit! meant for suthen, reply button should be under the post your replying to.

      • Suthenboy

        Rule of law?
        If there is no such thing what is the purpose of having government?

      • R.J.

        And what happened, then? Well, in government circles they say – that Suthenboy’s eyes grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of government came through, and Suthen found the strength of *ten* Suthens, plus two!
        He tore down the foundations, the bureaucrats and grifters…

        Somebody else has to take it from here. I have to go.

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Sean, Teh Hype, suthen, R.J., and Fishy!

      • R.J.

        Morning!

      • Gender Traitor

        How are things aboard ship, R.J. (if you’re still here,) and how are things…on dry (unless it’s raining or snowing) land, U?

      • R.J.

        Quite good! I am done with the dreaded travel guts, we are now on..
        St Thomas? Going on a quick bus tour to a pirate museum.
        Going home Saturday. I get six days at home to move all the furniture in preparation for a few months of homelessness.

      • UnCivilServant

        I made it to the office.

        I suppose that’s something.

        Got another all day work session, but I suspect I won’t be needed much.

  17. Sean

    https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/kelvin-roberts-arrest-lower-merion-home-invasion/

    “The suspects charged in a deadly home invasion in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, planned to steal guns but had the wrong house, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office.

    Kelvin Roberts, the second suspect, was arrested Tuesday morning near his place of employment, The Junkluggers in Willow Grove.

    Police allege Roberts and Charles Fulforth, who was arrested last week, broke into Andrew Gaudio’s home on Sunday, Dec. 8, shooting Gaudio and his mother. Gaudio was killed, and his mother, Bernadette Gaudio, was left paralyzed.”

    Horrible story.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yeesh, stories like this make me rethink my opposition to the death penalty. Maybe a quick trial followed by against the wall very shortly after a guilty verdict would be appropriate.

    • R.J.

      I suppose you could be startled , jerk your head and impact a bulkhead.

    • LCDR_Fish

      If you’re wearing optics of any sort, they need to be shielded for laser wavelengths – most optics – sights, even binoculars, nvgs will “magnify” the effects of a laser against your eye and can burn out the nerves even faster (if you’ve got electronics between the lenses and your eyes (hopefully) – they’ll burn out before reaching your eyes. That’s why they specify “eye safe” laser dazzlers for some anti-terrorism stuff – that’s “eye safe” unless you hit them in the optics or through something else.

    • Suthenboy

      I can confirm. Someone pointed one at me while I was driving on an interstate. They were probably five miles from me….far enough that the car they were in was barely noticeable. It hit me straight in the eye for the smallest instant but I had to pull over and took a while to recover. It was quite unpleasant.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Particularly if the windshield has scratches or certain types of liners – impact is modified – spread out or directed to a smaller point (normally 1″ at 100m). We got the first issue models for deployment in 2011 – assume a few changes since then.

  18. LCDR_Fish

    Regarding some of our previous discussions on VA expenses, this piece has some interesting numbers.

    https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2024/12/17/plan-would-cover-all-health-care-costs-for-thousands-of-vets-overseas/

    It might vary a lot depending on local costs – obviously some expenses would be lower overseas.

    More than 17,000 disabled veterans living outside the United States could get all of their medical costs covered under a proposal unveiled in Congress this week…..

    “Our nation’s veterans have made tremendous sacrifices to defend our country, and it’s our duty to ensure they receive the healthcare benefits they’ve earned, no matter where they live,” he said in a statement. “[This bill] eliminates unfair disparities by ensuring that veterans rated 100% permanent and total disabled receive the same quality [health care] coverage abroad as they would at home.”

    …..

    In fiscal 2023, those costs totaled about $94 million, averaging roughly $3,000 per participant.

    …..

    Currently, reimbursement checks are mailed to veterans, a costly and time-consuming process. If checks are lost or stolen, the department must adjudicate the entire claim, adding additional expense. But by digitizing the process, supporters estimate up to $20 million in program costs can be saved…..

  19. Tres Cool

    suh’ fam
    whats goody

  20. Chipping Pioneer

    The chopper on the front page looks like it got in a fight with a T. Rex.