sherpa

The "hold" God......Identified.

The "gamble" is your suggestion. Ii is no gamble on my end, thus my offer of unlimited payment to the charity of your choice.

Continued avoidance. Yes or no. Are you willing to put money on your suggestion that I am lying?

So Tibs. I'm trying to limit wasted time here. Are you willing to put money on the line that backs your claim that I am lying? It's a simple question, offered twice. You have made the accusation, and I have offered to refute it. Yes or no?

I have never claimed "superior knowledge." You post goofy, uninformed crap and I have responded to it. Suggesting that we should deploy two Air Force squadrons to the Ukraine as a deterrent was crazy. Suggesting that the US provide and enforce a no fly zone was crazy. Suggesting that we can launch the current HIMARS derivative from an airplane is crazy. Suggesting that it might be a good idea to provide them with A-10's or any other US tactical airplane is crazy. That is not acting superior. That was pointing out the wackiness of these ideas, and that is supported by links that discuss a few of those issues in detail, by knowledgeable folks who deal in this every day. Regarding the veracity of my background, as you recall, or probably forgot, I offered a significant amount of money to be donated to any charity of your choosing if I was being untruthful, and I can easily prove it. You never responded, and I simply don't care.

If you want to continue this personal vein, message me. I can provide proof of what I stated.

Of course I have proof. Logbook entries, flight jackets with the Topgun patch and US Navy officer fitness reports that mention it. By the way, you didn't accuse me of lying about that school. You accused me of lying about serving on an aircraft carrier. Remember that picture on page 130 of this forum? Guess who that was? Guess where that was taken? Here's a hint. Those are live weapons. You can tell because there are yellow stripes painted around their noses. If you look closely, you can see that the airplane is chained down to an aircraft carrier. I didn't "teach" at Topgun. I went through there as an adversary, one of the "bad guys" who run those air to air sorties, brief and debrief them. I taught at Light Attack Weapons School, while serving in the adversary role, opposing US forces, which you had to be a Topgun graduate to do.. I taught through lectures, US and Soviet air to air missiles, and Soviet surface to air missile systems, then opposed them as they flew their training strikes, using known and postulated Soviet tactics. How to defeat theirs and how to use ours.

People make mistakes all the time. Calling someone who has spent more time efforting against Putin and his lot infinitely more than you ever have a "coward," idiot," "liar," and most recently a "scumbag." is something entirely different. That is not a "mistake." That is grossly insulting, pathetic, and draws attention to crazy notions you post. Years spent on active duty planning to fight his group, teaching others as a Topgun adversary and Light Attack Weapons Scholl instructor makes me cringe when I see crazy stuff posted. To top it off, having my Moscow hotel room gone though in my absences on two separate occasions, as well as other crew members who indicated former military service on their Russian visa applications allows me to dislike that place and regime as much as anybody.

You can't find it? Or it doesn't exist. I've found it for you. Here's the procedure for launching a HIMARS off an aircraft. 1. Select which wing you want blown off. 2. Arm HIMARS on that station. 3. Grab ejection lower handle. 4. Launch HIMARS while pulling ejection handle prior to wing being blown off as result of launch. You are good at this.

Could you point me to this talk? I'd be quite interested.

Not really. Star doesn't show up. Beasley doesn't shut up.

Mid point last season I knew there were two players who would not be on the Sep 2022 team. Star Lotulelei and Cole Beasley.

Best post. Too many people trying to monetize observations on issues they they nothing about.

Technically, this is correct. For the edification of the class though, the UK did not take on "Argentina by itself." Ships passing in the night, things get "passed." Intel on sub locations get passed by a slip of the tongue among friendly nations.

Always amazing to assign monthly economic numbers to political issues. We shut down the economy for over a year. We've spent about three trillion dollars trying to re-stimulate it. These numbers are no sign of achievement. They are to be expected. Labor participation rate is a better indicator than unemployment, but nobody pays attention to it if their focus is on political promotion.

They'd have to deal with significant icing though.

It is way more complicated than simply training pilots. They have no ability to maintain them or arm them. We are already deeply involved in this, draining our own war stock with massive supply of arms. The Harry S. Truman is reportedly flying 80 sorties a day in support of this. That is a massive and unsustainable pace, as well as rapidly using up service life of these airplanes. (That, by the way, was a major issue in enforcing the the Iraqi no fly zone and part of the calculus to inform the decision to invade, though not often mentioned). For what I think is a reasonable explanation of these issues, and certainly describes my view, here is a link to a very recent youtube discussing it. The guys talking are a retired F-14 RIO, (back seater), who is extremely well informed on current military aviation issues and a Reservist Naval Intel Officer. It is well worth listening to for those who do not know what is involved in something like this and just want to "do somethng." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su34D4KnO6s&t=1227s

Not possible, and not a good idea. The simple reality is that they have absolutely no way of utilizing such systems. Total waste of effort.

They have no way of using any of these aircraft effectively, on so many levels Giving them those airplanes would be a big mistake

Absolutely not. The Ukrainians have come to the conclusion that airplanes are not the answer. The A-10 proposal was a really bad idea.

I think this is one of the issues that people who live in the west will never comprehend. Afghanistan is not a country in the manner of how we view countries. It is a tribal, nomadic group of clans with no common purpose other than survival. It was that way when the Russians invaded in 1980 and it is that way now. There is no way that any optimistic, come to the 21th century influence from the west was going to change that. Never has. The only way it can be dealt with is to eliminate the threats that occasionally emerge from there. Still, the "withdrawal" of our forces from there should have cost the SecDef his job. Just a total debacle by any objective measure.

I'm not sure of your logic here. Getting Zarqawi, and the weapons used, was a vastly different circumstance and operation. Regarding 9/11, I think you should remain "comfortable" about the conclusions.

On the other hand a reasonable corollary is that it takes a responsible gov/military to spend the money to get this to production. It is basically an airborne assassin aimed to get one person. Far more humanitarian than lobbing artillery shells or cluster bombs, which would kill everything within a football field area.

Charlottesville, VA. Four seasons with lengthy spring and fall. Premier university town Mountains nearby.

Prior to retirement, I worked in an industry where people could live or retire anywhere they wanted. Many "offshore" places, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Panama, many places in Europe and the Caribbean, and all over the US. We went through the same process, and decided to live where we do now. My only contribution,, having listened to hundreds of stories, is to rent for a month, at minimum, at anyplace you are seriously considering,