sherpa

You sure edited that one. To your question, and having flown out of Miramar so many times, the departures are designed to avoid high real estate areas at Torrey Pines and La Jolla. Putting the new movie at North Island makes no sense, other than including San Diego scenery. As an aside, North Island is still my favorite Naval Officer's Club Sunday Brunch. Top Gun has been drastically changed, and moved to Fallon, Nevada.

The ones that are historically accurate are more "true to form" than the made up fictional ones, but probably for the moviegoer, less entertaining. Recently, Midway was accurate, but it's basically a retelling of the seven or so events that happened to decide the outcome of that battle. This recent Top Gun movie is fictional, so it's for pure entertainment. It just rubs me the wrong way when Hollywood suggests a culture that is not accurate, but I guess it makes for better entertainment. Still, having flown the F-18, and fought it hundreds of times, it was nice to see it looking good, while being grossly abused by the characters flying it, something that would not happen.

I saw it last night. Disclaimer: As an ex Naval Aviator who attended Tog Gun in the 80's, and subsequently served in the Pacific Fleet Adversary Squadron, (the guys who run those training flights and serve as the bad guys), I am very familiar with that culture. Without a tactical or technical discussion of questionable things which would be spoilers, there are a few things that made my skin crawl that were in the first movie, and are still used to extreme in this one. The first is this college sophomore-like character portrayal. People in that business are not like that at all. The level of maturity and professionalism far exceeds what is in these movies. I get that it's entertainment, but it's a bit embarrassing. For example, this absolutely crazy emphasis on call signs. Call signs have a real tactical benefit because of the need to get out very abrupt communications, but this extension of them into all realms of life is absurd. The thought that a three star admiral, the Jon Hamm character would still be called "Cyclone" by other Naval Officers is just crazy. I get that it is for character recognition, but it gets absurd. When we are treated to a radar like image that uses call signs on the screen, I squirmed in the seat. The other thing is the way they portray the normal conversations between senior people locked up at attention portraying these conversations as if it was Marine boot camp. Officers don't talk to each other like that. One thing they did better in this movie was to do much better in the fight scenes. The first one didn't show the often very violent nature of these things, though there seems to be a Hollywood obsession with "G's." I get that it is something that the actors went through and was probably interesting, but in that world it's just part of the job and not constantly talked about. Anyway, it's a movie, not a documentary. Someday, when spoilers aren't an issue, there are a few things that are worth discussing/

If he, or anyone else is a history buff or at all interested in this war changing event, here is a great description without all the movie industry nonsense. Two modern Naval Aviators who know the subject discussing it in detail.

Funny you should mention R. G. Smith. In the early 80's, the Naval Aviation Museum wanted to get rid of some of its art work. Among the canvas pieces was "Enterprise on Yankee Station." I'd always liked that piece, but it was unavailable. Somehow, I got hold of R. G. Smith's daughter, who sold me a canvas print for $130. Around 2004 or so, I found this artist in Lima, Peru who did really good oils, so I had him use this print to do an oif for me that sits above the fireplace in my office. Picking it up in Lima, the guy I was flying with liked it so much that he wanted to do the same thing. I lent him the print. He never returned it. Not two months ago, I figured I really wanted to get that original back. I remembered his name, called him, and sure enough, he had it still in the original shipping tube, eighteen years later. I got it back, and it's worth over $1000.

Eighty years ago today, the US Naval strike forces turned the tide of the Pacific battle with Japan in a period of about ten minutes, with great loss of life. Carrier airplanes from Enterprise, let by Buffalo born Wing Commander Wade McClusky found the Japanese task force and sunk four Japanese carriers in about ten minutes. McClusky and his strike force were nearly out of fuel when McClusky spotted a lone Japanese destroyer, the Arashi, going full speed. He correctly surmised it was headed back to the main task force after dueling a US sub, the Nautilus. Nimitz called McClusky's decision to head north instead of heading back to recover on Enterprise, where he then spotted Arashi as one of the greatest decisions of the war.

I think it is insanity and horrific leadership that stifles responsible, available energy, domestically produced. Promoting renewables while avoiding economic shock from fossils geopolitical nonsense is possible. Not even hard. We simply need to believe corporate America more than political America. Always been that way, with very few exceptions.

We already have it. Electrolyzers and fuel cells. No need for the distribution grid. A refrigerator sized one can produce the same power as a football field span of solar panel, and they do not require sunlight.

Regarding the logic of such an admission, I have no idea. Nothing that comes from this group surprises me. To the question, Iran's nuclear program is underground. We have developed a weapon called super bunker buster, which is a massive bomb that penetrates before fusing and exploding for just such a situation. After all, all underground systems need to have a ground access at some location. The problem with that is that it's quite big, which limits the ability to deliver it while stealth, which subjects the deliver aircraft to a significantly air defense capability. We were able to hack their nuc program a few years ago, so there's the electronic warfare option. Not sure where we are with that, but I bet the Israelis have some capability.

There are extremely stringent requirements regarding who has access to weapons produced for the US military. No such limitations are effective in our civilian gun culture.

Very good. My "contrarian impulses" know a bit about air defense, drones, what they are capable of, how to employ them, and deal with them if you have a respectable air defense. To your suggestion, I have a four year old granddaughter and we greatly enjoy flying her kite on my property. It's a learned skill.

The cheapest way to deal with them is to jam them. Requires nothing kinetic, and no other weapon. Prox fuses have been in use for decades in a wide variety of applications. Nothing new.

The secret to "team building" is the same in other relationships. If you get to the point that supporting other people is more enjoyable and desirable than simply promoting your own interests, it magnifies your talent. Teams that get to that point get it. Teams that have 53 players that view themselves as independent contractors, seeking the highest bidder, as the draft process and agents promote, don't. I think that's where the Dolphins are. It's normal human nature. It's how the US military and successful marriages work.

This entire thread, while interesting, is filled with stuff from people who should not be regarded seriously.

Simple answer for me. Yes. Absolutely. Already did it, and having done it, came t the realization that it is worth it. Concisely, learning what I did as an officer, being at sea, having access to what was really going on day to day, further committed me to thinking it was worth everything. Some things in life are worth defending so that other people, if you don't survive, can live.

I don't give a rat's about Trump, but I will say that he did not put the energy industry in his crosshairs, and we are experiencing the results of someone who did. Nothing....Absolutely nothing is going well under Biden. Total failure.

I am not often interested in what these bills are called, and accept the difference. I was referring to the Biden "Build Back Better" legislation, which failed, and was clearly proposed as an "infrastructure bill," much the same as the silly "shovel ready" bill, which passed, but was equally a failure.

Nice trick, but isn't going to work, among informed. The "infrastructure bill" was anything but primarily an "infrastructure bill." If it was, it would have passed. It was nonsense.

Short story about the original TopGun. Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer, wanted a young Tom Cruise to do the movie, but Cruz wasn't sure. My best buddy and squadron mate in the Pacific Fleet Adversary Squadron was Curt Watson, who was now in the Blue Angels as Blue Angel 3, the left wingman in the diamond, and he was the one that took Cruz on a familiarization flight in Blue Angel 7, which is a two seater used for media rides etc. Here is a two and a half minute video of that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO3G1aI-***** Kind of funny, but when I was going through TopGun the movie folks were just talking about doing the movie and what I remember most was the F-14 squadrons at Miramar trying desperately to get to their particular the ready room as part of the movie because the claim was that the studio was going to spend a ton of money to upgrade it.

Your head is not worth shaking. The "cult?" I am a member of a "cult? Day after day, week after week, month after month, responsible leader of the energy industry talk about this, but I doubt you guys are even aware of it. Instead, having created the atmosphere that Biden and the anti energy group that supports him has done, and seeing the predictable reaction, you complain about the Saudis not ramping up production. It's always someone else.

This is the kind of juvenile response you are known for, on many different issues. The oil market is an international commodity, and a good deal of the price of crude is based on "atmosphere." Throughout the years, it has been estimated that about 20% of the price is completely emotional. When you have the president of the United States enacting legislation on day one, and many follow ups that is hostile to domestic production, you are going to dramatically effect a number of things. Not just direct production, which is untenable, but the motivation for future capex to develop additional production. There is a massive disincentive to produce, as the costs and time to get to market are high risk. It is an illusory argument to claim that this administration, and many European ones, have not sown the seed of this idiotic and unnecessary rise in crude. They got exactly what they deserved.

Two points. The move to non carbons is well underway and not stoppable. The effect of Trump or anyone else, and I certainly hope it is someone else, being elected and influencing the price of oil would be the result of a change from the very foolish posture of creating an hostile environment for reasonable energy production and self reliance. Biden has screwed this up in an undeniable fashion, from pipelines to oil terminal regulations, to governmental permit regulations and requiring idiotic governmental requirements from agencies like the SEC to have a cut on this, and across the entire energy complex. He, and many European leaders created this situation where the Russian thing had a far more impactful result than would have happened had reasonable policies from reasonable leadership prevailed.

Isn't that Blumenthal, the CT Senator who lied about serving in Vietnam standing behind her?

Should we listen to someone who uses a symbol of a totally failed regime that destroyed half a continent for about three generations? Or maybe we should look at past attempts at prescience. From "Delete Account." Feb 15 A Russian invasion of Ukraine is highly unlikely because all the players in this stupid game are ultimately rational actors. Everyone here stands to lose so much more in the long run (economically and militarily) than they can ever hope to win. So fingers crossed, but yes it’s looking a lot more like political theater serving to benefit multiple international leaders, namely Biden and Putin, with their respective constituencies’ approval. The worldwide military-industrial complex is also benefiting greatly, of course, and this may very well be the main motivation. For anyone still wondering what Russia’s endgame is, the best guess would be “economic leverage into the European market.” All of Putin’s aggressive military posturing strikes me as his own unique style of diplomacy. Is he trying to rebuild the Slavic empire from the glory days of the Soviet Union, with the invasion of Ukraine as the first key step? Very doubtful. Way too costly, IMO. NIce call.

I am not saddened to see Wallace go. It was obvious opposing teams were going after him all the time. If Hyde doesn't make that superb pick in the playoff game, 39's back jersey would have been in another highlight, getting beat badly on a double move to tie the game.