Category: Aviation

At 0748 Sunday morning December 7th, 1941 the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than 350 Imperial Japanese bombers, fighter planes and torpedo planes attacked the island after being launched from six aircraft carriers. 2,403 Americans were killed, eight US Navy battleships were damaged with four being sunk,  and more 185 US aircraft were […]

Less than month after a Russian Navy Mig-29 crashed while attempting to land on their only aircraft carrier the Admiral Kuznetsov, a second Russian carrier based fighter jet has been lost. The Sukhoi Su-33 was returning from a mission in Syria when it apparently encountered a problem with the ships arresting cable system. The Russian […]

Multiple F-16 ‘Fighting Falcon’ fighter jets put on a show as they taxi down a runway at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. The spectacle that took place in 2012 was a joint demonstration of U.S. and South Korean Air Force capabilities and air power. F-16’s from the following units took place in the event; 35th and […]

Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Captain Thomas McQueen was killed when his CF-18 Hornet crashed on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range during a training mission. He was a 10 year veteran and had deployed to eastern Europe in addition to logging some combat time in the Middle East. “We are deeply saddened by this terrible […]

Lockheed Martin announced that flight operations for the T-50A advanced trainer aircraft were underway from their Greenville, South Carolina final assembly and checkout facility. The aircraft is a joint partnership between Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries. Described as a complete 5th generation training platform which also includes a ground based training system, the T-50A […]

In recent months there has been a series of incidents between United States Navy vessels and small Iranian fast gunboats in the Persian Gulf area. The Iranian gunboats harassed and threatened US Navy ships in a manner which the Navy called an “unsafe and unprofessional encounter”. Saturday, November 26th the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) […]

America lost a true hero when Willie Rogers, the oldest living member of the Tuskegee Airmen died at the age of 101 in St Petersburg, Florida on November 18th, 2016. The Tuskegee Airmen was the unofficial name given to a group of African-Americans that fought in World War II. Most famously known for their pilots, […]

Did you know that the current Afghan Air Force (AAF) is still using Russian made Mi-17 helicopters? Yes, they are! US involvement in the war in Afghanistan started years ago so you may wonder why and how Russian made helicopters are still being used? The why, makes more sense than the how and the how, […]

In Naval Aviation we have a saying, “Live by the gouge or die by the gouge.” For those of you that don’t know what the “gouge” is let me educate you! The gouge is a very important part of Naval Aviation. Here is a good test for you, if someone claims to be a Navy […]

Wednesday the internet went wild with speculation over a mysterious high altitude aircraft that was seen circling the city of Denver, CO for about an hour. Mystery Solved! Late Thursday the US Navy identified the aircraft as one of their own, a Navy E-6B Mercury. Nicknamed the TACAMO (“Take Charge and Move Out”), the E-6B […]

As a pilot, I have had multiple “near miss” events. Most pilots I know have had similar experiences. Some of these events still scare me today when I think about them, others were less intense and grave, but I also remember all of them…and what they taught me. A near miss is any unplanned close […]

It was June 2009 and myself and members of the 34th Fighter Squadron “Rude Rams” at Hill AFB Utah had just finished our night flight training over the UTTR (Utah Test and Training Range) due west of Salt Lake City. As we exited the range our sister squadron the 421st Fighter Squadron “Black Widows,” also […]