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Improve Your Position

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In 1980, getting to the point of takeoff with this 25 year old aircraft was a real maintenance challenge We are still flying these aircraft, albeit the water-injected engines have been replaced A KC-135 in-flight refueling mission often started with my radio alarm going off at 3am. Aware of my wife's low and steady breathing, I quickly kill the alarm and quietly rise from bed to take a shower. I had set the alarm for 3 because I need to be at the air refueling rendezvous point on time. There is a precise spot out there in time and space. If I am not there, the receiver does not get his fuel. Recon does not happen. Top military and civilian leaders will be without the timely intel they need to keep the peace in the Cold War.  So that's my mission. Get the receivers the fuel they need to do their mission. Not really all that glamorous. But important. Now fully awake from the bracing shower, I tiptoe around the bedroom to get my flight suit and other gear my as wife sleeps p...
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Lest We Tempt Them With Our Weakness

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B-2 Spirit, the youngest strategic nuclear weapon in our force at 25 years old A few days ago I attended a conference. The last time I attended a conference, the January 2015 AIAA SciTech Conference, I wrote a blog about it .  This most recent conference was the TRIAD Forum sponsored by the Air Force Association and the Utah Defense Alliance . "TRIAD" refers to the 3 legs of nuclear deterrence:  Sea Launched Ballistic Missile (launched from stealthy submarines)  Strategic Bombers like the B-52 and B-2  Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles of which our nation has one, the Minuteman III The newest weapon system in these three weapon systems categories, the B-2, is 25 years old. It is not hard to see why the theme of the conference was how to affordably keep this old equipment in great shape. The complementary co-theme was how to make sure the new stuff we are thinking of building is affordable when we have created it and start to use it. That is, how do we make su...
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Appallingly Stupid Attacks on the Bible

Before I start, let me address a portion of my audience that I am about to lose. Some folks criticize when this blog leaves airplane stories and "wanders off into religion". I am afraid this post was not written for you.  Sorry. Bye.  What? Still there?! OK, see, the thing is, all my posts, and the reason for this blog, are to record little stories from my life so that my posterity (I like to imagine my great great great granddaughter) can have a glimpse into who I was. And s ince I am a devout Roman Catholic, that needs to be a part of this blog.  There is a very large chance that YOU are not a Roman Catholic. Or, if you do think of yourself as a Roman Catholic, perhaps you are not fully invested in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. (Did you go to Mass last Sunday?) If you fall into that category and decide to read on, be advised I know that my faith is the correct one and better than all the rest.  But, you know what? If you thin...
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Diversity in the US Air Force, circa 1983

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Photo of IUS/TDRS deploying from Space Shuttle from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-43 This little tale of diversity comes from my space engineer days at the USAF Space Division, Upper Stages Program Office, in Los Angeles.  I was a captain at the time and my responsibilities were centered on all software required by the IUS.  The IUS, or  Inertial Upper Stage , was a two (or potentially three) stage rocket designed to completely autonomously take a heavy payload to very high orbit around the Earth, or to planets beyond the Earth. "Autonomously" means "all by itself". Think of it as a robot that knows what you want and will just do it for you as soon as you say "go!". In this case, it takes your heavy satellite or planetary probe to the place in space you have designated and leaves it there traveling at the intended speed and direction.  So, yeah, it had some pretty good software. Plus I was responsible for all the software require...
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A Pilot Gets Assigned to Space Division

"Come with me!" My aircraft commander was pointing his finger and gesturing at me, his co-pilot. This was when I was the co-pilot on an elite stan/eval crew at Beale AFB. Some kind of interesting extra duty had just surfaced. As I hurried to catch up Captain Jackson said, "We've need to check out the new DNS mod. We just got our first bird back and it's up to us to OK it."  This was all news to me. Some agency in the USAF had decided to install radar doppler navigation systems on our KC-135Qs? "They've been putting them on the a's. Now it's our turn, I guess." He said. We made our way out to the tarmac and up into the cockpit. He was just settling in his usual left seat when Jackson frowned. He looked over at me and said: "OK, what's wrong with this?" The box had been rigged between the pilot and co-pilot in the exact spot where the radar display usually sat. We use that radar to keep an eye on our fellow aircraft in forma...
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Wild Weasels: The Adventure of the Dutch / German Border

I have greatly enjoyed reading Charlie's blog, and when I read his first post that commented on refueling F-4's, I suggest that I might write a post from the point of view of one of the F-4 aircrews that he frequently used to tow around the sky.  He agreed, and then I promptly procrastinated on submitting my post, so I finally decided to correct that oversight. Charlie has been listening to my stories for about 45 years, ever since we were both roommates at the Air Force Academy, and from among all my many tales of thrilling heroics, he requested this one. In the early eighties, I was stationed at George AFB in the 563rd Tac Fighter Squadron (TFS) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/563d_Flying_Training_Squadron), which at that time was one of the Wild Weasel defense suppression squadrons in the 37th Tac Fighter Wing (TFW) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/37th_Training_Wing#George_Air_Force_Base ) at George flying the F-4G Phantom II.  I flew in the back seat of the F-4 as an Electroni...
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