I don't believe the Russian account for a second.

The Turks complained several times in recent weeks of Russian aircraft invading their airspace and I never heard a Russian attempt at denial. Now one's been shot down and the Russians claim it was nowhere near Turkish airspace? B.S.

The Turks have nothing to gain from stirring this pot, but the Russians have a ton to gain, as they're using it as an excuse to bring AA batteries into the area now, weapons which can only be useful against NATO forces, because the rebels have no air force.

The Russian pilot claims he never got any warning, but every other pilot operating in the region from all nationalities heard it clearly.

Putin's been running a campaign against the moderate rebels (the only clear alternative the West would accept over Assad) and has shown no interest in targeting ISIS positions. It's pretty easy to see every action he's taken in the area is to prop up Assad at the expense of everyone else (except ISIS, who reap the benefits).

You join the air force and you then feel the need to speak out because they (gasp!) expect you to kill people. Your trauma comes from how distant your expectations are with the reality of the job you signed up to do. What the hell did you think you'd be doing, working on your tan? ... learning how to tango? What a bunch of bullshit.

A little history can go a long way. They were in the fight by choice 3 years before we were dragged into action, and over 15% of their nation enlisted, over 10% of their nation fought overseas, a higher percentage than the US for much longer. We hardly protected them from the Japanese, they protected and hosted US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_New_Zealand_during_World_War_II
When Japan entered the war in December 1941, the New Zealand Government raised another expeditionary force, known as the 2nd N.Z.E.F. In the Pacific, or 2nd N.Z.E.F. (I.P.), for service with the Allied Pacific Ocean Areas command. This force supplemented existing garrison troops in the South Pacific. The main fighting formation of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. (I.P.) comprised the New Zealand 3rd Division. However, the 3rd Division never fought as a formation; its component brigades became involved in semi-independent actions as part of the Allied forces in the Solomons, Treasury Islands and Green Island.
Eventually, American formations replaced the New Zealand army units in the Pacific, which released personnel for service with the 2nd Division in Italy, or to cover shortages in the civilian labour-force. New Zealand Air Force squadrons and Navy units contributed to the Allied island-hopping campaign.

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/us-forces-in-new-zealand
"The American soldier found himself ‘deep in the heart of the South Seas’, in the words of his army-issue pocket guide. He usually came here either before or immediately after experiencing the horror of war on a Pacific island, and he found a land of milk and honey (literally), of caring mothers and ‘pretty girls’."
"So the ‘American invasion’ (as New Zealanders affectionately called it) brought a considerable clash of cultures. "

Sorry to inconvenience your feelings and expressions of superiority with some facts.

Correction, the Air Force Brass hates them. Why?

1. They work perfectly for the role they were designed for. Brass want a plane that will be obsolete after 15 years or so, so that they can score big with plane mfg's

2. The typical AFB idea of close combat is a few miles away by button. You shouldn't be close enough to see the carnage. Just a poof and turn around to land. Having such a brute force plane is distasteful to them.

3. The A10 is called to support infantry most of the time. The Air Force overall still has a chip on their shoulder when it comes to the Army and other 'ground' forces. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't go out of their way to piss on an infantryman if he was on fire.

Basically the A10 is similar to the Harrier, it works well, it's not flashy, and it takes a beating. Complete opposite of most Air Force planes. The F35 that they want to replace both with is a joke and is mindbogglingly more expensive. If you watch any video that has an A10 pilot in it, talking about the plane, they can't sing it's praises enough. Sadly they have no say in whether it gets replaced.

They forgot these:

- Cabin service so frosty it makes a Moscow winter look like fucking Maui. (See: Icelandair)

- Fist-swinging free-for-all trying to grab aisle seats near the front of the plane (See: Southwest).

- The prepaid-for seat shuffle where the seat you reserved three months ago gets taken from you and you're reassigned somewhere near the head at the back of the plane. (See: Alaska Airlines)

- "Aww, Sweetie, did you want a sandwich on this 7-hour trans-Atlantic flight? THAT'LL BE 30 FUCKING EUROS PLEASE. Oh, you want to pay in dollars? Ok, that'll be 45 bucks at the current exchange rate plus conversion and transaction fees. Here, enjoy this three-day-old reindeer meat sammich that's dryer than the twats of the frigid cabin crew who served it to you." (See: Icelandair (again))

- Ladies and Gentlemen, we apologize for the 6g maneuver our former Air Force pilot is about to pull in order to avoid having to do a go-around because we were too busy discussing the new stewardess' tits to watch the glide path. Please keep the screaming in terror to a minimum as he startles easily . . ." (See: Delta)

- "Ladies and Gentlemen, we've now arrived in Scranton . . . oh, fuck, this isn't Pittsburgh!" (See: Delta (multiple times))

Yeah -- I just LOVE flying.

It seems that no one is understanding that it's likely that under no circumstance will the F35 ever see combat. We'll have newer combat drones ready for our next major conflict, or we'll use our older but proven air force. Trying to use an incomplete, buggy, untested, piloted plane instead of a complete, untested drone will not likely be happening. Americans just don't accept the loss of pilots and billion dollar aircraft anymore, since we know there's an alternative that's cheaper, less dangerous (for us), and better at it's job.

You like Saturns?

My dad blew one up. And a Titan.

He was a Range Safety officer with the Air Force in the late 1950's, early 60's. Would blow up missiles that were going off course, so the debris would fall in safe areas. Blew up LOTS of missiles.

I have a really cool image of his going away present when he left Cape Canaveral -- a cartoon with him astride a rocket, in space, over Cape Canaveral. There are silhouettes of all the missiles he blew up over his time there on the side of the rocket he is riding -- with hashmarks for HOW MANY he blew up.

It's really cool.

He BLEW UP A SATURN. Which isn't as powerful as the Titan he blew up!

Enjoyed seeing this video as many years ago I used to work on the P-51 in the Air Force Reserve. this brought back a lot of memories. I recall seeing Twilight Tear 463864 out at the Gathering of the Mustangs in Sept 2007 and was attracted to it as at that time it appeared as it been really used. Most of the others appeared fresh off the production line - pretty, but actually too pretty and that isn't the way it is supposed to look - in my view. The owner at that time was Stephen Gray. Is he still the owner?? In this video the aircraft also appears to have undergone some additional restoration - is that so?? If so, is there any other write-ups on the restoration?? Are there any other videos of Twilight Tear available?? Where is Twilight Tear now based?? Thanks for any additional info.

Would have made an ideal cheap export weapon for our then "friends" to use in counter-insurgency.

Low countermeasures, not bulletproofed, one engine---anywhere where the pilots were a relatively cheap commodity, it would have been a useful add on.

Anywhere else, for US Forces, given the cost of training pilots---
Probably not really economical.

If the Army was allowed to have fixed wing aircraft (it's not; that's part of the deal with having the Air Force)---then I bet they'd would have wanted it for a counter-insurgency role, where the other guy had no airplanes and no SAMS/heavy anti aircraft---but that doesn't describe the world of the 1980s and the Fulda Gap very accurately lol

Whoops, well, for all the objectivism displayed here, it still looks to me like one side of the coin. Aside from the comments from the folks I have ignored on the sift, I don't see any criticism of the USA or very much criticism of Christianity. I don't really want to be that guy, but just remember that especially in the last decade our international reputation among countries on the receiving end of bombs has gone down the crapper. All of these "opinion polls" are trying to link Islam with anti-US sentiments and methods (eg. terrorism), when it's only demonstrating the correlation. Obviously if we bomb a predominantly Muslim country and innocents die, how do you think poll results would lean among Muslims in that country? How would your religious demographic feel if Russia bombed Manhattan and killed a dozen random citizens? What about if we had no Army, Navy, or Air Force, and these bombings happened every week?

Meanwhile, citing statistics from a website which has a clear agenda of being a hit-piece on Islam is a fucking ridiculous idea. Come on, guys. If that website lists 300 polls which emphasize their point, do you think they will include a reference to even one poll which disputes it? If they sifted through thousands of polls just to find those 300, would you still have statistical confidence in their results? I admit that the multitude of sources they pulled polls from is initially impressive, but the #1 goal of statistics is to eliminate bias, and that website is pure uncut bias.

What's amazing is that even most Israelis don't know the extent of the campaign.

Listen to a former Israeli Air Force pilot talk about the way the campaign is presented inside Israel.

Side note: that guy is a moral hero. Standing up to your own government when in the military is the height of bravery IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY1P7D85xKw

Repeat this, and you get the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship and the Air Force's F-35.

I remember that song. I loved playing it loud out my dorm when I was stationed in Germany in the Air Force.

Not for a bit; Congress is stalling the retirement---
It's pretty clear that no reasonable replacement will be ready to stand in for the A-10 if it's retired, so the Air Force is being forced to suck it up and keep it in service a bit longer.

I sent this to my brother -- he's an ex-Air Force pilot, current Air Force pilot simulator trainer for C17s. He said this:

Big planes capable of carrying big weights but then not carrying big weights become a sports car. It looked like summer so the air density may have been 7,000 or 8,000 feet standard day. On rotation he kicks up a lot of dirt so he definitely used all the pavement.

C-17's do this for a living.