On Tue, 18 May 2004 16:37:21 GMT, Mike Marron
wrote:

(BUFDRVR) wrote:

Flying is flying. I'd strap my self to a kite right now if I could find a kit
big enough to get me airborne.

A kite is more akin to "flying" than is flogging a BUFF at FL 250.


Interesting that a WW I slang term for the string-bags of the period
was "kite".

But, lest we drift to far from the name of the group, let me note that
flying military airplanes is simply a means to another end. Sure,
there are a lot of military airplanes that move stuff around the world
ala airlines, but the real purpose of the airplanes is as tools to
perform more violent functions.

Flying the airplane is a challenge, but once mastered, it becomes
secondary to employing the tool well. The whole dance of combat air
ops, the challenge of pitting your team against the opposition,
whether in a 1-v-1 basic fighter maneuver sortie, or for quarters on
the air-to-ground range, or in a technological tour-de-force battle
against the arrayed forces of Red Flag, or in a no-****,
this-is-for-real shooting war, that's the real deal.

Flying with the boids is great, but doing the job in the BUFF at FL
250, 12,000 miles from home plate, against a bunch of folks who really
don't like you all that much....there's the rub.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8