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Memorial Day 2018 – Remembering Smokey
Remembrance days can be illustrated by stories of war and sacrifice, of great and decisive battles, or of the bravery of whole units who “stood fast” in the face of a massive threat, or most certainly by the above and beyond courage of a single warrior who determined “this will not be allowed on my watch.” Most often that act is not so much in context of winning a battle, but rather in giving up of life to save one’s comrades. But memory of all can also be elicited by memory of one, one who chose to be there, to be with [...]
1942 – The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 4 – The Battle of the Coral Sea
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 4 “Scratch One Flattop!” The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4 to 8 May 1942 is historically significant as the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither side’s ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. And of great importance, the battle marked the first time since the start of the war that a major Japanese advance had been checked by the Allies. The Port Moresby Attack Plan, Operation ‘MO’ In an attempt to strengthen their defensive position in the South Pacific, plus provide the air support [...]
1942 – The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 3 – The Four Battles
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 3 The Clash of the Carriers During the course of the first months after the Pear Harbor attack, U.S. carriers had been conducting multiple raids on the periphery of Japanese occupied ocean areas. The raids were not executed at random, but were based on intelligence that indicated Japanese carriers would not be present to oppose the raids. The Doolittle attack on Tokyo launched from USS Hornet can be characterized as the end of that “carrier raiding” period. And indeed, both the U.S. and Japan were ready to move forward. These opposing plans gave rise to the [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 2 – The Doolittle Raid
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 2 War, Remembrance, Honor – The Doolittle Raiders 18 April, 1942 Spotted by a Japanese ship two days before they intended to launch 400-450 miles off the coast of Japan, Admiral Halsey, Hornet commanding officer Captain Marc Mitscher, and LtCol. Jimmy Doolittle determined the necessity to launch immediately – probably 600 plus miles out and meaning the raiders could most probably not reach the Chinese mainland. The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on Saturday, April 18, 1942, was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle as the first air operation to strike the Japanese Home [...]
1942 – The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 1- Background
Blown Slick Series #13 Seventy-five years ago -1943 – Nimitz, King, and particularly the air navy admirals worked a seemingly endless slate of problems to leverage the advantages the navy had hard earned in the last year. The F-4 Wildcat was replaced with new F-4U Corsairs and F-6F Hellcats. Scout bombers and torpedo bombers were replaced but the Dauntless replacement proved problematic. Roles and missions had to be adjusted, particularly for the ever increasing demands of observation and reconnaissance. New Essex class aircraft carriers were coming on line. The careful days of a single carrier in the Pacific after Guadalcanal [...]
A Second Look – Aviation Week Debate on the F-35
Blown Slick Series #12 Last summer Aviation Week conducted a podcast debate between the first commanding officer of a USMC F-35B squadron, retired LtCol. David Berke, and former “fighter mafia” participant during the Light Weight Fighter competition (YF-16/17) Pierre Sprey. Berke has an extremely unique flight experience background in that he’s instructed at TOPGUN, conducted operational test flights of the F-22 and has significant flight time in the F-16, F/A-18, F-22 and F-35. Sprey was a participant in the LWF program and heavily involved with the A-10 program development. Their views of the F-35 and future airpower needs and application are [...]
War and Remembrance 18 December 1972; Linebacker II and the General Who Made It So
On the third night of LB II three B-52s were shot down on the first raid. Seventh Air Force Headquarters Headquarters in Saigon and SAC Headquarters in Omaha went into shock. As a result they recalled the six B-52Gs targeted for Hanoi on the second raid, with the result that the North Vietnamese had done something that the Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans had never been able to to achieve - they had made an American bombing raid abort for fear of losses (Michelle, The Eleven Days of Christmas). On the third wave, two more G's were lost with [...]
Veterans Day 2017: What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Burns and Novick The Vietnam War – A Counter Anthology The PBS documentary The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick has received critical acclaim and has been recommended for showing in schools. It follows Burns reputation well as a work of film art. For all its ‘truth telling,’ I simply cannot get in tune with its overall context. This Veterans Day post focuses on the Vietnam veteran with remembrance of all. “This documentary succeeds in vividly evoking sadness and frustration. But that is not all there was to the story. “The Vietnam War” strives for a moral equivalence [...]
Thinking Multi-Role “Strike Fighter”
Blown Slick Series #11 Air to air is what you do going into and coming off of the target. Ed Rasimus, Air Force Vietnam War F-105 and F-4 fighter pilot In the previous post, I suggested as a thought experiment that one draw a straight line graph comparing fighter aircraft performance/capabilities over time beginning with WWI and say the Sopwith Camel, then continue through WWII with your choice of best fighter (Spits, Zero, Mustang, Corsair), on into the Korean War and the MiG-15 and F-86, then to Vietnam and the MiG-21 and F-4, and next on to the F-14/ F-15/16/18 group. I [...]
Airpower Analysis Phase II: F-35 – Flying Circus Center Ring
Blown Slick Series #10 For some time now, center ring for the airpower flying circus has been the F-35 Lightning II. But since the F-35 was similarly noted as the elephant in the room in #8 in this series some time ago, much as transpired as the a/c moves into operational status within the USMC, USN, and USAF, along with the first Israeli F-35 Adir’s beginning to fly. To date the Blown Slick series has discussed attack pilots, fighter pilots, fifth generation aircraft, analysis tools and metrics, offered selected books on air warfare and taken a broad look at the [...]
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Memorial Day 2018 – Remembering Smokey
Remembrance days can be illustrated by stories of war and sacrifice, of great and decisive battles, or of the bravery of whole units who “stood fast” in the face of a massive threat, or most certainly by the above and beyond courage of a single warrior who determined “this will not be allowed on my watch.” Most often that act is not so much in context of winning a battle, but rather in giving up of life to save one’s comrades. But memory of all can also be elicited by memory of one, one who chose to be there, to be with [...]
1942 – The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 4 – The Battle of the Coral Sea
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 4 “Scratch One Flattop!” The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4 to 8 May 1942 is historically significant as the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither side’s ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. And of great importance, the battle marked the first time since the start of the war that a major Japanese advance had been checked by the Allies. The Port Moresby Attack Plan, Operation ‘MO’ In an attempt to strengthen their defensive position in the South Pacific, plus provide the air support [...]
1942 – The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 3 – The Four Battles
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 3 The Clash of the Carriers During the course of the first months after the Pear Harbor attack, U.S. carriers had been conducting multiple raids on the periphery of Japanese occupied ocean areas. The raids were not executed at random, but were based on intelligence that indicated Japanese carriers would not be present to oppose the raids. The Doolittle attack on Tokyo launched from USS Hornet can be characterized as the end of that “carrier raiding” period. And indeed, both the U.S. and Japan were ready to move forward. These opposing plans gave rise to the [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 2 – The Doolittle Raid
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 2 War, Remembrance, Honor – The Doolittle Raiders 18 April, 1942 Spotted by a Japanese ship two days before they intended to launch 400-450 miles off the coast of Japan, Admiral Halsey, Hornet commanding officer Captain Marc Mitscher, and LtCol. Jimmy Doolittle determined the necessity to launch immediately – probably 600 plus miles out and meaning the raiders could most probably not reach the Chinese mainland. The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on Saturday, April 18, 1942, was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle as the first air operation to strike the Japanese Home [...]
1942 – The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 1- Background
Blown Slick Series #13 Seventy-five years ago -1943 – Nimitz, King, and particularly the air navy admirals worked a seemingly endless slate of problems to leverage the advantages the navy had hard earned in the last year. The F-4 Wildcat was replaced with new F-4U Corsairs and F-6F Hellcats. Scout bombers and torpedo bombers were replaced but the Dauntless replacement proved problematic. Roles and missions had to be adjusted, particularly for the ever increasing demands of observation and reconnaissance. New Essex class aircraft carriers were coming on line. The careful days of a single carrier in the Pacific after Guadalcanal [...]
A Second Look – Aviation Week Debate on the F-35
Blown Slick Series #12 Last summer Aviation Week conducted a podcast debate between the first commanding officer of a USMC F-35B squadron, retired LtCol. David Berke, and former “fighter mafia” participant during the Light Weight Fighter competition (YF-16/17) Pierre Sprey. Berke has an extremely unique flight experience background in that he’s instructed at TOPGUN, conducted operational test flights of the F-22 and has significant flight time in the F-16, F/A-18, F-22 and F-35. Sprey was a participant in the LWF program and heavily involved with the A-10 program development. Their views of the F-35 and future airpower needs and application are [...]
War and Remembrance 18 December 1972; Linebacker II and the General Who Made It So
On the third night of LB II three B-52s were shot down on the first raid. Seventh Air Force Headquarters Headquarters in Saigon and SAC Headquarters in Omaha went into shock. As a result they recalled the six B-52Gs targeted for Hanoi on the second raid, with the result that the North Vietnamese had done something that the Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans had never been able to to achieve - they had made an American bombing raid abort for fear of losses (Michelle, The Eleven Days of Christmas). On the third wave, two more G's were lost with [...]
Veterans Day 2017: What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Burns and Novick The Vietnam War – A Counter Anthology The PBS documentary The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick has received critical acclaim and has been recommended for showing in schools. It follows Burns reputation well as a work of film art. For all its ‘truth telling,’ I simply cannot get in tune with its overall context. This Veterans Day post focuses on the Vietnam veteran with remembrance of all. “This documentary succeeds in vividly evoking sadness and frustration. But that is not all there was to the story. “The Vietnam War” strives for a moral equivalence [...]
Thinking Multi-Role “Strike Fighter”
Blown Slick Series #11 Air to air is what you do going into and coming off of the target. Ed Rasimus, Air Force Vietnam War F-105 and F-4 fighter pilot In the previous post, I suggested as a thought experiment that one draw a straight line graph comparing fighter aircraft performance/capabilities over time beginning with WWI and say the Sopwith Camel, then continue through WWII with your choice of best fighter (Spits, Zero, Mustang, Corsair), on into the Korean War and the MiG-15 and F-86, then to Vietnam and the MiG-21 and F-4, and next on to the F-14/ F-15/16/18 group. I [...]
Airpower Analysis Phase II: F-35 – Flying Circus Center Ring
Blown Slick Series #10 For some time now, center ring for the airpower flying circus has been the F-35 Lightning II. But since the F-35 was similarly noted as the elephant in the room in #8 in this series some time ago, much as transpired as the a/c moves into operational status within the USMC, USN, and USAF, along with the first Israeli F-35 Adir’s beginning to fly. To date the Blown Slick series has discussed attack pilots, fighter pilots, fifth generation aircraft, analysis tools and metrics, offered selected books on air warfare and taken a broad look at the [...]