Who left the dimensional door open? - Thread 032

Online News ^ | 01/29/2002 | Unknown

[acnielsen guy]

THREAD 032

Dregs and Flakes

Posts since 1/29/02 34,258

[westmex]

Mt. Rainier from Sunrise

I'll try it this way Mom. Hope it shows up and stays for everyone..

.......Westy....

[westmex]

Road to Sunrise...

Another try...

......Westy....

[grannie9]

Just finished a delicious supper.. and now I"m really, really ready for bed.. omg.. am I tired..and full..

Darks, please behave, but I must admit I love the funnies.. lol lol..

See you all tomorrow, as soon as my avoidupois straightens out.. ;)

[grannie9]

Westy, those pics of the mountains look like Baked Alaska Pie.. Yummm...

[andysandmikesmom]

Westy...those pics came through....just beautiful....cant wait to get up there...I love being up in the mountains...

[westmex]

.......Westy......

[andysandmikesmom]

Great cartoon...and true as can be...

[westmex]

Skokomish River Delta at Sunrise.

Nite All

.......Westy.......

[grannie9]

Good morning.

<P

[lodwick]

Almost Paradise

Props to Cape Coral.

[Darksheare]

The website I pull those from is Scott Kurtz' PVPonline.
http://www.pvponline.com
The archive is from way back in '98 to the present.
The current stuff I put up there is from '98.

[Darksheare]

AAAaaahhhh *Gargle* Shrimp....

[lodwick]

Subject: Front Lines...

Good story from " Mousse ", flying off the Theodore Roosevelt CVN 71
in the Med. Thought you might find interesting.

Have a pretty good war story from last night.

Was fragged as the strike lead for last night's insertion of some
1000 paratroopers into Northern Iraq. Our mission was to provide
close air support for the guys as they were hitting the ground. Per
any military operation, it didn't exactly go as planned.

My strike package consisted of a dozen strike fighters loaded to the
gills. In fact, the cat shot was the heaviest I had ever been shot
off the boat. I had rallied the forces in eastern Turkey, waited for
the C-17s (who were also loaded to the gill....with troops) and then
took the package in country. The overall resistance was actually
pretty spectacular to see under the night vision goggles and I can
honestly say that I gained a hell of a lot of respect for the Army
guys who were jumping at low altitude out of those perfectly good
airplanes. And doing it into harm's way. There was about as much
triple "A" as I've seen since being out here directly going in their
direction.

That's where the Hunters come in.

We were operating in the vicinity of the drop when we got the call
from "higher authority" that our mission had changed and to contact
the AWACS who was controlling the entire north of the country. I
contacted him and he passed that we were retasked to take our package
"a bit further south and prosecute two targets of interest". He
passed the coordinates and target descriptions and asked us to meet a
certain "time on target" (TOT). Things happened extremely fast from
that point and I gathered up a Prowler (electronic jammer) and three
other Hunters to go "down South". I then quickly passed targets to
each member and then pushed out to meet our TOT.

The trek south took some 15 minutes and it was clear that where we
were going was more heavily defended than anywhere else (outside of
Baghdad) that we had been before. The heavy flak and triple A was
coming up from all directions and we were continually jinking to
offset the threat. Fortunately, no one was tagged prior to the
release of their ordnance and the section of aircraft to my east
reported that they were flowing back north.

That's when the "fun" started.

My section had just released our ordnance on an SA-3 site in western
Tikrit and was starting our turn back to the north when a "voice of
God" as I like to call it, came up and said, "SAM Launch, vicinity of
XXXX". I looked down at my moving map and guess who was EXACTLY
where that voice called the launch at? It only took about 3
nanoseconds for me to start defending and roll inverted to pick up
the incoming threat. Sure as shit! there it was right below and left
of my wingline. I made calls to my wingee who still hadn't gained
sight of the incoming missile and talked his eyes onto the threat.
As a side note, I have to admit that my voice sounds like a girl (did
I mention that Frenchy's a pussy?) on the tape and it's obvious I'm
sucking the seat cushion into my ass. Just when I made a counter
defensive manuever I picked up another launch about 1000 meters from
the first site that had shot. Great, two missiles coming my way, two
aircraft maneuvering like crazy within a mile of each other, and
every Republican Guard in Tikrit getting a show above them of two!
guys shucking and jiving their way outta there.

The missiles fired went stupid at about the same time that I was
really getting into it. I called out that they weren't guiding
(obvious when they went pure vertical) and gave my wingee a heading
to turn to so that we could leave this "hornet's nest". I was
actually considering not looking out the window anymore and just
pressing straight ahead. Upon looking around (I couldn't help it),
it was clear that we created quite a stir down there as every gun in
the city was pointed up and firing. We managed to climb back up
into the moronosphere and left the show behind!

In hindsight, it's amazing to me how quickly things went from the
proverbial "milk run" to "hell in a handbasket"! I suppose I won't
ever let my guard down again when flying above people who want to
kill you. A ! lesson for all us.

After tanking for the third time of the night (one of 6 tanking
evolutions over the 7 hour flight), I re-rallied the forces and
looked for more tasking. Each of us still had enough firepower on
board to take out most small towns in America. We then were tasked
to help out the guys we had really gone out there in the first place
for: those 1000 "Armies of One". All of us were assigned to take out
artillery pieces the rest of the night in direct support of the
troops on the ground. Was a sight to behold seeing so much metal
flying around the Iraqi countryside and knowing that it wasn't going
to be used again about our troops.

Well, I could ramble on for days, but will save more for later.

Hope everything's great at home. Miss all of you and hope to see you
all before the year's out!

Mousse..! .out.

[westmex]

.......Westy......

[westmex]

Toulouse

One of our cats.He's long gone but was quite the cat...I'm sitting in the same chair right now.....

........Westy.....

[grannie9]

Good morning.

[lodwick]

Gorgeous kitty Westy. I know that he ruled the roost.

Cheers all.

[lodwick]

More muslim countries should emulate Dubai...

Scent of a woman

"I'm not getting married in the next two years!" Raveena Tandon reassured a French homme seated next to her, at the launch in Dubai of a perfume named after her.

The very same monsieur had earlier conjured up a scent named after Zeenat Aman. And now it's the turn of "Secret de Raveena Tandon", placing apni mast mast mademoiselle in the hallowed company of stars who've inspired parfums named after them. Count among the scented elite such heavy-duty stars as Elizabeth Taylor, Omar Sharif and Alain Delon.

[lodwick]

Power Point slideshow from Iraq

Click on the screen to advance.

[grannie9]

A pic Gary did from one of his DJ parties.