Posted on 05/04/2004 11:07:15 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
ELECTION 2004 Did Kerry make up jet-pilot story? Seasoned flyers doubt yarn about taking controls over Israel
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 5, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
It's been a tough week for John Kerry's credibility.
He's been called unfit to be commander in chief by many of his Vietnam comrades and commanders.
He's been criticized for accepting a Purple Heart for what amounts to a scratch on his arm treated with a Band-Aid.
Now, seasoned jet pilots are calling into question his latest claim – taking the controls of a fighter and flying it over Israel in 1991.
Kerry told the story Monday in a speech to the Anti-Defamation League. He claimed it gave him a different perspective on Israel. He said probably no one else in the room has seen the country upside down from an Israeli Air Force jet.
He asserted that authorities in Israel kept denying his request to fly one of their planes, but that the colonel who was showing him around Israel during a 1991 visit not only got him into a trainer, but let him take the controls.
"I take it off, we go up into the sky, climb up, head down toward Aqaba," the senator said. "And I wanted to look at Aqaba, so I'm coming down over Aqaba, and I suddenly hear this voice on the intercom, and he says, 'Senator, you'd better turn faster, you're going over Egypt.'"
Kerry said the colonel then gave him permission to do "a little aerobatics" and that he made a loop at about 12,000 feet.
"To be able to come out upside down and look down and catch the horizon in back of me and see all the way down into the Sinai to the old base that had been given up, all the way across into Jordan, all the way out into the Gulf of Aqaba, and to see Israel beneath me, and the lines contained, and to see it all upside down was the perfect way to see the Middle East and Israel," he said.
But Internet boards were abuzz with skeptics – some of them seasoned jet pilots themselves.
"I'm sorry but I don't believe for a second much of what John Kerry says," wrote Ron Pera, himself a veteran Navy combat fighter pilot."
I believe even less that he makes the comment he took off the jet trainer that he reportedly flew over Israel."
FreeRepublic.com and other bulletin board sites were inundated with similar posts.
"First of all jets are more difficult to take off than propeller planes because they accelerate much faster and the speed they need to get airborne is much higher," Pera wrote in an email to WND. "This requires more precise control and you will not have that the first time you are in the plane. It takes practice to get those skills, a lot of it. Second of all no rational military trained pilot would take the chance of hurdling off the runway at 160 mph just to let some bigwig handle the controls. Takeoffs and landing are two of the most dangerous times during an aircraft flight. Once you are tens of thousands of feet in the air then it is much, much safer to let some inexperienced person take the controls since you have time and altitude to regain control. This is not a blessing on the ground."
Pera added that unless Kerry many hours flying military aircraft "it is next to impossible he took the plane off."
"I speak from experience as a former Navy fighter pilot and I have no problems releasing ALL of my records," he wrote. "Will Kerry flip-flop on this statement also or just yell at whoever asks the question?"
This visit is probably traceable as is the identity of the colonel who allegedly let this hot dog take a 15 million dollar plane on a personal joy ride.
Why do I doubt this story is true?
I took off straight up, turned quickly to avoid Cuban air space, did a figure "8" over Key West, and landed with only three bounces.
It's true what they say about the people in Key West, they all look alike upside down.
Not a chance. Not even if he has a private pilot's license, which I doubt.
...and I suddenly hear this voice on the intercom, and he says, 'Senator, you'd better turn faster, you're going over Egypt.'"
So, Senator, how do you turn a trainer? Care to describe the process?
What kind of plane was it? Where were YOU sitting relative to the instructor pilot?
Kerry said the colonel then gave him permission to do "a little aerobatics" and that he made a loop at about 12,000 feet.
So tell me Senator, what was your altitude when you started your loop? How high did you go? What airspeed were you at when you started? How low were you when you got back to straight and level?
This is so completely bogus you have to wonder if Kerry has completely lost it.
hehehehehe....
And I though God had a tough week a while back.
As does Der Schlickmeister and the Hilda beast, and well...
I'll let history explain that one. ; )
-PJ
That's the first thing that came to mind when I saw it reported on Special Report with Brit Hume, actually the reporter eluded to it as well toward the end of the report.
Sen. Kerry Address to Anti-Defamation League 5/3/2004 - Real Player
Soon this pattern will emerge, of shading and evading the truth.
He told Charlie Gibson on GMA that he was wrong! that Gibson didn't see Kerry throwing his medals over the fence. But Charlie says, "Senator, I was there! I saw you throw your medals over the fence!"
Kerry's deceitful method of operation is being discovered and he is being outed to the American people. They'll need to decide if they want the Jon Lovitz pathological liar character, "Yeah, that's the ticket" living in the White House.
Some will, sadly.
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