Posted on 07/18/2005 3:59:52 PM PDT by Drago
Thanks for the update!
Anything new?
Yeah ... tell that to the liberal mainstream media who have spent a disproportionate amount of time the last six years trying to diminish Bush's role as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. Especially in light of his predecessor, one of the media's own ... the draft dodging-in-chief William "Slickmiester" Clinton.
Well, you got that right. Many on the left and in the media have very little idea of what military service entails.
I grit my teeth when they can't be bothered to get it right. They call a Tomcat a Hawkeye on TV. They call a Destroyer a Battleship. Their contempt for military personnel is palpable.
The thing I really liked about embedding the reporters in OIF was the fact that, in spite of themselves, in the face of their socialist anti-military views, despite their visible contempt, they had to admire our soldiers and sailors.
Good they're both alive.
Funny, but that is a gross mischaracterization of the military's acquisition system.
The aircraft may have gone down in the Panamint Mountains, viewed here from the southwest looking across the Panamint Valley with the Argus mountains to the viewers back.
Other reports confirm air to air combat maneuvers. Prayers for the third airman, as yet, publicly unaccounted for.
One aircraft was a Super Hornet ... 3 total aviators involved.
1 remains missing from what I can find online.
Prayers!
I get pissed when they screw up unit designations. "Soldiers of Third Infantry Division's Alpha Company...." or, even worse, "Charlie Company, 2nd Brigade..."
It's not that hard to say, "Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division..."
I know exactly what you mean. You can see them with a wave of their hand, saying to each other as the review what they are going to read: "Should I say "Charlie Company, 2nd Brigade..."...ah hell, nobody knows the difference anyway, just say that..."
As I said, their contempt is palpable.
AP - Updated Tuesday, July 19, 2005, 4:45 PM
Two fighter jets crash over Mojave Desert
CHINA LAKE, Calif. (AP) - Two officers from Lemoore Naval Air Station who were injured when a pair of fighter jets crashed in mid-air during training are doing well, hospital and naval base officials said on Tuesday.
The pilot of one of the Super Hornet jets, Lt. Noel Sawatzky, and Lt. John Bonenfant, a weapons systems officer on the same plane, are doing well, said Betty Henry, a spokeswoman at Kern Medical Center.
"They're fine, just a little bruised up," Henry said.
One of the men has a broken ankle, but Henry was not able to say which one due to patient privacy laws.
The other pilot - still unidentified - has not been found, said Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for the naval station. The crash happened Monday morning about 35 miles northeast of Ridgecrest, Rescue teams are searching the mountainous area bordering the Mojave Desert for the missing aviator.
The two Super Hornets - a single-seat F/A-18E and an double-seat F/A-18F - collided on Monday during a training flight.
The two officers who were found were first taken to Ridgecrest Regional Hospital, then flown to Kern Medical Center, Bakersfield, where they're being treated.
Third person found:
http://www.ksee24.com/Story.aspx?type=ln&NStoryID=425
Orange Park Pilot Killed In Jet Crash In Mojave Desert
July 22, 2005 ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- A Navy pilot from Florida died when two fighter jets collided over the Mojave Desert, officials said.
The two planes based at Lemoore Naval Air Station crashed in mid-air during training on Monday, injuring two aviators in a double-seat F/A-18F and killing Lt. Bruce L. Clark, 31, of Orange Park.
Clark's body was found Tuesday near the wreckage of his single-seat F/A-18E, Navy spokesman Dennis McGrath said.
The two injured aviators, Lt. John Bonefant and Lt. Noel Sawatzky, were being treated for ejection-related injuries at a California hospital, McGrath said.
It was not known if Clark had ejected from his plane.
The collision occurred over an unpopulated desert training area of China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, about 100 miles east of Bakersfield, Calif.
"They were conducting ACM - air combat maneuvering," McGrath said. "In the old days they used to call it dogfighting."
The crash sparked a 10,000-acre brush fire, China Lake spokeswoman Doris Lance said.
McGrath said Clark and Bonefant were instructor pilots, while Sawatzky was a student pilot.
Clark joined the Navy in 1997 and completed flight training in Florida and Texas. He had been an F14 Tomcat pilot before moving to the Super Hornet. He was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 122 at Lemoore in July 2004, McGrath said.
Clark's parents attended a private memorial service Friday in California at the NAS Leemore chapel for their son, who was not married. Pilots performed the 'missing man' formation in which "four planes fly right overhead, one peels off and goes straight up to heaven," McGrath said.
McGrath said he's been with Leemore Naval Air Station for more than 20 years. He has seen crashes before, but this one is unusual. "We have accidents, but mid-air is very rare."
The cause of the incident is still under investigation.
The crash also sparked a wildfire, which burned approximately 9,964 acres of the Navy's land and 386 acres of Bureau of Land Management land. The fire took out the campsite that has been used by the Boy Scouts and other visitors for a number of years and cabin at Birchum Springs.
The BLM provided water drops and fire fighting assistance because China Lake does not have wildland fire fighting capabilities. The BLM announced Friday morning that the fire had been extinguished. A full assessment of damages remains to be taken.
He is survived by his parents, also of Orange Park, Fla.
Additional info from the Kern Valley Sun.
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