Navy's 'Top Gun' jet takes final flight

AP via Yahoo! ^ | 7/22/206 | SONJA BARISIC

[quietolong]

2X ”

Some poor leadership at all levels.

I was talking to a Navy recruiter a short time ago. I couldn’t believe it. He said That Boot camp no longer has Fleet Week, Little marching and Mostly classroom work. (which is probably spent on don’t ask don’t tell acceptence)

[Knitebane]

Literally armed for Bear(s). (Bear == NATO code name for Tu-95 (and follow on) bomber)

Except for maybe a Backfire, shooting a Phoenix at a Soviet Naval Aviation aircraft would most certainly be followed by a chewing out from the CO. That's what Sparrows and Sidewinders are for, not million-dollar cruise missile killers.

The AWG-9 RADAR and the AIM-54A missile were designed for a single purpose. To shoot down the Soviet SS-N-19.

Their fighter role was strictly secondary. Grumman, upon being told by the Navy that the Tom was expected to be a dogfighter, responded in a typical Grumman way.

They installed a switch on the dashboard that dropped all Phoenix missiles into the sea, thus making the plane light enough to maneuver.

[cva66snipe]

2X ” Some poor leadership at all levels. I was talking to a Navy recruiter a short time ago. I couldn’t believe it. He said That Boot camp no longer has Fleet Week, Little marching and Mostly classroom work. (which is probably spent on don’t ask don’t tell acceptence)

Fleet Week? Same as service week where they sent you to such places as the mess decks etc? Heck when you got to the ship you got three months worth of it right off the bat.

I went through boot at Great Lakes in late 1976 Our marching was limited a lot of times simply because of extreme weather conditions. Uniform of the day was suspended several times and the CC said wear as much as you can on your body & get to the chow hall as quick as you can and inside. Wind chill one night was estimated minus 100.

Foe marching though we went to a drill hall and in the barracks we got plenty of Mashing just because. Classroom stuff was mostly UCMJ and related info. We missed gas mask and fire fighting due to low temps. That winter was one of the coldest on record though. My Company Commander was a Snipe a MMC actually who also had his Dolphins. Needless to say he used the word "Dive" quite a bit LOL. I graduated basic before Christmas went home on leave and went back up for ATF as I didn't have an A-school. More bitter cold weather and the beginning of the Great Lakes NTC riots. I got to the ship mid FEB 77.