Posted on 04/06/2012 9:53:59 AM PDT by pgkdan
No other details as yet. Just reported as an emergency blurb on local radio. Prayers requested for all affected!
A Navy F-18 out of NAS Oceana has crashed into an apartment comp0lex in Virginia Beach VA at the intersection of Birdneck Rd and I 264.
The rationale for dispersing assets is so that you can’t wipe out an entire military capability with a single attack. It’s just as valid today as it was during the Cold War. The current mantra of consolidating assets to save money is downright suicidal. Do you want al Qaida to be able to shut down the entire Air Force with an attack on a single building? The senior leaders have dropped deep into denial. We’re 90% back to the pre-9/11 “it can’t happen to us” mentality.
(And it really pisses me off when even pro-military press and entertainment refer to Cold War “paranoia”. When the Russians are stating publicly, “Just wait America, just wait. You WILL be ours. Maybe not today, but it WILL happen.” The Chinese and al Qaida are saying the same thing today, and our leaders are choosing to pretend otherwise.)
One thing that changed under Reagan Navy wise I don't agree with was using the Suez canal for carriers again. Even when the Iranian hostage crisis broke out in 79 the JFK went around the Horn to get to the Persian Gulf. The first one too transit Suez since the 1960's was America in 1981.
It seems as well the safety in numbers policy got abandoned somewhere along the way resulting in fleet being over a day out from the COLE when it was attacked in Yemen. Cole should have fueled at sea. Next is the shipyard in the UAE. Anyone think it was just beginners luck Cole got hit where it would go dead in the water?
Hampton Roads though has been a disaster waiting to happen for several decades. The base closures and consolidations into one general area have only made matters worse risk wise. For those Freepers living there this is not to knock your home turf. It is simply the reality of it. You can see the carrier fleet from Hampton Roads I-64 Bridge and Portsmouth Yard from the by-pass I'm pretty certain. Most of the east coast fleet and Naval aviation assets are in a 10-15 miles circle. That policy needs to change fast.
From what I’m reading the pilots {trainer and instructor} rode it out as long as possible and were dumping fuel as well on the way down. It would have had to have been a near ground jetison because they landed near the complex. If they hadn’t dumped the fuel the explosion & fire would have taken out several blocks with a likely tripple digit fatality count. From reading this article the cut it about as close as you can get. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/apr/06/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-2-pilots-eject/ It sounds like the three explosions were the jetison, impact, and explosion, of what obviously little fuel remained. It could have been a lot worse outcome.
Lord forgive me but my first thought after about the crash was that Obama would use it as an excuse to close yet another base.
Lord look over those who are hurt, especially the pilots who will hold guilt from this accident for their entire lives.
Well, tell it to those who are suggesting that.
Calling me an idiot is not only disrespectful and totally uncalled for, but indicates a serious lack of formal education and the inability to engage in intelligent discorse.
You said it, so you need to own it.
SAID what?
I asked a question because I didn’t know something.
If you search Google Maps for 36.851255,-75.992825 and use the satellite view, you can see the middle of the courtyard where the plane ended up. Amazing.
It appears that no one has died. Praise the Almighty!
They have updated that info today and the fire chief says he believes he has talked to everyone at the complex. No fatalities or serious injuries. Thats a Good Frday Miracle.
It sure is.
Thank God!!!!
It seems there was a chance there would be no loss of life and that chance became a reality.
Thank God!
You should have considered such with the derogatory remark you made, concerning the pilots decision to eject, in the first place.......
Your remark as follows:
"Not a good, nor an honored way, to ditch your fighter plane!"........103 posted on Friday, April 06, 2012 12:27:14 PM by IbJensen
Everything thereafter was in response to that statement and rightfully so....which had nothing to do with ones education, (not even a nice try), nor "engaging in intelligent discourse" and zip-zero evidence it was no more than an unjustified, premature, remark against the pilot.
Your statement ,and that without knowing the situation or the facts of...remains the same...it was "idiotic"...and gave zip zero evidence of any desire for "intelligent discussion" as you now claim in order to excuse your remark....and attempting to do so is deceptive at best.
Claiming further , after the fact,, to be a Pilot yourself and serving or not in Korea does not excuse the remark...in fact if true, you should have known better than to jump to the conclusion you gave in that remark.
You should have considered such with the derogatory remark you made, concerning the pilots decision to eject, in the first place.......
Your remark as follows:
"Not a good, nor an honored way, to ditch your fighter plane!"........103 posted on Friday, April 06, 2012 12:27:14 PM by IbJensen
Everything thereafter was in response to that statement and rightfully so....which had nothing to do with ones education, (not even a nice try), nor "engaging in intelligent discourse" and zip-zero evidence it was no more than an unjustified, premature, remark against the pilot.
Your statement ,and that without knowing the situation or the facts of...remains the same...it was "idiotic"...and gave zip zero evidence of any desire for "intelligent discussion" as you now claim in order to excuse your remark....and attempting to do so is deceptive at best.
Claiming further , after the fact,, to be a Pilot yourself and serving or not in Korea does not excuse the remark...in fact if true, you should have known better than to jump to the conclusion you gave in that remark.
We could go on and on, I suppose, and continue to parse the words of an old man (me) until we get blue in the face and have to be resuscitated, but what's the use? Since this is the hill on which I don't wish to die, I must do something that's against my oath: surrender.
Believe me, whoever you are, intelligent discussion is not what we have both regurgitated on this site. Rather we have engaged in picayune sophomoric twaddle.
No. Go to Church, grab your Easter basket and eat until you get a tummy ache.
there will never be the numbers of ships to justify all
the bases from WW2 that were closed during BRAC nor the
need for 10M man armies. If the war gets to all-out destruction-of-enemy mode, the nukes will fly and Fun City
will look as if from Planet of the Apes.
BTW we didn't have 10M active even in WW2. The highest it got in WW2 was 8.7M in 1941. Granted we do not need that many now with todays technology. But we do not have enough manpower now to properly man our military either. The cuts were way too deep.
As for ships? If you want to be able too deploy 100 at any given time you best have 400 ships. That is still below Reagan's 595. Anything less {and we are at 285 now as of 2011} is a disaster in the making. I don't care if it's nuclear propulsion submarines, carriers, cruisers, or destroyers the facts of needed maintenance and training times still apply. No ship can deploy indefinitely not a one. Your aircraft in the air force I'm betting about the same ratio applies for maintenance and training.
Which do you really thinks China wants? To nuke us and be unable to use our labor and resources, or march in and take over the nation and all resources? Only the radical fanatics like rouge Islamic nations now pose the nuke threat.
Our governments number one Constitutional duty is defense. It makes no sense to short defense.
Armed Forces Strength: 1945 (from US DoD)
Army:8,266,373
Navy:3,319,586
AAF:469,925
Total 12,055,884
We can not keep up the pace with what we have something is going to have to give. We need to rescind at least half the cuts in all services to be reasonably functional.
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