Posted on 09/25/2014 7:50:35 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
One of the F-22 Raptor fighter jets that went on the fleet’s first ever combat mission in Syria carried an American flag into battle, according to a mid-air photograph snapped of the plane just after the mission.
The photo was taken from an Air Force refueling plane as the next generation F-22 filled its tanks after its mission to strike a single Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) target in Syria – a mission the Air Force said was a “success.” A folded American flag can be seen in the cockpit, in front of the pilot, as reported by The Aviationist.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I hope this was okayed by the boys in the Pentagon or this pilot is going to be toast. I know the liberal commie ‘RATS are probably “outraged”.
pong
Could this whole F22/ISIS flap be propaganda? Surely there are Russian and Chicom radars operating in the area. What better way to mislead the enemy into thinking we have invisible planes than proclaiming to the world the jets completed successful missions when they may have never even been over Syria.
But then again, Obama is CIC so, probably not.
Very cool, very fitting.
I’ve heard that the Islamics believe they will not get to their form of “heaven” if they are killed in combat by a woman.
Use it to our advantage.
Is he wearing an orange flight suit?
The same thing that I was thinking...
Active Duty ping.
Gracias.
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Well put.
No. The pilot is wearing a standard olive flight suit.
The orange color is an optical effect from the gold in the canopy. It is a feature of stealth technology. A thin layer of gold is used to keep emissions from entering or leaving the cockpit.
The main point in using the F-22 is that the US has weapons in its inventory that it has not used yet. In the first Gulf war, Bagdad had the same defense’s that protected Moscow. Remember how the Russians said before the war that we were going to have a bloodbath on our hands if the US attacked Bagdad, and we did not loose a plane. Also remember how stunned the Russian Military was? That was F-117 technology.
Twenty three years later the US has the F-22 and Russia is flying antiquated Bear bombers around provoking everyone. The real point of using the F-22 is to send a message to Vladimir Putin that if he really wants to start something, he won’t even see it coming!
Could it be for someone who is ready to retire? I would imagine that a flag flown in a combat arena would be valued more by a warrior than one that flew over the Capitol...
A nice touch to be sure, but this isn’t news to any USAF veterans...
Many crews carry a flag or numerous flags when going on missions...they’re for themselves or for presentations to others like groundcrews who were directly involved in getting that particular aircraft ready to go.
As you alluded to, some are presented in retirement flag boxes, etc.
We could have used A-10s, F-16s, or F-15s, but the USAF just had to use is new $150 million stealth fighter to drop bombs! How effing dumb is that?
Maybe we can use B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman AFB, Missouri, for the next strike? What kind of drugs are they using at USAF HQ?
Or, given the way it was folded, could it have been in memory of some fellow pilot who was killed?
Don't know - I just assumed that it was folded that way because it is the way flags are usually stored when not flying or being used to drape a warrior's coffin. I have no idea if they would carry them differently for other reasons.
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