LIVE THREAD: Bush Flies to USS Abraham Lincoln for Historic Speech

http://www.freerepublic.com ^ | May 1, 2003

[Howlin]

Live thread for President Bush's flight to the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and his historic address to the nation tonight concerning Iraq.

[Wright is right!]

"Yeah, my roomate asked me if they were going to land AF 1 on the carrier. LOL"

I know what you mean, but ANY Air Force plane with the Prez aboard is "Air Force 1." Of course, no Air Force planes land on Navy carriers - because they're not equipped with the heavier undercarriage and tailhook required for such an operation. Only Navy aircraft are so equipped.

Of course, I'm sure that Registered will be happy to provide us of incontrovertible photographic evidence that the Air Force VC-25 actually did make a carrier landing.

Michael

[Travis McGee]

Hillary must be bleeding from the eyeballs if she is seeing any of this coverage of W!

With her hair snapping with static electricity from grinding her teeth!

[gov_bean_ counter]

Howlin, I'm happy for the big guy. You gotta know he hasn't been having a lot of fun lately.

[Inspectorette]

Of course, in the Clancy BOOK, it would be a Middle East type hijacker. Then when the movie came out, they have to change it to a neo-Nazi type, don't ya know, so as not to offend...

[Kip Lange]

***GOD I LOVE THIS***

Bwahahaha. :-)

[nicmarlo]

that was announced this a.m. on Fox and Friends, unless the plan's been changed, which, since I'm in my "lock box" I wouldn't know.....(and that's about all I know, lol).

[tracer]

OK?? Who blabbed??

[TruthNtegrity]

Per your request - repeating on this thread........

To your question about the guy with the "football". I've read this the configuration on the jet that he's going to be flying on is for FOUR. I'm sure one of them will be the guy with the football or in the other plane, but he won't be far away, that's for sure.

I am so excited about this. And BTW guys, it will be NAVY 1 while the President is onboard! Go Navy!

Just heard that the callsign of the Navy CMDR who will be flying the President is "Loose". Oh man, not so loose you have to do a go-around! Prayers all afternoon.

One final thought. Can you imagine being Laura and watching this? Cheney said at the Heritage luncheon that he wasn't sure that Dubya had told Laura *exactly* what he'd be doing!

185 posted on 05/01/2003 11:05 AM PDT by TruthNtegrity

[Wolfstar]

Approximately 12:00 noon Pacific time (3:00pm EDT).

Exerpt from story on Fox News website:

The president appeared excited as he joked Wednesday about the landing.

"Never can tell what's going to kick in," he said during an Oval Office meeting with the president of Colombia. "Let me just say, stay clear of the landing pattern."

Rear Adm. John Kelly, commander of the Lincoln battle group, said that the pilot ferrying the president onto the carrier "has flown through extraordinary pressure in support of combat operations for months now. I am very confident that he'll do a great job."

White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said flying the jet to the carrier "is actually safer than a helicopter because you have the ability to eject. In a helicopter, if something goes wrong, you're stuck."

Bush is set to arrive on board the flight deck around 3 p.m. EDT. He will eat lunch with the crew and tour the 1,100-foot ship. Part of the tour includes an airwing viewing in which pilots in 30 FA-18 Hornets will demonstrate their skills for the president.

Bush is scheduled to speak to the nation at 9 p.m. EDT and spend the night on the ship, departing by helicopter before its arrival at San Diego Naval base.

[Howlin]

LOL.........I LOVE your description of her.........but, then, you're a writer!

Hey, what did you mean by saying #61 is right????

[Howlin]

You're exactly right. He needs this, IMO!

[fml]

Lets hope that the men can learn to make their wives happy so next time they'll vote with their brains and not their emotions.

[Prof Engineer]

I'm former Air Force, but I've always liked this aircracft. I sure hope some squid gets a good picture of the landing!

[Mrs.Liberty]

I would FREAK OUT if I was laying on the beach there and saw that bird fly over on approach. Awesome enough with just the regular Navy planes, but AF One would make me....well...I would hope to be wearing Depends.

[Howlin]

Oh, thanks for all the times!

[justshe]

I get VERY pleased for him when he gets to do something FUN.....like going to Crawford. The amount of stress and pressure this man has had to endure over the last 18 months has been incredible. I think there ae very few who could have handled it......and provided such strong leadership.

Today.....must be like a little boy in a candy store moment for him. And, thank you God, he deserves this.

[jackbill]

He will most likely be hustled off the flight deck so that the escort aircraft can be recovered quickly.

A Navy Commander on board the Lincoln said, a few minutes ago on CNN, that as soon as the President lands he will be hooked up to the catapult for another go-around. That's going to be something to see.

[Inspectorette]

Fox just said he's off AF1, changed into his flightsuit and is getting ready to go!

OMG, OMG!!!! I'm nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs (please forgive me for the "Ratherism", but that's how jumpy I am)!!