Kerry Tells of Flying a Jet Over Israel

AP ^ | 5-3-04 | NEDRA PICKLER

[bellevuesbest]

WASHINGTON (AP) - John Kerry wasn't kidding when he told the Anti-Defamation League that he had a different perspective on Israel. Probably no one else in the room has seen the country upside down from an Israeli Air Force jet.

Kerry said Monday that Tel Aviv kept denying his request to fly one of their planes, but that the colonel who was showing him around Israel during a 1991 visit not only got him into a trainer, but let him take the controls.

"I take it off, we go up into the sky, climb up, head down toward Aqaba," the senator said. "And I wanted to look at Aqaba, so I'm coming down over Aqaba, and I suddenly hear this voice on the intercom, and he says, 'Senator, you'd better turn faster, you're going over Egypt.'"

Kerry said the colonel then gave him permission to do "a little aerobatics" and that he made a loop at about 12,000 feet.

"To be able to come out upside down and look down and catch the horizon in back of me and see all the way down into the Sinai to the old base that had been given up, all the way across into Jordan, all the way out into the Gulf of Aqaba, and to see Israel beneath me, and the lines contained, and to see it all upside down was the perfect way to see the Middle East and Israel," he said.

[JETDRVR]

Guttiest move I ever saw Mav.........WOOOHOOOOOOOO "Great" Balls? of fire :-0)

[RVN Airplane Driver]

Yeah, I did a database search also and see the he has an amsel and instrument ticket that was awarded in 1986...so what. He is what is called by airline folks as a FLAP..light airplane pilot is the last 3 words. His whole tale indicates his ability level. First in a jet you only see 12,000 feet twice...once going to altitude and once coming back through for the approach..unless you are doing close air support. However for a FLAP lying 12000 feet is nose bleed territory...actually it is as high as you can go w/0 oxygen....hardly an altitude that a jet fighter would be working in...also...there is no pilot in the world that would let anyone touch the controls of an airplane that they are not being checked out in under 5000 ft...more like 10,000....let alone give them a T/O. Given his track record...he probably wasn't even in Israel, let alone begging for a ride in a fighter. As old "Mudbone" of Richard Pryor fame used to say "Damn that boy can lie; that was his job, I'm pretty sure that was his job, because that's all he did"

[hershey]

Wow, and then he landed on an aircraft carrier. Not.

[calcowgirl]

Given his track record...he probably wasn't even in Israel, let alone begging for a ride in a fighter.

I think he got confused with the 360 he did when falling off his bike in front of a Jewish Deli.

"Damn that boy can lie; that was his job, I'm pretty sure that was his job, because that's all he did"

But he does it Well! LOL

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

What a stud! Did he earn a medal for that?

[Arpege92]

Highway to the danger zone.....Kerry's been watching "TOP GUN" a little too much!

[reg45]

Someone forgot to push the eject button!

[XHogPilot]

I hear John Kerry along with his brother Algore invented airplanes.

[xsmommy]

did you see this???

[reg45]

Wow, and then he landed on an Israeli aircraft carrier.

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

Hi, I had your picture and the globe story sent to us as a letter, I have it up on http://www.christian-news-in-maine.com/letters.html

If you mind us using it, the picture, let me know and I'll pull it.

Thanks

[Toespi]

Looks like we have an opportunity to have a bike riding, slope jumping, skate boarding, jet flying, Harley cruising, hockey playing, yachter and Viet Nam hero as President. (Did I leave anything out?)

[bondjamesbond]

I wanna see the home movies!

[Poohbah]

"a little aerobatics" and that he made a loop at about 12,000 feet. Did I just hear someone cough bull shit?

No, that's from when he flew only fifty feet above that MiG doing a minus four-gee dive...the colonel's got a picture (end Top Gun reference)

[JesseHousman]

More meanderings by the Red Baron.

[boxerblues]

Did I leave anything out?)

Hiphop jam master sKerry

[ought-six]

He's a jet pilot now, too?

[GailA]

One time at the controls of a jet do NOT make you a jet jockey, no more than being an expert at flying them on a flight simulator does.

[csvset]

pocketa-pocketa-queep-pocketa-queep

Ol' J F'ing would make Walter Mitty proud.

[jmstein7]

LOL!