USMC Photo of the Day: Message from a KC-130 "Hercules" to the challengers: Retire the SAMs--now!

United States Navy - Eye on the Fleet ^ | September 4, 2003 | LCpl Andrew Williams, USMC

[EnjoyingLife]

Central Command Area of Responsibility, 4 September 2003: Aerial shot over Iraq of a
KC-130 "Hercules" assigned to Marine Aerial Refueler-Transport Squadron Two Thirty Four (VMGR-234)
firing flares used to counter attack surface to air missiles.

The Photographer
LCpl. Andrew Williams, United States Marine Corps, http://www.usmc.mil

The Big Photo
http://www.news.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/030904-M-7837W-001.jpg

The Courtesies
Above medium-sized image: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20051111.htm
Caption: http://www.news.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=9370, United States Navy - Eye on the Fleet

[A.A. Cunningham]

You most likely saw a Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Cloud which can occur during subsonic as well as supersonic flight.

[mosquewatch.com]

Was aweseom indeed, I had no idea that effect was created by supersonic flight !

[null and void]

I couldn't have said it better.

[El Gato]

Do you think the Eagle is a photoshop artwork or is this an untouched picture?

Looks like a triple exposure to me. I guess there's only the one Herky. The Eagle is probably caused by the flares being shot out to the side, combined with the wing vortexes and prop wash. Most any large aircraft will leave swirls in any smoke or fog it penetrates, or under certain conditions it may generate it's own, exclusive of any pyrotechnics.

[calljack]

Wallpaper and screensaver

[Uriah_lost]

I have a quesadilla with the image of the Virgin Mary on it if you have some cash laying around....

[MistrX]

I thought it was an angel.

[skr]

Awesome!

[Oztrich Boy]

[El Gato]

Angels of Death to the enemy, saviors of life for us and our allies...

It's only the Angel of Death if it's an AC-130, or perhaps the tricked out special ops C-130, with a Daisy Cutter on board. The AC has all sorts of nasty stuff to allow it to be the Angel of Death.

Now if the weapons officer on board is one particular female officer..

"The Spectre’s weapons release officer was a woman, a stunning USAF captain named Allison. “Ally“‘s voice on the plane’s intercom and over the radio, as she coordinated the deadly 105mm and 40mm explosive rounds, seemed to flow like poetry as the Taliban bodies stacked up, resulting in her being nicknamed “the Angel of Death”. ...

Allison, originally from New York, was proud that she was able to “bring some justice” to the people who were responsible for striking out at the United States on September 11. [Northern Alliance] General Dostum was utterly amazed when he heard of Ally. He immediately called his Taliban foes on the appropriate frequency, and then asked for Allison to speak on the U.S. radio. Dostum first announced to the Taliban leader that “the United States has so little respect for you that they are using their women to fight you!” Then Dostum held his handset up and Allison would talk over the frequency, announcing that she had heard how badly the Taliban treated women, and she was here to give them a little payback. This was also translated to the enemy over their frequencies. The extreme gravity of the insult to an Islamic fundamentalist “holy warrior” cannot be translated.
-- Robin Moore, The Hunt For Bin Laden: Task Force Dagger, 2003

[El Gato]

Looks like a triple exposure to me. I guess there's only the one Herky.

I take that back, after looking at the video, even though that's a different aircraft, I can see that the one Herky could have been firing the flares, two bursts just like the video, or the forward bird fired it's first followed by the trailing one doing it as the picture was taken.

[mosquewatch.com]

loooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[Dustbunny]

Awesome.

[Oztrich Boy]

IT'S AN ANGEL.

That can't be good

[Lady Jag]

I was merely being poetic. I have the license.

[EnjoyingLife]

In comment # 19 TexasTransplant says: I have some awesome photos of F-14s going ballistic that look surreal as well, they aren't edited either. I know because I took them and I developed them)

Did I hear eff fourteen, as in my beloved F-14 "Tomcat"? P-p-p-lease p-p-p-post j-j-just 1 of y-y-your p-p-p-photos...

[TexasTransplant]

>>>" Did I hear eff fourteen, as in my beloved F-14 "Tomcat"? P-p-p-lease p-p-p-post j-j-just 1 of y-y-your p-p-p-photos..."<<<

Can't they are in Storage, boxed up while I am remodeling the house, I'll put it on my ever expanding list though

[El Gato]

I was merely being poetic. I have the license.

I figured that, but I like the little story of the Lady Captain "Angel of Death", and will look it up and re post it whenever the least bit appropriate. :) She is "one of mine" (AF) you know.

[Lady Jag]

Actually, I believe I've read about her before. A friend's daughter has been in the AF @ 10 years and shares sometimes. The more of those stories the better! There are tons of stories out there we may never hear.

[yarddog]

For a few years, a C130 would show up around dusk and circle my house for an hour or so. I always guessed it was from Hurlburt. Probably actually circling a nearby church. The sound of the engines is fairly distinctive although every now and then I think I hear one and it turns out to be some commercial aircraft.

I was thinking a few months ago, that I haven't seen one in over a year.