Free Republic

Pity the poor F-111, the veritable “redheaded stepchild” of the Western jet fighter-bomber world. “What’s in a name?” quoth young Ms. Capulet to young Mr. Montague in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but in the case of this warplane, the choice of name seemed to create some bad juju from the get-go. Instead of a regal bird-of-prey moniker like “Eagle” or “Fighting Falcon,” the warbird was instead officially dubbed “Aardvark,” after one of the more ungainly-looking mammals out there; accordingly, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) nicknamed her “The Pig,” which shouldn’t automatically be viewed as an insult (“Pride-Integrity-Guts,” to quote...

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors fly in formation during a training mission in southwest Asia, Dec. 6, 2009. The F-22 fighters and crews are deployed from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and entered the Air Forces Central area of responsibility for the first time as part of a multi-national exercise where aircrews from France, Jordan, Pakistan, the U.A.E., the U.K. and the U.S. trained together in fighting a large-scale air war. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael B. Keller. SOUTHWEST ASIA — U.S. Airmen here marked a milestone recently, completing the first deployment...