Shipwreck VF

Turn it up! This was OKC a few years ago.

@CowboyShepherd2 @TexSandlin @WMcluskey @YPersisted Well mine spent 30 years in SF and is 78 it would still be close he fights dirty

@TexSandlin @WMcluskey @YPersisted @ShipwreckVF I remember the first time I realized I could take my dad in a fight. It was a bittersweet day. I’m pretty sure Dad thought he could take me til his dying day. 🤠

Don’t be a former Air Force pilot running for Governor of Oklahoma and in your campaign ad stand next to a Tomcat saying “I use to fly fighters like this” no you didn’t. This bugs me a lot am I wrong?#TomcatTuesday

@TOMCATCO71 The number was all it took for me

Lock and Load Em!

@TexSandlin @WMcluskey @YPersisted All it would see

@WMcluskey @YPersisted @ShipwreckVF 😎😎😎😎

@RSE_VB I hear the music

Beast in the Mist.

@TexSandlin Fairly certain that was the Med cruise in 95

#TomcatTuesday LFG! Launch 'em All 🫡

@RSE_VB Big heavy Blue Balls!

#TomcatTails Number 65 #TomcatTuesday “Slingin’ Bomb-Shaped Chunks of Cement in Paradise.” One of my favorite Bomb-Cat stories occurred when we were on our way to the Persian Gulf for my second deployment with the VF-24 Renegades in CAG 9 onboard the USS Nimitz in 1995. Our previous cruise in 1993 had been as pure Fighters (2/2/2 loadout) and after much training we’d transitioned to air-to-ground capability, albeit a little primitive at the time. The Tomcat hadn’t quite gotten into precision strike (LANTIRN Pod) so we dropped lot’s of “dumb bombs” using the Tomcat’s organic strike capability with an A/G mode on the computer (AWG-15) that gave you relatively good solutions, symbology, and cueing the drop point. It was by no means DBA (“Dead Balls Accurate”), but it got a weapon close enough to inflict some damage. Naturally, that depended a lot on the system, the jet, the sometimes-unreliable Inertial Navigation System, and Murphy’s Law (because Murphy always gets a vote). We’d left San Diego a couple weeks earlier and we’d be scheduled to drop some inert bombs (non-explosive) on a target island near Hawaii. I want to say it was Kaʻula Island about 100 miles southwest of the main island. I just checked out picture of it and it looks like what I remember. Could be wrong; I’m old. We were supposed to launch as a 2-plane but my wingman went down in the chocks so we launched into the deep blue Pacific skies on a beautiful day as a raging single, two Mark 83 1,000 pound inert bombs strapped to our belly, ready to rain “blue death” down on the island (inert bombs are painted blue). The original plan was to do a circle-the-wagons over the target, do a few dive-bombing maneuvers, and call it a day. The fact that we were a single gave us…..options. Me and my Rio chatted back and forth about what to do and we decided to try to loft the bombs onto the island. A “loft” maneuver is where you designate the target in the navigation system, head straight at it at 500 knots and 500 feet, and at a certain point the system will indicate when you need to initiate a smooth 3-4 G pull nose up while pulling the trigger for bomb release. At a specific point when your range, speed, and angle nose-up are at the exact right combination, the system ejects the bombs, and they “loft” through the air, flying toward the target in a vertical arc. A-6 guys did this a lot. Old A-4 and A-7 guys did this a lot. Tomcat guys? Well, this would be my first (and only) effort. What could possibly go wrong? This was not something you’d normally try at ranges in the US since you had a chance to loft them across Hell’s half acre and not know where they came down. That, by the way, is “bad.” Most Naval Aviators are familiar with someone slinging a Smurf (small 20 pound practice bomb) into Plaster City, CA near the Loom Lobby target range near El Centro. Don’t be that guy. In order to make sure we had a good “designate” for the INS, we raged around over the island for a bit and then marked on top of our aimpoint while the RIO hit the designate switch for the correct position. We then headed 10 miles away to a point north of the island and started our run-in. Screaming in over the water at 500 feet (sort of) and 500 knots (sort of) was pretty exhilarating. We got the system up and running, turned the Master Arm on, and hauled ass toward the island. My RIO started in with a piece of that old Star Trek Fight Scene music, cracking me up. You had to be there, I guess. As we’re inbound, I wonder aloud to my RIO “After release, I wonder if we can pitch right a little bit and then roll back left to see our bombs in mid-flight?” We both agree. Capital idea, my good man! The ranges roll down and at about 3 miles the system indicates we start the move. I go “hammer down” on the trigger and start a smoooooth pull to 4 Gs. Somewhere between 3 and 4 Gs, we feel the THUMP-THUMP of both 1,000 bombs ejecting off the jet. Bombs away! It worked! Just after the thumps, I banked right slightly to pull away from the bombs’ path of flight and then rolled back left to try and spot them. Well what do you know! There they are, maybe a thousand feet away, flying perfect formation on each other, arcing through the air! Me again: “I wonder if I can fly formation on my two little friends so we can see where they hit?” Capital idea, my good man! I rolled wings level as they arced higher and flew along with them. I can’t recall how fast we were going to keep up but they came off at 500+ knots so I expect around 300? At any rate, it was pretty simple to follow them through their apogee and then decent toward the hapless little island. I could see the island now out of my peripheral vision so I knew we were close. I leveled off somewhere around a thousand feet and watched as they were in the final phase of their flight. Closer….closer…closer…..and….IMPACT! They hit just on the rocky shoals on the edge of the island and disappeared into the ground. About a mile short of our point, but for us this was a big win. Tactically and system wise? No, of course not. It was big win for the most important thing; telling our fellow squadron mates about it later!! We got back to the boat on time and broke the deck as a raging single. Break, dirty up, in the groove, standard “Corky One” arrival (little high all the way, settle to a 3 wire). Not much to debrief, so we just told tales of our derring-do, us alone versus the island nation of Target-istan, hurling blue death at our sworn (for the day) enemies and successfully breaking strategically important rocks on their coastline. VICTORY IS OURS!!! ALL HAIL THE RENEGADES!!! Then, the daily mantra of all carrier pilots: Me: “Jeet?” RIO: “No. Jew?” Me: “No. Skweet.” Translation: Me: “Did you eat?” RIO: “No. Did you?” Me: “No. Let’s go eat.” Aaaaaannnnd scene.

@RSE_VB @StopAbuse00 @YPersisted

@StopAbuse00 @YPersisted @ShipwreckVF There are a number of decaf coffees out there that taste like the real thing.

@TomcatJunkie None

There is no fighter like the Tomcat.

@Sawisthe_Law He did fly F-15’s at one point

@ShipwreckVF Sweet baby of all that is good and holy, what the fuck actual? Tell me you guys didn’t have anything better going on and just made an AI thing? Tell me this is not real? At least tell me he flew fighting falcons?

Not that we needed any more proof that the Tomcat is WAY more cool than the Eagle, @Sawisthe_Law, but this former Eagle Driver is campaigning for Governor of Oklahoma using a picture of himself standing in front of a Tomcat. ‘Nuff said. *sniff* #TomcatTuesday

@CowboyShepherd2 He is running as a Republican and our current AG but has been a RINO. His wife is a Democrat and made donations to Biden. Might be part of my problem with this lie, he is not who he claims to be.

@ShipwreckVF Only bugs me if he’s a commie or democrat, sorry for the double negative 🤣🤠

@BDHerzinger Beep boop beep 😝

I am actually not sure that every account on this app, save about 50 people I know, isn’t a bot at this point.

@BowTiedCFI It looks like Burt Rutan was there

Good morning aviators Adding another Airframe to the list Anyone know what it is?

@CyborgPeds I thought I was going to learn cooking lol 😝

Early Gen Xer here who attended in 1989. It was pronounced “Seer” school back then.

@TomcatJunkie We deserve a new interceptor

I swear to God, if the last naval fighter ends up being some jet from the USAF MacGyvered into being able to land on a boat, I’m going to lose my shit.

@TriPSU91 @CynicalPublius @BuzzPatterson I didn’t watch it on TV because I was there on the Rosey at the time.

I want to take you back 31 years to June of 1995. There’s some old timers like me, @CynicalPublius @BuzzPatterson that surely remember the Grit of Basher 52. On June 2, 1995, U.S. Air Force Capt. Scott O’Grady was shot down over Bosnia by a Bosnian Serb SA-6 missile while enforcing the NATO no-fly zone. His F-16 torn apart, he ejected into hostile territory. For six long days, O’Grady evaded enemy patrols in rugged hills, surviving on rainwater, bugs, leaves and sheer willpower. No food. Constant threat of capture. Radio silence most of the time. On June 8, he made contact. Marines from the 24th MEU launched from the USS Kearsarge: two CH-53 Sea Stallions with 51 Marines, escorted by AH-1W Cobras, Harriers and dozens of supporting aircraft. They flew deep into enemy territory under threat of fire. O’Grady sprinted from the treeline, pistol in hand, mud-caked and exhausted, straight into the helicopter. Mission complete in minutes. No U.S. losses. This was classic American resolve: an Air Force pilot saved by Marines, backed by overwhelming joint force coordination. It showed the world we leave no one behind. With yesterday’s daring recovery of the F-15E crew member from the Zagros Mountains in Iran, another high-risk CSAR op involving special operators and massive air support, the O’Grady story feels especially relevant. SERE training works. American fighting spirit endures. God bless The United States Military. 🇺🇸 #LeaveNoOneBehind

@TexSandlin I was there during his recovery I believe after we scooped his ass up we got R&R in Corfu. CVN-71

Yeah, many of us old timers (I'm older than both those guys 😎) vividly remember. As a former SERE and CSAR instructor, I loved hearing him talk about using that training to get through the ordeal successfully!!! 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

Happy Easter everyone! 🐣🐰🪺

@TomcatJunkie @DailyMail Yes I do

@DailyMail You don’t hate the media enough.