Dan McClinton

As always, my book about flying Apaches is available for sale on both my website (dngrpig.com/shop) and through great online bookstores like Amazon.

@Brianjh0867 @Johnny_Joey I was an aviator; we had butlers.

@DanMcClinton1 @Johnny_Joey You got to stay in a tent? Did you get room service too? I think I saw a couple tents off in the distance a few times out there...

All these regular people just went camping and it drove them crazy.

@TeaPartyOGs I live just a bit north of you, and I get ads in Español quite a bit as well.

@DanMcClinton1 No me digas! I live in Dallas.

Fox Business channel is running Wendy’s hamburger commercials in Spanish. What does that tell you?

@Destiny15_FL For a lot of those folks, their politics is their religion.

All Liberals that I personally know are non-believers in Jesus Christ. I wonder why?🤔

@RichOToole Personally prefer Slovacek’s, but that's not bad.

If you know you know 🔥 #CzechStop

@TomcatJunkie @EODHappyCaptain I got the previous version of this one...this is the latest available. I'm too lazy to take a photo of mine right now.

@DanMcClinton1 @EODHappyCaptain May we see it?

I’m not a watch guy. I’ve been wearing the same Garmin for the last six years. This Belmont EOD Disrupter watch is in pre order, and I feel like I need it. Is this what getting old feels like?

Well, when you don't start replacing the fleet when you should, keep kicking the can down the road and fight a 20-year-long war where aircraft are constantly being deployed/flown, this is what you get. When I was in Iraq, we flew one year's worth of stateside flight time on our AH-64s each month. Add in parts...and before long, you get something that isn't sustainable. This is a problem that's been a long time coming. If we had started with a larger fleet, it would still be an issue, but not as acute or pressing one.

Well it is old aircraft and not enough of them. I agree you can’t recover the experience and talent was lost, however if an active duty fighter pilot isn’t getting 100 hours a year (flying less than twice a week), reserves are another mouth to feed with food that doesn’t exist. The average F-16 is over 40 years old. When the guard started losing their fighter squadrons, their F-16s were probably only 20-30 years old.

True. After the Cold War ended, we massively drew down our forces. Something like 50% of the Air Force fleet was drawn down, w/ corresponding personnel cuts. Yeah, the B-52 is old, but so is the KC-135. The C-17 is getting used up much faster than planned & there is nothing to replace it or the C-5. I don’t know what the right size of our force is, but before you can argue it you should understand these things. It’s common to say the military sucks up the budget, but that’s not true…defense spending is about 13%, depending on year. Medicaid & similar programs are 24%. Social Security 21%. The interest on the debt is another 13%. Social safety net 7%, etc..

@TomcatJunkie @EODHappyCaptain I don't know, I got an Apache one a few years back, and I'm good.

@EODHappyCaptain Be careful. Once you buy one you’ll want to buy more… it’s a slippery slope

@DBCooperTX Paxton and Cornyn both have baggage that doesn't make either of them ideal, but anyone thinking that gives Talarico the edge is insane.

What exactly is Talarico going to attack Paxton on that Cornyn hasn’t already done for months? The market is so saturated with negative ads about Paxton and many of us just tune it out.

The Guard flew aircraft made in the 50s in the 70s...the problem isn't old aircraft, it's how much they've been used. If they'd kept more aircraft to begin with, we wouldn't have flown the fleet we have into the ground. The replacements for the current fleet are more complicated and expensive...that's a death spiral. Part of the reason we had so many F-16s is that the F-15 cost too much to get as many as they originally needed. Same reason why the F-22 production line was shut down early. There are multiple factors at play, and there's no easy way out of this hole that they've dug.

@DanMcClinton1 @MCCCANM Counter argument, if you can’t keep the active force current with the number of aircraft available, you can’t have a functional guard and reserves. That’s the cost of force reductions, aging aircraft, and flight hours.

@TheEliJordan It matches the team.

They really need an upgrade. The current logo is very meh.

@McBaine146 @AirPowerNEW1 As I said, I wasn't saying don't buy F-15s.

@DanMcClinton1 @AirPowerNEW1 True but how much weight can those pylons handle compared to the F-15. I believe, could be wrong, that the F-35s external stores are limited to Mk-84 (2,000lb) class weapons where as the F-15 can carry over 5,000lb class of weapons.

"All of our fifth gen and sixth gen aircraft carry their weapons internally which negates the ability to carry really big weapons and that's what the F-15 does. The F-15EX will be an air superiority aircraft that would be able to carry really long range missiles.." ~ Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach Chief of Staff of the US Air Force (May 20, 2026)

Watch Starship's twelfth flight test twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@Johnny_Joey @SenDuckworth She was an incompetent aviator, and now she's an incompetent senator...at least she's consistent.

Wow, @SenDuckworth just said it plainly. She wants us to go dozens of miles to a big city like Atlanta to the VA just to spend hours there and be told they can’t see us. Only then can we go to a community care doctor in our own town. She doesn’t care about us, she cares about protecting government jobs at the VA. Sickening to watch this after we’ve fought so hard to get quality, competitive health care in our own communities. Thank you @SecVetAffairs for standing up for us!

Good for them...but the truth is, in that photo is probably a person who will end up being the worst platoon leader that soldier has had in his/her Army career.

@PopcornPost_ Titanic

What is the Most Famous movie that you have Zero Interest in ever seeing?

@RockNRoLL_85 La Grange

What’s a great Song that mentions Texas or a town in Texas? #TexasRock