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| A P-8A Poseidon conducts flyovers above the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group during exercise Bold Alligator 2012. (Source) |
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, fighter aircraft and our obsession with them. To be fair, I worked on them, my son-in-law flies fighters, The WSO is, well duh, a WSO in fighters, and Juvat flew fighters for a living, and I'm sure we all own vacuum cleaners.
Huh, vacuum cleaners? Sure, the S-3's nickname is (was?) The Mighty War Hoover. Listen...
Now do you get it?
Tuna was an NFO in the S-3 Viking, which sounds like a vacuum cleaner, I'm sure we all own vacuum cleaners and...
Sigh...
Anyhoo. While searching the Web of World Wideness for likely topics for posting, I often get distracted and start watching Tube 'O You videos. Which indeed happened Saturday night, whereupon I came across this video from the men and women of VP-5, the Mad Foxes, operators of the mighty P-8 Poseidon. Poseidon being another name for the Greek deity of the sea, who was known to the Romans as Neptune. (See where I was going there?)
Without further ado, VP-5 and their 2014 Cruise Video. (Yes, I'm sure the music still annoys Buck. Like I do it to annoy him. Okay, sometimes I did. Still do, it's a tradition. Can't fight tradition now, can I?)
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| P-8A Poseidon of VP-5 over the Philippine Sea in September 2014. (Source) |
Oh yes, do go full screen on this, I recommend that, yes I do.
Those kids don't look old enough to be driving cars, much less left seat in a jet!
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked was all the rapid movement on the yolk and nothing happening outside. Still it was an aviation video.
Now...Get off my lawn!
Dang, you and Tuna are both curmudgeons!
Delete(Heh, like I'm not.)
Yeah, what was up with all that yoke movement on the landing? (Also seems unnatural to have the controls in your left hand and the throttles under your right. Seems, ya know, backwards.)
Since they are flying P-8s, shouldn't they be the MADLESS FOXES?
ReplyDeleteBwaaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaa!
DeleteGood one Scott!
Oh yeah. VP. Flight pay + Per dieum + BAQ + sea pay.Oh, and home to a nice air base every night. Navy's closest approach to the Air Farce.
ReplyDeleteYeah...and your point? ;-)
DeleteCap'n - The WSO did well in NFO school, was given the choice between VP and VFA. I talked to an old P-3 pilot at work, he mentioned it really came down to nights in a hotel versus months on "the boat."
DeleteTo paraphrase her, "Dad, if I wanted a cushy job, sleeping in fine hotels, I would have done AFROTC instead of NROTC."
As much as it pained me to admit it, she had a point.
Juvat - you are really channeling your inner curmudgeon today.
DeleteLove it!
As an old curmudgeonly VP enlisted guy one of my points about VP duty was that we got liberty the first day of deployment. Didn't have to wait for the first inport day. As for the per diem back then, not so much. IIRC the E's got sumpthin' like $1.10 a day with the admonishment "Don't spend it all in one place!"
DeleteAh yes, I do recall the princely sums we "Es" received for per diem.
DeleteWhen we'd actually get per diem. I think I got it twice in 24 years. Then again, I didn't travel that much. I was usually stationed at my "war post" all the time.
While Air Force bases don't move (unlike carriers) there was no need to get to the scene of the action.
Of course, we couldn't run away either.
The other curmudgeons beat me to all the good stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe music was particularly annoying. Here's how you do it, Fad Moxes: https://youtu.be/ki-eVj8_DWA
Nice. I like the Spads, er, I mean Tomcats.
DeleteI grow old,
DeleteI grow old,
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled...
Hahaha!
DeleteI just now got that bit of poetry Shaun.
DeleteIt takes me a while to get there...
DeleteBut I get there.
Eventually.
:)
DeleteHeh.
DeleteScotty is right... sigh... And I used to love to piss off the boat bubbas by holding up a per diem check and a six pack of beer when they joined us on station. Without MPA pre-screening CVOAs and other areas, there would be a LOT more nervous sailors out there... Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteThe patrol squadrons are vastly unappreciated.
DeleteAll the way back to WWII... Sigh...
DeleteI know. Sad innit?
DeleteI kind of liked the music (I must not be as old and curmudgeonnly as the rest of you), but I think it was about twice as long as it needed to be. Now if'n it had been fighter pilots ... I'm just saying.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the music, my tastes tend to be rather eclectic anyways. It was a tad long, but if fighter aircraft had been involved, I do believe it would have been more tolerable as to length.
DeleteNice to have you back MMC!