Aerojet
Back in about 96 or 97 I was doing some online research into quite a few things in the military industrial complex. I was very interested in missile silos and old abandoned Air Force bases at the time, along...
Category: military
Topgun in the Mid-1980s: Building on the Legacy – Part Five
PART 5: Supplemental Notes Further Reading: Donald E. Auten’s Roger Ball! The Odyssey of John Monroe “Hawk” Smith, Navy Fighter Pilot, tells the story of an influential figure in Topgun and the Navy fighter community and provide additional information...
Topgun in the Mid-1980s: Building on the Legacy – Part Four
(Sporty F-5E joins on his flight lead seconds after takeoff from NAS Miramar.) PART 4: The Only Constant Is Change All organizations either evolve or expire, and NFWS is no exception. In the years and decades after I left,...
Peter Boschert in Mont de Marsan for the LAST MIRAGE F1
The last flying Mirage F.1 in Europe. In the near future (June 2014), France will retire the last Mirage F.1CR. At the moment ER02.033 is the last active unit based at BA118 Mont-de-Marsan and it has 20 Mirage F.1...
Dr.Sky Interviews Christina Olds
Dr Sky interviews Christina Olds the daughter of Legendary Triple Ace Robin Olds at the Reno Air Races 2013. Listen to the interview above..
Green Flag 14-2
When you think of Nellis Air Force base, you may think of ‘Las Vegas’, ‘the home of the Thunderbirds’, or even the well known air exercise ‘Red Flag’. However there is another very important training mission conducted here throughout...
Pearl Harbor 72 years after……………………..
he gentle Hawaiian breeze blows in from the Pacific, rolling over gentle waves and across beaches. Through palm trees, past coconuts and across grasses. Sweeping across a quiet lagoon the cool air crashes into cold hard gray steel. The...
Strange Bed Fellows
After the Cold War ended, The World took a left turn and was twisted into an atmosphere of pure weirdness. Old foes became friends, the Soviet Union broke up into at least a dozen different countries, and the world...
Topgun in the Mid-1980s: Building on the Legacy – Part Three
PART 3: Critical Decisions and Events of the Mid-1980s. I was an F-14 RIO who joined my first Fleet fighter squadron in 1981. In 1982 I attended the Topgun class as a student (by then it was five weeks), and in 1984 I was selected to return as an instructor. The following events and decisions occurred during my time as an instructor and contributed to Topgun’s evolution and continued validity.
Topgun in the Mid-1980s: Building on the Legacy – Part Two
PART 2: Topgun’s Early Years: the Foundation (Navy Fighter Weapons School F-5E Tiger II gets close for a photo.) When considering why Topgun flourished, much credit must go to the enduring culture established by the earliest instructors and handed...
Topgun in the Mid-1980s: Building on the Legacy – Part One
(F-5F, F-5E, and A-4 provided a wide range of threats to challenge Navy fighter pilots and RIOs.) Have you ever wondered how the Navy’s Topgun program became a world-renowned center of excellence in the serious business of air combat?...
Elkhart Warbird Gathering Weekend 2013
Elkhart, Indiana again played host to the The Warbird Gathering Weekend. Generally this town plays host to much slower, not to mention larger, aircraft as it is the preferred staging area for airships traveling East and West especially for...
