We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:02:38 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2012 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification John's post of the leg-challenged trooper reminded me of someone whose memory I respect perhaps more than anyone in combat aviation, then or now. PLEASE read the whole thing... Bader could never do that today...too many restrictions would never let him get anywhere near a jet...which, actually, doesn't make a lot of sense. If you don't have legs, you don't have to worry about blood pooling in the lower extremities during high-G maneuvering. The classic G-suit (Fast Pants, Speed Jeans, whatever you want to call 'em) wouldn't do you much good. However, comma, there is Combat Edge, so Bader could... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html Wed, 27 Apr 2005 14:48:05 -0600 Bader was my inspiration, my hero. I first read Reach for the Sky at age 12 and continued reading it until it was dogeared from use. I never lost my fascination with flight, although Vietnam tarnished it. Jets never appealed to me, but what I wouldn't have given to fly a Spitfire or a Hurricane in the Battle of Britain. Still, Huey's were a grand adventure and I did enjoy my all too brief encounter with them. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23621 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23621 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:17:35 -0600 Now I remember. It was a reply to JMH. I was regretting the death of Glen Sigafoose in an airshow, doing snap-rolls at zero feet. Apparently one of the wing tips went below zero for a moment, and that was all she wrote. He and his wife, Hazel, had his'n'hers Pitts Specials in which they did air shows. After he stuffed his, and self, into the ground, Hazel sold hers and the Pitts kit disappeared from the Sig Balsa catalog. Right now I just picked up an airplane and read the fading stamp, "SIG contest balsa; very light 4-6lb. stock" For you aviators: Glen and Hazel did manage to get the dangerous wires removed from the vicinity of the Montezuma, Iowa, Airport. (That's hard to do.) and it's now Sig Field, I believe. If I ever manage to escape this benighted God-Forsaken place, I think I might want to move to Montezuma and try for a job at one or the other of my two favorite business firms in the whole world, Brownell's and Sig! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23598 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23598 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:25:52 -0600 Dang! The comment that this would have been, evaporated! I thought I'd saved it, but SaveAs ignored the writing in this box. Now what was I thinking?... Owhell, it was something about that really neat German nerd character, how he had Mad Skillz in thinking outside the box on account of being such an ingenious erudite forthright earnest honest geeky model-airplane designer person! There was something else I wrote, but I've forgotten it, alas! JoA, what did happen, there? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23595 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23595 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:08:09 -0600 Remake? *REMAKE*?? Nooo!!!! It was perfect the first time. Only Jimmy Stewart could have done that part right! And.. And... GIRL COOTIES! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23593 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23593 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 18:27:33 -0600 Give the AF time and maybe they'll come around. It's not like the Army has been doing this forever. Ten years ago, when it was determined that I could no longer run, I was stamped as useless to the armed forces and show the door. And I still had all my limbs. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23570 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23570 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 13:29:54 -0600 Bader stuff here. Cheers JMH]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23550 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23550 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:48:55 -0600 Um, okay, I almost laughed but that isn't supposed to be funny until MANY MANY years after. Like, now, and only to other military people. We just watched the remake of "The Flight of the Phoenix" with Dennis Quaid and Eorache (she was the actress who played Eowyn in LOTR). I don't know how accurate the aerodynamics of the plane are, but there are at least two shots of the plane doing a 360 in the sand storm. If that was a Hollywood thing, it was pretty effective. Comments from the pilots? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23541 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23541 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 07:18:01 -0600 TINS, dammit..." heh]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23540 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23540 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 07:14:04 -0600 During the Battle of Britain, Bader was queasy about the idea of being shot down over the Channel, bailing out and having his "tin legs" fill with water and drag him under to drown. He stuffed them full of ping-pong balls. The next day, he went on an intercept and climbed above 15,000 feet. There was a noise like 20mm cannon shells hitting the aircraft and his legs went flailing around the cockpit. He thought he'd been jumped by an Me-109 and was ready to bail out. Then he realized the reduced pressure had caused the ping-pong balls to explode. He never flew with them again... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23519 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23519 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:26:48 -0600 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62915-2004Oct25.html Maybe he'll be the first of many... Good post, great story, I'd never heard of Bader, to my chagrin! Thanks!]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23516 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23516 Wed, 27 Apr 2005 21:48:37 -0600 Reach For the Sky was an earlier work- I wonder which version is accurate... perhaps the book had a touch of 'white-wash'?]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23511 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23511 Wed, 27 Apr 2005 20:41:39 -0600 Yeah, Neffi, read that book too, when a kid. Apparrently having the brakes on the stick in Britplanes was a great help. Slips, though, I wonder. I think the RAF insisted on dropping the legs during a regular bombing raid, so as not to appear to give "aid and comfort" by co-operating with the Reich too much. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23509 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23509 Wed, 27 Apr 2005 19:30:14 -0600 My buddy Don and I used to go out to the 'old' part of Mildenhall, rooting around the revetments and bunkers- hoping to find something neat. Never did, though- this was before civilian metal detectors. He was stationed at Mildenhall; I was at Lakenheath http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23507 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23507 Wed, 27 Apr 2005 18:01:00 -0600 Actually, I was out of Spangdahlem but flew in the UK whenever I could (standard for GE-based units). I did, however, work at RAF Mildenhall my last year in Europe but the flying I did was behind a desk...good news was we had a few Brits on the payroll so that kept it fun. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23504 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23504 Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:47:17 -0600 Reach for the Sky... Shortly after the release of the film 'Battle of Britian' Bader made an appearance in Ipswich (can't remember the event), but I had a severe cold and couldn't go. I was devastated for months... Dusty, were you flying out of RAF Woodbridge?]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23503 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23503 Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:35:45 -0600 Now there was a warrior :-) He didn't quit for anything, did he?! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23502 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/04/the_army_has_the_right_idea.html#comment-23502 Wed, 27 Apr 2005 16:49:36 -0600