Atlantis Lifts Off Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the STS-132 mission to the International Space Station at 2:20 p.m. EDT on May 14. The third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, this was the last planned launch for Atlantis. The Russian-built Mini…
That whole warm, feel good evolution that was the 65th anniversary celebration of the defeat of Germany? The one where US and British troops participated in the parade for the first time, ever? Turns out someone still has an axe or two to grind: Vladimir Putin has snubbed both the Prince of Wales and the…
These past few weeks SECDEF Gates has turned to the perennial question of “how much is enough?’ and in the process, has on a couple of occasions called out Navy for its overwhelming capacity in certain areas – subs and aircraft carriers immediately come to mind. That carriers get highlighted is not surprising – they…
A Quick History Before there were NFOs there were Naval Aviation Observers. In June 1960, the Basic Naval Aviation Officer School was established to train the future radar intercept officers, bombardier/navigators and air intercept control officers that were joining the fleet in ever increasing numbers. This was spurred in no small degree by the revolution…
Been a bit busy this past week – daytime job primary among the reasons. New organizations are interesting and engaging entities, but their demands can be nearly all consuming at times and when added to a three hour commute, well, the grey matter was more interested in vegetating than cogitating – or something like that….
Sixty-five years ago. . . . . . Guts, determination, innovation & courage were defined (and well before Joint was “cool”) (Courtesy Mary R. over at USNI’s blog — General Doolittle describes the Tokyo raid) Conceived in the dark aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the raid had its genesis in the idea of…
A few days back I received a very nice note regarding an earlier Flightdeck Friday whose subject, the A5A Vigilante, is a favorite of mine.  Now, having been frustrated upon checking into VT-10 (ahem, many years ago) to learn that I’d missed the last class allowed to go Vigi’s, any story about Vigi’s will make…
15 April 1969 (Korean time) marked the final flight of a Navy VQ-1 EC-121/WV-2 callsign Deep Sea 129. Roughly 100 nm off the North Korean peninsular site where the Hermit Kingdom today defies the world with its ballistic missile tests, lies the watery grave of 31 Americans (2 bodies were later recovered): The crew of…
You may recall that when the PAK-FA first took flight earlier this year a quick analysis was run on these pages and those over at USNI with a note that more granular analyses would surely be forthcoming. One of the first out of the box was over at the Air Power Australia site, and was…
If tw0’s company and three’s a conspiracy/mutiny – what about a bunch more? Call it Milblogger 2010 . . . Made it to the morning session before having to depart for other duties in the afternoon, but in the interim joined up with Mary (USNI), ‘Phib (CDR Salamander), Taco (Sandgram), Jim Dolbow (USNI); Sgt B…
