Mr. and Mrs. Proliance getting a personal tour of the Thunderbirds in 1992.

When an A-10 fires its gun you hear two sounds, the muzzle blast and then the sound of the rounds breaking the sound barrier, aka the “moose fart.”

“Once it heated up due to the air’s high-speed friction...”

And I used to be a deputy sheriff. You don’t extend your weapon to the point a suspect can grab it. Pulling it close to your body is a commonly taught technique.

If a cop is conducting a felony stop he will pull his weapon and force the person to the ground and cuff him before any questioning. Fleeing from the police in a vehicle is usually a felony. Running on foot is usually a misdemeanor.

The picture reminds me of my first winter in the Air Force stationed in balmy Alexandria, Louisiana at England AFB. It was 1981 and it snowed an inch or so. Our A-10s had to be cleaned off and we were issued push brooms to sweep the snow off the tops of the jets.

The question we should be asking is what anti-aircraft systems are the Russians afraid of that they fly at that altitude? MANPADs? AAA? Something bigger?

My made up theory was that the Iranians jammed and spoofed the boat’s GPS and tricked them into sailing into Iranian waters where the refueling boat couldn’t rendezvous with them.

We used B-29s over Korea.

Think of college football players as unpaid interns for the NFL. If they do a good job (while they are getting a $50,000 scholarship) they might get hired.

Only part of the strait is Iran’s territory.

It’s not about risk, it’s about superior performance.

If half the country drove an electric car drivers would crap their pants at the governments attempts to find new revenue streams to replace the lost gas taxes.

Is it the price of gasoline or the total price of ownership of the car that is more important?

When I was at Ramstein, Germany in the early 80’s I was a supervisor of a tow crew that tested premade slabs of concrete for the runway in case parts were destroyed in an attack. Basically we just towed an F-4 back and forth over a slab that was dropped in place of one that was removed.

If China does not own the islands, do they own the airstrips on them? If they don’t own the airstrips, can any country land on them without China’s permission? B-52 flyby’s are nice, but wouldn’t a C-130 on the runway or an Arleigh Burke class destroyer docked there be even better?

I spent 90 days TDY in Zaragoza, Spain in the summer of 1984 and built a bunch of those darts for F-4E’s. The pilots said they were having a hard time seeing them so I painted them up with orange spray paint. The zebra stripes were nice, but the pilots loved the Soviet hammer and sickle.

While you’re at it, throw in a B-1 missile truck. Just for shits and giggles.

A B-1 with an A-10 in each bomb bay?