Doogie320

The irony of him reaching out to Russia is hilarious. Karzai is grasping at straws, doing whatever he can to retain his slippery hold on power here. I saw where we are negotiating with Uzbekistan for a base (probably K2 again)....the same country that booted us in 2005. It isn't like we have a lot of options though.

If they close the base it will greatly increase our logistical issues over here, especially at a time when our aerial presence is ramping up. This puts al Udeid as our closest base to Afghanistan and it is not even prepared to handle the number of troops that Manas does. That doesn't even cover the tanker missions....

Now that you mention it, I've heard there was a DZ out that way, but I have no information on it. St. Augustine? Yikes! If I recall correctly there is a lot of water (Intracoastal) to one side of the airport. Oh, two others I forgot about, don't know if they are relevant or not. Jerry Bird's Birdland in the mid 90's and is Frank Arena's place nearby still operating? I jumped at both but I didn't hear much if anything out of them by 2000 and I know Jerry has left the sport. Am I the only one that's jumped at a lot of now "deceased" DZs? I feel like a widowmaker, almost every place I've jumped at is now gone and I don't have a great deal of history in the sport.

I'm vague with the years because I'm not quite sure when these places stopped jumping. There were two at one time. Keystone Air Sports stopped jumping in....98-99 (somewhere in there) and there was another DZ located near the FBO that was open from 96 (thereabouts) to around 98-99 also. Mike Mullins used to fly in there during the winter and do his $99 BTYP. Fernandina had one that was briefly open from 98-2000(?)..Amelia Island Resort Skydiving (I think I'm close). Palatka's Kay Larkin had two at one time, the old Palatka Paracenter and Skydive Palatka (still going strong). Live Oak, FL had a DZ, but I don't know much about it. St. Mary's GA had one that shut down in the early 90's, a new DZ has since opened on the same airport. Waycross, GA had a DZ that closed about 99-00. I liked Jerry and miss him a great deal. Flagler Beach, FL had Rocky's old place and then Fred (Brown?) opened a DZ there with Keith Larrett as the manager. It closed in 2000 or early 2001. My apologies if I'm a bit vague, I remember the forest but not the trees. Hopefully this helps jog a few memories.

On one of the South Park DVDs Trey and Matt talk about how they create an episode using MAYA. They said they can have something in a day or two with a finished product in 3 days. One episode was finished the day it aired (I don't recall which one). To contrast that, their first episode (the one that used paper cutouts) took over 2 months to make.

An aquaintance: 3 months (the first of several). I watched him go in. A friend: 7 years (also the first of several). I'm running 50/50 on those lost in the sport and out of the sport. Suicides, drunk driver.....

We're not going to seal the border with Pakistan and we can only push the Pakistani government so far. They have us by the short and curlies and they know it. The overwhelming majority of our supplies into Afghanistan like food, fuel, ammo, building supplies....they all come through Pakistan. It makes for some great press but in reality we won't do much about the border.

My apologies, I meant "general officers" and omitted that from my original statement. The Fighter Pilot mafia and ACC run the AF. Ummm, no. Not even close. Mission Support officers greatly outnumber all pilots and air-crew. In response to the original thread, I have no problem with General Officers taking measures to ensure efficient in-transit mission planning and/or crew rest. I do, however, have a big problem with the funding coming from the wrong place and the units being ordered with unnecessary frills that drive the cost up. Doing so doesn't display good management of resources. But hey, that's me. I'm ethical like that.

I disagree. The majority of AF officers are pilots or aircrew. They've never really known hard conditions except for their SERE school time. The majority that I've worked with in Afghanistan are put off by sleeping in a tent or plywood b-hut. The few general officers over here rarely leave the comfort of Bagram or Kabul. Most GO's anyway when they fly will take up a whole aircraft to themselves. Imagine a C-17 carrying a few passengers and no cargo, it is a waste. So the comfort pallet doesn't shock me one bit. "Cross into the Blue".

I met Sandy once at Jerry Bird's Birdland down near Tampa. Jerry was organizing a 10-way or something like that and myself and 2 other sub 100 jump wonders looked on. Sandy saw us and came over to talk. We explained that we'd love to jump with Jerry but didn't have the experience. She then told Jerry she was pulling herself from his group to organize for us. Our little 4-way didn't do much, but Sandy debriefed us with a smile and actually taught us a little about RW. Late that afternoon I was talking to someone and Sandy came over. After a few minutes she pulled out a photo she'd taken of Hannah. Hannah was holding a jar of fireflies and when Sandy snapped the photo the fireflies all lit up. So you have Hannah's face lit up by the flash while the 3 or 4 fireflies were glowing green. It was a wonderful photo. Sandy had the same smile talking about the photo that she did when she debriefed our crappy little 4-way. I only met her once and she is missed.

There's only one flying and it flew into Kandahar the other day. The thing is massive. The AN-124's aren't too shabby either.

A batwing. Landings were "fun".

I'd be willing to bet that CENTAF and AMC out of Scott have some type of airframe quota. I remember seeing the picture of 12 or so C-17's in formation over Charleston when we were having issues. Maybe CENTAF isn't asking for them or AMC isn't giving them up? I dunno, I do know that moving men and material is....painful in the CENTCOM AOR.

I spent 2 years in Afghanistan working for the AF and I'm pretty sure that you've made trips over there given your MOS. I've watched inter- and intra-theater sirflow issues get worse and worse in those 2 years; cargo and personnel are simply taking too long to get anywhere. Perhaps there are enough airframes. If that is the case then the AF is guilty of not using them effectively. Conversations with folks from the CAOC indicate that logistics problems are the norm. They shouldn't be.

This is a stupid decision. Our logistics train is so screwed up in the ME and they aren't adding to the -17 fleet? Damn.....