Uber Cool F-18 Cockpit Video.

[onehandle]

Carrier Strike Group 8: F-18 E/F Super Hornet flight operations from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

#!

[leveymg]

1. Great. But, where's Kelly McGillis?

[onehandle]

2. Back home in the kitchen where gals belong...

Oh, wait...



Female Fighter Pilot Breaks Gender Barriers

Col. Jeannie Flynn Leavitt is not only a decorated fighter pilot; she has broken through gender barriers few thought possible. She was recently named the Air Force’s first female wing commander, commanding 5,000 airmen at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina.

Twenty years ago, when she had completed part of her training, she was told that if she wanted to be fighter pilot, she would be the first and would draw attention. “I said, ‘Well, I don’t want the attention, but I want to fly fighters more than anything,’” she responded.

She knew she was entering a world dominated by male swagger. Think “Top Gun” — “The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room.” And that attitude was not just in the movies. Even the Pentagon brass once argued that male bonding was critical.

“If you want to make a combat unit ineffective, add some women to it,” retired Gen. Robert Barrow, the former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, had said at a 1991 hearing before Congress.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/10/female-fighter-pilot-breaks-gender-barriers

[HERVEPA]

3. Yep. I just love the glorification of military stuff.

[leveymg]

4. I would love to have a toy like that, particularly if the taxpayer paid for it.

But, I'd have to be capable of killing people, and I'm not sure I want to find out what that feels like.

[HERVEPA]

5. You're not sure??? You may want to find out?

[leveymg]

6. I might be capable of it, under some circumstances, but that doesn't mean I really want to.

Like police, the military is a necessary evil in any society. Somebody has to do it, and in another time, in another place, I could. But, I'm fortunate to have made the choices I did, and don't have to.

[Plucketeer]

8. I live not far from Lemoore naval air station

I recently met a 20-something fella who's an F-18 instructor there. I met him in admiring his 1950-something Piper cub Super Cruiser. He allowed as how flying this vintage, cloth-covered artifact was how he "decompressed" when he has free time. What struck me most was how casual and at ease his presence was. Not Top Gun like at all.

BTW, as much as I enjoyed watching this, I always wonder what compells folks to dub in a hard rock band as opposed to the true sounds of the proceedings. Ruins it for me every time.

[onehandle]

10. Agreed. I'd like to hear the background noise and the radio chatter. nt

[leveymg]

16. Agreed.

Sountrack was not my thing. I'd rather hear the powerplant wind-up and the airframe flex and bang during turns.

[onehandle]

7. I like the part where he napalms orphans. nt

[HERVEPA]

12. Yeh. That's a blast.

[Renew Deal]

11. It's the glorification of flight

[02potato]

9. a good cat (catapult) shot ...

Is when one can experience an...
ORGASM
BOWEL MOVEMENT and a
HEART ATTACK

all at the same time.

(a friend who was a NAVAL AVIATOR)

[HERVEPA]

13. Flew around his belly button?

[02potato]

14. fixed ..thanx

[HERVEPA]

17. Sorry. should have sent PM. :-)

[Arctic Dave]

15. Cool video. I'd like to one up it with the one where the President signed Single Payer into law.

Hmmmm, it should be around here somewhere.....



Oh wait, that nevered happened because "we couldn't afford it".

[marble falls]

18. One more reason to cut the overinflated defense budget.

[ProgressiveJarhead]

19. F/A-18 Best Ride

I ever had.