And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
About a thousand years ago, when I was working the graveyard shift as a civilian Department of Defense police officer at Hill Air Force Base, a Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" had to make an emergency landing.
It was immediately placed inside a hangar, and surrounded by Security Police armed with M-16 rifles, standing inside of a line that no one would be permitted to cross.
Our shift leader arranged for each of us patrolmen, in turn, to visit the hangar and see the SR-71.
When I saw it, looking directly at the nose, I was impressed that it was as if the "STAR WARS" movie was real!
WOW ! ! !
Years later, I had the opportunity to actually meet a retired SR-71 pilot on his farm in Idaho.
Someone on the ground had actually recorded a video of him ejecting from the SR-71, and safely parachuting down, before the aircraft crashed.
He told me about his flight(s) completely circling the globe at the highest altitude and fastest speed ever recorded, which he did while I was a soldier in the old Republic of Viet Nam (i.e., as a "STAR WARS" movie fan, I love telling folks I was in "the old Republic"!).
North Vietnamese SAMs, Russians, and Chinese had no chance of shooting him down, even if they were aware of his presence.
Now, that extremely advanced aircraft is obsolete and no longer in service, having its missions replaced by Stealth aircraft, the Lockheed F-117 "Nighthawk", the Northrop Grumman B-2 "Spirit" bomber, the Lockheed F-22 "Raptor", the Lockheed F-35 "Lightning II", and the totally revamped and modernized Lockheed U-2 "Dragon Lady".
Unfortunately, the Chinese Communists have also developed their own ultra-modern Stealth fighter, the Chengdu J-20, and the Russians have their Sukhoi SU-57.
worlds most expensive glider.
ReplyDeleteAbout a thousand years ago, when I was working the graveyard shift as a civilian Department of Defense police officer at Hill Air Force Base, a Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" had to make an emergency landing.
ReplyDeleteIt was immediately placed inside a hangar, and surrounded by Security Police armed with M-16 rifles, standing inside of a line that no one would be permitted to cross.
Our shift leader arranged for each of us patrolmen, in turn, to visit the hangar and see the SR-71.
When I saw it, looking directly at the nose, I was impressed that it was as if the "STAR WARS" movie was real!
WOW ! ! !
Years later, I had the opportunity to actually meet a retired SR-71 pilot on his farm in Idaho.
Someone on the ground had actually recorded a video of him ejecting from the SR-71, and safely parachuting down, before the aircraft crashed.
He told me about his flight(s) completely circling the globe at the highest altitude and fastest speed ever recorded, which he did while I was a soldier in the old Republic of Viet Nam (i.e., as a "STAR WARS" movie fan, I love telling folks I was in "the old Republic"!).
North Vietnamese SAMs, Russians, and Chinese had no chance of shooting him down, even if they were aware of his presence.
Now, that extremely advanced aircraft is obsolete and no longer in service, having its missions replaced by Stealth aircraft, the Lockheed F-117 "Nighthawk", the Northrop Grumman B-2 "Spirit" bomber, the Lockheed F-22 "Raptor", the Lockheed F-35 "Lightning II", and the totally revamped and modernized Lockheed U-2 "Dragon Lady".
Unfortunately, the Chinese Communists have also developed their own ultra-modern Stealth fighter, the Chengdu J-20, and the Russians have their Sukhoi SU-57.
And the always funny "LA SPEED CHECK" story
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/ILop3Kn3JO8
I got to see an SR-71 shooting touch and goes at the old Norton AFB back in the '80s.
ReplyDelete