Teresa and I find common ground:
On Thursday, Kerry told a convention of minority journalists that he would have reacted more decisively to the news than Bush, who continued reading with a group of Florida schoolchildren for seven minutes after an aide whispered the news into his ear. It
kermit
It was a better quote than I would have posted. I frankly like the one where she said “I wanna be a dawg!” By the way, I just had to link you.
Oregonian
NEWS FLASH: A brave group of American veterans has just come out with yet another book detailing the wartime service of a presidential candidate. This time it’s the proud soldiers who served alongside George W. Bush giving gut-wrenching testimonials of his bravery and service.
What inspirational stuff! You’ll be moved to tears.
Gahrie
Actually, the plane that George Bush flew (and volunteered to fly in Vietnam like many other pilots in the Texas National Guard did) was considered to be one of the most dangerous planes to fly. It was a difficult plane to fly, and had a tendency to explode.
Slartibartfast
Let’s be realistic about the level of danger, ok? This aircraft had multiple fatalities early in production, but then they tapered off and it wound up being one of the safer airplanes in the sky. By the time GWB learned to fly it, it was near the end of its service.
M. Scott Eiland
Dean Paul Martin–the son of Dean Martin who was an occasional actor and a member of the Air National Guard himself–would be an excellent person to ask about the hazards presented by flying high-performance jet aircraft even in peacetime. Unfortunately, you’d need a phone line to the afterlife to ask him about it.
Slartibartfast
Ahhhh…here’s the goods.
Go to the main page to do comparisons. The F-102 was not more dangerous than other aircraft of the time, but substantially (4x, typically) more dangerous than just about all aircraft since that time.
Al Maviva
Hah – flying military fighter planes a “safe” alternative to service in Viet Nam. I’m not so sure about that – and mil aviation generally is a pretty hazardous endeavor.
Granted, my experience is anecdotal. As a paratrooper, I jumped from a burning C-130 once. It was a peacetime training jump, the damn thing just caught fire. I was on two helicopters that had problems and had to autorotate in. That was more interesting than the C-130.
I’ve also known three F-14 pilots in my life. All three are now dead, due to “training accidents” – that’s what they call it when you pancake in and bounce off a runway; when the engines fail on takeoff and you plunge into the sea, or when a rogue wave makes the deck leap as you are coming in on final approach, and you run into the square end, instead of onto the flat top of the carrier.
Slartibartfast
Not saying it’s safe as houses. Just saying the “highly dangerous” argument used in conjunction with the F-102 isn’t all that accurate. What GWB was doing was dangerous, but not I wouldn’t say it was anywhere near as dangerous as what his dad did, for instance. I’ve got lots of respect for anyone who goes up in military aircraft, whether they’re flying or jumping out. Even the low-profile jobs can be very dangerous; I once knew a B-52 navigator that told me that if you have to eject on approach or takeoff, the navigator always dies, because he ejects downward.
For ordinary mortals like me, though, I think your experience would warrant a change of underwear. Damn.
Steve Malynn
Actually, Slarti, my dad served with a Bombardier/Navagator who survived ejection on takeoff (right at transition), the B-52 in question had a multiple-engine failure all on the same side at take off and went verticle and pinwheeled down March AFB runway, he was the only to survive because in this instance he was shot up not down.