Picture of the Day: Comfort Women Protest

It’s about time they started protesting these things; nothing but menaces those statues…

LOL 😆
Thanks for that, CH. I needed the laugh this morning.
Side note:
would the religious folks among us please say a prayer for the folks at Tyndall AFB?

Thanks Setnaffa. (((hugs)))
i know so many people over there…an elderly couple who went to our chapel (when we lived there) have a lot of health issues that prevented them from evacuating. I haven’t heard from them since Wednesday. Power is supposed to be out for maybe a month or more. I’m very worried…
Friend of our son (who is at the university in florida) has parents in Panama City. They lost their business and everything. It’s awful. The MQ9s were scheduled to move there…folks from Creech were really looking forward to living there…
Don’t think that’s happening now. They’ll probably close the base like they did at Homestead by the look of things.

I’ve heard there were a lot more than three F22s left in hangars…hope what I heard was wrong. When the jets left, it was barely a category 1. Think they underestimated how strong this thing would get. By a lot.

There’s no replacing F22s. They stopped making them. 🙁
It’s a disaster. A guy I know who lives in Callaway (maintainer for the aircraft at Tyndall) has gone through a few tornados before (he lived in tornado alley).
He decided to stay and said he’s never witnessed anything like it.
He really thought he was going to die. Said he watched the walls of his home bulging in and out. I know some people in the team that stayed. They used a building that was slated to be demolished, but the wrecking ball couldn’t crush it. Walls were intact but the roof blew off.

I think (just second hand, this) they flew out about 2/3.
The hangars are supposed to sustain in the upper end of cat 3 level.
Not sure why so many were left, but they do pretty constant LO work (that’s the chemical spray they put on the jets to keep them stealthy). When they do LO work they disassemble the planes for that work. Takes a while.

Yes. I just got word the jets might be okay (fixable). The base probably won’t be. Sucks because there were a lot of quality of life improvements there just in the last two years. Dorms were renovated, club was renovated, BX and commissary were renovated, guard gates were renovated…and (ironically) they had just tested each building to see how much wind they could sustain last year (you’d think they’d already know, but no).

“The 17 jets stored in base hangars during the storm suffered what appear to be only superficial damage that is repairable. But the service must complete an assessment before being sure, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “

A little ray of sunshine: https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2018/10/15/what-a-picture-waffle-house-truck-serves-free-food-outside-panama-city-location-hit-by-hurricane-michael/

Ole Tanker….the pet park was free (made from an old ball park). There wasn’t a golf course, that closed long ago and wasn’t coming back. Good grief.
There were newly renovated dorms. That was a huge quality of life issue for young enlisted airmen. The original carpet was a biohazard.
There’s very little the F22 has in common with a tank. But thanks.

So that means 22 of the 55 F22s at this base were un-flyable…broke, before the storm. That has them sitting only a 60% readiness rate. That is the real story here.

Non flyable doesn’t ipso facto mean broken.
And 17 F22s were in different stages of maintenance, not 22.
About the same as 2009.

Article I saw said 22 could not fly out, of those up to 17 sustain some sort of damage. That we can’t build something that isn’t available more than 60% of the time is disturbing and yes understand some may be in phase maintenance etc. ( We know 55 Raptors are based there. Reportedly, 33 F-22s sought sanctuary at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.That leaves 22 of the $475 million warplanes unaccounted for.)

Thanks for the links Flyingsword. I couldn’t find the 17 number? I was kind of curious where CH got that quote, because 17 is the number I was told.
I think 22 is an error (apparent in the wording of the article “at least 33 left”…which means it could be more). I’ll just add this bit, and then I’ll drop it. There have been other hur-evacs (F16s and F22s) I’m familiar with from past experience. Years of them, and this number seems kind of high. This is both a training base and an operations base. Most trainers they likely wouldn’t bother to do a whole bunch of LO on (I’m guessing as it’s for training, not combat operations…LO is kind of a process).
But say they decided to change that up recently and make the whole fleet combat ready. That would take some maintenance LO work, and a larger number would be out of commission during that time. I’m just guessing. But it’s an educated guess.

Yeah, Setnaffa. 🙁
Another thing that Tyndall did (unfortunately I don’t know where to find this information online) was set up sortie boards. These were public, and right near the front gate so everyone could see how well the flying and maintenance were doing. There was the goal for sorties for each squadron, and the number achieved. When the commander first put that up if was not well received because folks thought it would be demoralizing. Because the average was so low at the time, goal days (a day off for finishing a month of accomplishing all the projected sorties) were unheard of. But over time it was just the opposite. Unless weather prevented it, it was very unusual for them not fly all their projected sorties for the month. And the boards were right there for everyone to follow. Yes, aircraft broke down but they were fixed quickly. The maintenance team there is phenomenal….not just good, phenomenal. Anyway, this is just crushing. Thanks for the waffles link above, Setnaffa. Sorry I didn’t mention that before. 🙂

Say, the planes are reported to all be repairable.

https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/10/16/update-on-the-damaged-f-22-stealth-fighters-at-tyndall-air-force-base/

Back when they cut the F22 production line and moved the planes from Holloman the person doing the research report (to move them to Tyndall) spoke with my spouse for about five minutes on the phone. His opinion was consolidation was a good idea but Holloman was a better location because: training, weather, no salt water in the air….
He was apparently the one source from Holloman they interviewed for that move. He didn’t didn’t even know that was the purpose of the phone conversation until he read the report. Essentially, they just glossed over everything he said.
Fast forward and the masses are screaming about the USAF’s incompetence and taking this to Congress. Well, if they think Congress didn’t have a hand in moving those jets to Tyndall, I’m a Nigerian princess and there’s a large inheritance for you to claim….

Oy! You got me. 😉

Gah, I’m so bummed about Tyndall.
And the jets (which I hope are okay)
And Panama City in general. Some really good people are out there.

Wise words, Setnaffa, and thanks.
((hugs))

So embarrassing they got hit by the worst hurricane that ever hit the area in all of recorded history. They suck.
They could really use some help from these experts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfGyIW7aHM

The one thing poor Bernie did successfully was put an end to the stereotype that all Jews are smart. 😆

ChickenHead, what a tragedy, Did he have a heart attack pushing women and children in the ovens, or just doing it to a Jewess who still was of value to the Reich?

Clever folk in these ‘er parts. 🙂

CH, “Fell out of a tower.”
1. Leaned too far checking out the girls..
2. Drunk on duty.
3. Pushed because of a gambling debt.
4. Nothing sacred here. Ok, he didn’t like girls he was checking out little boys.

Drummer plays rimshot, crowd giggles and stops. Looks around to see if others are laughing, then relaxes.

CH: “Be sure to tip your waitress! We’re here all week!”
——

Reminds me of an old Himprey Bogart film…

Who’s gonna walk up and demand the band play “La Marseillaise”?