Author Archives: Pinch

Live Fire Test and Evaluation, or simply LFT&E as it is called in the test and evaluation world.  Any new weapons system needs to go through a testing program where it is subjected to a small sample of what an … Continue reading →

A nice close up of the combat business part of an F-22 Raptor fighter, the US Air Force’s premier 5th generation fighter jet.  I took this at an air show at NAS Patuxent River a few years ago. Even though … Continue reading →

An aircraft carrier is a small (some would say not so small) city on the sea. Physically, the ship is over 1,000′ long, weighs close to 100,000 tons and has over 20 decks or levels, from the keel all the … Continue reading →

…or Dissimilar Air Combat Training.  There are myriad reasons why you would want to train against and hone your air combat skills against different aircraft, the primary one being you never know what sort of aircraft you will come up … Continue reading →

A VF-143 F-14A+ (later to be a “B” designation) Tomcat is a second or two away from landing onboard USS GEORGE WASHINGTON in the fall of 1992.  The crewman in the yellow shirt is the Arresting Gear Officer, the individual responsible … Continue reading →

WAY back in May of 2008 we were headed down to North Carolina to see mom and dad. Some folks down at the Hickory Aviation Museum in Hickory, NC had contacted me for some reason about the last F-14D that … Continue reading →

A bunch of young newly winged Naval Flight Officers from June of 1986. Graduates of VT-86 in Pensacola, these officers went to Navy F-14 Tomcats and A-6 Intruders and in the sole USMC grad, an F-4.  We had flown the … Continue reading →

Brand new frocked lieutenants, “frocking” being we could put on the collar rank device but we didn’t received the pay or benefits until our date of rank arrived.  VF-14 88-89 Med cruise. This promotion was huge, dollar-wise.  Going from O-2 … Continue reading →

First salute as a commission officer went to Gunnery Sergeant Jim Washington, USMC, my Aviation Officer Candidate drill instructor on 22 Feb, 1985. As was the time-honored tradition, I gave him a silver dollar. 25 years later, as I left … Continue reading →

Retirement photo from late 1999. 10 years active duty, 15 years reserve, 1200+ hours in about 10 naval aircraft, the vast majority (1000 hrs) in Tomcats. 200 traps. My dad retired from the Navy when I was 18, so adding … Continue reading →