What A Sweet Job

The other day, I was reading different blogs, and found a video posted that just kicks ass. I'm not supposed to link tothis blog, else my soul be damned, so I won't.

The video is of an F-18. Cool stuff. Only thing that would have made it any better would have been a shot showing how the ground looks to the pilot when he's inverted.

Some of you know that I was a Marine, and I was with 2^nd LAI (Light Armored Infantry) Battalion at Swamp Lejeune, NC. I was with the mortar section of our platoon, and was in fact, the FDC chief. All that means is that I literally got to "call the shots" when out in the field on a shoot.

One of my favorite things to do on a shoot was to work with the air element. Sometimes we'd just mark for air, basically just dropping a smoke round on a target, and a forward observer radios any adjustment that needs to be made to the pilot of the bird. I loved working with A-10s (Warthogs) the best. They've got a 30 mm cannon on'em that just makes the plane seem like it stops in mid-air when it's fired. Truly awesome to watch!

The other type of work we did with the air wing was called front door/backdoor. No, Harvey. We would drop rounds on the target until the fighters came in, and then resume as they flew away after dropping their rounds. As you can guess, this has to be well timed; mortars are not a flat trajectory weapon! This was incredible to watch. At least to me. The birds would come in low, go "into the pop" (sometimes totally inverted), make their adjustments, and fire away! I would watch them like a little kid, complete with the drooling "wow!" I always wondered what it would look like from their eyes!

Rambling, yes, but damn, some good memories.

Posted by That 1 Guy at January 2, 2005 11:09 PM | TrackBack