Article

2004-02-14 Iraq-Jordan

15 21 Killed, 35 Injured in Iraq Gunbattle

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Posted by Paul Moloney 2004-02-14 3:06:09 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 sounds like a pretty hectic battle going on by the t.v news reports,perhaps the Iraqi police need direct comms to US commanders who can say call up an A-10 or Apache to aid or scare the Iraqi's away. A B1 in Afganistan apparently frightened the living shit out of a crowd of around 2500 who were getting out of hand at a 'protest' with some US spec forces, flew over them flat out in full burner at about 200 feet! they soon went home

Posted by Jon Shep U.K 2004-2-14 4:55:22 AM|| 2004-2-14 4:55:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Fallujah sounds like it needs a couple of enemas in quick succession.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2004-2-14 5:08:45 AM|| 2004-2-14 5:08:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I was at an airshow in Australia in 2000. They had a B1 fly-over the runway pretty low (I have no idea how low). We were some 400 yds away. The roar was totally unreal - more felt than heard. I think if I'd been 200 feet below it, I would have gone home too! It also looked the part coming in over the runway...

The only thing louder was a Tornado (yay!) going just subsonic down the runway. Watching it come in, it was almost silent (as you'd expect!), but *expletive deleted* it was an *extraordinary* feeling as it went past!

Posted by Tony (UK) 2004-2-14 6:50:31 AM|| 2004-2-14 6:50:31 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 For pure noise it's still hard to beat 2 J79s in afterburn mode.

Posted by Shipman 2004-2-14 8:49:19 AM|| 2004-2-14 8:49:19 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 My brother is a B-1 navigator. As he told me, a sonic boom from 3000 feet overhead can really ruin an Afghani's day. Some US troops were taking fire from a farmhouse. First passâboom! Second passâflares. Third passâthey gave up. The plane didn't have to drop any bombs. I consider that elegant.

Posted by Eric Jablow 2004-2-14 10:48:23 AM|| 2004-2-14 10:48:23 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Gotta love the B-1b, the Ugly Duckling is coming into it's own. Carter just couldn't quite do the partial birth abortion on it.

Posted by Shipman 2004-2-14 11:17:43 AM|| 2004-2-14 11:17:43 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 My office at RAF Alconbury was about 70 feet from the fast-launch run-up pad. The worst noise in the world is caused by a pair of F-111s running to full throttle just before releasing the brake and hitting the burners. EVERYTHING shakes. We always had to re-level the pool table in the breakroom after they visited our otherwise quiet little backwater base. Unfortunately they visited often - one of the reasons I have a severe tinnitus problem today.

Posted by Old Patriot 2004-2-14 11:20:16 AM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2004-2-14 11:20:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 ...Having made the B-52 the other woman in my life twenty-five years ago, I still look a little sideways at the Bone - but there is no question that the Lancer has proven herself once and for all. Long life and health to her and her crews.
BTW OP - An FB-111 (SAC's bomber version) was worse. A friend of mine who crew chiefed them at Plattsburg swore that if you blipped the throttle just right, you could easily break windows. All I know is that I was buzzed by one in full TFR mode when he was in full burner. To this day, I swear they should have kept a few in the inventory just to scare the hell out of people with.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2004-2-14 12:04:55 PM|| 2004-2-14 12:04:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 The most astounding thing I ever saw / heard was the B-70 Valkyrie at an air show at Carswell AFB in Ft Worth, TX. I was so young, but that 6-pack really rattled and rumbled every molecule.

On topic, the problem is the same one we've had since the Turks fell for the EU carrot and were suckered into betraying the coalition - not that this was all that distasteful to the Erdogan Islamic shitheads who had just taken power.

We had a hammer, but no anvil, so the Sunni Triangle got a pass. And this has cost us dearly for the last 6+ months. I was vilified for proposing a truly Byzantine / hardass approach to stopping the Ba'athist BS from the Triangle. I was right - and the CA has made a few semi-harsh attempts to return the terror to these asshats.

The time is long past that we should get medieval on their asses. And for all the wankers who think being tough on them won't work, well children, you don't know dick about Arabs - time for your bedtime story, now. FOAD, 'tards.

Posted by .com 2004-2-14 12:30:46 PM|| 2004-2-14 12:30:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Maybe Fallujah has to be dealt with the old-fashioned way: Deposit all the men in concentration camps and start sorting.

Posted by Hiryu 2004-2-14 12:32:55 PM|| 2004-2-14 12:32:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Never had a chance to witness F-111/B-1s doing pass overs. I've heard enough Hornets, Prowlers, and Harriers though. I really enjoy a Harrier going into hover mode, the cure for the common cold as it shakes the phlem outta your chest.

Posted by Jarhead 2004-2-14 2:41:42 PM|| 2004-2-14 2:41:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 They had a B1 fly-over the runway pretty low (I have no idea how low).

Flying at treetop level is the B-1's specialty, courtesy of its terrain-following radar. Combine that with its own low radar signature and detection becomes very difficult. One noteworthy aspect about its development was that treetop-level flight increases the risk of collisions with birds, so tests were done on canopy windshield durability with live chickens fired through improvised cannons. The engines probably went through similar tests.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-2-14 3:46:42 PM|| 2004-2-14 3:46:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 The Fallujah Cop Shop (and, I suggest all the rest in the Sunni Triangle, as well) needs to be outfitted like Fort Apache, The Bronx... shielded and armed to the teeth. These Iraqis deserve whatever we can do to help them survive the attacks by their Ba'athist brothers - and return the sentiment 10x. If we are to ever get our people out, they have to be given a fighting chance, literally, and events like this certainly don't help recruiting efforts to build such a force.

Just as we wait to get hit again, rather than taking it drop-dead seriously in Homeland Security measures, the toll mounts in Iraq - for both the locals and the CA. Maybe this will be the tipping point for the necessary response in Iraq. I guess a nice dirty bomb at Long Beach's docks or the petro-chemical complex in Houston will do the trick in the US. We shall see. I am certainly not impressed thus far with our efforts to clean the Triangle, protect the locals, or protect the US. Mucho money goes out the door, however, and knowing how deliriously ineffective the Fibbie Leadership is at prevention - it is apparent to me that if the binnies weren't so incompetent overall, we would've had Big Hit #2 by now.

Posted by .com 2004-2-14 4:11:31 PM|| 2004-2-14 4:11:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 "so tests were done on canopy windshield durability with live chickens fired through improvised cannons."

-In my dry sense of humor, that is some funny shit, but I sense a PETA fatwa commencing in 5,4,3..........

Posted by Jarhead 2004-2-14 5:07:09 PM|| 2004-2-14 5:07:09 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 BAR urban legend has it that to begin with the AF in a cost cutting move used frozen chickens in the cannon and the planes kept failing the test...

Posted by Shipman 2004-2-14 6:29:36 PM|| 2004-2-14 6:29:36 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 As to chickens (frozen or otherwise), Snopes has some info (of course!).

Posted by Tony (UK) 2004-2-14 6:58:29 PM|| 2004-2-14 6:58:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 The solution to Fallujah is to pull out ALL of the good guys, and start running B-52s over the area, one behind the other until there's nothing standing. I guarantee you'll get some secondaries, and I also guarantee that the Sunni triangle will be as quiet as two voles in a room full of cats for the next year.

The Arab mentality judges kindness as a weakness, and weakness is to be exploited. They do understand power and ruthlessness. Might be well past time to give them an example of just how bad Uncle can be, if you make him mad enough.

Posted by Old Patriot 2004-2-14 8:59:44 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2004-2-14 8:59:44 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 urban legend has it that to begin with the AF in a cost cutting move used frozen chickens in the cannon and the planes kept failing the test.

According to the mag I read that detailed the B-1's history, live chickens were used until some animal rights group made a big stink about it, at which time a switch to dead birds was made. Since the birds were going to be sent to see "The Colonel" anyway, Rockwell's engineers didn't see what the problem was. But apparently, dead chickens turned out to have a different effect, however no further testing using live animals was made since enough useful data had been compiled from the live tests.

I still marvel every time I get a chance to see the B-1 up close. And the head-on view has a rather sinister look about it.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-2-14 10:53:20 PM|| 2004-2-14 10:53:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 F-111 didn't usually touch down at RAF Bentwaters but one evening one did. Wanted a hamburger was the word. But I will never forget that badass's takeoff. He left on his afterburners well into his assent and lit up the sky. We was in giggles.

Dot's right. Load the police for bear and go hunting. If we don't then lets leave or lets do Op's suggestion.

Posted by Lucky 2004-2-14 11:01:21 PM|| 2004-2-14 11:01:21 PM|| Front Page Top

11:24 JFM
08:55 Aris Katsaris
07:34 B
07:33 B
07:27 B
07:25 B
07:21 B
07:17 B
07:14 B
02:19 .com
02:18 Ed Becerra
01:25 Lucky
01:15 Lucky
01:05 .com
00:12 Lucky
00:03 ThroatWorblermango
23:39 Aris Katsaris
23:36 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
23:31 Pappy
23:28 Pappy
23:27 Steve White
23:26 Steve White
23:24 Aris Katsaris
23:23 Steve White