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President for Life
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Air Force Liaison/P.Net Original Cast of Characters
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| Man, that thing just gives me the heebie-jeebies. I remember the footage of that thing flipping over and crashing. That bird has killed over 30 people and is just now coming into service. NO THANK YOU!!! Hey Ert, did you all use the air show to recruit for the Association???
LOAD CLEAR! LOAD CLEAR! Your Job is my Hobby!
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President for Life
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| Our chapter had the beer concession closest to the bleachers at center show. We had all sorts of flags and banners all over the place. Plus we were all wearing airborne shirts. We probably handed out 20 business cards, 5-10 apps, that will turn into 1-2 new members. A lot of retirees in the area that did not know that there was a chapter in the area, especially since all the printed propanganda that I have seen put out by National fails to mentioned Savannah Hilton Head (soon to be changed to the geographically unknown Vandervroot Chapter).
 The Second Amendment - America's Homeland Defense All Your Base are Belong to Us 
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Pnet's Thread Insurgent and Chief Muldoon
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Mortarman11c (4/22/2007)
Man, that thing just gives me the heebie-jeebies. I remember the footage of that thing flipping over and crashing. That bird has killed over 30 people and is just now coming into service. NO THANK YOU!!! Al, now you're in the AF and how many people have died in airplane crashes over the years since man has started flying; so are you going to trade in you're wings because of all those crashes over the years? I don't think so Bro, we just lost a Blue Angles pilot yesterday in an accident, yet I know for a fact that pilots will still want to be Blue Angles. Shoot, I had my parachute accident 17 years ago this May, 25th and if I could would still strap a parachute on and do it all over again just for the rush all over again. If that makes me crazy then I guess I am than.
I'm Surprised Panama's still sea level, after all the Push Ups I did down there.
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Regular Joe
 
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I'd have taken a ride. It's safety record is probably no worse than that of helicopters in the 30s and 40s. Fast forward to Korea and Vietnam and look at what you have: lifesavers.
Remember the Ranger parachute raid on Kandahar? The raid force was dropped by C130s and later extracted by helicopters. If tilt rotor technology had been available it might have been possible to simplify the operation by removing the helicopter link. If a tiltrotor had dropped the raid force they could have circled on station until the airfield was secure and then landed in helicopter mode for extraction.
Generally, I think it's usually better to have less links in an operational plan than more. Desert One had lots of links and it didn't turn out too well.
Aim small; miss small.
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Regular Joe
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I'd take a ride in one any day. A good friend of mine is a Marine E-6 on the Osprey program and has been with the program for at least 10 years. He was there to do clean up when the accidents took place. They (anyone on the program) have been under EXTREME scrutiny since the maint. cover ups after the crashes. So if the powers that be are saying it's now safe to fly, then I'd bet that it's okay. They are probably setting safety factors to double what they actually need to be.
He took me on a tour of one at Pax River back in 2003. Nice but still pretty small. You can't really have a side door gunner like you could on a -47 because of the tilt blade unless you put some types of guards on to protect the nacelles. But they're gonna have cover fire out the wazoo from fast movers anyway. The tail gunner will be just for added effect.
I lack people-skills.
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Hard Charger
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| That bird also belongs to the Thunder Chickens (VMM-263) of the 24th MEU...who are no strangers to risky missions either.... It was the 24th MEU that took a heavy loss in Beirut back in 83' from suicide attack hitting their garrison, killing 241 servicemen, hard lesson and turning point in Marine Corp Expeditionary Force Deployment. Col. Berndt onboard the USS Kearsarge conducted the rescue op of downed AF pilot Capt. Scott O'Grady back in June of 95' flying HMM-263/CH-53's across the Adriatic into western Bosnia. The film Behind Enemy Lines was somewhat based on the shootdown and O'Grady felt strong about it to sue the movie makers for it. Don't know the outcome of all that though. VMM-263 is currently under orders to deploy to Al-Assad in northeastern-Iraq. The squadron will deploy with personnel that have been with the Osprey Program for a while. The "For Real Test" will begin when they get there and start using them in country, in combat!.....side note: the Bell-Boeing team pressured the DOD into creating what they call "Defensive Maneuvering", since the aircraft does not have an aggressive capability in hostile landing zones. Osprey pilots cannot rapidly descend (over a thousand feet/minute) the a/c for effective tactical insertion. Even a mandated NATOPS change included warning statements to accomodate the shortcomings of the aircraft. Some argue that the Marine Corp should forward-deploy composite squadrons consisting of 10 CH-53E's and 4 CH-46E's, rather than 12 CH-46E's and 4 CH-53E's. This mix could double the squadron's helo lift, but this idea was ignored because it would threaten justification for the MV-22 program. So why has the Marine Corp been sold on this aircraft when it has been proven to be a fundamentally flawed design? Just cause it can fly don't mean it's ready for combat....
"Let's Go Downtown" - Flight of the Intruder
http://www.327infantry.org/second/c_co Same Mud Same Blood - NBC documentary filmed 1967 RVN, chronicle Frank McGee
IMOFSGT Nelson P. Henry101st 2nd/327th -NO SLACKKIA October 28, 1967 in QuangTin Province RVN
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