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USAF pilots

Started by Nikos, March 15, 2016, 08:32:07 PM

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Nikos

Were USAF pilots ever required to be qualified to land and take off from Aircraft Carriers? 

lordmonar

Quote from: Nikos on March 15, 2016, 08:32:07 PM
Were USAF pilots ever required to be qualified to land and take off from Aircraft Carriers?
Some were.  Not as a general requirement.   Even in the Navy Carrier Qualification is a skill that is learned as need and re-qualed just before deployment. 
PATRICK M. HARRIS, SMSgt, CAP

AirAux

If IRCC, even Army pilots were on occasion carrier qualified.

NIN


Quote from: AirAux on March 15, 2016, 08:59:39 PM
If IRCC, even Army pilots were on occasion carrier qualified.

Carriers, LPHs...
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
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SarDragon

There used to be an exchange program where AF and USN pilots would swap squadrons for a 2 or 3 year tour flying similar platforms for the other service. It worked really well when both services were flying A-7s and F-4s.
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

docsteve

Who was flying the C-130 doing touch-&-goes and full-stop landings on the Forrestal?  USAF?  USN?  USMC? Lockheed?
Steve Sconfienza, Ph.D.
former captain

LegacyAirman

Quote from: docsteve on March 16, 2016, 02:20:00 AM
Who was flying the C-130 doing touch-&-goes and full-stop landings on the Forrestal?  USAF?  USN?  USMC? Lockheed?

USMC I believe.

Luis R. Ramos

This article does not exactly state the pilot was a Navy pilot, but since the C-130 was borrowed from the Marines, has a BU NO number (I seem to remember this is a number assigned to Navy acft, not AF), and the co-pilot was Navy, it was a Navy pilot.

See http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp

This video, on the comments section, states "...The pilot, LT (later RADM) James Flatley III, USN..."

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-poc38C84

So, it was a Navy pilot, a Lieutenant at the time, later achieving the grade of Rear Admiral...

:clap:

Squadron Safety Officer
Squadron Communication Officer
Squadron Emergency Services Officer

AirAux

I was, of course, referring to the brass cojonied Jimmy Doolittle and his Tokyo Raiders.  What a group of Heroes.  I wonder what the "Rules of Engagement" were in those days?  I wonder if there was any collateral damage?  I wonder if I really care.  I think I know why our Country is not as Great as it once was!!   

Luis R. Ramos

The Doolitle Raiders were not carrier-qualified. This did not mater however as they were to take off a carrier and land in bases in China. They had to launch early and the planes were lost...

They were a group of volunteers that once selected went to an Army airfield in Florida and trained using an airstrip which had been specially marked.

Its always refreshing that members want to bring to discussion important events like this.

Website on the raiders: http://www.doolittletokyoraiders.com/index.html


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Squadron Communication Officer
Squadron Emergency Services Officer

Chappie

#10
Quote from: Luis R. Ramos on March 16, 2016, 09:58:52 PM
The Doolitle Raiders were not carrier-qualified. This did not mater however as they were to take off a carrier and land in bases in China. They had to launch early and the planes were lost...

They were a group of volunteers that once selected went to an Army airfield in Florida and trained using an airstrip which had been specially marked.

Its always refreshing that members want to bring to discussion important events like this.

Website on the raiders: http://www.doolittletokyoraiders.com/index.html

Their primary concern was just to be able to take off the deck of the carrier --- it was not part of the plan to return and land on the carrier deck.   Amazing feat...courageous men.   The "Final Toast" was such a moving event to watch via "livestream":  http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/467482/doolittle-raiders-honored-with-final-toast.aspx  There is a video embedded in the link so you can see the event.
Disclaimer:  Not to be confused with the other user that goes by "Chappy"   :)

Nikos

The Doolitle guys had a lot of courage for that mission!

PHall

Quote from: Nikos on March 16, 2016, 11:25:46 PM
The Doolitle guys had a lot of courage for that mission!

The pure hatred of the Japanese after the Pearl Harbor attack probably helped.

The CyBorg is destroyed

Quote from: Nikos on March 15, 2016, 08:32:07 PM
Were USAF pilots ever required to be qualified to land and take off from Aircraft Carriers?

Those who were on exchange with USN/USMC units, definitely (not to mention Royal Navy, when learning to fly the Sea Harrier came into play).  I remember reading in Air Force magazine a few years ago about a USAF pilot (F-15) who went on exchange with a USMC F/A-18 unit and one of the first things he had to do was get carrier qualifications as the USMC unit was about to prepare for a carrier deployment.  In fact, the interview took place aboard the carrier.  He went into detail about what things were different (air-to-air v. multirole, learning to catch the wire, command structure, and the overall differences in culture between the AF and Marines).

The movie Pearl Harbor has a nice visual sequence about Doolittle's mission...inaccurate as all get out, but it still looks cool (though not so much so as Kate Beckinsale).

Quote from: PHall on March 17, 2016, 12:01:54 AM
The pure hatred of the Japanese after the Pearl Harbor attack probably helped.

I'd say that fuelled a lot of the "drive" of those who fought in the Pacific for the entire war: you kicked us in a place where it hurt, when we'd done nothing to you, and now we're going to make sure you REALLY hurt.
Exiled from GLR-MI-011

PHall

Many fighter aircraft in the Pacific were moved from the US to the South Pacific on small escort carriers.
They were loaded by crane at the dock and depending on where they were going were either unloaded by crane or flown off for the short flight to their new home.
Most got off via the crane.

SarDragon

Quote from: CyBorg on March 17, 2016, 02:32:12 AM
I'd say that fuelled a lot of the "drive" of those who fought in the Pacific for the entire war: you kicked us in a place where it hurt, when we'd done nothing to you, and now we're going to make sure you REALLY hurt.

I think you need to do some deeper reading on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. The US did much to piss off the Japanese government, and their retaliation was not totally unwarranted. The US intelligence community botched things, too.
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

The CyBorg is destroyed

Quote from: SarDragon on March 17, 2016, 05:10:58 AM
Quote from: CyBorg on March 17, 2016, 02:32:12 AM
I'd say that fuelled a lot of the "drive" of those who fought in the Pacific for the entire war: you kicked us in a place where it hurt, when we'd done nothing to you, and now we're going to make sure you REALLY hurt.

I think you need to do some deeper reading on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. The US did much to piss off the Japanese government, and their retaliation was not totally unwarranted. The US intelligence community botched things, too.

I stand corrected.
Exiled from GLR-MI-011

AirAux

I'm sorry are we being politically correct today?  It was a sneak attack and unwarranted.  I suggest you read some of the treatment the Japanese did to the Chinese during the war.  The Germans had noting on the Japanese when it came to torture or out and out horror.  I believe Dec. 7, 1941 was called "a day of infamy" for a purpose.       

Garibaldi

Speaking as a Japanese-American, whose mother was born shortly after the war ended, and whose grandfather was a spy for the Japanese during WW2, I have done a lot of reading on why all my peers in elementary school hated my guts when they found out I was a "dirty Jap". One of my few friends growing up, his father was aboard one of the ships blown up in Pearl Harbor and harbored great disgust towards me and my mother. I stayed away from their house when he was home. His father never really prohibited my friend from playing but he really did not want me in his home.

Reading along many years later, a combination of facts and theories as to why the Japanese finally snapped on us opened my eyes some. It wasn't a "dirty sneak attack", but a planned attack based on years of sanctions by us and other countries. Denying them oil and raw materials they needed was the final straw. They simply "had no choice" but to bite the hand that no longer fed them. Diplomatic ties were severed, threats were made and ignored, and finally on one sunny morning in PACWEST, in December, we paid the price "for our arrogance."

I don't claim to be an historian, but when it hits close to home and people start judging you because you have black hair and slightly slanted eyes, you kind of want to find out why. I was born towards the end of the Viet Nam war, so everything with Asian features was highly suspect. A lot of my peers had grandfathers, uncles, even fathers, who fought against Asians at one time or another.

I also don't claim that the Japanese were total innocents. They have a long history of genocide and racial hatred against other Asians. I felt this too when a Korean kid kept picking on me on the bus. I didn't quite get it; he looked like me, had the same hair and similar eyes, why the **** was he picking on ME? Same team, yo. Not so. I found out years later that the Japanese held many Koreans as slaves and tried to wipe them out at one time. Same with the Chinese. And the Russians. The quickest way to get your butt killed in some places is to call a Korean a Jap.

I guess you could say the sanctions and such were just an excuse, pretty much like North Korea is claiming now.

But don't claim that the US was an innocent victim either.
Still a major after all these years.
ES dude, leadership ossifer, publik affaires
Opinionated and wrong 99% of the time about all things

AirAux

Wait, let me get this straight, "Denying them oil and raw materials they needed was the final straw. They simply "had no choice" but to bite the hand that no longer fed them."  So we were denying them the materials they needed as they ravaged China?  I had no idea that was an honorable reason to attack us, much like the Twin Towers.  Very strange.  I had no idea we had an obligation to provide anything to anybody, especially those terrorizing other countries.  My Bad, I guess...  Wait, what????  There is no justification for the attack at Pearl Harbor, I don't care what your nationality is.