Stephen R Bierce (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
frustratedpilot) wrote2009-08-29 02:07 am
frustratedpilot) wrote2009-08-29 02:07 am
The Power Of The Random Encounter
Due to the contraversy on the rec.aviation.military forum on USENET (yes, I still check USENET every day, even if the server is regurgitating messages from years past) I have been informed about the Air Force's "rediscovery" of the trainer-as-counter-insurgency-strike aircraft and the use of ex-Raptor funding in this program. Yes, the Air Force has done this on a regular basis. In Korea, they pulled T-6 Texans out of mothballs, put bomb racks on them and sent them after Mao's Mob. In Vietnam, they had to scrounge T-28 Trojans from junkyards and mount flare pods on them to mark targets on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. For Desert Storm, they decided "well, better wait to retire the OV-10 Bronco--gonna need those for Iraq and Kuwait". Between the wars, the pundits always conclude that small, low-altitude aircraft have no place over a "modern" battlefield, and then war comes along and there's a need to be filled. Something cheap, easy to use, that can be fielded close to the front lines without heavy support demands. (Of course, for all its high-technology and specialization, the F-22 is none of these things.)
Anyway, my look into that story led me to this story, and from there to this story. Yes, a "random encounter", just like what role-playing gamers have seen over the last three or four decades. A weapon is only as good as the person who uses it...and even the best can be beaten if he makes an error of judgment.
Anyway, my look into that story led me to this story, and from there to this story. Yes, a "random encounter", just like what role-playing gamers have seen over the last three or four decades. A weapon is only as good as the person who uses it...and even the best can be beaten if he makes an error of judgment.