WIX Archives

Re: Oh for Pete's sake

Posted by Brad on Mon Dec 22, 2003 06:52:48 PM

In reply top Oh for Pete's sake posted by Jim _angry right now_ on Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:09:09 PM



"That plane probably hadn't flown for nearly 40 years and it couldn't have been made airworthy to carry WMD--period."

A year and a half ago, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, there was quite a few Migs sitting around. Most of them hadn't flown in a decade. They were missing lots of parts and I only saw one or two that would have made good restoration projects. Maybe none of them could have carried WMD in flight, but all but a couple of them were booby trapped by the Taliban. To your average military man, that's just as bad as Anthrax. Several of them had grenades with trip wires in the cockpits and wheel wells. One that I saw had a trip wire from a foot step to a pipe bomb. I found all this out while me and a bomb disposal guy were looking for souveniers!

I've been involved with Warbirds for over 20yrs. I doubt you can find anybody that loves them more than I do. Even though it would have been wasted effort, given their condition, I would have loved have brought those Migs home. But, as an Air Force guy, (C-17 Loadmaster) I am all for destroying anything the enemy has that poses any kind of threat to Mama Pilgrim's little boy! That includes old airplanes that somebody might have planned to kill me with. I don't give a rat's rear end if the Iraqi's, Afghani's, Korean's, Iranian's or Syrian's have an airplane museum in the future or not when it comes to the safety of us in the military.

I was very recently on the ground at Balad Air Base in Iraq and didn't see any Seafury wreckage. I will be back there in just a couple of weeks and will take a better look to see what I can find.

As for your other statement...

"The US military brags about sophisticated high-res satellites, high-tech recon, precision-guided munitions and all that lot, and this couldn't be prevented?"

Well, I don't know if it could have been prevented or not. And, I really don't care in this case. But, I can tell you something from personal experienc about

"precision-guided munitions and all that lot".

Back in April, the first time I was able to go to down town Baghdad, I saw a building that looked like it had been untouched with the exception of broken windows. It was some sort of government building, ministry of Camel breeding or something like that. Anyhow, the buildings all around it were pretty much destroyed. I was begining to think that this building had been missed. Then I stuck my head inside the doorway. This building was six or seven stories tall and from the roof to the ground floor, it was totally gutted. Nothing was left except the outside walls. Now, I'm not saying that it was intentionaly done that way, but I still would call that precision. I also know of a Mig 29 that the Iraqi's tried to hide by towing it around to different places every night. The missle that took it out went right into the cockpit, exactly where it had been aimed.

By the way, I just posted a picture of the pipe bomb on webshots. I also put up a picture of the MOAB. I don't think it really qualifies as a precision weapon, but it sure is cool!

http://community.webshots.com/user/bradleypilgrim1

They are in the album named "Bagram, Afghanistan".

http://community.webshots.com/user/bradleypilgrim1

Follow Ups: