Really you could easily blame it on TACP or FAC.
No wait it's not our fault, Those IFF reflectors look alot like RPGs
Stuff happens and we are all expendable, hell our PATRIOT missles even shot down some of our own acft, stupid computers[:@]

 

grumm just venting, what anoys me the most is that the USAF will not give a full enquirey, we all learn from our mistakes and failure to analysis error result in repeatation. Maybe the pilots should be dismissed and not become a flight trainers and is it any surprise that this was these guys first combat mission?

 

I was only kidding, yeah they made a mistake, but who wants to air their laundry for others to see? Living with the guilt of it should be pleanty for those guys. Being a good instructor pilot has nothing to do with being a good fighter pilot. Point blank of the matter, they were told that there were no friendlies in the area, and they saw something to shoot. Granted they were probably excited that they got to finally blow some shizzle up, but what happened happened.
Think about Desert Storm, tank killers often fragged our own guys, it happens, sucks but it happens, too bad for those guys.
Hell early on in the GWOT didn't a TACP guy blow up a bunch of canadians on accident? If I'm not mistaken he got into trouble.
Now if you ask me, when was the last time the insurgents had tanks and APCs? that would have been my first clue, clear order or not...

 

You must be talking about only the active duty. The Air Force has more than that. I work on them as a defense contractor. I have exact numbers, but I don't think it is necessary to post it on the internet. I will say that we just finished the disposal plan for the MH-53 and those numbers will be significantly decreased in a few months.

 

Yes, those are the active duty numbers.

You can google the numbers to get a ballpark, but you're right who needs specifics.

 

Ah TACP.. a buddy of mine from the first Gulf War was in Airman magazine a couple years back. hes a TACP, and he was in every pic of the article. I was training for the test to see if I could cross train when I messed up my knees, was already to do it when I PCS back from Osan, then stepped wrong one day off the dock at work and that ended that and my USAF career.. 2 years later.

Yes the guys who screw up and hit friendlies dont get off free, but one thing about modern warfare its a highly lethal battlefield and often targets are taken out from beyond visual range. Its unfortunate but mistakes do happen, people are human after all. In reality its simply amazing that there arent a huge amount of friendly fire, WWII was rife with instances of fratricide, they are doing a much better job now but you are correct that it needs to be better.. 100% is a lofty goal though..

Lastly, we do have to be careful about what we post on here... no need to be giving anything away on a car forum..

 

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/afwea...blaircraft.htm

http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0307/aircraft03.shtml

Some AF aircraft facts if anyone is interested, nothing classified about it.