![\"C-130J](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/c-130j-26-hour-flight-crew.jpg\")
In April, a specially organized double air crew on a single C-130J Super Hercules transport plane achieved an envelope-pushing feat: they flew from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam \u2013 a span of more than 7,000 miles \u2013 in just over 26 hours from first wheels up to wheels down.\u00a0
\n\n\n\nThe mission, achieved by the 317th Airlift Wing, was accomplished thanks in part to massive external fuel tanks that added about four additional hours of flight time, and a brief pit stop in Hawaii en route. But perhaps the most significant enabler of the maximum endurance operation, or MEO, was an aggressive approach to the biggest hurdle facing marathon flight missions: crew rest.
\n\n\n\nMaj. Alex Leach, the mission commander and the assistant director of operations for the 40th Airlift Squadron out of Dyess, told Sandboxx News that the mission \u2013 the first of its kind for Air Mobility Command \u2013 required that air crews not only be rested, fresh, and alert for the duration of the flight, but also that they be ready to hit the ground running at their destination and dive into a follow-on task if needed.
\n\n\n\n“If something kicks off in whatever theater, in this case it was in the Pacific, we would need to be able to use this capability to get out into the theater as quickly as possible, and then execute maybe a follow-on mission literally within the same day,” Leach explained.
\n\n\n\nThat was the theory behind staffing the aircraft with two crews, each containing three pilots and two loadmasters. One crew managed the first 13-hour leg of the flight to Hawaii while the second crew rested on hammocks and cots in the back of the aircraft, with issued noise-canceling headphones to ensure the best-quality rest. Leach said the crews wore Garmin smartwatches, which capture heart rate data, to assess fatigue levels at each leg as a further risk-management measure. For the “off” crews during the flight, using downtime to rest wasn’t a suggestion: it was a mission requirement.
\n\n\n\nRelated: How video games can make you a better fighter pilot
\n\n\n\n![\"C-130J](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/c-130j-cockpit.jpg\")
“It’s very counterculture,” Leach says. “In the military, we’re very goal-oriented, and just, you know ’embrace the suck’ \u2026 We’re doing something that’s never been done before, human performance-wise, but at the same time, I want you to be at your peak performance when I need you, in extreme circumstances. So it was kind of like a blend of both of those worlds.”
\n\n\n\nEnforcing that crew rest allowed the mission, named Hazard Leap, to get closer to Air Mobility Command’s outside limit of 48 hours of continuous operations between down periods.
\n\n\n\nLeach emphasized the importance of a potential follow-on mission to the scenario. In a real-world scenario, a C-130 dispatched from stateside might immediately be tasked with inserting HIMARS rocket launchers for rapid deployment (the Marines call this mission HI-RAIN); a specialized forward fueling operation; or a tactical black-out landing, among other possibilities. During Hazard Leap, Leach said, both crews reported feeling rested and ready for a follow-on mission after arriving in Guam.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\n\n\nMuch as human performance was paramount for Hazard Leap’s success, the exercise also pushed the limits of what the aircraft could do. Leach said the external fuel tanks held roughly 9,000 pounds of fuel in total, a bit more than the internal fuel tank holds. Even loaded up with 17,000 pounds of fuel in all, planners had to make sure all external factors gave them the best shot at reaching Hawaii and heading on safely to Guam.
\n\n\n\nRelated: Beating China could mean bringing the C-130 back to aircraft carriers
\n\n\n\n![\"C-130J](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/c-130j-air-crew-26-hour-flight.jpg\")
“The preparation involved careful planning of the flight route, analyzing wind patterns, and devising contingency plans for unforeseen circumstances such as thunderstorms or modified flight plans,” a release announcing the marathon flight stated.
\n\n\n\nAir Mobility Command is already planning the next MEO flight opportunity as the service prepares for future conflicts in which such missions involving long-haul flights and island-hopping to remote locations might be routine, rather than a novelty.
\n\n\n\nFollowing the April 20 Hazard Leap flight, Leach said, the 317th had a chance to make more history, flying a C-130 to a rugged airfield in the Luzon Strait, in the Philippine Sea.
\n\n\n\n“No C-130 in Air Mobility Command has ever been there,” he told Sandboxx Newss. “It’s very austere; it’s literally the base of a volcano.”
\n\n\n\nIn the upcoming June exercise Valiant Shield in Guam, a Super Hercules will attempt an MEO mission that stretches out to 40 hours, even closer to the operational limit.
\n\n\n\nAir Mobility Command, Leach said, is “actually writing the playbook on this right now,” using findings and feedback from the April operation.
\n\n\n\nThe post ‘Counterculture’ approach enabled C-130’s 26-hour marathon flight\u00a0 appeared first on Sandboxx.
\n", "content_text": "In April, a specially organized double air crew on a single C-130J Super Hercules transport plane achieved an envelope-pushing feat: they flew from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam \u2013 a span of more than 7,000 miles \u2013 in just over 26 hours from first wheels up to wheels down.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThe mission, achieved by the 317th Airlift Wing, was accomplished thanks in part to massive external fuel tanks that added about four additional hours of flight time, and a brief pit stop in Hawaii en route. But perhaps the most significant enabler of the maximum endurance operation, or MEO, was an aggressive approach to the biggest hurdle facing marathon flight missions: crew rest.\n\n\n\nMaj. Alex Leach, the mission commander and the assistant director of operations for the 40th Airlift Squadron out of Dyess, told Sandboxx News that the mission \u2013 the first of its kind for Air Mobility Command \u2013 required that air crews not only be rested, fresh, and alert for the duration of the flight, but also that they be ready to hit the ground running at their destination and dive into a follow-on task if needed.\n\n\n\n“If something kicks off in whatever theater, in this case it was in the Pacific, we would need to be able to use this capability to get out into the theater as quickly as possible, and then execute maybe a follow-on mission literally within the same day,” Leach explained.\n\n\n\nThat was the theory behind staffing the aircraft with two crews, each containing three pilots and two loadmasters. One crew managed the first 13-hour leg of the flight to Hawaii while the second crew rested on hammocks and cots in the back of the aircraft, with issued noise-canceling headphones to ensure the best-quality rest. Leach said the crews wore Garmin smartwatches, which capture heart rate data, to assess fatigue levels at each leg as a further risk-management measure. For the “off” crews during the flight, using downtime to rest wasn’t a suggestion: it was a mission requirement.\n\n\n\nRelated: How video games can make you a better fighter pilot\n\n\n\nCaptains Ryan Murphy and John Toohey, 40th Airlift Squadron C-130J pilots, conduct a Max Endurance Operation en route to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, April 20, 2024. During the operation, one C-130J Super Hercules equipped with external fuel tanks embarked on a remarkable 26-hour single-aircraft mission, demonstrating the squadron’s ability to operate for extended periods without landing. (Photo by 2nd Lt. Cyan Brown/7th Bomb Wing)\n\n\n\n“It’s very counterculture,” Leach says. “In the military, we’re very goal-oriented, and just, you know ’embrace the suck’ \u2026 We’re doing something that’s never been done before, human performance-wise, but at the same time, I want you to be at your peak performance when I need you, in extreme circumstances. So it was kind of like a blend of both of those worlds.”\n\n\n\nEnforcing that crew rest allowed the mission, named Hazard Leap, to get closer to Air Mobility Command’s outside limit of 48 hours of continuous operations between down periods. \n\n\n\nLeach emphasized the importance of a potential follow-on mission to the scenario. In a real-world scenario, a C-130 dispatched from stateside might immediately be tasked with inserting HIMARS rocket launchers for rapid deployment (the Marines call this mission HI-RAIN); a specialized forward fueling operation; or a tactical black-out landing, among other possibilities. During Hazard Leap, Leach said, both crews reported feeling rested and ready for a follow-on mission after arriving in Guam.\u00a0\u00a0\n\n\n\nMuch as human performance was paramount for Hazard Leap’s success, the exercise also pushed the limits of what the aircraft could do. Leach said the external fuel tanks held roughly 9,000 pounds of fuel in total, a bit more than the internal fuel tank holds. Even loaded up with 17,000 pounds of fuel in all, planners had to make sure all external factors gave them the best shot at reaching Hawaii and heading on safely to Guam.\n\n\n\nRelated: Beating China could mean bringing the C-130 back to aircraft carriers\n\n\n\nCol. Justin Diehl, 317th Operations Group commander, pins on Hazard Leap patches to the flight crew after successfully completing a Max Endurance Operation at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, April 20, 2024. The 317th Airlift Wing achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first unit to successfully complete a MEO with a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft equipped with external fuel tanks in Air Mobility Command. (Photo by 2nd Lt. Cyan Brown/7th Bomb Wing)\n\n\n\n“The preparation involved careful planning of the flight route, analyzing wind patterns, and devising contingency plans for unforeseen circumstances such as thunderstorms or modified flight plans,” a release announcing the marathon flight stated.\n\n\n\nAir Mobility Command is already planning the next MEO flight opportunity as the service prepares for future conflicts in which such missions involving long-haul flights and island-hopping to remote locations might be routine, rather than a novelty.\n\n\n\nFollowing the April 20 Hazard Leap flight, Leach said, the 317th had a chance to make more history, flying a C-130 to a rugged airfield in the Luzon Strait, in the Philippine Sea.\n\n\n\n“No C-130 in Air Mobility Command has ever been there,” he told Sandboxx Newss. “It’s very austere; it’s literally the base of a volcano.”\n\n\n\nIn the upcoming June exercise Valiant Shield in Guam, a Super Hercules will attempt an MEO mission that stretches out to 40 hours, even closer to the operational limit.\n\n\n\nAir Mobility Command, Leach said, is “actually writing the playbook on this right now,” using findings and feedback from the April operation.\n\n\n\nRead more from Sandboxx News\n\n\n\n\n5 last-ditch weapons created by a desperate Nazi Germany\n\n\n\nThe Air Force\u2019s dogfighting AI is already roughly equal in skill to career pilots\n\n\n\nLife for a Delta Force man in an American neighborhood\n\n\n\nIs the \u2018Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare\u2019 worth watching?\n\n\n\nCombat Obscura\u2019s unadulterated authenticity still resonates today\n\nThe post ‘Counterculture’ approach enabled C-130’s 26-hour marathon flight\u00a0 appeared first on Sandboxx.", "date_published": "2024-05-14T17:57:54-04:00", "date_modified": "2024-05-14T18:07:03-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/c-130j-26-hour-flight-crew.jpg", "summary": "The Air Force prepares for future conflicts in which missions involving long-haul flights might be routine." }, { "id": "https://www.sandboxx.us/?post_type=news&p=102926", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/news/the-fighter-jet-that-got-pepsi-sued-is-closing-in-on-retirement/", "title": "The fighter jet that got Pepsi sued is approaching retirement", "content_html": "![\"Harrier](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/harrier-jet-takes-off-vertically.jpg\")
In its nearly 40 years of service, the AV-8B Harrier jet has provided close air support against Saddam Hussein’s military in Kuwait; intercepted Houthi drones over the Red Sea; and played a starring role in an iconic lawsuit against soda giant PepsiCo.
\n\n\n\nNow, even as it adapts to a new drone warfare role, it’s preparing to see its final battles.
\n\n\n\nIn April, the Marine Corps’ last two Harrier pilots earned their wings of gold, marking the end of the 7509 military occupational specialty. Once expected to retire in 2025, the Harrier is now expected to fly until September 2026, when the remaining two Harrier squadrons will transition to housing the hovering jet’s spiritual child: the F-35B short takeoff and vertical lift (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter.
\n\n\n\n“The significance of the last replacement pilot training flight in the Harrier community is that it is the beginning of the end for us as a community,” Capt. Joshua Corbett, who, along with Capt. Sven Jorgensen, is the last of the Harrier pilot tribe, said in a news release. \u201cThe Harrier, more than many aircraft [that] I have come across, elicits an emotional response. For members of the public, members of the aviation community, members of the Marine community, and especially members of the Harrier pilot community, it\u2019s bittersweet. All good things have to come to an end, and it\u2019s our turn soon, but not yet.”
\n\n\n\nAs an amphibious force operating both on land and off ships, the Marines have long had unique aviation needs that conventional fighter jets couldn’t meet. As LA Times reported in 2002, the vision for a plane that would meet these needs was born out of World War II battles such as Guadalcanal and Tulagi that saw Marines depending on Navy defenses and sometimes suffering when those withdrew.
\n\n\n\n“The precept that Marines in the air should protect Marines on the ground has been central to the Corps’ ethos ever since,” the paper wrote.
\n\n\n\nEnter the Harrier jump jet. First developed for the British Royal Navy by Hawker-Siddeley, the single-engine fighter was the first to be able to conduct short takeoffs and vertical landings thanks to a turbofan with four rotating nozzles that can be pointed straight down to produce a powerful vertical thrust. This allows the aircraft to effectively hover, allowing it to take off and land with precision on a surface as small as an aircraft carrier or even smaller amphibious ships. The maneuver burns a fair amount of fuel \u2013 about a gallon every two seconds \u2013 but frees aircrews from the constraints of long runways, opening up a new range of operating environments.
\n\n\n\nAfter a series of early collaborations with British engineers, the Marine Corps started working on what would become the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier in 1976, battling budget issues and bureaucracy to bring it into service in 1985. At the start of the new decade, it would see its first major conflict.
\n\n\n\nRelated: Mako: Arming the F-35 with hypersonic missiles
\n\n\n\n![\"Harrier](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/harrier-jet-hovers.jpg\")
Harrier performance in the Gulf War got mixed reviews. Air and Space Forces Magazine reports that 84 Harriers turned in an impressive 3,400 sorties split between close air support and air interdiction missions. Five Harriers were lost in the conflict and two pilots killed, and the jet took criticism for being particularly vulnerable to enemy fire.
\n\n\n\nBut, writing for Proceedings magazine in 1996, Retired Lt. Col. Theodore Herman, a career Marine aviator and McDonnell Douglas program manager, took issue with the guff.
\n\n\n\n“Virtually unknown to the general public, Marine Harriers were in the fray from beginning to end,” he wrote, arguing that the jets had functioned exactly as designed in battle. “They based close to the battle, on land and at sea, as they had always advertised they would, and delivered significant amounts of ordnance. Their missions were varied: battlefield air interdiction, helicopter escort, battlefield preparation, and close air support. Flying every mission for which they were tasked, they never required aerial refueling as they ranged over Kuwait.”
\n\n\n\nIn any case, Harriers would have more chances to prove themselves in the wars that followed. Harriers were in the first waves of strikes against Afghanistan in November 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. They launched from 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit ships off the coast of Pakistan to deliver ordnance that month, and in December 2001, a Harrier squadron would deploy to the newly established forward base Kandahar to begin what would be two decades of close air support and strike missions.
\n\n\n\nIn Operation Iraqi Freedom, the AV-8Bs turned amphibious ships into “Harrier Carriers,” allowing Marines to project greater power from Marine Expeditionary Units. Navy and Marine Corps officers wrote for Proceedings in 2004 that squadrons launched from the amphibious assault ships Bataan and Bonhomme Richard had spent more than 250 tons of ordinances and damaged or dispatched about 1,200 targets in the early days of the war.
\n\n\n\nRelated: Approaching Mach 2 in an F-16: \u2018The jet started to shake\u2019
\n\n\n\n![\"Harrier](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/harrier-jet-on-runway.jpg\")
Harriers also got a few moments in the pop culture spotlight. Most notably, a 1995 commercial for a new Pepsi rewards program featured the jump jet hovering into a vertical landing outside a school, papers flying as a high school kid hops out of the cockpit.
\n\n\n\n“It sure beats the bus,” he quips.
\n\n\n\nWhat made the ad iconic \u2013 and a headache for Pepsi \u2013 was the chyron that rolled out under the jet onscreen: “7,000,000 Pepsi Points.”
\n\n\n\nViewer John Leonard took that as an offer, and calculated it was actually a pretty good deal to boot. After finding out he could purchase Pepsi Points at a dime each, he sent PepsiCo 15 points labels, and a check for $700,008.50 to cover the remaining cost. When the soda company did not deliver him a Harrier, he sued for breach of contract and fraud. While Leonard lost his case, the decision by New York district Judge Kimba Wood made for some memorable reading.
\n\n\n\n“In light of the Harrier Jet’s well-documented function in attacking and destroying surface and air targets, armed reconnaissance and air interdiction, and offensive and defensive anti-aircraft warfare,” Wood wrote, “depiction of such a jet as a way to get to school in the morning is clearly not serious even if, as plaintiff contends, the jet is capable of being acquired “in a form that eliminates [its] potential for military use.”
\n\n\n\nHe added that, “No school would provide landing space for a student’s fighter jet, or condone the disruption the jet’s use would cause.”
\n\n\n\nA 2022 Netflix series examines the story in detail. Unchastened, Pepsi would later re-release the commercial, but with an updated chyron requiring 700 million Pepsi Points for a Harrier.
\n\n\n\nAs the Harrier continues its twilight tour \u2013 VMA-223, the Bulldogs, out of Cherry Point, NC, will be last to transition fully to the F-35 in 2026 \u2013 it’s demonstrating that an old jet can still learn new tricks. Harriers deployed aboard the Bataan in the Red Sea have played a role in countering suicide attack drones deployed by Iran-back Houthi rebels based off the coast of Yemen.
\n\n\n\nAccording to a BBC interview with Harrier pilot Capt. Earl Ehrhart, at least one Harrier has been “modified” for air defense, loading it with missiles. The Harrier has seven hardpoints and is capable of carrying 9,200 pounds worth of ordnance, though its thirsty fuel needs often require a tradeoff between gas and bombs. It’s also capable of carrying the GAU-12 Equalizer 125mm five-barrel cannon when the mission requires it.
\n\n\n\nIt’s not fully clear what the extent of the Harrier’s anti-drone activity has been, but Ehrhart said he’d personally intercepted seven of the drones.
\n\n\n\nThe Harrier doesn’t win beauty awards, and its screaming fans keep it from ever sneaking up on a target. But it introduced the STOVL concept to the Marine Corps \u2013 a capability preserved in the F-35B that is replacing it.
\n\n\n\nAnd for the Marine Corps, as one general is said to have put it, that made the plane “an answer to a prayer.”
\n\n\n\nThe post The fighter jet that got Pepsi sued is approaching retirement appeared first on Sandboxx.
\n", "content_text": "In its nearly 40 years of service, the AV-8B Harrier jet has provided close air support against Saddam Hussein’s military in Kuwait; intercepted Houthi drones over the Red Sea; and played a starring role in an iconic lawsuit against soda giant PepsiCo.\n\n\n\nNow, even as it adapts to a new drone warfare role, it’s preparing to see its final battles.\n\n\n\nIn April, the Marine Corps’ last two Harrier pilots earned their wings of gold, marking the end of the 7509 military occupational specialty. Once expected to retire in 2025, the Harrier is now expected to fly until September 2026, when the remaining two Harrier squadrons will transition to housing the hovering jet’s spiritual child: the F-35B short takeoff and vertical lift (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter. \n\n\n\n“The significance of the last replacement pilot training flight in the Harrier community is that it is the beginning of the end for us as a community,” Capt. Joshua Corbett, who, along with Capt. Sven Jorgensen, is the last of the Harrier pilot tribe, said in a news release. \u201cThe Harrier, more than many aircraft [that] I have come across, elicits an emotional response. For members of the public, members of the aviation community, members of the Marine community, and especially members of the Harrier pilot community, it\u2019s bittersweet. All good things have to come to an end, and it\u2019s our turn soon, but not yet.”\n\n\n\nA new kind of aircraft\n\n\n\nAs an amphibious force operating both on land and off ships, the Marines have long had unique aviation needs that conventional fighter jets couldn’t meet. As LA Times reported in 2002, the vision for a plane that would meet these needs was born out of World War II battles such as Guadalcanal and Tulagi that saw Marines depending on Navy defenses and sometimes suffering when those withdrew.\n\n\n\n“The precept that Marines in the air should protect Marines on the ground has been central to the Corps’ ethos ever since,” the paper wrote. \n\n\n\n\n\nVideo showing the Harrier II strike targets and take off and land vertically. (Marine Corps)\n\n\n\nEnter the Harrier jump jet. First developed for the British Royal Navy by Hawker-Siddeley, the single-engine fighter was the first to be able to conduct short takeoffs and vertical landings thanks to a turbofan with four rotating nozzles that can be pointed straight down to produce a powerful vertical thrust. This allows the aircraft to effectively hover, allowing it to take off and land with precision on a surface as small as an aircraft carrier or even smaller amphibious ships. The maneuver burns a fair amount of fuel \u2013 about a gallon every two seconds \u2013 but frees aircrews from the constraints of long runways, opening up a new range of operating environments.\n\n\n\nAfter a series of early collaborations with British engineers, the Marine Corps started working on what would become the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier in 1976, battling budget issues and bureaucracy to bring it into service in 1985. At the start of the new decade, it would see its first major conflict.\n\n\n\nRelated: Mako: Arming the F-35 with hypersonic missiles\n\n\n\nBattle proven \n\n\n\nAn AV-8B Harrier hovers during the Marine Corps Community Services sponsored 2015 Air Show aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, Calif., October 4, 2015. The air show showcases civilian performances and the aerial prowess of the armed forces but also, their appreciation of the civilian community\u2019s support and dedication to the troops. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Trever Statz/Released)\n\n\n\nHarrier performance in the Gulf War got mixed reviews. Air and Space Forces Magazine reports that 84 Harriers turned in an impressive 3,400 sorties split between close air support and air interdiction missions. Five Harriers were lost in the conflict and two pilots killed, and the jet took criticism for being particularly vulnerable to enemy fire. \n\n\n\nBut, writing for Proceedings magazine in 1996, Retired Lt. Col. Theodore Herman, a career Marine aviator and McDonnell Douglas program manager, took issue with the guff.\n\n\n\n“Virtually unknown to the general public, Marine Harriers were in the fray from beginning to end,” he wrote, arguing that the jets had functioned exactly as designed in battle. “They based close to the battle, on land and at sea, as they had always advertised they would, and delivered significant amounts of ordnance. Their missions were varied: battlefield air interdiction, helicopter escort, battlefield preparation, and close air support. Flying every mission for which they were tasked, they never required aerial refueling as they ranged over Kuwait.”\n\n\n\nIn any case, Harriers would have more chances to prove themselves in the wars that followed. Harriers were in the first waves of strikes against Afghanistan in November 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. They launched from 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit ships off the coast of Pakistan to deliver ordnance that month, and in December 2001, a Harrier squadron would deploy to the newly established forward base Kandahar to begin what would be two decades of close air support and strike missions. \n\n\n\nIn Operation Iraqi Freedom, the AV-8Bs turned amphibious ships into “Harrier Carriers,” allowing Marines to project greater power from Marine Expeditionary Units. Navy and Marine Corps officers wrote for Proceedings in 2004 that squadrons launched from the amphibious assault ships Bataan and Bonhomme Richard had spent more than 250 tons of ordinances and damaged or dispatched about 1,200 targets in the early days of the war. \n\n\n\nRelated: Approaching Mach 2 in an F-16: \u2018The jet started to shake\u2019\n\n\n\nFighting Pepsi for a Harrier\n\n\n\nNot the best way to go to school. (Photo by Cp. Sean Dennison/II Marine Expeditionary Force)\n\n\n\nHarriers also got a few moments in the pop culture spotlight. Most notably, a 1995 commercial for a new Pepsi rewards program featured the jump jet hovering into a vertical landing outside a school, papers flying as a high school kid hops out of the cockpit. \n\n\n\n“It sure beats the bus,” he quips. \n\n\n\nWhat made the ad iconic \u2013 and a headache for Pepsi \u2013 was the chyron that rolled out under the jet onscreen: “7,000,000 Pepsi Points.”\n\n\n\nViewer John Leonard took that as an offer, and calculated it was actually a pretty good deal to boot. After finding out he could purchase Pepsi Points at a dime each, he sent PepsiCo 15 points labels, and a check for $700,008.50 to cover the remaining cost. When the soda company did not deliver him a Harrier, he sued for breach of contract and fraud. While Leonard lost his case, the decision by New York district Judge Kimba Wood made for some memorable reading.\n\n\n\n“In light of the Harrier Jet’s well-documented function in attacking and destroying surface and air targets, armed reconnaissance and air interdiction, and offensive and defensive anti-aircraft warfare,” Wood wrote, “depiction of such a jet as a way to get to school in the morning is clearly not serious even if, as plaintiff contends, the jet is capable of being acquired “in a form that eliminates [its] potential for military use.”\n\n\n\nHe added that, “No school would provide landing space for a student’s fighter jet, or condone the disruption the jet’s use would cause.”\n\n\n\nA 2022 Netflix series examines the story in detail. Unchastened, Pepsi would later re-release the commercial, but with an updated chyron requiring 700 million Pepsi Points for a Harrier.\n\n\n\nDrone defender\n\n\n\nAs the Harrier continues its twilight tour \u2013 VMA-223, the Bulldogs, out of Cherry Point, NC, will be last to transition fully to the F-35 in 2026 \u2013 it’s demonstrating that an old jet can still learn new tricks. Harriers deployed aboard the Bataan in the Red Sea have played a role in countering suicide attack drones deployed by Iran-back Houthi rebels based off the coast of Yemen. \n\n\n\nAccording to a BBC interview with Harrier pilot Capt. Earl Ehrhart, at least one Harrier has been “modified” for air defense, loading it with missiles. The Harrier has seven hardpoints and is capable of carrying 9,200 pounds worth of ordnance, though its thirsty fuel needs often require a tradeoff between gas and bombs. It’s also capable of carrying the GAU-12 Equalizer 125mm five-barrel cannon when the mission requires it. \n\n\n\nIt’s not fully clear what the extent of the Harrier’s anti-drone activity has been, but Ehrhart said he’d personally intercepted seven of the drones. \n\n\n\nThe Harrier doesn’t win beauty awards, and its screaming fans keep it from ever sneaking up on a target. But it introduced the STOVL concept to the Marine Corps \u2013 a capability preserved in the F-35B that is replacing it.\n\n\n\nAnd for the Marine Corps, as one general is said to have put it, that made the plane “an answer to a prayer.”\n\n\n\nRead more from Sandboxx News\n\n\n\n\nTougher-than-nails Coast Guard rescue swimmers describe daring rescues\n\n\n\nHow the Thompson SMG helped shape modern warfare\n\n\n\nNorthrop Grumman\u2019s Manta Ray submarine could be a boon for anti-submarine warfare\n\n\n\nSpecial Forces engineers are training to dig ditches and destroy tanks\n\n\n\nThe replacement of the Marines\u2019 problem-ridden AAVs arrives\n\nThe post The fighter jet that got Pepsi sued is approaching retirement appeared first on Sandboxx.", "date_published": "2024-04-25T16:47:21-04:00", "date_modified": "2024-04-26T13:39:01-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/harrier-jet-takes-off-vertically.jpg", "summary": "The Harrier doesn't win beauty awards and it's not stealthy, but it introduced a crucial capability to the Marines." }, { "id": "https://www.sandboxx.us/?post_type=news&p=102882", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/news/in-their-own-words-tougher-than-nails-coast-guard-swimmers-describe-rescues/", "title": "Tougher-than-nails Coast Guard rescue swimmers describe daring rescues", "content_html": "![\"Coast](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/coast-guard-rescue-swimmer-training.jpg\")
Special operations forces may get a disproportionate share of the attention when it comes to grueling training and the ability to act with precision in terrifying situations.
\n\n\n\nBut the U.S. Coast Guard has a small and elite contingent of rescuers that could easily contend for the title of grittiest of them all. There are only about 350 Coast Guard rescue swimmers in all. Technically known as aviation survival technicians (ASTs), because their job involves jumping from helicopters \u2013 often into freezing ocean water, and sometimes in storms \u2013 these rescuers save people no one else can reach. Up to 100 Coasties each year begin the 24-week training course, and historically more than half don’t make the cut. Some sources say that AST courses have sometimes had an attrition rate of 85 percent, which would make the course comparable to the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, with its average attrition of 68 percent.
\n\n\n\nWhile Coast Guard rescue swimmers got the Hollywood treatment in the 2006 action film The Guardian, it’s fairly rare to hear the swimmers themselves describe their critical saves.
\n\n\n\nBut last December, Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Spencer T. Manson received the Distinguished Flying Cross, an award reserved for acts of heroism in aviation, for saving six people from a disabled schooner off the California-Oregon Coast. Here is his story, and two others, that provide a glimpse into the fearless work of Coast Guard rescue swimmers.
\n\n\n\nWhen the distress call came in to Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay in the afternoon of June 19, 2021, conditions were troubling. The 79-foot sailboat Barlovento was stuck and taking on water some 80 miles off the coast, and one of the six passengers aboard was injured, with a broken arm and a head injury. On top of that, conditions were choppy: winds were whipping around the boat at nearly 60 miles per hour, and waves were topping 20 feet.
\n\n\n\nIt was Spencer Manson’s first rescue, and he knew what he had to do.
\n\n\n\nIn light of the injured passenger onboard and the water seeping onto the boat, “it was important to respond as quickly as possible,” he said in a Coast Guard video released in December 2023.
\n\n\n\nThe rescue range was a challenge for the Coast Guard’s MH-65 Dolphin helicopters. As aircraft commander Lt. Ryan O’Neill put it, “everything had to go right.”
\n\n\n\nWhen the chopper arrived on scene, Manson clocked several ropes dragging behind the schooner, which looked tiny amid the high waves. Lowered from the aircraft to the water on a rope, Manson disconnected himself from the line ensuring his safety, and reached the boat, taking hold of the trailing ropes and holding on for all he was worth.
\n\n\n\n“I was thinking to myself, ‘I can’t let go; we don’t have time for that,'” he said in the video. “I knew I only had a few minutes to get the patient, get in the water, swim to the basket, and get out of there.”
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/receives-distinguished-flying-cross.jpg\")
The mission went exactly as it needed to go. Manson loaded up the injured woman and rode with her in the basket up to the helicopter. A second chopper arrived on scene, along with a C-27J Spartan turboprop aircraft. Together, they plucked the remaining passengers from the water one by one and returned to home station to treat them.
\n\n\n\n“They make it hard for a reason,” he said of his AST training. “They let the people who they know aren’t going to give up get through. because you’re going to be in situations where you can’t give up. You have to make it happen.”
\n\n\n\nRelated: Coast Guard saves huge Goonies fan who had stolen yacht
\n\n\n\nAviation Survival Technician Third Class Tyler Gantt was another brand-new rescue swimmer in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey brought devastating flooding to Houston, Texas. But he wasn’t about to reveal that to the stranded and scared Texans who waited on rooftops for him to come pick them up.
\n\n\n\n“I had people asking me, ‘You’ve done this before, right?'” Gantt recalled in a 2023 interview with Fox 26 Houston.
\n\n\n\nHe tried to keep his response laid-back.
\n\n\n\n“Oh yeah, I’ve been to a ton of hurricanes that hit major cities. This was just another Tuesday,” he said of the impression he gave. “But actuality, like, this is insane.”
\n\n\n\nGantt was the first rescue swimmer deployed to the Houston disaster zone. During one night, he braved torrential rain and winds of more than 90 miles per hour to save a critically ill pregnant woman who was trapped in her attic. He had to descend more than 150 feet from an MH-65 helicopter through a small opening between active power lines to rescue the woman and her family one by one in the punishing conditions.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/gantt-coast-guard-rescue-swimmer-receives-award1.jpg\")
In the TV interview, though, Gantt described another rescue. In this case, a man wading through fast-moving water and holding an infant in his arms tripped or lost his balance, losing control of the infant. Gantt, who saw everything happen from the rooftop he was standing on, immediately jumped into the water, grabbing the baby before it could be carried off.
\n\n\n\n“There was never a time in my life where I have not wanted to drop something so badly,” Gantt said. “That baby was not going anywhere. I was holding on so tight.”
\n\n\n\nUltimately, Gantt was credited with rescuing 59 people during his Houston mission. In December 2019, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his “extraordinary heroism.”
\n\n\n\nRelated: Coast Guard boot camp: Everything you need to know
\n\n\n\nFor Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Richard Hoefle, 2022 was a landmark year for lives saved. That year, the New Orleans-based rescue swimmer participated in four different rescues dramatic enough to make headlines, including one that the Coast Guard would nickname “Sharknado.”
\n\n\n\nThis rescue was deadly serious: In October 2022, the Coast Guard was alerted to the case of three fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who’d departed from Venice, Louisiana, but failed to return home. Their vessel had sunk, leaving them in the water waiting for rescue and fending off aggressive sharks who shredded their life vests and left them with bites that cut to the bone. The men had been in the water for more than 24 hours when one was finally able to send out a text message with their location, allowing the Coast Guard to reach them.
\n\n\n\nHoefle deployed for the rescue along with a fixed-wing C-27 out of Corpus Christi, Texas.
\n\n\n\n“After we had hoisted the first person, they had all been separated in the water, so they didn’t know if their buddies had survived or not,” Hoefle said in a Coast Guard video released in 2023. “When the first survivor saw the second survivor come into the aircraft, I got to see a sense of joy and relief. And when the basket went down again, and his next buddy came into the aircraft, I got to see that sense of joy and satisfaction.
\n\n\n\n“They realized they had all just survived the worst day of their life.”
\n\n\n\nRelated: These are the Coast Guard\u2019s special operations forces
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/coast-guard-rescue-swimmer-reunites-with-survivors.jpg\")
Hoefle’s other 2022 rescues included “The Thanksgiving Miracle,” a November 26 rescue in which he recovered a passenger who’d fallen overboard from the Carnival Cruise Ship Valor and had fought to survive for four hours without any flotation device.
\n\n\n\n“As I swam up to the survivor, I handed him the rescue sling and he collapsed into it,” Hoefle said. “I honestly think that he had a minute if not 30 seconds left before he succumbed to his battle.”
\n\n\n\nThe same year, he also conducted two rescues of helicopter crash survivors. One of these rescues, on October 26, would earn him the prestigious Air Medal. The crash, 75 miles southwest of Air Station New Orleans, involved two injured survivors aboard the overturned wreckage of a crashed helicopter at night, the water around them filled with toxic fuel and hydraulic fluid. Meanwhile, the helicopter Hoefle rode in was getting low on fuel. Without concern for his own safety, Hoefle decided to enter the slick and hazardous water twice, sustaining injuries in the process.\u00a0
\n\n\n\nBut the rescue was a success: both passengers were safely evacuated to the helicopter, where Hoefle administered medical care.
\n\n\n\n“That’s why I joined the service. I wanted to help people,” Hoefle said in the Coast Guard video. “When you get to bring a mom or dad back to their family, that’s why we do this.”
\n\n\n\nThe post Tougher-than-nails Coast Guard rescue swimmers describe daring rescues appeared first on Sandboxx.
\n", "content_text": "Special operations forces may get a disproportionate share of the attention when it comes to grueling training and the ability to act with precision in terrifying situations. \n\n\n\nBut the U.S. Coast Guard has a small and elite contingent of rescuers that could easily contend for the title of grittiest of them all. There are only about 350 Coast Guard rescue swimmers in all. Technically known as aviation survival technicians (ASTs), because their job involves jumping from helicopters \u2013 often into freezing ocean water, and sometimes in storms \u2013 these rescuers save people no one else can reach. Up to 100 Coasties each year begin the 24-week training course, and historically more than half don’t make the cut. Some sources say that AST courses have sometimes had an attrition rate of 85 percent, which would make the course comparable to the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, with its average attrition of 68 percent.\n\n\n\nWhile Coast Guard rescue swimmers got the Hollywood treatment in the 2006 action film The Guardian, it’s fairly rare to hear the swimmers themselves describe their critical saves.\n\n\n\nBut last December, Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Spencer T. Manson received the Distinguished Flying Cross, an award reserved for acts of heroism in aviation, for saving six people from a disabled schooner off the California-Oregon Coast. Here is his story, and two others, that provide a glimpse into the fearless work of Coast Guard rescue swimmers.\n\n\n\n“I was thinking to myself, ‘I can’t let go”’\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhen the distress call came in to Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay in the afternoon of June 19, 2021, conditions were troubling. The 79-foot sailboat Barlovento was stuck and taking on water some 80 miles off the coast, and one of the six passengers aboard was injured, with a broken arm and a head injury. On top of that, conditions were choppy: winds were whipping around the boat at nearly 60 miles per hour, and waves were topping 20 feet.\n\n\n\nIt was Spencer Manson’s first rescue, and he knew what he had to do.\n\n\n\nIn light of the injured passenger onboard and the water seeping onto the boat, “it was important to respond as quickly as possible,” he said in a Coast Guard video released in December 2023.\n\n\n\nThe rescue range was a challenge for the Coast Guard’s MH-65 Dolphin helicopters. As aircraft commander Lt. Ryan O’Neill put it, “everything had to go right.”\n\n\n\nWhen the chopper arrived on scene, Manson clocked several ropes dragging behind the schooner, which looked tiny amid the high waves. Lowered from the aircraft to the water on a rope, Manson disconnected himself from the line ensuring his safety, and reached the boat, taking hold of the trailing ropes and holding on for all he was worth.\n\n\n\n“I was thinking to myself, ‘I can’t let go; we don’t have time for that,'” he said in the video. “I knew I only had a few minutes to get the patient, get in the water, swim to the basket, and get out of there.”\n\n\n\nAST2 Spencer Manson gives a speech during his award ceremony at at Sector/ Air Station Humboldt Bay Dec. 12, 2023. Manson’s efforts during a rescue operation on June 19, 2021, which occurred 70 miles offshore from the California\u2013Oregon border, resulted in all six persons lives aboard a disabled 79-foot schooner being saved. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Edward Wargo)\n\n\n\nThe mission went exactly as it needed to go. Manson loaded up the injured woman and rode with her in the basket up to the helicopter. A second chopper arrived on scene, along with a C-27J Spartan turboprop aircraft. Together, they plucked the remaining passengers from the water one by one and returned to home station to treat them.\n\n\n\n“They make it hard for a reason,” he said of his AST training. “They let the people who they know aren’t going to give up get through. because you’re going to be in situations where you can’t give up. You have to make it happen.”\n\n\n\nRelated: Coast Guard saves huge Goonies fan who had stolen yacht\n\n\n\n‘That baby was not going anywhere’\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAviation Survival Technician Third Class Tyler Gantt was another brand-new rescue swimmer in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey brought devastating flooding to Houston, Texas. But he wasn’t about to reveal that to the stranded and scared Texans who waited on rooftops for him to come pick them up.\n\n\n\n“I had people asking me, ‘You’ve done this before, right?'” Gantt recalled in a 2023 interview with Fox 26 Houston.\n\n\n\nHe tried to keep his response laid-back.\n\n\n\n“Oh yeah, I’ve been to a ton of hurricanes that hit major cities. This was just another Tuesday,” he said of the impression he gave. “But actuality, like, this is insane.”\n\n\n\nGantt was the first rescue swimmer deployed to the Houston disaster zone. During one night, he braved torrential rain and winds of more than 90 miles per hour to save a critically ill pregnant woman who was trapped in her attic. He had to descend more than 150 feet from an MH-65 helicopter through a small opening between active power lines to rescue the woman and her family one by one in the punishing conditions.\n\n\n\nPetty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Gantt, an aviation survival technician at Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile, is presented the Distinguished Flying Cross by Rear Adm. John Nadeau, commander, Eighth Coast Guard District, at ATC Mobile, Alabama, December 20, 2019. Gantt’s aeronautical skill and heroism were instrumental in the rescue of 59 people during the Coast Guard’s response to Hurricane Harvey in 2017. (Phoo by Petty Officer 2nd Class John Michelli/U.S. Coast Guard)\n\n\n\nIn the TV interview, though, Gantt described another rescue. In this case, a man wading through fast-moving water and holding an infant in his arms tripped or lost his balance, losing control of the infant. Gantt, who saw everything happen from the rooftop he was standing on, immediately jumped into the water, grabbing the baby before it could be carried off.\n\n\n\n“There was never a time in my life where I have not wanted to drop something so badly,” Gantt said. “That baby was not going anywhere. I was holding on so tight.”\n\n\n\nUltimately, Gantt was credited with rescuing 59 people during his Houston mission. In December 2019, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his “extraordinary heroism.”\n\n\n\nRelated: Coast Guard boot camp: Everything you need to know\n\n\n\n‘They realized they had all just survived the worst day of their life’\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFor Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Richard Hoefle, 2022 was a landmark year for lives saved. That year, the New Orleans-based rescue swimmer participated in four different rescues dramatic enough to make headlines, including one that the Coast Guard would nickname “Sharknado.”\n\n\n\nThis rescue was deadly serious: In October 2022, the Coast Guard was alerted to the case of three fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who’d departed from Venice, Louisiana, but failed to return home. Their vessel had sunk, leaving them in the water waiting for rescue and fending off aggressive sharks who shredded their life vests and left them with bites that cut to the bone. The men had been in the water for more than 24 hours when one was finally able to send out a text message with their location, allowing the Coast Guard to reach them.\n\n\n\nHoefle deployed for the rescue along with a fixed-wing C-27 out of Corpus Christi, Texas. \n\n\n\n“After we had hoisted the first person, they had all been separated in the water, so they didn’t know if their buddies had survived or not,” Hoefle said in a Coast Guard video released in 2023. “When the first survivor saw the second survivor come into the aircraft, I got to see a sense of joy and relief. And when the basket went down again, and his next buddy came into the aircraft, I got to see that sense of joy and satisfaction.\n\n\n\n“They realized they had all just survived the worst day of their life.”\n\n\n\nRelated: These are the Coast Guard\u2019s special operations forces\n\n\n\nPetty Officer 2nd Class Richard Hoefle, a rescue swimmer assigned to Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, reunites with Son Nguyen, one of three survivors from the Shark Rescue, at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 23, 2023. The Shark Rescue case was a search and rescue mission conducted by Sector New Orleans, Air Station New Orleans, and Coast Guard Station Venice that ended with rescue crews saving three boaters from shark-infested waters. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Gabriel Wisdom)\n\n\n\nHoefle’s other 2022 rescues included “The Thanksgiving Miracle,” a November 26 rescue in which he recovered a passenger who’d fallen overboard from the Carnival Cruise Ship Valor and had fought to survive for four hours without any flotation device.\n\n\n\n“As I swam up to the survivor, I handed him the rescue sling and he collapsed into it,” Hoefle said. “I honestly think that he had a minute if not 30 seconds left before he succumbed to his battle.” \n\n\n\nThe same year, he also conducted two rescues of helicopter crash survivors. One of these rescues, on October 26, would earn him the prestigious Air Medal. The crash, 75 miles southwest of Air Station New Orleans, involved two injured survivors aboard the overturned wreckage of a crashed helicopter at night, the water around them filled with toxic fuel and hydraulic fluid. Meanwhile, the helicopter Hoefle rode in was getting low on fuel. Without concern for his own safety, Hoefle decided to enter the slick and hazardous water twice, sustaining injuries in the process.\u00a0\n\n\n\nBut the rescue was a success: both passengers were safely evacuated to the helicopter, where Hoefle administered medical care. \n\n\n\n“That’s why I joined the service. I wanted to help people,” Hoefle said in the Coast Guard video. “When you get to bring a mom or dad back to their family, that’s why we do this.”\n\n\n\nRead more from Sandboxx News\n\n\n\n\nHow the Thompson SMG helped shape modern warfare\n\n\n\nNorthrop Grumman\u2019s Manta Ray submarine could be a boon for anti-submarine warfare\n\n\n\nSpecial Forces engineers are training to dig ditches and destroy tanks\n\n\n\nThe replacement of the Marines\u2019 problem-ridden AAVs arrives\n\n\n\nAI-piloted F-16 takes on human pilot in \u2018complex dogfights\u2019\n\nThe post Tougher-than-nails Coast Guard rescue swimmers describe daring rescues appeared first on Sandboxx.", "date_published": "2024-04-23T16:25:27-04:00", "date_modified": "2024-04-24T10:50:59-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/coast-guard-rescue-swimmer-training.jpg", "summary": "Often outside the limelight, the elite Coast Guard rescue swimmers save people no one else can reach." }, { "id": "https://www.sandboxx.us/?post_type=news&p=102424", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/news/31-years-after-black-hawk-down-this-army-ranger-has-his-silver-star/", "title": "31 years after Black Hawk Down, this Army Ranger receives his Silver Star", "content_html": "![\"Major](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Major-Larry-Moores-Ranger-Mogadishu.jpg\")
Retired Army Major Larry Moores never expected that he’d find the military’s third-highest award for valor wrapped and under his Christmas tree.
\n\n\n\nMoores had hung up his uniform in 2003. But a decade earlier, while deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993, he’d led a reaction force through enemy small arms fire in an effort to reinforce and evacuate Rangers trapped by their downed helicopters. In the wake of a bestseller book and blockbuster movie, the world would come to know this battle as Black Hawk Down.
\n\n\n\nMoores saw 12 hours of heavy combat and assisted in the evacuation of several stranded Rangers. His valor in the operation had previously been recognized in other ways: he was named a distinguished member of the 75th Ranger Regiment in 2005 and inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame in 2017. Yet, while he’d helped to push through other valor awards for soldiers involved in the rescue effort, he told Sandboxx News he’d lost track of any initiative to give him a medal.\u00a0
\n\n\n\nThen, he said, late last year, the Army quietly mailed a Silver Star award to his house.
\n\n\n\n“My wife actually intercepted it and put it under the Christmas tree,” Moores said. “It was the last box that I opened.”
\n\n\n\nFor Moores, the emotions were overwhelming: they included pride and joy, but also grief.
\n\n\n\n“I think it’s sort of like a full circle, almost like closure,” Moores said. “This award represents some of my guys who received a similar award, who can’t wear their award anymore. So I think that’s an important piece of it.”
\n\n\n\nRelated: How will I do when that time comes? Men in combat
\n\n\n\n![\"Larry](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Major-Larry-Moores-Silver-Star-Mogadishu-1024x731.jpg\")
Moores was formally presented with his award on March 25 at a ceremony at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, VA, where he now works as a contractor with the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command. At the event, he paid tribute to the 18 soldiers killed and more than 70 Rangers wounded in the battle.
\n\n\n\n“That was a tough experience because we were overwhelmed \u2013 with the odds against us,” he said there, according to an Army release. “But it was amazing to watch the young Rangers still execute under very difficult circumstances.”\u00a0
\n\n\n\nThe Rangers had been in Mogadishu as part of a larger mission to capture Mohammed Farah Aidid, head of the Somali National Alliance military faction. An October 3 raid to capture several of Aidid’s top commanders turned into a high-stakes rescue operation when three Army UH-60 Black Hawks were shot down by Somali militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades. The battle would continue into the next day, and one Army pilot, Mike Durant, would be taken hostage by the Somalis and held for 11 days before a negotiated release.
\n\n\n\nMoores said he’s only watched the 2001 feature film Black Hawk Down once, after it came out, but he’ll often glimpse it playing in reruns \u2013 a\u00a0regular reminder of the intensity of that fight and its\u00a0high human cost.”
\n\n\n\n“It’s good because it gives that intensity,” he said, but added that it’s still difficult for him to see: “The tough thing about watching it is, you know who all those kids were.”
\n\n\n\nAs leader of the ground reaction force, Moores and the soldiers with him fought for three hours to cover just two miles to the helicopters’ crash sites, all the while knowing the soldiers there were counting on the coming rescue. As Rangers established a nearby soccer stadium as an exfiltration point for casualties, Moores would return once more under fire to the crash site to help evacuate stranded troops.
\n\n\n\nRelated: US special operations and the importance of personnel recovery missions
\n\n\n\n![\"Rangers](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rangers-in-Mogadishu-Black-Hawk-Down-1024x602.jpg\")
When he finally returned to the airfield that was the Rangers’ hub of operations, Moores recalls Maj. Gen. Bill Garrison, the task force commander, preparing soldiers for what might come:
\n\n\n\n“We know you guys just got punched in the mouth,” Moores recalls Garrison saying. “But if we find out where Mike Durant is being held prisoner, we’re gonna go after him.”
\n\n\n\nBut there was never a point, Moores said, where he and the other Rangers lost sight of the mission and its importance.
\n\n\n\nWhen he looks back on those difficult and costly two days, Moores said he feels pride to have executed his role in one of the biggest firefights to that point since Vietnam, and in an intense urban environment.
\n\n\n\n“Even under extreme circumstances, our guys really proved from a technical perspective that they can overcome those odds and still get our people and get out of there,” Moores told Sandboxx News. “It was an honor to have been part of leading Rangers in combat.”
\n\n\n\nMoores joins a constellation of soldiers who’ve earned valor awards from the Battle of Mogadishu. According to Coffee Or Die, 34 Silver Stars, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and two Medals of Honor were presented following the battle, many posthumously. In 2021, the Army announced it was presenting or upgrading 58 more Silver Stars and two Distinguished Flying Crosses for valor in Mogadishu amid a larger review of combat awards.
\n\n\n\nThe post 31 years after Black Hawk Down, this Army Ranger receives his Silver Star appeared first on Sandboxx.
\n", "content_text": "Retired Army Major Larry Moores never expected that he’d find the military’s third-highest award for valor wrapped and under his Christmas tree.\n\n\n\nMoores had hung up his uniform in 2003. But a decade earlier, while deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993, he’d led a reaction force through enemy small arms fire in an effort to reinforce and evacuate Rangers trapped by their downed helicopters. In the wake of a bestseller book and blockbuster movie, the world would come to know this battle as Black Hawk Down.\n\n\n\nMoores saw 12 hours of heavy combat and assisted in the evacuation of several stranded Rangers. His valor in the operation had previously been recognized in other ways: he was named a distinguished member of the 75th Ranger Regiment in 2005 and inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame in 2017. Yet, while he’d helped to push through other valor awards for soldiers involved in the rescue effort, he told Sandboxx News he’d lost track of any initiative to give him a medal.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThen, he said, late last year, the Army quietly mailed a Silver Star award to his house.\n\n\n\n“My wife actually intercepted it and put it under the Christmas tree,” Moores said. “It was the last box that I opened.”\n\n\n\nFor Moores, the emotions were overwhelming: they included pride and joy, but also grief.\n\n\n\n“I think it’s sort of like a full circle, almost like closure,” Moores said. “This award represents some of my guys who received a similar award, who can’t wear their award anymore. So I think that’s an important piece of it.”\n\n\n\nRelated: How will I do when that time comes? Men in combat\n\n\n\nGen. Gary Brito, commanding general, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, presents retired Army Maj. Larry Moores with the Silver Star during a ceremony in front of family and friends, March 25. Moores’s wife, Retired Army Col. Kerry E. Moores, also stands at attention during the presentation. (U.S. Army photo by Jean Wines)\n\n\n\nMoores was formally presented with his award on March 25 at a ceremony at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, VA, where he now works as a contractor with the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command. At the event, he paid tribute to the 18 soldiers killed and more than 70 Rangers wounded in the battle.\n\n\n\n“That was a tough experience because we were overwhelmed \u2013 with the odds against us,” he said there, according to an Army release. “But it was amazing to watch the young Rangers still execute under very difficult circumstances.”\u00a0\n\n\n\nThe Rangers had been in Mogadishu as part of a larger mission to capture Mohammed Farah Aidid, head of the Somali National Alliance military faction. An October 3 raid to capture several of Aidid’s top commanders turned into a high-stakes rescue operation when three Army UH-60 Black Hawks were shot down by Somali militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades. The battle would continue into the next day, and one Army pilot, Mike Durant, would be taken hostage by the Somalis and held for 11 days before a negotiated release.\n\n\n\nMoores said he’s only watched the 2001 feature film Black Hawk Down once, after it came out, but he’ll often glimpse it playing in reruns \u2013 a\u00a0regular reminder of the intensity of that fight and its\u00a0high human cost.”\n\n\n\n“It’s good because it gives that intensity,” he said, but added that it’s still difficult for him to see: “The tough thing about watching it is, you know who all those kids were.”\n\n\n\nAs leader of the ground reaction force, Moores and the soldiers with him fought for three hours to cover just two miles to the helicopters’ crash sites, all the while knowing the soldiers there were counting on the coming rescue. As Rangers established a nearby soccer stadium as an exfiltration point for casualties, Moores would return once more under fire to the crash site to help evacuate stranded troops.\n\n\n\nRelated: US special operations and the importance of personnel recovery missions\n\n\n\nArmy Rangers under fire in Somalia close to one of the target buildings during the Battle of Mogadishu, October 3, 1993 (Black Hawk Down: A Soldier’s View/U.S. Army)\n\n\n\nWhen he finally returned to the airfield that was the Rangers’ hub of operations, Moores recalls Maj. Gen. Bill Garrison, the task force commander, preparing soldiers for what might come:\n\n\n\n“We know you guys just got punched in the mouth,” Moores recalls Garrison saying. “But if we find out where Mike Durant is being held prisoner, we’re gonna go after him.”\n\n\n\nBut there was never a point, Moores said, where he and the other Rangers lost sight of the mission and its importance.\n\n\n\nWhen he looks back on those difficult and costly two days, Moores said he feels pride to have executed his role in one of the biggest firefights to that point since Vietnam, and in an intense urban environment.\n\n\n\n“Even under extreme circumstances, our guys really proved from a technical perspective that they can overcome those odds and still get our people and get out of there,” Moores told Sandboxx News. “It was an honor to have been part of leading Rangers in combat.”\n\n\n\nMoores joins a constellation of soldiers who’ve earned valor awards from the Battle of Mogadishu. According to Coffee Or Die, 34 Silver Stars, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and two Medals of Honor were presented following the battle, many posthumously. In 2021, the Army announced it was presenting or upgrading 58 more Silver Stars and two Distinguished Flying Crosses for valor in Mogadishu amid a larger review of combat awards.\n\n\n\nRead more from Sandboxx News\n\n\n\n\nExplaining the diverse mission set of MARSOC\u2019s commandos\n\n\n\nThe chain gun is an incredibly reliable and powerful weapon\n\n\n\nLock-picking 101 with the Delta Force\n\n\n\nHermeus reveals flying prototype in its pursuit of a reusable hypersonic jet\n\n\n\nThe Army doesn\u2019t have enough PSYOP soldiers to fight the information war, inspector general says\n\nThe post 31 years after Black Hawk Down, this Army Ranger receives his Silver Star appeared first on Sandboxx.", "date_published": "2024-04-04T17:00:00-04:00", "date_modified": "2024-04-04T17:43:20-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Major-Larry-Moores-Ranger-Mogadishu.jpg", "summary": "There was never a point, Larry Moores said, where he and the other Rangers in Mogadishu lost sight of the mission and its importance." }, { "id": "https://www.sandboxx.us/?post_type=news&p=101869", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/news/air-force-adds-dozens-of-hot-pit-refueling-sites-as-it-preps-for-future-war/", "title": "Air Force adds dozens of hot-pit refueling sites as it preps for future war", "content_html": "![\"B-1](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/b-1-lancer-hot-pit-refueling.jpg\")
The idea behind hot-pit refueling is simple: a military aircraft touches down on an airstrip and leaves its engines running while a ground crew brings out a fuel hose and administers a fill-up on the spot. The plane can then take off again without ever cooling down or wasting any downtime in a hangar. The process can reduce the four to six hours needed for a plane to remain on the ground to just 60 minutes between flights.
\n\n\n\nIt’s a simple concept, but one the Air Force is counting on to help it fight effectively in austere and far-distributed regions like the Pacific, where the service might not have the luxury of a spare aircraft on the sidelines. While hot-pit refueling has long been in the service’s repertoire, the Air Force is now moving aggressively to prepare more sites downrange for the mission, while integrating the practice more thoroughly into training and deployed operations.
\n\n\n\nIn January 2023, a team from Fairchild Air Force Base \u2013 nicknamed “America’s Super Tanker Wing \u2013 traveled to the Pacific to survey airfields for their ability to support hot-pit refueling for the KC-135 Stratotanker. The 67-year-old KC-135 is the Air Force’s first jet-powered aerial refueling tanker, performing the critical mission of filling up fighters and transport aircraft in flight. At 136 feet long and up to 322,500 pounds with a 130-foot wingspan, it needs, among other things, ample space for safe airstrip refueling.
\n\n\n\nCaptain Blake Kidd, chief of tactics for the 93rd Air Refueling Squadron, told Sandboxx News that the site survey team also assessed the spacing of buildings from the planned hot-pit refueling locations; the condition of the pavement on the airstrips; and whether the available fueling facilities and equipment were compatible to support the mission.
\n\n\n\nIn all, he said, the survey team certified six new hot-pit refueling locations in the Pacific, including Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin in Australia.
\n\n\n\n“We were the first tanker to actually do hot-pit refueling in Australia in Air Force history,” Kidd said.
\n\n\n\nOther newly certified hot-pit locations, he said, couldn’t be disclosed for operational security reasons.
\n\n\n\nThat survey represents just a piece of a larger Air Force effort to bring hot-pit capabilities to all the places it operates. To date, roughly 45 locations have been certified, according to 92nd Air Refueling Wing spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Sidney Walters. In the last few years, the service has also expanded the mission to new airframes and contexts. The first KC-135 hot-pit refueling took place in 2020; it was conducted in Europe for the first time in 2021, at Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom. The same year, a KC-135 conducted the first hot-pit refueling within the continental United States at Fairchild Air Force Base.
\n\n\n\nThe Air Force’s B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers have also made recent hot-pit history, conducting first-time refueling missions in locations like Romania, Turkey, and Norway.
\n\n\n\nRelated: America\u2019s secret stealth aircraft you\u2019ve never heard of
\n\n\n\n![\"KC-46A](\"https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kc-46-pegasus-hot-pit-refueling.jpg\")
The ability to maximize flight time and operate downrange with a minimum number of aircraft dovetails with the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept, whereby the Air Force wants to operate planes from a wide range of minimally equipped forward locations all serviced by a larger “hub” base. Through ACE, the Air Force wants to make its air combat units more flexible and their forward movements less predictable, while equipping squadrons to operate effectively from minimally equipped locations that might be shared by other U.S. services or allied militaries.
\n\n\n\n“What hot pit refueling does for us is it allows us to minimize our time on the ground. And with ACE doctrine, the whole point is to be agile,” Kidd told Sandboxx News. “So we have more time to react to threats versus more time spent on the ground figuring out maintenance issues or having to gas up the jet in the standard procedure.”
\n\n\n\nThe Fairchild team is “constantly looking for” new locations that can be certified for hot-pit refueling, and is working to expand training on the procedure, both at home station and downrange, Kidd said. “In addition to expanding the service’s operating footprint and getting the most out of its aircraft,” he added, “the practice can potentially decrease vulnerabilities in conflict.”
\n\n\n\n“If we can be on the ground for a shorter amount of time, it’s less time for the enemy to target us,” he said. “And we want to complicate that even more by increasing the number of airfields that we’re operating in.”
\n\n\n\nThe post Air Force adds dozens of hot-pit refueling sites as it preps for future war appeared first on Sandboxx.
\n", "content_text": "The idea behind hot-pit refueling is simple: a military aircraft touches down on an airstrip and leaves its engines running while a ground crew brings out a fuel hose and administers a fill-up on the spot. The plane can then take off again without ever cooling down or wasting any downtime in a hangar. The process can reduce the four to six hours needed for a plane to remain on the ground to just 60 minutes between flights.\n\n\n\nIt’s a simple concept, but one the Air Force is counting on to help it fight effectively in austere and far-distributed regions like the Pacific, where the service might not have the luxury of a spare aircraft on the sidelines. While hot-pit refueling has long been in the service’s repertoire, the Air Force is now moving aggressively to prepare more sites downrange for the mission, while integrating the practice more thoroughly into training and deployed operations.\n\n\n\nIn January 2023, a team from Fairchild Air Force Base \u2013 nicknamed “America’s Super Tanker Wing \u2013 traveled to the Pacific to survey airfields for their ability to support hot-pit refueling for the KC-135 Stratotanker. The 67-year-old KC-135 is the Air Force’s first jet-powered aerial refueling tanker, performing the critical mission of filling up fighters and transport aircraft in flight. At 136 feet long and up to 322,500 pounds with a 130-foot wingspan, it needs, among other things, ample space for safe airstrip refueling.\n\n\n\n\n\nAir Force video presenting hot-pit refueling. (DVIDS)\n\n\n\nCaptain Blake Kidd, chief of tactics for the 93rd Air Refueling Squadron, told Sandboxx News that the site survey team also assessed the spacing of buildings from the planned hot-pit refueling locations; the condition of the pavement on the airstrips; and whether the available fueling facilities and equipment were compatible to support the mission. \n\n\n\nIn all, he said, the survey team certified six new hot-pit refueling locations in the Pacific, including Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin in Australia.\n\n\n\n“We were the first tanker to actually do hot-pit refueling in Australia in Air Force history,” Kidd said. \n\n\n\nOther newly certified hot-pit locations, he said, couldn’t be disclosed for operational security reasons. \n\n\n\nThat survey represents just a piece of a larger Air Force effort to bring hot-pit capabilities to all the places it operates. To date, roughly 45 locations have been certified, according to 92nd Air Refueling Wing spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Sidney Walters. In the last few years, the service has also expanded the mission to new airframes and contexts. The first KC-135 hot-pit refueling took place in 2020; it was conducted in Europe for the first time in 2021, at Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom. The same year, a KC-135 conducted the first hot-pit refueling within the continental United States at Fairchild Air Force Base.\n\n\n\nThe Air Force’s B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers have also made recent hot-pit history, conducting first-time refueling missions in locations like Romania, Turkey, and Norway.\n\n\n\nRelated: America\u2019s secret stealth aircraft you\u2019ve never heard of\n\n\n\nAirman from the 349th Air Refueling Squadron and 22nd Logistics Readiness Squadron pull a fuel hose towards a KC-46A Pegasus March 14, 2024, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. The Airmen conducted a hot-pit refuel, the practice of refueling an aircraft immediately after landing while engines are running to minimize ground time. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gavin Hameed)\n\n\n\nThe ability to maximize flight time and operate downrange with a minimum number of aircraft dovetails with the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept, whereby the Air Force wants to operate planes from a wide range of minimally equipped forward locations all serviced by a larger “hub” base. Through ACE, the Air Force wants to make its air combat units more flexible and their forward movements less predictable, while equipping squadrons to operate effectively from minimally equipped locations that might be shared by other U.S. services or allied militaries.\n\n\n\n“What hot pit refueling does for us is it allows us to minimize our time on the ground. And with ACE doctrine, the whole point is to be agile,” Kidd told Sandboxx News. “So we have more time to react to threats versus more time spent on the ground figuring out maintenance issues or having to gas up the jet in the standard procedure.”\n\n\n\nThe Fairchild team is “constantly looking for” new locations that can be certified for hot-pit refueling, and is working to expand training on the procedure, both at home station and downrange, Kidd said. “In addition to expanding the service’s operating footprint and getting the most out of its aircraft,” he added, “the practice can potentially decrease vulnerabilities in conflict.”\n\n\n\n“If we can be on the ground for a shorter amount of time, it’s less time for the enemy to target us,” he said. “And we want to complicate that even more by increasing the number of airfields that we’re operating in.”\n\n\n\nRead more from Sandboxx News\n\n\n\n\nThe US Intelligence Community assesses the state of the Russian military\n\n\n\n\u2018SEAL Team\u2019 is surprisingly good TV\n\n\n\nCold winds and cloudy skies: Delta Force cold-weather operations\n\n\n\nApproaching Mach 2 in an F-16: \u2018The jet started to shake\u2019\n\n\n\nFear the REAPR \u2013 The Ohio Ordnance machine gun\n\nThe post Air Force adds dozens of hot-pit refueling sites as it preps for future war appeared first on Sandboxx.", "date_published": "2024-03-19T17:24:51-04:00", "date_modified": "2024-03-19T17:25:53-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Hope Seck", "url": "https://www.sandboxx.us/author/hope-hodge-seck/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3f9436db4ed43b71260ff68a36c1266?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.sandboxx.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/b-1-lancer-hot-pit-refueling.jpg", "summary": "The Air Force is counting on hot-pit refueling to help it fight effectively in austere and far-distributed regions like the Pacific." } ] }