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USN Splash one SU-22 (merged threads)

Catmando

Keep your knots up.
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Yeah, 1 silver star for each of his first two kills (separate engagements). Navy Cross for his triple kill mission. ;)

Beat to the punch by Flash.

Cunningham thought he deserved and said he was 'promised' the Medal of Honor. He told his TOPGUN CO at the time, Mugs Mckeown, also a MiG killer, that he would not attend the award ceremony for the Navy Cross. Mugs told him that he would first get a haircut and then attend the Navy Cross ceremony, or he would "rip his tits off!" Cunningham complied.
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
Correct, Hank Kleeman (Skipper flying -1) was in that Hornet that flipped and was killed several years later.
Wow. I have no idea why I remember that mishap, but I'm pretty sure I was in pilot training when it happened. That's been quite a while.
Wasn't there some sort of issue with the Hornet on wet runways, during the early years of the Hornet, and that's part of the reason he was killed?
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
Never thought I'd say it, but does anyone know of SIPR at Whiting?

There's at least one SIPR drop at the base security building...you know, where you have to go so a 21 year old MA3 reading from an intellipedia page can tell you how not to become a victim of terrorism on your overseas leave.
 

Recovering LSO

Suck Less
pilot
Contributor
Cunningham thought he deserved and said he was 'promised' the Medal of Honor. He told his TOPGUN CO at the time, Mugs Mckeown, also a MiG killer, that he would not attend the award ceremony for the Navy Cross. Mugs told him that he would first get a haircut and then attend the Navy Cross ceremony, or he would "rip his tits off!" Cunningham complied.
Maybe the MoH would've been enough to keep him in out of prison later in life....
 

LFCFan

*Insert nerd wings here*
Once on INTELINK, select iVIDEO, then select recently uploaded. Should be the first one.

And if this doesn't work for whatever reason, do an intelink search for "MISREP analysis tool", go to that site, and dig through the last week's worth of F-18E MISREPs, you should see one with a different icon on the far right for an intercept, and watch the WSV that way. Ditto for the mudhen if you want to see the drones get shot down as well while you're at it. Or you can just PM me your SIPR/JWICS email address and I'll email it to you.

And let's remember the line between HERO and ZERO is mighty thin... as evidenced by the USAF F-15C shootdown of 2 x UH60 US Army Blackhawks in the Northern No Fly zone and other, less well known "ah FUCK" incidents.

One of my favorite kills from "Debrief" (I'll add to the chorus about what a great book it is) was something very close to an "ah FUCK" incident now that I think of it. An F-15C driver was trying PID a MiG-25 in afterburner at night but wasn't sure if it was another F-15 or an F-14 from a Navy strike package in the area. So he pretty much said "99, get out of burner" ...he got closer as it wasn't out of burner and saw 2x missile pylons under each wing (no credit to the 58th TFS intel shop for what I'm sure were outstanding recce briefs!) and then took the shot.
 

RHINOWSO

"Yeah, we are going to need to see that one again"
None
Yeah, best time for a Hollywood shower is during the Big XOs happy hour!

Just got rip through all that tape people put up!
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Wow. I have no idea why I remember that mishap, but I'm pretty sure I was in pilot training when it happened. That's been quite a while.
Wasn't there some sort of issue with the Hornet on wet runways, during the early years of the Hornet, and that's part of the reason he was killed?

Always been somewhat of an issue with wet runways and the Hornet......one of my scariest landings ever was actually also on RWY24 at miramar, as a squall line was passing over the field, with a pretty solid crosswind. I think the connection with this mishap, is that after the gear failure, he flipped over and into the ditch on the N side of the runway, which was filled with water at the time. As the story goes, he survived, only to drown while waiting inverted with a flooding cockpit while the ARFF dudes tried to figure out how to open up the (completely brand new at the time) Hornet. At least so the Miramar lore goes......
 

RHINOWSO

"Yeah, we are going to need to see that one again"
None
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-12-04/local/me-470_1_landing-gear

"A Navy pilot died Tuesday after his FA-18 fighter skidded for 5,000 feet as it landed on a slick runway at Miramar Naval Air Station. The plane then flipped, trapping the pilot upside-down in his aircraft.

Lt. John Semcken, public affairs spokesman at Miramar, identified the pilot as Capt. Henry M. Kleemann, 42. Kleemann, who was married and had four children, was one of two Navy pilots assigned to the aircraft carrier Nimitz who shot down two Libyan fighters in the Gulf of Sirte on Aug. 19, 1981, after the Libyans fired at the U.S. planes.

Kleemann was stationed at Point Mugu Naval Air Station near Oxnard, Semcken said.

He said the pilot was landing on the 12,000-foot runway at 9:10 a.m., after flying in from Point Mugu, when the accident occurred. After the plane had rolled about 5,000 feet down the runway, it flipped over. A Miramar crash crew worked feverishly for about 30 minutes to free the strapped-in pilot from the cockpit. The crew eventually brought in a crane to lift the front of the jet fighter high enough to pull him out. Despite spilling its fuel, the plane did not burn.

The injured pilot was airlifted by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he died at 10:25 a.m. Officials would not divulge the cause of death."


There are pictures here of the Hornet if anyone wants to see -

http://www.djibnet.com/photo/henry+kleemann/f-a-18-hornet-crash-8126348291.html
 
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RHINOWSO

"Yeah, we are going to need to see that one again"
None
"Navy officials are also trying to determine why the aircraft's canopy landed several feet away from the aircraft, and if Kleemann could have been trying to eject before the craft rolled over.
"All of this is just speculation at this point. We have no real clue as to what could have caused the crash. It's under investigation," Semcken said. He said the aircraft has computerized landing and takeoff systems and a computerized anti-skidding system. "We're looking at the landing gear and aircraft's wheels to see what went wrong. The investigators are looking to see if the anti-skidding system failed."[147][148] Autopsy surgeons determined that the pilot died almost immediately after the crash from a severed spinal cord. Kleemann had nearly 4,000 flight hours, but fewer than 43 in the F/A-18. The Hornet was a nearly new airframe with only 327 flying hours being used in the operational testing of the design. Investigators pinpointed the planing link on the undercarriage whose task is to guide the gear components' complex manoeuvers during retraction as a probable cause. If damaged during retraction after departing Point Mugu, the link may have caused the starboard wheel to be slightly out of line. As the fighter's weight settled onto the gear leg, the airframe may have swerved so sharply that the pilot was unable to maintain control."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...ing_military_aircraft_(1980–89)#cite_note-150
 
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