Strategy Page names Top Ten Fighters

[KBayDog]

The story of Air Warriors:

"I tell you, we got two categories of pilots around here. We got your prime pilots that get all the hot planes, and we got your pud-knockers who dream about getting the hot planes. Now what are you two pud-knockers gonna have? Huh?"

 

[mmx1]

Funniest thing about this list is that except for the F-15C, every plan on it is a "strike/fighter". Even the USAF realized that a pure fighter is no longer the way to go and redesigned the F/a-22 (small a on purpose) to carry the Small Diameter Bomb (250lb JDAM).

The only purpose of a fighter is to get the strikers to the target and if one airframe can do the job, then so be it. The F-14 is a great "strike/fighter" and hasn't carried a Phoenix in a long time (at least in US service).

There are other ways to get through.. stealth, JX, SRTC, stand off weapons.
There are better ways to defend fixed sites than a CAP....Patriot, IHAWK, SM-2.

There's also stopping their strikers from getting to us.

 

[Jolly Roger]

That's very Jolly, Roger .... and a good guess --- close, but no cigar .... he was just a "guy" like the rest of us ... and like Bordelon (sic) he flew Corsairs in Korea and later founded a color photography studio (kind of new back then) in Gardena, CA after the war ..... Lt Guy "Lucky Pierre" Bordelon of VC-3 on the USS Princeton pictured on the right ....

As you can see --- Bordelon liked to sign his pictures .... An historical aside re: Bordelon ..... Guy Bordelon earned his wings as a Naval Aviator in 1943. He became a 'plowback' instructor at Kingville Texas, but not because he was a good pilot at that time. He barely squeaked through the Navy's flight school, almost washing out. He later told his daughter, Michelle, "Being kept back from going out to the fleet was the best thing that could have happened to me, because then I really learned how to fly." He was an assistant Gunnery Officer on USS Helena (CA-75) and by his own testimony said his "black shoe C.O. hated aviators" .... but with the paucity of Naval Aviators when Korea rolled around, Bordelon was called back to flying duty and ended up in VC-3 out of NAS Moffett, flying Corsairs in the all-weather night fighter squadron ...... Bordelon became an Ace on the night of July 16, 1953 when he bagged an La-11 for his fifth kill.

So I guess there's hope for all of us, yes ???

You gotta admit, they do look, passingly, a like.

I have the same picture of "Lucky Pierre" autographed, just signed in a different spot. :icon_smil He was on the Helena the same time my grandfather and my great uncle were, both hull techs. They even did a cruise off of Korea with him, during the begining of the war. Small world, this Navy.....no?