[Milsurplus] TCS-12

[D C Macdonald]

And maybe, just maybe, the generals pushing the
tactics have gotten just a tiny bit smarter since WWII
and Vietnam and don't order the aircrews into totally
suicide attack plans such as Ploesti and Linebacker II.


Mac, K2GKK/5
ArcLight B-52F crew, 1965



----Original Message Follows----
From: "J. Forster" <jfor at quik.com>
Reply-To: jfor at quik.com
To: Grif <KF4JG at comcast.net>
CC: Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] TCS-12
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 21:16:40 -0500

I said early in the pos that pilots were heroic, but the point is that 
without
electronics, they don't know where they are, where they are going, or who is
anywhere near them (friend or foe), and if they get in trouble, no way to 
call
for help beyond hand signals. In effect, they are reduced to pre WW I VFR
flying. That point is lost on most people.

A good demonstration is the improved effectiveness of B-52s if you compare
Vietnam to Iraq. It's the electronics that has improved, not the planes.

-John



Grif wrote:

 > I have to take issue with your very last sentence. The casualty rate for
 > pilots was among
 > the highest for any units in WWII. There were some raids in which over 25 
%
 > of the planes
 > were lost. In Vietnam it was the pilots who filled up the Hanoi Hilton.
 > While I grant you that
 > pilots are sometimes glorified, aerial combat has to be among the most
 > dangerous situations
 > known to man. Please don't denigrate what they did and went through. As
 > Churchill pointed
 > out about one group of pilots, "Never has so much been owed by so many to 
so
 > few."
 >
 > Grif, KF4JG (Col USAF Ret.)