Am I Jumping the Shark Here?
The best thing about writing on this blog is the readership. I mean some of you guys are clowns but a great deal of you are very well informed.
In the comments on my recent post regarding Operation Dumbass a discussion began about the different variants of the F16. A couple of guys noticed the bright red tail on at least one of the F16s in the NYC fly-over.
This is where it gets interesting.
The distinctive red tail goes back to World War II and the P51-C’s made famous by the Tuskegee Airmen (Image above). The “Red Tails” are still alive in the Alabama Air National Guard and their F16s are in fact painted with the distinctive red tail (the only organization with the red tail paint job that I’m aware of).
If that is true, that means that the administration launched an F16 all the way from Alabama for a photo op.
But what could possibly be the purpose of going to such lengths the film a “Red Tail” escorting Air Force One?
How about a Hollywood movie!?
George Lucas is shooting an epic film about the Tuskegee Airmen as we speak.
Producer Rick McCallum said both elements are addressed in a script by John Ridley that “balances difficult and painful issues with what is, at its heart, the story of men with a dream to fly and serve their country.”
Lucas hopes to begin shooting by year’s end or early 2009, McCallum said. The movie’s title refers to the color of their fighter planes’ tails, which were distinctive and allowed U.S. bomber crews to know they were being escorted by the aggressive Tuskegee Airmen.
“It is a story of incredible adventure and enormous courage,” said the producer, who’s scouting locations for “Red Tails” in Prague, Czech Republic, and Italy. “I think the story will speak to anyone who has ever wanted to succeed at something others told them was impossible.”
Why would the White House go to such extremes to help Lucas shoot a movie?
Because Lucas was a huge supporter of Obama over Hillary in the primaries and apparently thinks Obama has the “Force” in him.
“We have a hero in the making back in the United States today because we have a new candidate for president of the United States, Barack Obama,” Lucas said when asked who his childhood heroes were.
Obama, “for all of us that have dreams and hope, is a hero,” Lucas said.
Can you imagine a more compelling way to end a movie about the trials and discrimination that these airmen faced and through courage and determination overcame in the end?
Okay, you can now take off the tin foil hats and go back to work.
Category: Politics
Big pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/3480318671/sizes/o/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/3481130058/sizes/o/in/photostream/
It makes more sense than most conspiracy theories. Kinda like the cemetary scenes in Saving Private Ryan. At the end of the movie about the red tails escorting B-17 into Germany, flash forward to Air Force One being escorted over NYC by an F-16 red tail.
1944 – Black Pilots escort white bomber pilots
2009 – Black Pilot escorts black President
Only the serious-minded here!
I’ll watch the movie just to see the people in the background running for cover. At least spike lee isn’t involved.
I know that the WI ANG has red tails too though.
http://jetpix.com/wingsoffreedom/Redtail%20fireworks_800.jpg
Makes perfect sense to put that in a movie in that context, however, you would think that the production company would reimburse the Govt. to avoid the bad PR…..after all, $320,000 plus for a shot in a movies isn’t that expensive (for movie productions) And then TELL EVERYBODY what is going on. As it stands now, if they use the shot it’ll piss everyone off yet again.
Nice comparison pic right on the homepage:
http://www.almont.ang.af.mil/
ArchInfidel,
The WI ANG looks like a deeper red instead of the red/orange of AL ANG, take a look at the blow-ups in Spade’s comment (#1)
Looks like the cheeseheads don’t regularly have fully red tails.
http://www.115fw.ang.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=5933
Country Singer, neither do the Alabama birds. I think it’s like how USN fighter squadrons get to have two (is it still two?)fighters painted in full livery, and the rest are in low viz.
I think Lucas’ midichlorians have fucked up his brain…I find his lack of objectivity dusturbing…Lucas, Obama is your daddy…I got a bad feeling about this…may he be Forced into a 90% tax bracket…stop me before I post another lame ass Star Wars reference…
Interesting theory. However, the assumption that the planes came all the way from Alabama needs some investigation. These days, ANG/AFRes units are deployed all over the place, all the time, for any number of reasons. It might be as stated, or they might have been a case of “line of sight scheduling.”
[…] found this at This Ain’t Hell, But you can see it from here. I am not one to buy into conspiracy theories or over thinking things but this just makes a person […]
correct spade(10)if i,m not mistaken,commander air group(CAG) & the squadron commander can have the fancy paint jobs on their aircraft.
Lucas is a master on movie and computer animation. His people can whip up any picture of any plane flying anywhere for less money and much more usefulness. Entertaining information, but not much point. But, perpetual candidate and star wannabe could easily have wanted and allowed this along with all his other boneheadedness in the last weeks.
[…] NYC Flyover and the Tuskegee Airmen? […]
Have we seen the manifest, yet? Did any of the crew see who was riding along?
Look for a man and a girl, period. What could he possibly have done to get a perq. like that? (Hint: google Frank Marshall Divis.)
Have we seen the manifest, yet? Did any of the crew see who was riding along?
Look for a man and a girl, period. What could he possibly have done to get a perq. like that? (Hint: google Frank Marshall Davis.)
I know of some other aircraft which operate today with “red tails” and I think some red on the wing tips.
There’s a fleet of F4 Phantom Jets sitting down at Tyndall AFB on the Florida Panhandle which have that paint job and have been converted over to remote controlled operation for the purpose of serving as target drones for air to air combat practice out over the Gulf of Mexico.
In fact all of the target drones in various configurations have red tails and other red markings for orientation purposes in video and still photography.
I lived in Mexico Beach back in the esrly 2000’s and the routinely flew the Phantom Drones and a couple crashed on take off and they closed the road between our town and Panama City for a week at a time.
Not to squash the Tuskeegee Airman or the Alabama Air National Guard angle of this thread, but other considerations are possible.
Jonn wrote: Just to clear up the record, Secretary Gates in his letter to John McCain, admitted that one of the F16s was from the Alabama National Guard.
ABC News is reporting F-16s were indeed from Alabama Air National Guard apparently on loan to DC Air Guard.
Virgil …
… thanks to you, a highly-ironic picture of AF1 escorted by drones comes to mind …
… an event in the air, imitating life on the ground …
Actually, the Tuskegee Airmen, officially the 332nd fighter group during WWII, was disbanded after the war. The unit’s designation remained unused until OIF kicked off. After the initial invasion, when the US setup operations at Balad Air Base, the Air Force reorganized the 332nd. Still called the Tuskegee Airmen, the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing is not an actual fighter wing in the sense of normal AF operational units, but consists of whatever squadrons happen to be deployed to Balad AB for their deployment rotations. (Also, it’s not an all black unit)
As for commanders’ aircraft getting special paint jobs. Squadron commanders don’t, group and wing commanders have an aircraft designated as “theirs” which usually has a tail flash of the fighter wing, but that’s about it. Ironically, flying commanders rarely fly in “their” aircraft. Daily flying operations just don’t work that way.
It should also be noted that an absurd number of aircraft squadrons in the Air Force have red tail flashes, including F-16 and F-15 units. Red is a popular color choice for tail flashes.
Aaron, the 322nd has been around longer than OIF. When I was supporting TF 1-41 Infantry out of Ft. Riley to Camp Doha Kuwait in April 2002 we (the Air Force TACP’s) were put under the 322nd Expeditionary Air Wing based out of Al-Jabr AB Kuwait (at that time).
Well, it looks like the evidence points toward the AL ANG escorting, and a high probability of the above ‘conspiracy’ being the actual case.
Correction, 332nd EAW, part of the AEF rotations to Kuwait since the early 1990’s at least… Not 322nd…
can anyone tell me which ww2 tuskegee pilot nicknamed his plane cool fool???????
The guy who I work with who is 93 that was flying a b-17 told me a story about the plane cool fool pilot and I was on here trying to figure out who might have known the pilot of the plane also..
The Cool Fool was George J. Haley, who saved the life of Dan Price, who seached for his identity since the end of the war. We found out more of the story in 2005. For the rest of our story visit the Kentucky Veteran & Patriot Museum. May We Always Have Heroes!
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