No More Snatch

| November 29, 2018

FoxNews reports that a Colonel in the Vermont Air National Guard was forced to resign after caught using an F-16 to meet up with a lover.

Col. Thomas Jackman – whose aviator callsign was reportedly “Snatch” – had been exchanging flirtatious emails with an unidentified Army colonel who worked at the Pentagon for two months before they arranged to meet in January 2015, when he would be in town for a work conference, according to the report by local Vermont website VTDigger, which cited three former Guard members with knowledge of the incident.

Jackman, who was married at the time, told the outlet that he was not involved with the female Army colonel. He reportedly declined to comment on whether the trip forced him to retire.

Jackman, 55, the commander of the 158th Fighter Wing, reportedly used his authority to fly an F-16 nearly 500 miles from Burlington to Andrews Air Force Base, located just outside Washington D.C.

Sounds like the guy who passed himself off as an Army general and showed up for a date by landing a helicopter.

Dare I say it?   They grabbed snatch and it’s a good thing.

Category: Politics

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Hondo

FWIW: it appears the individual was forced to retire, not resign.

Seriously, Colonel? You couldn’t just take a commercial flight and meet her in the DC-area? What, you thought you’d impress her by flying down in your “jet fighter”?

I do hope the ANG investigates and determines that the use of the F-16 was not justified – and takes operating costs for the flight out of his retired pay (recalling him for court-martial is probably more trouble than it’s worth). At $8k per hour, that will leave a mark.

2/17 Air Cav

The F-16 he took was bright yellow with an “On Duty” sign atop the canopy.

rgr769

At that rate ($8K per flight hour) Jackman’s flight to and from the District of Criminals could be the military’s most expensive booty call.

AnotherPat

Posted this in the Midweek Open Thread on the same story:

This article goes into more detail on the story:

https://vtdigger.org/2018/11/26/flying-fraternity-guard-commanders-wings-clipped-secret-rendezvous/

The Colonel was allowed to retire with his Rank and now works as a Postmaster in Vermont:

“Former officials said that Guard leadership gave Jackman a heads-up about his impending punishment, which allowed him to submit his resignation paperwork and pre-empt the loss of his retirement pay and benefits.”

“Jackman was allowed to retire with full active duty benefits, no derogatory remarks were made on his civil service resignation paperwork, and he was allowed to keep his top secret security clearance, according to former Guard members familiar with the investigation. According to LinkedIn, Jackman currently works as the postmaster of Waterbury and sits on the board of the Green Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America.”

Don’t know anything about what happened to the Female US Army Colonel.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Indeed the old different spanks for different ranks hits pretty close to home on this one.

5th/77th FA

I had re-read and commented on this on the MOT that AnotherPat had posted. Y’all might want to jump back and check those comments out. Will just add this. The heat of his ass must of addled his brain.
GO ARMY…BEAT NAVY… The smack down is a coming.

Comm Center Rat

As an Eagle Scout (Class of 1974) I’m disgusted that Jackman sits on the board of the Green Mountain Council BSA. I hope concerned Vermont parents petition to have him removed from his leadership position. BSA is a private organization so Jackman’s federal civil service protections won’t shield him from termination.

Sapper3307

The Vt Digger activist have been anti F-35/Military forever. Now that the F-35 is going to show up they started to smear the Vermont Air Guard full time. And yes this in Burlington VT, Bernie’s little slice of communism heaven.

desert

Another Pat…..WHAT ABOUT HIS WIFE?

Veritas Omnia Vincit

What a dipshit…I will never cease to be amazed at how many guys will gamble everything for pussy.

I’ve seen guys have to sell their businesses, their boats, houses, etc…and lose their family over pussy.

Believe me when i say I like female company as much as the next guy, but there is a right way and wrong to pursue. Committing adultery while misusing government property is definitely not the right way…

So long “Snatch” hope it was worth it you dumb fuck.

2/17 Air Cav

“I will never cease to be amazed at how many guys will gamble everything for pussy.” You know hat they say. There is enough blood in the male body to fill the brain or the dick, but not both at the same time.

rgr769

I think the phrase is “there is only enough blood to operate one head at a time.”

A Proud Infidel®™️

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. “Snatch” chasing some snatch using an F-16 at taxpayer expense, something a number of divorce lawers will salivate over!

Slow Joe

And if an enlisted soldier takes a tmp van to the shoppette to buy snacks, is the end of the world.

sj

Meh. Aviators have to get flight time. We’ve talked about P3’s from JAX making lobster runs. I don’t see a foul if a bennie coincidentally happens during valid training. But maybe there is more to it.

Hondo

I’m guessing he had sufficient flight time to be current, sj – and that the flight was therefore not necessary.

Big difference in spending $16k of Uncle Sam’s cash ($8k/hr operating cost, 1 hr each way) when it’s necessary for proficiency or regulatory purposes vice doing it solely to impress a potential paramour. One is valid training (albeit with a potential side benefit, like the P3 lobster runs). The second is misuse of government resources.

It’s also just freaking dumb. The article says that it would be “unusual” for someone to fly one of the unit’s aircraft to a conference; that means it would attract attention. He could simply have flown commercial to DC and arranged to meet his potential paramour somewhere in the area. Not unusual, no paper trail, and (if he was discrete) little chance of getting spotted.

Two heads, but only enough blood to operate one at a time.

sj

I agree with everything you said. My meh was if he needed flight time. And I wasn’t addressing the infidelity. As always, you say it better (HT: Blazing Saddles “God darnit, Mr. Hondo, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.)

I’ll bet that if his call sign wasn’t snatch it wouldn’t have been noticed.

AW1Ed

“…P3’s from JAX making lobster runs.”

I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.

Club Manager, USA ret.

Nothing worse than KC-135’s from Castle AFB making King Crab runs to Alaska. I speak from first hand knowledge having rode one back in 74′. Goes on all of the time, frequently to nearby off-shore places with cheap booze.

SFC D

My Pa’s B-52 crews had a regular run into Alaska. They’d leave March AFB with the bays full of fruit, vegetables, and fresh milk, come back loaded with salmon and king crab. Trips to the PI always returned with bays full of San Miguel. I had an awesome childhood!

sj

Thinking of Dad’s brown shoe neighbor bud Chief Dugan in the 50’s. We ate a lot of lobster!

Wilted Willy

My dear old Pa used to always tell me that nothing had more power than pussy! He even liked to quip about prostitutes had the best thing going, he would say about their pussy, you sell it, you use it then you still got it!!
My dear Pa was a very wise man!
God how I miss him!!!

2/17 Air Cav

Speaking of the women of the evening, know what the difference between them and lawyers is? The lawyer will keep screwing you after you’re dead.

USAF(RET)

Another one:

What does a gynecologist and a pilot have in common?

They both work in cockpits.

The Other Whitey

My tax dollars funded extramarital booty calls. And here I thought that went out of style when Clinton left office…

They should reimburse each of those flights out of his pension.

pointyhead

This reminds me of an incident when I was a two-striper avionics guy at Eglin in the early 70’s. Several times we would have an IFE for flight control problems called in from a an F4 out of Moody. As soon as he debriefed, a hot blonde in a convertible shows up and away he goes. Now we were stuck with several hours of troubleshooting and testing only to end up signing off the write up as a CND (could not duplicate). Our DCM soon got wind of this jock with the disappearing flight control problems. The next time it happened, he met the pilot as he crawled out of the jet and told him to get his ass back in the plane and get it off his goddamned flightline NOW. He did and that was the last we saw of him.

Roh-Dog

Everyone’s gotta have a hobby…

Dwight Schwarz

Well it seems that you can always depend on the NG to screw up a system that has long been in use by all military branches in one way or other. So much for rum imports, fresh seafood runs, trading of jeeps and other types of military equipment between all the branches. Wonder if that will start a deeper investigation and how many of the higher ranks are going to find some lower ranks to take the fall, all this for just a stupid fling by some dumb ass.

Mason

I wonder if they were more pissed about the affair and not the flight itself. I knew a new reserve O-5 squadron commander whose downfall was an extra-marital affair. It didn’t even happen during a UTA. The wing or group commander caught wind of it (it wasn’t exactly a secret) and he lost his squadron. I think he would have lost his silver oak leaves if they could have taken em.

Virtual Insanity

FWIW, we had a two-star at Rucker whose tour as CG (and career) was cut short when they found he was making up reasons to fly mil air up to D.C. to spend quality time with his former secretary….

Ex-PH2

Must be a guy thing.

NHSparky

Hardly.

Hondo

Indeed. I’ve seen more than one female officer place their career in jeopardy for sex. Some got caught; some didn’t.

And I seem to remember a tale about a female Navy Captain who liked to grab their male drivers’ thighs while they were driving – and who ended up very surprised by a strategically-placed candle. Now, who might have told us that story? (smile)

SFC D

I know of a female 1LT that was overly fond of one of her SSG’s. So fond she left the Army ahead of schedule. And did I mention that daddy was Governor of an eastern state, who loved to trot his darling “combat vet” daughter out at re-election time? Chick had more hands under her clothes than a platoon of muppets.

Green Thumb

Clown.

Martinjmpr

Wait, so USAF fighter pilots are self-centered assholes who like to take risks?

I thought that was just Navy pilots.

Trapper Frank

Go big or go home….

NHSparky

You say that like it’s some sort of challenge.

At my age, going home IS my primary goal.

Daisy Cutter

Q: If you are in a room full of people that you don’t know, how can you tell which one is the pilot?

A: He’ll tell you.

26Limabeans

Maybe she set him up?

Hondo

My money’s on someone from his past whose toes Col. Jackwagon here had stepped on getting wind of what was going on – and dropping a dime on him to the state AG.

Not many people get an O6 command without creating a few enemies along the way – including those who thought the command should have been theirs instead.

Sapper3307

The VT Digger folks/paid hippies have a large multi part hit piece on the VT Air Guard. Some is true but most is part of the anti F-35 mafia.

Sapper3307

Part five just came out.
Air Guard bad, #NPC attack.

NHSparky

Another classic example of, “A stiff dick has no conscience.”

Steve1371

Gives a whole new meaning to Cruise Missile.

M884

Isn’t cannabis legal in Vermont?…

Bill R.

I fixed fighter aircraft for 20 years, F-16s for the last 17. It is nothing for an active duty squadron to send off a two ship or a four ship to fly cross country on weekends if they are behind in their sortie production. A four ship can pick up a dozen sorties easily on a good weekend. I recall one Friday afternoon one of our young captains and a wingman launched out for what was supposed to be a weekend cross country. Later at the NCO Club the line super told me he was flying out to his sister’s wedding.

charles w

Pull out Snatch!! Pull out!!