Marine pilots who drew sky penises allowed to fly again after discipline
Laura Widener
Pfffftt. Copycats.
The two Marine pilots responsible for using their aircraft to draw a penis in the sky will continue to fly despite punishment.
The U.S. Marine Corps confirmed that the two Marines received discipline over the incident, but will permit them to remain in their position and actively fly, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
“Two Marine Corps aviators were administratively disciplined following the completion of an investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding an Oct. 23 irregular flight pattern that resulted in an obscene image,” said Maj. Josef Patterson, Marine Corps spokesman. “The aviators retained their wings and will continue service to their country as valued members of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.”
And told in no uncertain terms (with primary colors and small words. Marines, right?) to never be in the vicinity of sky penis’ again. Ever.
Tip of the the chapeau to ChipNASA for the link, which is here: American Military News
Category: Marines
Did they have to write “I will not sky write a Penis again” 100 times on the ready room white board?
Well they were going to have them sky-write it but they couldn’t spell and they wre afraid they’d have 100 penii in the sky!!
Only with a red crayon.
Reminds me of a savvy platoon sergeant I had many decades ago who told us all “I don’t care if this is a holiday weekend, I don’t want to see any booze in the barracks!” After a somewhat strenuous Ripple party I was carrying a trash can full of Ripple bottles out to the dumpster, he spotted me and asked if all those bottles were empty. When I answered in the affirmative, he said “Good, because I told you I don’t want to see any booze in the barracks!”
The symmetry of the infamous sky dick indicates some exceptional flying skill and talent by the aviators in question. Letting that skill, obtained at great expense to the taxpayers, go to waste would be criminal.
The way that article is worded they seem to think they shouldn’t be allowed to fly again?
We truly live in a time where one little indiscretion or mistake and people think your life should be forever ruined.
It’s “plane” to see that the brass are up in the “air” about the incident.
I don’t know why, but like that verbiage, “irregular flight.” When those boys get it up, they get it way up.
This was nothing more than Etch-a-Sketch for Marine aviators.
Hey, every job gets boring sometimes!
Dude, fly airways across the Atlantic in a turboprop, both ways. I bagged a bunch of multi-engine instrument time after I got my civilian pilot’s license. My crew’s ‘real’ pilot was happy to turn over the bird to me as long as a Flight Engineer and Second Pilot was with me. I loved it, and freaking the bejeezus out of the maintenance folks who woke up and moseyed up the the flight station, to see enlisted me flying the bus was just bonus.
Guess I should have stated a sea story alert, there. Oh well, sue me.
In the late 60’s we had a recon pilot in RF-101 come back with one of his film negatives developed and had narrow strip on all four sides of the negative then was dark gray square with large black square in center of negative. Was a lot of questions as to malfunction of camera for several days but operated normal in testing and subsequent flights. Pilot was grounded for a couple of weeks when truth came out as was actual picture of a chimney of a house closeup.
“Stop dicking around boys and get back to work vanquishing our enemies …”, said the commanding general during the administrative hearing.
He later said while downing a few cocltails with the pilots at the O Club, “that was some funny shit you guys pulled off … don’t do it again!”
Shack!
You nailed it, MCPO.
As per the linked article above, these two jokesters are from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101 (a.k.a. the VMFAT-101 Sharpshooters) based at MCAS Miramar, CA, and I would have given anything to have been in the room while they were receiving their “administrative discipline”, because I doubt that anyone would have been able to keep a straight face during the proceedings. Anyone who has ever been in a ready room full of Marine and/or Navy Aviators will know what I’m talking about. These two jokesters are now undoubtedly famous and they won’t have to buy any drinks at the O’Club bar anytime soon.
And this statement in the article is spectacular:
“The aviators retained their wings and will continue service to their country as valued members of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.”
Damn! That’s one of the best velvet-covered FU statements to the SJW snowflakes who were “offended” by this that I’ve seen in a very long time. Well played USMC PAO!
Mick, what took you so long? I had you in mind when CN sent me the link.
OK, Navy and Marines have checked the box for sky dicks.
If only there was another *cough* force here that has
airplanes…Coast Guard C-130? The mind boggles.
Whoever complained about it in the first place was just jealous.
Feelings of inadequacy are exacerbated by giant wienies in the sky.
The only folks who would be able to appreciate the airmanship were the friendly flight followers at the local ATC. Like this:
What are their call signs now, “High Cock One” and “High Cock Two”?
This sort of thing should be handled by “verbal admonishment” and otherwise dumped like a dead carp.
Shoulda given them a large jug of top shelf booze, box of premium cigars, and a heart handshake on some damn good flying.
Probably spent their enforced time off from flying teaching a strippers kid some trick math lessons. I know that the computers do a lot of the flying, but just imagine the calculations that went into that.
Doubt if there is a flight profile in the program labeled “Draw a giant penis.”
Spatial Visualization Ability
Spatial visualization ability or visual-spatial ability is the ability to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures. It is typically measured with simple cognitive tests and is predictive of user performance with some kinds of user interfaces (i.e. fighter aircraft).
If they had just called it “performance art” they probably could have gotten a grant from the National Endowment For the Arts. Their superiors would not dare interfere, lest they be berated for censorship and stifling a legitimate artistic expression of the fliers’ mockery of the patriarchal male dominance and ‘macho’ attitude of the military. Or something.
I can neither confirm nor deny a submarine plot once looked very much like a phallus.
Nah, never happened.
I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about myself. I mean it’s not as if they’d tried flying under a bridge, ‘beating up’ an airfield, or unauthorized low level stunting, all of which have been done in the past and all of which risked not only the lives of the aircrew but the lives of anyone else close enough.
I could fully understand aircrew having the book thrown at them for doing any of the above things, but to take on so over what amounted to a juvenile prank, seemed a bit much.
Well done USMC for retaining fine aircrew.
COs have to say something, or the USMC airedales will keep doing stupid s(tuff) until somebody tries to occupy the same space as somebody else at the same time.