Mark Kelly

Old school convervative, USAF Vet

[Mark Kelly @mkel2010]

@amyforsandiego And yet, the fools and idiots voting in San Diego CONTINUE to vote for these communist Dims. ABSOLUTELY ZERO SYMPATHY!!!!!

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

Hey kids, today’s “Buzz’s Bedtime Stories” is a thriller.  A really inconsequential anecdote, but an insightful one in understanding the Air Force “airlift community.” And the inherent risk of flying big jets.

One morning, very early, I was scheduled to fly a C-141 mission from Charleston AFB, SC, to Navy Norfolk, VA, to Rota, Spain in the first day. And then down range into the Middle East for the next week. Normal stuff. Long days, cool adventures, and the experience of a lifetime!

I was also flying with one of my best friends and was excited for the upcoming adventures. He was a blast, and there was never a shortage of things to talk about in the cockpit. He is a professional artist and a brilliant pilot. He drew the image attached.

We arrived at NAS Norfolk to gas up for the long leg to Spain, file our flight plan, and upload our Navy cargo. Back in the day, we had to go into Base Operations to manually fill out an international flight plan. By hand. Thankfully, that has changed over the years. But, in the day, the pilots would head to “Base Ops” and file the flight plan, while our crew of flight engineers and loadmasters took care of the jet. Preflight, loading, unloading, it was a ballet.

We grabbed a coffee at the passenger terminal after filing our flight, got back to the jet, performed our checklists, and took off for Spain. The runway at Navy Norfolk is relatively short, and I knew we were heavy. As we took off and reached takeoff decision speed, we were committed. Try to abort now, and we’d be off the end of the runway and onto a heavily trafficked roadway. Then probably into the water. Although I realized the jet wasn’t responding normally. Very sluggish. I took every last foot of the runway and finally rotated. It was all I had.

We climbed to about 300 feet initially, and couldn’t climb any more. Power was all the way up. I didn’t have anything more other than to nurse our 325,000-pound aircraft into the sky. We were flying over the Norfolk Bay, inching up ever so slowly. Passing over ships with masts and sailboats, my inclination was to pick up my feet. We were that low. The cockpit was very silent as I tried to inch every bit of altitude and airspeed I could.

Eventually, we started to eke out a climb. Very slowly and very grudgingly. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, we finally reached our cruise altitude for our flight over the Atlantic. Normally, it’s about a 20-minute climb.

I hopped on the HF radios (long range) and chatted with our HQ. “Something’s off. Can you guys take a look when we get to Rota?” 

“Of course,” they said. We seemed very heavy. And I’d been flying this aircraft forever. It felt like a part of me. Pilots develop that affinity for their machines. I know it sounds weird, but it’s true.

Upon arrival in Spain and an uneventful landing, the Air Force impounded the plane. They tore into it and weighed the cargo. We went into crew rest, and I was contacted by the USAF routinely. They called me in my BOQ (Bachelor’s Officers' Quarters) room. They informed me that we were 25,000 pounds overweight. Our absolute max was 325,000 pounds, and we took off at 350,000. The Navy had hidden cargo within the pallets and fudged the numbers! And we almost died.

Heads rolled back at Navy Norfolk. Several members of their load team were fired.

The copilot and I went to the O’Club for a beer. Just another day flying “the big iron.”

[Juanita Broaddrick @atensnut]

Perfect!!

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

THE “O’CLUB” / END OF AN ERA / APPRECIATE IT

Military aviators of my era and earlier literally grew up in Officer’s Clubs (O Clubs). It was an essential element of our culture. Most of us didn’t know at the time, but it was expected.

Back in the golden age of aviation, the Officers’ Club wasn’t just a bar—it was the beating heart of the pilot soul. Yes, we had our glorious crew chiefs and our kickass maintenance.

But, this was “our” place.

Picture this: leather flight jackets slung over chairs, Top Gun vibes in full swing as crews belted out “Sweet Caroline” or some lame squadron song, while somebody “bat hanged” over the bar, to a packed house of sharp-dressed aviators and their dates.

Lingerie nights, stripper nights, promotion ceremonies, pilot training graduations, buses rolling in with local college girls, and enough whiskey-fueled war stories and lies to make your flight suit blush.

Red Flag brawls ended with Military Working Dogs playing bouncer, and mornings-after were cured with greasy eggs and black coffee before the next sortie at a dive Vegas casino.

Those smoke-filled O Clubs forged legends, welded squadrons into families, and built the unbreakable esprit de corps that won wars.

Membership was not only a right, a privilege, but a requirement. It was essential.

Then Tailhook hit, and the fun police dropped the hammer. Bill Clinton, most notably. I witnessed it and pleaded.

No more open bars, strict fraternization rules, mandatory memberships, and eventually the sad merger into “all-ranks” lounges that felt about as exciting as a squadron safety brief, a “ FOD walk,” or an operational inspection. (ORI)

We needed to clean up the worst of it, sure… but damn if we didn’t lose the magic that turned young pilots into warriors who’d follow each other into hell with a grin. And stories to reinforce it!

Raise a glass to the O Club era—the wild, wonderful glue of military aviation. Miss those days? Yeah… me too.

A lot!

[Mark Kelly @mkel2010]

@GavinNewsom Horse shit! It only means you fuckers won’t be able to cheat quite as easily.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

I don’t think “Boomer” is an insult. I’m one and I love it. But that’s just me.😎

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

The only thing she’s “crushing” is journalistic integrity. You’re cheering for your demise…keep it up.

[Nick Sortor @nicksortor]

🤣 President Trump just told a story of how even HE needed to show ID before voting in Florida, and the poll worker FELT BAD asking him

"Even me, I went to vote: 'Sir, may I please see your identification? Sir? I'm so embarrassed. I know you're Trump! Please, do you have some identification? I don't want to lose my job!'"

"I was lucky I had some kind of a card on me I didn't even know I had, but I gave it, you know?" 😂

"I said, 'don't apologize. You're doing your job. That's what you're SUPPOSED to be doing!' It was so beautiful."

[Thomas Sowell Quotes @ThomasSowell]

He’s right!

[Catturd ™ @catturd2]

President Trump has had it with backstabbing coward John Thune.

[Kurt Schlichter @KurtSchlichter]

Oh, okay. I mean, you’ll have to win a civil war first, but go for it.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

Another flying story.

In my Air Force C-141 years, when we were flying home to the US or to the Middle East and super heavy, we’d often have to drop into Goose Bay, Labrador, to get fuel. It was a really important hub during WWII, the Cold War, and DESERT STORM. Still is. It’s like stepping back in time to the 1980s Cold War at an isolated northern outpost.

I landed there once to gas up in like February. They’d just had a massive snow storm. Several feet. Drifts were piled 20 feet high. But they’d plowed the runway meticulously.

After we landed, I started taxing to where the terminal was supposed to be. The taxiways were cleared but the snow was piled up so high, I felt like a kid in a Halloween corn maze. Again, meticulously plowed. Thankfully they’d spray painted orange on the snow banks to provide some semblance of wingtip clearance.

My aircraft has long wings. 🤣 I Finally found the terminal. Got gas. And the best hot dog I’ve ever eaten. Ever! Something about the hot dogs when it’s -20 outside, you’re famished, and you’re only halfway home. Aircrew heaven. 😎

Then we flew home. Another day in the books.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

Hey world, if you aren’t Californian you wouldn’t believe this chick. Look up her story. 🤣

Slept her way to the top. So did @GavinNewsom. They’re both egomaniacal whores.

The day these two exit the world political stage, angels will single from the golden valleys, to the beaches, to the peaks of the Sierras. This “power couple” has destroyed California.

[Kurt Schlichter @KurtSchlichter]

We should be loading them on planes for home.

You semi human monsters drew them here - countless kids have been raped and murdered because of you creatures.

Get bent.

[Insurrection Barbie @DefiyantlyFree]

I would really like it for the Republican Party to take the DSA way more seriously. This is not just some communist economic policy. These people are maoists. They have been trained in Cuba for years and years on how to create an execute a subversive revolutionary movement.

[Mark Kelly @mkel2010]

@DavidAsmanfox The only “program” that will fix the issue is to return to locking up and treating the mentally ill. The homeless problem was virtually nonexistent when we did that.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

Pretty much. Sorry, Nichole.🤣🔥🇺🇸 https://t.co/BV8wjEHgKm

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

So while idiot "journalists" try to sharpshoot @elonmusk with inane questions about a make-believe "far right," Elon is too busy transforming the trajectory of humanity into an interplanetary species for him to care about their stupidity.

I know what side I'm on, and it ain't the side of low IQ graduates of Columbia's "journalism" school.

[Mark Kelly @mkel2010]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

We just need @HillaryClinton to jump in and it’s a party!
🤣🎊🎉🥳