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This October will mark the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the “Iron Curtain” that divided Europe for twenty eight years. Some of us spent a good portion of our young lives on the “bayonet point of western democracy” patrolling and observing the communists on the other side of that arbitrary and very visible line. Here’s a true account of the events of one day that I wrote for the History Channel’s veterans’ project about a decade ago. All of these pictures are mine, too;

via thisainthell.us

Jonn had an interesting career.

Seeing the inter-German border in person was a moving experience. Seeing it fall less than a year later was even more so.

The U.S. government has approved the sale of up to nine Boeing Co (BA.N) P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes to Britain in a deal valued at up to $3.2 billion, the U.S. Defense Department said Friday.

The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which oversees foreign arms sales, notified Congress about the potential sale on Thursday. Lawmakers now have 15 days to block the sale although such action is unlikely given close ties between the United States and the UK.

The proposed sale will enhance Britain's capabilities to provide national defense and contribute to NATO and coalition operations, DSCA said in a statement. It said the deal was a top priority for Britain.

via www.reuters.com

Good news. After the disaster that was the Nimrod MR.4 program, Britain gave up on developing any maritime patrol capability, and retired their MR.2 fleet. So they've had a gap for several years now. Between India, Great Britain, and Australia, that's helping push down unit costs for our own Navy's purchasing.

One suspects this won't be the last international sale. An awful lot of countries operate the P-3B/C and they are growing due for retirement.

The very first Air Force One was an Air Force C-121. And after being found languishing in the boneyard in Arizona, it was partially restored to flightworthiness. And flown to Virginia to complete it’s restoration.  And along the way, the beautiful Constellation was filmed from a B-25 from the Mid America Flight Museum.

Now, some of you sharper readers might have noticed that I took a hop in a B-25 about a week or so ago. And afterwards, as I was chatting with the flight crew, they explained to me that in addition to receiving donations from the public, they also hired out to serve as an air to air photography platform.  You may recall from this video that the rear pane of perspex was missing from the tail gunner position. But what you probably didn’t know was that many of the B-25s flying today can remove the entire rear of the aircraft, leaving a wide panorama for photography. You just gotta make sure the  photographer and his equipment are securely strapped in.

Man, oh man, the Connie is one sexy beast.

Mostly just testing out something on the back end of the blog. But hey, let’s watch some draftees go to Basic.

Oh, and Happy Easter!

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, attacked an air base in Iraq that houses U.S. military personnel, the Pentagon said Saturday.

The Pentagon said no service members in the coalition fighting ISIS were affected by the attack at the Ayn al-Assad Air Base.

Citing Iraqi officials, a U.S. military official said that between three and four fighters wearing explosive vests were killed in the attack, CBS Radio News correspondent Cami McCormick reports.

via www.cbsnews.com

No US casualties reported.

KFOR news video of this RJ making a rather sporty crosswind landing has been making the rounds on Facebook the last day or two.