A buddy of mine – Mal Gormley – sent this over today and I just had to pass it on. Here’s a shot of the largest aircraft in the USAF fleet, the C-5 Galaxy. And don’t ask if it’s an “A” or a “B” model because I have no idea.
Now take a look at the crew (below) of this airplane on it’s way to Afghanistan. Or perhaps it was on the way back from the Middle East, I’m not sure.
Being the utterly shallow individual that I am, I can tell you that when I rode around in the back of an Air Force airplane, my only option was a whether or not the pilot was a cranky old Major or a Colonel. And he probably had a cigar in his mouth. 
Yup. Change is good!
Where were these women when I served in the USAF???? I had to deal with butterbar F111 Wizzo’s!
75% cute and 50% on the hot end of the scale. The USAF should use them to recruit.
Lord liftin the one on the bottom left as we look at her is a Playmate.Women have been flying for years, have we forgot.WW2 they flew the planes, transporting them around for the War effort.Germany had(her name slipes me right now) but she was a test pilot and piloted the first batch of choppers.There was a big gap when women didn’t fly much, but they are everywhere now.If you want to get somewhere fast, let the women drive or fly.
Gee, you guys must have been very sheltered. Women pilots have been flying USAF MAC aircraft as all female crews since 1977. Also, to correct the not-exactly-accurate of the WW2 female pilots: Yes, women flew the aircraft from the factories to delivery points for the military. Some were killed and they were all dropped like hot potatoes by the military after the war and never treated like the veterans that they were. And nevermind Germany and the mystery test pilot. The Soviet Union had many women flying hot combat missions in fighter aircraft. Some were shot down and killed by the Germans who were very disturbed when they attempted to recover the enemy pilot only to find that their brutal enemy was actually a pretty young woman. Playmates…you guys are really something. My pretty blonde niece is a newly minted Navy ensign who graduated flight school this winter. She just finished her survival training where the
“interrogators” slapped her around and gut punched her. She is now off to fly reconnaissance. Playmates….sickening.
“Remember When ALL the Pilots Were Men?”
Yes, and I’m also old enough to remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous
If you look at this picture. That isnt a C-5 of any sort. I ask you to research Stars And Stripes for “Ladys night out over Afganastan” Here is a short detail copyed from that story.
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Clockwise from lower left) 1st Lt Alison, Capts Heather and Waynetta, and Senior Airman Lyndi [Last names withheld for operational security.], all from the 376th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, flew an all-female KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling mission over Afghanistan on Jan. 31.
America presently plays at war. All of you should take a sobering look at what real, all-out, war means. Ask yourself, would I want my wife or daughter in such a war? Imagine your daughter on the Battan death march or making desperate Kamikaze attacks on enemy ships. Imagine what she might look like after a year in the trenches at Verdun – if she survived; or what she would look like after a mustard gas attack, or being hit by a 20 mm shell. Take a stroll thought the halls of a VA hospital and imagine half or more of those broken bodies as women. Even if they survived physically, would you want your child raised by a wife that had gone through the mental shock of the horrors of war? Would you want to be married to a woman suffering PTSD as well as menopause? Ask the women married to combat veterans what they think of war and its effects on their spouses.
Even in their most desperate hour, Britain did not recruit women for pilots or combat positions; and while the Nazi had a superb test pilot in the form of Hanna Reistch and an equal in cinematic efforts in the from of Leni Riefenstahl, they never put women in combat positions. The Soviet Union made a big show for the equality of the sexes using their women, but in reality that was all it was – a big show. Percentage-wise, Soviet women pilots were a tiny minority of the VVS-RKKA. Yet, like present day America, the Soviets did not seem to mind using them as cannon fodder.
Traditionally women are what hold society together when men do really stupid things like march off to war. But then from a cultural stand point, considering the present shape of America, I suppose this supporting role for women really doesn’t matter anyway. A bit of research on this subject will show that all of these much-vaunted attempts of having women serve in combat have led to their removal from the battlefront. There are a number of reasons for this, but primary among them is, in a real war, men don’t like to see the brains of their playmates of the year splattered all over the front of their flack vests. More so, they do not like the idea of what the enemy does to them when they are taken prisoners. Perhaps the greatest reason however is that men need the idea of something waiting for them back home worth sheltering and protecting and what’s left when you watch your woman’s guts slipping though your fingers?
There is a great scene in Catch 22 where Yossarian keeps hearing a plaintive plea for help over the R/T. This scene reoccurs throughout the movie, progressing a bit each time until the very end when he finally goes aft in the B-25 to help the wounded man. Watch the movie again and then put yourself in Yossarian’s place helping one of the flight crew from that C-5 and ask yourself: is this really what I would want for my wife or daughter? But then, you no longer have that choice do you?