tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post1823409052131588752..comments2023-11-03T09:36:22.100-04:00Comments on In From the Cold: Off CourseGeorge Smileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07049707648660651119noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-42341795810173983532015-12-22T09:18:18.741-05:002015-12-22T09:18:18.741-05:00Jim: I believe you are correct about the FEB--at ...Jim: I believe you are correct about the FEB--at least, I hope you are. If there's anyone in the Global Strike Command/PACOM chain that still has a set, they will quietly let the crew resume flying, with no paper to hinder their career. Again, no one has released full details of the incident, but it appears the BUFF crew was simply performing their assigned mission, and their only crime was upsetting Beijing. Naturally, that put Barry & Co in full panic mode, so they had to do something to appease their Chinese masters and the toadies in the Pentagon were only happy to comply.<br /><br />My own favorite story about navigation errors (that didn't result in international incidents): I began my Air Force career as a unit historian. One of my early assignments was with a SAC tanker group at a base in the southeast. Despite my lowly rank at the time (E-4) I still attended the commander's weekly staff meetings since I worked for him. Remember one such meeting where they reviewed the performance of our hand-picked crew in the annual SAC Bomb-Nav competition. As the name implied, the competition put an emphasis on navigation skills, and those were particularly important on the tanker side of the house. <br /><br />During this particular meeting, the commander was fuming, because one of our crews had finished dead last in the tanker competition. The problem: the nav called for a wrong turn, which put our KC-135 off-course for almost 30 minutes. By the time the error was discovered, the damage had been done. As I recall, our crew was a Select crew, so they were supposedly among SAC's elite. I think the crew remained intact after that debacle, but they lost their "Select" status. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712369389411084085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-13969669842343051002015-12-21T16:49:44.621-05:002015-12-21T16:49:44.621-05:00In the cold war days a navigation error that cause...In the cold war days a navigation error that caused an international incident resulted in a Flight Evaluation Board for the AC and Nav. <br /><br />I recall two cases of this in the early 80s, an F-4 and a Rivet Joint operating near Korea. Both were errors of a couple of miles.<br /><br />I wonder if there will be any FEBs from this incident? I suspect not.<br /><br />Nobody believed Francis Gary Powers was off course due to weather either. Jim Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18228368552972082442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-13024283971674546322015-12-21T16:49:26.317-05:002015-12-21T16:49:26.317-05:00These operations look more like innocent passage t...These operations look more like innocent passage than freedom of navigation. They implicitly recognize the legitimacy of China's claim.sykes.1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10954672321945289871noreply@blogger.com