Updates
March 9, 2022: wow, well played by the Biden team. Huge head fake.
President Biden announced the ban on Russian oil, natural gas, and coal and then flew to Ft Worth, Texas. It was rumored that he was going to Texas to talk oil, which, of course, made no sense at all (see original post: going to Ft Worth to talk oil? Oh, give me a break). He kept to his schedule. Following the SOTU speech in which he spend a good deal of time on curing cancer and medical care for veterans, where does he go? He heads to a VA hospital in Texas to talk, not about oil, or Ukraine, but about curing cancer and medical care for veterans. Wow, huge head fake. Well played.
Again, as I've said before, I would rather have "a Biden" in the White House right now than "a Trump."
Original Post
To talk oil. LOL.
He must have a geography issue. In order of preference if coming to talk oil in Texas:
- Midland
- Odessa
- Houston
- Dallas
- Plano
- Ft Worth (maybe)
- with what they "talk" in Ft Worth, Jen Psaki will feel right at home (see comments)
You come to Ft Worth to talk cattle.
Later, 3:45 p.m. CT: according to my wife who checked the local news, President Biden has just concluded his remarks at the VA hospital in Ft Worth, Texas. This boggles the mind. Why would he fly in, seemingly at the last minute (which of course, is not accurate; this trip was in the making for a long time, one would think) to visit a VA hospital in Texas. This is more than bizarre.
Later, 5:10 p.m. CT: we now have the reason President Biden spoke at the VA hospital in Ft Worth. It was veterans day. Not the Veterans' Day but veterans day for President Biden.
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Talking Air Force
Something I found while looking for something else.
It is impossible for me not to vicariously enjoy / experience these stories after 30 years and one day in the USAF. The medics would have been heavily involved, and most likely a nurse, at a minimum, on every flight. It is impossible to articulate what the men and women accomplish in the military. This is just one very, very small cog in the entire operation.
The chain of command from POTUS down to the squadron commander making this happen is just incredible. POTUS - SecDef - USAF/CC - USAFE/CC - 521st AMOW/CC - 521st Operations Group/CC -- squadron commanders -- flight commanders -- a/c commanders.
Commander of the 521 AMOW at Ramstein Air Base, Germany: Colonel Adrienne L. Williams.
When I sat in at the daily briefings chaired by a four-star general, an operation like this would have merited a single PowerPoint slide updating the command. If going smoothly no one would have commented, and the boss would have moved on. At the same time, if a plane was grounded due to lack of one part, the four-star general was kept abreast of where that part was every time it moved to a new location on its way to the disabled aircraft. No matter how small or seemingly inconsequential, if the part kept the a/c from flying the commanding general was ready to be on the phone, no so much "asking why" but "how are you going to get the part moving again?"
From Task & Purpose, September 24, 2021, humanitarian airlift out of Afghanistan:
- 521st Air Mobility Operations, Ramstein Air Base, Germany
- airlifted 124,000 people out of Afghanistan over a two week-period
- the unit is spread over 19 bases in 15 countries and 5,000 miles between the Middle East, Africa, and Europe
- it has a sister unit in the Pacific, the 515th AMOW, the 521st ...... see linked article.
When you see C-17, the "C" stands for "cargo" or "heavy." The C-17 is the largest a/c in the USAF inventory. It's in the same ballpark as the C-141, the C-5, the Boeing 747, etc. It's a big plane.
From the linked article:
At the evacuation’s height, there were more than 46 C-17s on the ramp
at Al Udeid, supporting up to 35 daily launches, Quirk said, [to evacuate more than 120,000 people.]
Amid the
chaos, airmen were still boarding the flights to provide water and
medical care for evacuees. They also hired a local catering company to
provide “three daily Afghan cuisine meals” to evacuees and had mental
health professionals standing by, Quirk said.
“All of this was accomplished at the peak of summer, with daily
temperatures regularly reaching in excess of 110 degrees Fahrenheit at
an installation that was not designed to accommodate this type of
operation,” she added.
How many passengers can a C-17 carry? Link here. Generally, about 200.
For the USAF Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, the record was set last year:
- 823 Afghan citizens, August 18, 2021, mission as noted above.
- but the US Army will note: Afghan people are small people, so it really doesn't count.
From the linked article:
USAF spokesperson Major Hope Cronin said on 18 August that the flight was designed for, and arrived at, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
The USAF previously estimated that there were roughly 640 passengers on this flight, but the service inadvertently included only adults. Approximately 183 children were also on board.
Maj Cronin said that the C-17 can be configured with a range of passenger options. The aircraft typically seats 102 passengers with centerline cargo seats and 138 passengers with seat pallets. The C-17 can carry 336 passengers when arranged into a humanitarian configuration where passengers are seated on the cargo floor with straps over their legs.
In the photo below, if you look hard enough, you will see Waldo, of "Where's Waldo" fame, about halfway back on the port side of the aircraft. You can just barely make out his red / white striped cap. Also, note that some folks were not wearing their USAF-issue-Covid-19 masks. I'm quite impressed that the woman near the center of the second row was wearing her mask.
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A Humorous Interlude
Mid-week edition of "PowerLine Pictures."
My absolute favorite, a Rhino and a Greta in the wild, together:
