Well now we have video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFe8C...feature=relmfu

cool and creepy at the same time

Yeah....something distinctly disturbing about the heavy handed dune dwellers climbing all over it.

Canopy close = some one dead when the plane crashed. Strange to see people forcing the cockpit.... :I

didn't realise theres a second part, shows the people unarming it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9LsK...feature=relmfu

It's toast now.

Sad.

Sad +1

Oh how nice.. they couldn't slide the canopy back so they just busted out the window (0:19).. Freacon tools

+1

So they found a 70 years old WWII plane in very good condition and then proceed to dismantle it like a car in a junkyard ...

What is next ? pressing and melt it to make Red Bull cans ?

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/images/icons/icon8.gif

+1 It hurts so much to see that canopy undamaged in video 1, and then busted in video 2 - and let's guess they did not open the ammo loading doors with a screwdriver but with a crowbar... Arghh...

Why don't the friggin RAF that according to the story has been contacted and identified the AC just fly down a team of experts and tell them to just get away from the wreck?

well it's sad but it would have happened soon or late. Weapons and ammo have to be removed anyway for safety reasons. Wonder what's gonna happen to it now.

Would not surprise me if we see a glut of parts on Ebay or similar (the wonderful power of the internet ;) )

Idiots

Well, it's been there is the desert for 70 years without anyone stealing those old .50 guns/rounds - I guess getting a working AK for a few bucks in that region is a lot easier than going out there picking up those dusted up guns ;) It just hurts seeing them tear those ammo boxes away...

It looks extremely well preserved (due to the dry climate naturally). But one can wonder what happens to aluminium that has been exposed to extreme heat every day for 70 years, and then rather harsh cold every night ;) I was in the Sahara not far from there long ago and the temperature range you go through in a 24 hour period is rather impressive...

S!

Amateurs wrecking a rarity :(

As someone has already said the canopy was closed so its a fair assumption the pilots remains were still inside.
The wreck therefore should be considered a war grave it just seems sacriligious to bust the canopy open and desicrate this site, irispective of the archiological importance of this find.
Even on a financial front surely the aircraft recovered complete has a far greater value than the transportable parts just sold as bits on ebay.

It's not a foregone conclusion the pilot was dead, the aircraft looks like it made a controlled and surviveable crash landing, he may just have closed it when leaving it for some strange reason.

I agree, a plane looking so good in terrain like that sure would need a pilot in rather good shape to handle that landing. And if the pilot was unhurt he sure would have closed the cockpit after leaving the plane... It would be rather strange after all the training to just leave it open in the desert? Then sadly one can guess that he did not make it on foot as the plane is still there without anything being salvaged - if he made it back they ought to have sent some salvage team to at least take some stuff back like instruments/guns etc...? But in the middle of a war that may have not been possible. It would be interesting to read what the RAF knows of the story as they according to the Polish site had identified the aircraft.

When looking at the Polish forum I found a link to the sad story of a B-24 lost in the same area that was not found until 1959, and the crew had lived for a week before the water ran out...

http://www.ladybegood.com/

Ah, me too. I think it is a beautiful plane and it has something very American about it. While the stang has something of a glamour boy and Cadillac style about it the P40 seems to me to be more grass root cowboy style.

I find it surprising that nobody has bought the wreck. I've seen wreckage in much worse condition sold for restoration. A p40 in original flying condition should go between 1.5 to 2 million US $. It looked like all the parts were still there in the first video, even the instrument panel looked untouched. I understand that they send the military in to expose of the weapons and ammo but it would've made more sense to treat it as an archeologic recovery. Spoons and toothbrush approach instead of crowbars. Just having the whole thing filmed professionaly by a national geographics team would've made for a nice documentary. Some governement official in Egypt dropped the ball on this one.

Enjoyed it! Thanks a lot! :grin:

That's speculation,considering the fact that the plane safely belly landed,the pilot walked out of it and probably closed the canopy shut to protect the inside: think about it,if you had to abandon your car wouldnt u still make sure it's shut?

Well removing explosives and ammunition it's the first thing you do before moving a wreck,and that's whats happening: they surely know the value of their find and as we speak it wouldn't surprise me if the wreck is already on a lorry to somewhere. As for the preservation,the first thing that you notice is that most of it looks sand blasted,while the rear section of the fuselage is still retaining most of its original paint! It wouldnt surprise me if the wreck was half buried in the sand for decades. A dry hot environment is the best way to preserve such materials (think of the huge desert depots in the US),still the plane is far from being an easy restoration.

Guys, that is not a Tomahawk.

It's at least an E model, Hawk 87 series. It never had nose guns.

Unfortunately the warbirds archaeology and restoration business is a ruthless one: this wreck surely bears a lot of importance for the fact that is a very rare thing to find such a time capsule,but there are a million ways this thing could be handled wrong. The leaking of pictures and videos on the Internet is an example of how things could be handled wrong. I don't know yet whats gonna happen to this wreck,and even if it looks complete,it would be a shame to restore it to flying conditions,since you would still have to take it apart completely and re-build most of it,losing much of the original material,only to bring back to the skies a not so rare warbird.
As I said,I hope that it will be taken to a museum and exposed as it was found,since this is a proper archaeological find,not a restorable barn find.

archaeological find, barn find either way they really need to get it out of there before it "disappears" in the dead of night...at the very least that is a 100,000 dollar gimme just sitting in the sand.

Looked like they were being quite gentle to me (in their own way).

During the 80's a group of enthuiasts went to recover a Spitfire from a mud flat near Broome Western Australia. They saw the cannons were still loaded so they called the RAAF. The RAAF sent in a team who, to the Horror of the Enthusiasts, stapped explosive charges to the magazines and exploded them.

Whats more important? A 70 year old wreck or the lives of the recovery team? The RAAF obviously went for the latter.

Cheers!

Totally mate yeah, kinda like the same relationship between the Spitfire and the Hurricane, Spitfire was to dazzle the girls, the hurricane was to kill the enemy.

Some thoughts on the 2 videos......


The big guy at the end of vid 2 is the rich guy, the boss. My guess is he is associated with the oil drilling operation. From the look of him I think his interest extends to more than a few ebay sales.

The guy with the hood and his arm around the big guy is possibly AWOT's friend, the oil explorer who made the discovery and reported the find to someone - possibly the big guy.

Most of the guys in the 1st vid are wearing the same trousers with a stripe - employees of the big guy and have been tasked to move the aircraft.

The recovery is officially sanctioned - based on the army removing the ammo.

The guy on the wing at the end of the 2nd vid is removing a wing root access panel - this isn't souveniring behaviour - it suggests to me that they are trying to remove the wings the proper way.

The gunsight removal may be souveniring or could be an attempt to remove items that may be damaged in the recovery / lifting operation. In almost all recoveries from far off places things go missing - the 110s/Stuka/Fw190 from Russia all suffered in some way so a few pieces may well go astray.

The deep slash in front of the windscreen is new and quite worrying - why do such a thing and what tool would make such a mark with outward facing tears?

They have already made an attempt to remove the rudder (top hinge disconnected) and possibly the left elevator (access panel open).

From all this I think we have a guy in charge who knows the value of what he has. He is wealthy and has a team who work for him. I think the videos show the start of the dismantling process and these have been put out there to generate interest.

This may be an overly positive view but I hope I'm right. I do hope AWOT can get back to us with a real assessment of the future of this bird.

delete

Awwww, cute. Look at the little toy P40 that they given the crew member on the right to ride on ;)

+ 1

I really like when wrecks are displayed in museums like they where found. They had a Gladiator in the RAF museum at Hendon when I was there in the 80:ies that looked just like when it was pulled out of a lake in Finland... I guess it's still there and it was much more interesting than a restored one. Put a patch of sand and rock at Hendon and show this baby just as it looks on the videos and it will have lots of people looking at it :)

/mazex

I'd like to see a spit or a p40 or any plane like that with no skin, just the skeleton, so its easy to see all the electronics and cables and such...

well most WW2 planes are a monocoque design, so you can't really "skin" them, they would just bend and break. Some have their panels partially removed or cut to show the inside structure though, you can find them in several museums.

On the other hand, today, 70 years later, it's not exactly in the same condition it was when it went down. So, what is it you want to show? The power of sandstorms?
You could as well part it out or restore it.

Or build one friggin huge diorama in a museum(is that realistic?).

just weld it all to a steel bar or something?

Weld aluminium to steel? good luck with that.

Actually, you can - an aircraft company developed a process which made it possible - although it's super complex and only done by robots.

It isn't, but it's in remarkably well preserved and complete conditions, modifying or changing any part of it would be a crime. It should be treated like an archaeological find, because that's what it is, and should be cleaned and preserved in its conditions. Once again, we're not looking at a rare warbird, but finding one so complete after so many years is a proper rare (if not unique) thing. It should get cleaned and go in a diorama as you said, like this P-40 here, found in shallow waters in Italy

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9...8093813rl4.jpg

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p40re.../p40-piana.jpg

http://forum.tantopergioco.it/discus...-delle-orme/p1

you wouldn't be able to that easily, it's the design of the thing that is meant to be covered with "structural skin", so even if you created a framework of steel, it would be so big that it would detract from the original looks. Monocoque construction was meant to make lighter planes, but it also meant a more structurally fragile airframe.

I wonder if we have any Egyptians among our ranks? Would love to hear what those guys in the vids are saying.

any Arabic speaker might do as well.

Pilot rituals
 

Hello fellow air enthousiasts!

I hope you like some pilot culture to? I was wondering if anybody knows if the picture I attached to my post depicts some kind of pilot ritual. The picture is from a set of photo's from RAF 609 squadron i've found on the internet. Because there is no further information with the photos, I can't tell if it was a practical joke or if it's really some kind of ritual for RAF pilots.

Yesterday I've heard another funny story about a pilot walking on the ceiling of the mess, in a documentary about operation Jericho (a very good one to). I assume that it must atleast have something of a purpose (it can't be just for fun, can it? :) ).

So if somebody knows more about what's happening on that photograph: feel free to share your knowledge. And I think there is still some place in this thread to post other pilot rituals to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAlaPEfcX2Q

Peeing on the plane's wheels or tail wheel before takeoff was quite a common one. I've heard of pilots not wanting to be photographed before a mission,not celebrating the end of a tour before the last mission..

Pilots were/are a superstitious bunch: I once was going to an airfield with a military pilot who slammed on the brakes and pulled over because a black cat had crossed the road.. I thought he was pulling my leg but he actually waited for someone else to pass before he got back on the road!

Now it is officially confirmed: the P-40 found is this one.
 

The pilot got lost due to a wrong Lonely Planet map consulted upside down. The rest is history:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJZ5x...168&feature=iv

World War II: Air War Over Iraq
 

nice read
http://www.historynet.com/world-war-...-over-iraq.htm

Well i have seen MiG-21 that had most almost all of its skin removed on one side of the fuselage. I think that most aircraft would survive such treatment

Mig-21 is not a stressed skin construction.....well it kind of is, but it's built using heavier and stiffer formers and spars which are much more self supporting.

Maybe a Hurricane or other fabric covered aircraft can be displayed that way, but a typical WWII all metal airframe is a monocoque (stressed skin) and would deffinately bend and wobble with no skin on.

Dayton Ohio Air Force Museum has this Sabre.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1242045...57601765630342
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1242045...7601765630342/

TOAD! how are ya?

Cool thanks for posting:cool:

I trust that it was something to the effect of "What a wonderful pile of scrap metal, it must be a gift from Allah! Where did Abdul put the saws-all? Sorry boys, but it will be a miracle if this find survives the next few days. :(

Simple solution...England declares war on Egypt :eek: that should get the export paper work pushed through rather quickly :)

p.s i still want to know about the pilot and did he survive

Good OB!

You?

PM me.

wow

Your Still Alive?!?!? ;)

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

That's Tvrdi isn't it?

I think Wolf Biscuits did a movie about Iraq 1941




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGR0QhL_aPI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDNSt...feature=relmfu

^ what he said.

Whatever I guess you are the expert. What idiot would used stressed skin construction on supersonic jet makes no sense.

Has anyone noted the position of the Throttle? seems like it's nearly 3/4 to Full.

Still reading the book, I found two very interesting passages regardig the sinking of Lusitania (one of the reasons that caused America's entry to WW I):


Over 170tons of high explosives on a passenger ship! Good example how little significance "collateral damage" has, since...

And the "juicy" part:
And the rest is history.

~S~

I didn't see this link posted anywhere in this thread.... many more photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/1146825...at=directlink#

A very good book!

I bought it, when I started to play "Jutland" from Stormeagle Studios. If you are interested in WWI Naval warfare, I recommend also Campbells "Jutland - An Analysis of the Fighting".


I tend to buy books for my games, when I feel I don`t know enoguh about the period of time. F.e. I have the whole "Black Cross Red Star" series because of Il-2.

That's great, thanks for sharing. Too bad there is nothing in there to sqpecifically identify plane and pilot. I pray this treasure falls into the right hands.

I guess I am yes ;-)

Seriously, to be 100% accurate what we have on WW2 and modern fighters is a semi-monocoque construction, where the combination of stringers, bulkheads and stressed skin makes for the shape and robustness of the aircraft.
The reason is mainly because you save a lot of weight and material by doing things this way: whilst it's unthinkable to do a supersonic fuselage on a traditional Warren truss & canvas method, the use of an all metal structure needs to be thought after in a practical and weight saving manner.

There are interesting transitional hybrids, which were a good compromise between performance and structural ruggedness, such as the Hurricane and the S.79 Sparviero. They both sported a mixed solution of tubular frame covered with canvas/metal and semi-monocoque parts, like the semi-monocoque metal wing of the Hurri or the wooden box construction of the Sparviero's wing.

Some other designs weren't particularly happy, but proved to be very rugged, like the Vickers Wellington's geodetic structure.

Another fantastic example of non hortodox aeronautical engineering is the structure of the DeHavilland Mosquito, almost completely made of a wood sandwich which can be imagined as a sort of pre-historic carbon fibre.

thanks for the extra link! A lot more pictures and interesting details coming up! Unfortunately they've already tampered enough with that poor relic, let's hope it finds a home soon before it gets vandalised for good..

Great images in that link... How about this:

Original image:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1815/obraz151pk.jpg

Edit to show the possible hints of HS-B
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/9...z151edited.jpg

And a 260 sqadron desert P-40... Wrong type though (no Allison):
http://www.aviationartstore.com/imag...40_edwards.jpg

Speculation ;) It definately is a B though... But we want the squadron letters and my HS feels more vague :)

He he, doing more web research, naturally someone did an IL2 skin for this AC:

http://asisbiz.com/il2/P-40-RAF-SAAF...0-Edwards.html

And someone restored it or painted another one ;)
http://www.airfighters.com/datas/pho...f_a29_414_.jpg

And it was scrapped in 1944 as I understand it :) More theories?

And in this thread at some forum more people speculate on HS-B (and the pilot "Stocky Edwards" is obviously still alive - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edwards - someone got to ask him if he ditched a plane and forgot about it ;))

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?p=1882370

well at least we know it's 100% a Hawk 87A-3!

Historians will have their good work to do, needless to say it would help to know the exact location!

*prepares lorry just in case...*

I think mazex is prob right with the ID letters it really does look like HSB, theres a pic of a battery label with a date of 1941, could this be an HSB from before the referenced picture dated 1943?

it's a bit of a long shot, they should have taken pics of data plates in the cockpit really.

And a Hawk 87A-3 fits the early "fat" roundels (Kittyhawk Mk IA - lost in 1942 maybe?)... Interesting when all will be sorted out :)

That would make it a Tomahawk not a Kittyhawk then surely, As far as i know there were later versions of the IIb that had no nose mounted mgs which would correspond to that line of thought.

Sutts, you have a private message.

He he, this was fun...

While browsing this list of the Desert Air Force:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Air_Force

To check the squadron codes for all the 1942 Kittyhawk I:s I was looking at 2 Squadron SAAF that was a suspect flying Kittyhawks in the desert of 1942... When looking at this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Squadron_SAAF

I scrolled and to my amazement coming from Sweden they currently fly JAS-39 Gripen :) It's a small world (even though I knew we sold Gripens to South Africa).

Still - HS feels like the best bet anyway...

From some quick research - the other squadron flying Kittyhawks for that time frame in Sahara where (omitting the USAAF naturally):

Code - Sqadron
---------------------------------
DB - No. 2 SAAF (now flying JAS-39 ;))
CA - No. 3 SAAF
KJ - No. 4 SAAF
GL - No. 5 SAAF
GA - No 112. RAF
LD - No. 250 RAF (Kittyhawk IIA though)
HS - No. 260 RAF
OK/DJ - No. 450 RAF

No.

An 87A series is a P-40E, which makes it a Kittyhawk. Just look at the thing. It's not a Hawk 81. The spinner, engine cowling, and wing gun locations are all totally wrong for a Tomahawk.

No Hawk 81s (Tomahawks in RAF service) were delivered with the nose guns deleted. What happend was that the RAF was having troubles with the change to the Colt manufactured .50 syncronised nose guns, so the training units that had the aircraft at the time often did not use them.

there's a chance(if that plane is from the 260th) that that plane we are looking at might have been shot down by a legend... Hans-Joachim Marseille

Opponents were Kittyhawks I from No. 260 Squadron RAF and Tomahawks IIB from No. 2 Squadron SAAF and No. 4 Squadron SAAF. These units had the following losses in this engagement: three Tomahawks and one Kittyhawk missing (one pilot later returned wounded), two Kittyhawks and two Tomahawks crash landed after aerial combat, and one heavily damaged and one lightly damaged Kittyhawk. On the German side I.JG 27 reported five P-40s, II./JG 27 three P-40s shot down. The combat reports indicate that Marseille's opponents were Kittyhawks from No. 260 Squadron RAF. His opponents were Squadron Leader Hanbury who crash landed and Sergeant Wareham who was killed in action.[

there are more 260th pilots listed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Joachim_Marseille

I only would argue that this aircraft has no apparent battle damage whatsoever, and also that it was found some 200 miles from any known action. (I have a friend in the area) I'd rather suspect that the bloke got lost and ran out of fuel. Of course I admit that I'm only speculating and that the only way we will ever learn the true story is to identify the particular craft.

That said, you definitely have a sharp eye Oddball, I never saw that now quite obvious B on the fuselage.

is this the plate with the info we need?
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-f...az%2520191.jpg

here are the rest of the pics
https://picasaweb.google.com/1146825...eat=directlink

not me sir, Mazex saw it :)

LOL! I apparently do not have such a sharp eye. :)

I went through every photo, but I didn't see anything useful. Of course I don't have a very good track record in this department, so........

Granted, the type is definitely identified, this is for sure a Kittyhawk IA. I've been doing some research, and we can narrow things down a bit, but even if we had a tail number there is no 100% guarantee of the full story

Marine aviator of the year recalls historic mission in Libya
 

Amazing to think about all the machines, people, training and talent that came together to make this all happen!

4/24/2012 By Cpl. Brian Adam Jones http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcascher...x#.T5ea66t2SwB
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. — The magnitude of the moment came to him over the radio, in a hoarse whisper.
Maj. J. Eric Grunke sat in the cockpit of an AV-8B Harrier at just past midnight March 22, 2011, thousands of feet above the Mediterranean Sea, and speeding toward the Libyan coastline.

Grunke was serving as a Harrier pilot assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit on the third day of Operation Odyssey Dawn, an international effort to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 to protect the Libyan people from Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime.

Tonight, Grunke was on a rescue mission.

Whispering into his radio from a hiding place on the ground was Air Force Maj. Kenneth Harney. His Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle had just crashed in the open desert near the Libyan city of Benghazi.

The 26th MEU’s Marines aboard the USS Kearsarge launched a Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel, or TRAP, mission to rescue the pilot. Grunke was to provide close air support to protect the downed pilot until help arrived.

Due in part to his actions in Libya, particularly on that day, The Marine Corps Aviation Association named Grunke the Marine Aviator of the Year, recognizing him as the pilot who made the most outstanding contribution to Marine aviation over that past year.

Grunke’s contribution came in the form of a dynamic mission over a short amount of time where he dropped two 500-pound bombs on tactical vehicles pursuing the downed pilot and identified a suitable landing zone for the MV-22B Osprey that would make the pickup. Just about three hours prior to all of this, Grunke had been aboard the USS Kearsarge preparing for another night of enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya.

“We were preparing for another armed reconnaissance mission where we would go out and look for targets,” Grunke said. “Word started to filter in that, potentially, an F-15 had crashed. We weren’t sure why, whether it was enemy air fire or a malfunction or what, so we started to determine, okay we’re going to have to launch the TRAP package to go rescue the pilot and his [weapons systems officer] – it was a two-seat F-15E.”

The weapons systems officer, Air Force Capt. Tyler Stark, ejected with Harney as the jet went down but was quickly rescued by friendly rebel sympathizers. Harney, however, was on the run.

“The pilot … had hit the ground, he was alive, he was on his radio, he was trying to get away from up to five or six tactical vehicles [that were] pursuing after him, and he was just trying to get out of the open desert and away,” said Grunke.

The Marines aboard the USS Kearsarge launched the full TRAP package to rescue him – two AV-8B Harriers, two MV-22B Ospreys, and two CH-53E Super Stallions. A Marine Corps KC-130J Hercules joined the fight to provide aerial refueling.

“When we launch the TRAP, it’s an all or none kind of thing,” Grunke said.

Lt. Col. Shawn Hermley, who commanded the Harrier detachment assigned to the 26th MEU, said Grunke recently certified as an airborne forward air controller and was uniquely qualified to execute the rescue mission.

“I told him if we do this, I want you out there in the lead,” Hermley said.

After Grunke took off from the deck of the USS Kearsarge, he spoke to the command and control center and learned deadly force was authorized to protect the downed pilot.

He said that was all he needed to know, as his AV-8B Harrier was equipped with two 500-pound laser-guided bombs.

At the helm of the attack jet, speeding toward the Libyan desert en route to save a fellow service member from certain danger, Grunke switched over to the downed pilot’s radio frequency.

“I just start listening to gain an idea of what’s going on down there, and I can hear him, wind rustling and him whispering into his radio,” Grunke said. “At that point it all became real to me, listening to the guy whispering on the radio. This is no longer North Carolina, this is no longer practice – that’s really a guy down there scared for his life.”

Grunke arrived overhead and took over as on-scene commander, relieving an Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon. The downed pilot radioed that he was fleeing vehicles with searchlights. He could hear barking dogs and gunfire.

“Within five minutes of being on station, I’m able to get my targeting pod sensor on this pursuing vehicle,” Grunke said. “I tell the pilot, ‘Okay, I can see the guys … I’ve got two 500-pound bombs, do you need them?’ He says, ‘Yes, yes I do.’”

As he maneuvered to a point where he could release and guide the munitions to the pursuing vehicle, Grunke heard the airman make one more request.

“He comes up and actually crying on the radio he says, ‘tell my wife I love her.’ And again, just underlying the realness of the situation I said, ‘don’t worry, I’m going to have a bomb on the deck in one minute,’” Grunke said. “I released one bomb, and I’m able to guide it for 50 seconds or so, all the way to a direct impact.”

Hermley described Grunke’s attack on the vehicle as “impressive.” He said looking through the Harrier’s targeting pod is a lot like looking through a drinking straw.

“The dropping of the bomb isn’t the hard part, it’s an attack we do all the time,” Hermley said. “But he was going after a moving target, and one that was tracking toward his friendly. Any pilot in our detachment could drop a bomb, but doing it under pretty high stress circumstances, with that pilot talking to him, fearing for his life, [Grunke’s] actions on the TRAP were monumental.”

Grunke dropped one more bomb on another vehicle pursing the pilot, finally delivering the message to the assailants on the ground to leave Harney alone.

“At that point I gave my sole attention to trying to locate a suitable landing zone for the Ospreys that launched from the ship a few minutes after I did,” Grunke said.

Noticing a road not far from the creek bed where Harney was hiding, Grunke generated a coordinate for the location and passed it over the radio to the Osprey pilots.

The Osprey, complete with a rescue team of Recon Marines, landed less than 50 meters from the pilot’s hiding place.

“They found him very quickly, to the point where he just ran in the back of the aircraft as soon as it landed,” Hermley said. “The Marines barely even had the chance to get out.”

Grunke said he shook Harney’s hand back aboard the USS Kearsarge, making a great ending for an extraordinary mission.

Hermley said Grunke’s role in the TRAP mission was pivotal. He not only defended the downed pilot from aggressors, he provided invaluable reconnaissance to the rest of the rescue force.

“The hardest part of a mission like that is knowing where the survivor is, and in this instance he had moved about three miles,” Hermley said.

“Fortunately for us, every MEU practices a TRAP, because it’s a ballet. You’re working off of a moving platform – the boat, and you have to have everything moving at the right time,” Hermley said. “The key to the TRAP is ‘how fast can you execute it?’ We had assets airborne within the hour.”

Hermley said as Marines, and especially as part of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force aboard a MEU, everyone involved knows they have to react quickly to a mission they hadn’t planned on.

“[The Marine Corps Aviator of the Year award] was well deserved. The highlight for him was his performance and execution of that TRAP. He quite possibly saved that pilot’s life,” Hermley said. “But there was a lot of stuff behind the scenes as well. He was one of my best advisors; he worked a lot of long hours figuring out the best way to execute that mission in Libya”

“It was obvious that we had made a huge difference in liberating this area specifically, a stark contrast from night one where [the Libyan people] were essentially under [Gadhafi’s] thumb. I could see visible results of what we did,” Grunke said. “Night one, [Gadhafi’s forces] were essentially on the footsteps of Benghazi. Night by night by night, we just continuously pushed this line back.”

Grunke described the operation in Libya as the chance of a lifetime for an AV-8B Harrier pilot.

“Pinnacle of my career, really, for an attack pilot to be the forward edge, the tip of the spear, to be operating from amphibious shipping; it was absolutely the pinnacle of what I’ve done so far,” Grunke said. “I am so privileged and humbled to be receiving this award, especially since it will be awarded as Marine aviation celebrates its centennial.”

In order NOT to be banned!
 

There is a lot, and I mean a LOT, that can be said about the NATO war on Libya and this man's participation in it but I will not today because the truth have many martyrs and the lies non.
Viking

Were is that text qoute from in your post ?

the truth is the first victim.. they take out ghadaffi for the oil and now the common libyas are suffering the militias abuses(and the "smart" bombs during the campaign). its a shame that "democracy or freedom" are used as an excuse by the war profiteers.
3rd neocolonial "intervention" of the century?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdpuHald-5k

Mr obama "some nations can turn a blind eye to atrocities to other countries, we are diferent" sure thing! you sponsor them nice guy

Wonderful find! Reminds me of the 109 found in Russia few years ago (complete with pilot remains, 20mm hole in pilot seat).

..but above all who the feck is on charge of the acronyms in the US Armed Forces!? A rescue mission called TRAP?! :shock:

Don't remember that one carguy. Got any links or piccies please?

Maybe carguy means this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-VpSDxWTnI

What did you have in mind? Combat Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel? :?

Next one found
Heinkel HE 219 found off the Danish Coast:
http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/EC...nd-in-denmark/

lol why does it have to be an acronym at all costs? I wouldn't be impressed if I was sitting in a briefing room discussing the details of my TRAP or CRAP mission to be honest lol

go to youtube site, its in the comments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9LsK74J_W0

No pilot remains, he survived. The plane was abandoned later. The holes are most likely caused by a German grenade, trying to render the plane useless before they took a run.

International Space Station
 

Over the past few months I have taken pictures of the ISS from my phone and put together a little slide show. I hope you enjoy. And sorry for the low resolution... Blame NASA for not putting HD cameras on the ISS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXobNHX3Kkk

More correctly " (one of the reasons used to justify America's entry to WW I to the American public) "

Generally speaking over the last century or so the American people have been far less inclined to get involved in other peoples wars than those they put in power.

:confused:

I know someone who's scheduled to go up there next year.

Not sure sure if that's a privilege or something only a mad man can look forward to.

Id say its a privilege a mad man looks forward to. I would jump at the opportunity to go up to the ISS... Now if I had to be there for more than a month, I would be a little worried.