PHY_Hawkeye

"Goodbye, Farewel and Amen." The saddest of episodes (event though it was in 5 parts.)

Yep Jay and Bea. I'm definitly most like Hawkeye. A have a rep for being really sarcastic most of the time, and always making jokes (even the occasional bad one). (Also we have the same nick ) BUT..... I'm also alot like Sidney Freedman. A good listening ear and a shoulder to cry on.

In Belfast there's a street named RPG Avenue

I had heard that too, (on this forum as it happens) but according to the caption on this photo these guys are Force Recon. If you look at the guy in front, you can make out what looks like a scope on his weapon. Of course, the caption could have been wrong

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Booky @ Feb. 22 2003,19:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Next time you claim to be a Christian, maybe you shouldn't state that you haven't read the bible. Sorry if reality hurts.<span id='postcolor'> Just because someone hasn't read the Bible, that doesn't mean they arn't a Christian. You don't have to read the Bible to know how to live a good life. Anyway, back on topic. I always wondered why BIS decided to name the islands like that. Anyone want to hazard a guess?

This Thread covers the flag patch issue very well. BAS, great work. You guys are the masters

Excellent!!! Downloading now

Clarke jogged towards the figure standing in the dirt road. He'd realise why that voice was so familiar. Vasquez broke out in a fit of laughter. "Jesus H. Christ!" exclaimed Clarke as he stopped in front of the Army boy. "If it isn't Sargeant Luiz Vasquez, 101st Airborne!" He glanced at the mans shoulder, "Sorry, Master Sargeant." Vazquez recovered from his laughter and made a half assed salute. "Captain Gareth Clarke. You son of a bitch. You following me around?" The two men exchanged a quick hug and pats on the back. "Don't complain kid, thats twice I've saved your ass." Clarke remarked. "Yeah ok, I'll give you that one. Nice landing by the way." Vasquez pointed at the stricken Cobra. Clarke thought he detected a hint of sarcasm in the mans voice. "Yeah, well, if it wasn't for your boys getting to us it'd have been my last." Clarke took off his Flight Helmet and wiped the sweat from his forehead, then put on his Sunglasses."You boys still know how to get in the shit I see." "Ain't that the truth." Agreed Vasquez. As they talked, a number of helicopters flew overhead and into the airfield. UH-60s. Three landed in front of the hangers and soldiers from the 101st jumped out and began to secure the area. A Dustoff landed nearby to collect the wounded and dead. The airfield was now theirs. A Major from the 101st got out of the Dustoff and came over to Vazquez and Clarke. Salutes were exchanged. "Damn fine work Vazquez. Damn fine." "Thank you sir." The major looked at Clarke. "And you are?" Clarke extended a hand. "Captain Gareth Clarke sir. United States Marine Corps." The major accepted the handshake. "Not 'the' Captain Clarke?" He looked at Vasquez inquizitvly. "Yes sir." Vasquez confirmed. "This is the guy who pulled us out of Tora Bora. Best pilot I've ever seen." The Major stared at Clarke. "So you're the guy who cursed me with Vasquez for the rest of my career. Good to meet you Captain." "Thank you sir. I ah.... need to arrange an airlift and get that chopper back to base for repairs. Can I use your radio?" The Major grinned. "No need Captain, it's already at home." Clarke and Vasques looked at each other, puzzeled; then at the Cobra, it was still there. "Sir?" The Major explained; "I just got the word. Your unit will be operating out of this airfield for the time being. Your orders are to stay here and await their arrival. They should be here in about six hours." So, the 'Gunfighters' were coming here. "What about us sir?" asked Vasquez. "We'll be staying here as planned. Guess we're going to have some company for a while." Salutes were again exchanged and the Major walked off to survey his troops. The airfield looked real busy, not as if it were the site of a battle less than an hour ago. The battle was over, but the war hadn't even started yet. "Well well..." Remarked Clarke. "Yep." Agreed Vasquez.

Turned out Clarkes' lag wasn't broken, it had just felt that way. The force of the crash had slammed the edge of his seat onto his left femur, but the crash hadn't been violent enough to break anything, just tense up the muscle in his leg. When he started to run towards the ridge the muscle began to loosen up. It hurt to run but he could function. They made it to the ridge and met up with the three Army boys. "Howdey." remarked the SAW gunner, before truning his attention to the buildings. Laurance was on his hads and knees now, puking his guts out. guess his adrenalin was wearing off. Clarke peered over the ridge at the chopper. The sun was just beginning to kreep over the horizon. He saw Sgt. Kennsingsen and his partner hastly look around, and started running towards the ridge. He peered off past the chopper at the wreaked tanks. There was a lone figure running from the wreakage towards the chopper. The figure carried a rifle. The pilot reached for his own M4 just bafore the lone figure let off a burst of fire at Kennsingsen and Ramirez. Ramirez dropped, the rounds had hit him in the small of his back. On impulse Kennsingsen hit the dirt and crawled towards Ramirez, the two men were totally exposed. Clarke leveled his weapons iron sites on the figure and let off three rounds in quick succession. The first missed, the second found the mans leg, the third his head. That was it for him. A private from the 101st came up beside Clarke. "Not bad for a rotorhead Captain." Clarke allowed an almost undetectable smile; "I'm a marine son. We're all riflemen at heart." Kennsingsen was now shuffling towards them, dragging Ramirez. When he got to them, a Medic began work on Ramirez. After a few minutes he looked up and shook his head. Just then the radio sprand to life. "Sgt. Kennsingsen! Check your SAW gunner's fire. He just committed a blue on blue. I repeat friendly fire, over" Kennsingsen moved towards the offending gunner to stop him, and Clarke began to think for a minute. That voice. It was the Whiskey Four-Three, but on platoon radio it was allot clearer that it had been in the chopper. It was somehow familiar, but Clarke couldn't put his finger on it. "Seargent, who's your platoon leader? I'd like to meet him once the area is secure."

"What the fuck!" Clarke looked over his right sholder and saw the SAM out of the rear of his canopy, but it wasn't headed towards him. This was the second SAM launch in thirty seconds, he hadn't seen the first. "Two, Spike seven o'clock. Break left, chaff flare!" But it was too late. Just as the Supercobra began a snap turn to it's left the missile slammed into it's belly and Kilo Two-Two was gone. The flash was brighter than anything Clarke had ever seen. Two-Twos' canopy was blown out by red flames. the rotor dome and most of the fusalage disintegrated, and the tail boom flew off in the opposite direction. "Kilo Two is down. Repeat Two is down." The United States Marine Corps had just suffered it's first losses of the war. Semper Fi fellas. No time to reflect now. Clarke pulled back on the cyclic and pushed full left peddle while pulling up a little on the collective. The Cobra nosed up and turned 180 degrees. "Arm FFARs. Lets waste that shit." The Gecko fired another missile, but not at them. The ship flew fast towards the SA-8 but before they could line up the shot it exploded. "Whoa, what was that?" asked Laurence. Clarke veered away from the now burning Gecko and scanned the sky, which all of a sudden felt vey crowded. Thers it was, an Airforce A-10, a big ugly Warthog. Clarke moved off to the East to stay clear as it made a few passes before shooting off home. He couldn't talk to the pilot, as he didn't know what frequency he was on. There was still allot of small arms fire coming from the buildings, the enemy wasn't beated yet, but the mission was to take the airfield intact, not mush more the Airforce could do here. Laurence spoke up. "Sir, vehicle movement at ten o'clock." There was a jeep speeding out of one of the small hangers. "Waste him." Ordered Clarke. The Cobras 20mm cannon swung left and a short burst nailed the jeep. Clarke began a wide turn to make another pass and see what he could see. Then clang clang clang. Clarke lost all engine power. The 30 calibre rounds from a machine gun, that had up untill now been silent within one of the buildings, had cut his fule lines. On instinct Clarke bottomed out the collective and puled back a little on the cyclic, looking for a place to land. "Mayday Mayday, Kilo Two-One. I'm hit. Lost all engine power. We're going down." Clarkes autorotation saved their lives, they hit the sand with a thump but the skids held up to the punishment. "You alright kid?" enquired Clarke as he unfastned his harness and poped his canopy open. "Yeah....Yes sir." Clarke climbed out and reached back into the cockpit, behind his seat to get his M4. Laurence was shaken, but otherwise fine. He too grabbed his weapon. They were not too far from the Army boys. Between the grunts and the enemy. Clarke again reached into the cockpit. The radio was still working. "Whiskey Four-Three, Whisky Four-three, this is Kilo Two-One. Do you copy, over?" Ping ping ping. Rounds started hitting off the Cobras hull. "Shit!" yelled Laurence. "Whiskey Four-Three, Kilo Two-One, we're recieving ground fire here. Can you asist? We're sitting ducks here." The two pilots took cover behind their stricken ship and waited for a reply.

"Kilo Two-One do you copy?" "Two-One copys Whiskey, stand by." Clarke responded. "Two, Lead, weapons free, lets waste those fuckers." Clarke kept the ship in a hover about 20 feet off the sand, the rotors were kicking up allot of dust. "Target locked", that was Laurence. "Fire!" The TOW anti-tank missile lept out of its' launch tube and spead towards the waiting tank. Clarke would have preferred Hellfire IIs but those were in short supply. The control wire danced behind the projectile, Laurence sending signals down it, ensuring the missile hit home. It did. The DU warhead burrowed into the side of the T80 and the turret flew into the air, followed by an erruption of fire. Two-Twos missile had launched a few seconds earlier and struck the front of the third tank, the armor seemed to deflect the TOW, it exploded outside the vehicle. Luckey fuckers. The launches got the attention of the Iraqis on the ground. And the other tank. It swung around and fired it's maghine gun at Kilo Flight. A fixed gun emplacement near a hanger also opened up on them. Now it gets interesting. "Two, break off to the right and circle the base, come in on a 210. I'm going to circle  to the left and take a 070 course. Gun running time, keep the infantry away from our boys."."Rodger Lead." Two-Two broke off and headed North. Laurence fired another TOW at the lead tank and Clarke took them South. He saw an explosion but couldn't assess how much damage they'd caused the lead T-80. "Whiskey Four-Three, Kilo Two-One. Will strafe enemy infantry with Twenty Mike Mike. Call in if you require direct fire. Two-One out."

Captain Clarke, U.S.M.C. lay in the shadow cast by the moonlight falling against his AH-1W, enjoying a smoke and recalling past conflicts in his life. He was rembering the Tora Bora incident. Wonder what happened to those guys. After his tour in Afghanistan he'd been reassigned to fly Cobras, although he stayed with the same unit, HMLA-369 "Gunfighters". The unit was stationed at a FARP which was technically within Iraqs boarder. But that didn't seem to matter right now. He wore his tan colored flight suit and a Boonie hat. He and his wingman were on standby for immediate takeoff. This pissed off the pilots because it ment thay had to stay near their aircraft, and they never actually had to scramble. After all, the war hadn't really started yet, had it? Why the hell did all the fighting have to take place in deserts? Why can't we have a war in a nice hospitible climate for once? His weapons systems operator (WSO), CWO-2 Laurence, strolled around the nose of the ship. "Those things will kill you sir." He pointed to the cigarette. "Yeah?" Clarke replied, "Given my line of work, if these are the only things that kill me, I figure I'm doing O.K." Laurence rolled his eyes and began to sit down in the shade when a young Lieutenant came running towards them. "Get those birds in the air!" They both jumped up and climbed into the cockpit. "Whats this about?" enquired Clarke. A snap answer followed, "Briefing over the radio sir." The kid ran on towards the second Cobra to deliver the same message. Clarke setteled into his seat and pulled on his helmet, starting the preflight sequence. A corporal closed and locked the canopy, giving Clarke and Laurance a quick thumbs up before running away from the already turning rotor. Two minutes later the engines were at good R.P.M.s and the crews were listen to Major Castors briefing. "Some Army boys have reported armored contacts at co-ordinates Zero Zero Six Two Five Bearing 190. They're on a mission to secure an airfield and need those tanks taken care of. The units callsign is Whiskey Four-Three. Your callsigns are Kilo Two-One and Two-Two. Get moving boys, check in at 10 kilcks out. Good luck." Clarke spoke, "Rodger that Six. Two, lets go, loose formation." He pulled up on the collective and gave her a little left peddel to counter the torque. The AH-1s rose gracefully and headed off towards the Iraqi desert. The comm clicked in Clarkes ear, it was Laurence. "You've seen allot of combat sir. Is this going to be tough?" Laurance had never seen combat before. Clarke on the other hand, was a veterans of Operations Restore Hope, Desert Storm, Allied Force and Enduring Freedom. "Don't worry kid, this sounds like a walk in tha park." They flew onward into the desert skys.....

It's not. You have to download the whole 'Nam Pack (V.2)

Looking great. Top quality.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (FSPilot @ Feb. 04 2003,20:31)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">here's my scientific forumula push throttle forward = up and fast pull throttle back = down and slow<span id='postcolor'> Nice one. I might have passed my test after all  Edit: Cool, 250th post.

Then I reckon the rest of the squad would probibly be armed with M4s (or perhaps M14s if it's a jungle/forested area). Maybe a 203 as well.

Well there's a guy in our Physics department who just got back from a years placement with NASA. Maybe I'll find him and get some answers

But rember we're not just talking about the vertical distance (in relation the the earths surface). There is also the matter of the period of their orbits. The Coulmbia would have had to use a fare amount of fuel to match angular velocity with the ISS.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Warin @ Feb. 04 2003,00:12)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">And I am pretty sure it could have docked with the ISS. Â Shuttles have been docking there for ages.<span id='postcolor'> Yes, but the docking mechanism isn't standard on the shuttle, it's only fitted on missions to the ISS. Columbia didn't have one on this mission.

I think they only carry two suits on each mission. If even that many. Also, I dought they would have had an MMU abord. Without one of those, leaving the Orbiter is very dangerous. Edit: It would take AT LEAST a week (and thats streaching pre-flight to the bare minimum and putting the crew at extream risk, if it's even possible) to prep another shuttle. And a heck of allot longer to send up a shuttle and crew that could actually do some good. The Columbia wouldn't have had enough life support to wait that long.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (denoir @ Feb. 03 2003,23:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I found this on a Swedish newspaper's site. I havn't seen it on CNN or anywhere else for that matter but its quite possible that I've just missed it. The picture shows two cracks on the left wing. The picture was taken during a video conference between Ariel Sharon and Ilan Ramon. During the conversation Ramon wanted to show Sharon what a view of the earth he had. He happend to capture the left wing on tape too. Edit: Found another refrence to that 'Photograph shows cracks on shuttle's wing' </span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"> Jerusalem - The Israeli newspaper Maariv on Monday published a picture of the American space shuttle Columbia apparently showing two cracks on its left wing. The picture was taken 11 days before the shuttle broke up on its way back to Earth on Saturday, killing all seven crew members. The photograph was extracted from footage taken by a camera onboard the shuttle during a live satellite video conference between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Colonel Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli to travel to space. During the 15-minute conversation with Sharon and other Israeli officials, Ramon offered to share his view of Earth from the shuttle. The video caught part of the shuttle's left wing, showing two "long" cracks, according to the newspaper. The fissures could have been the cause of the technical problems experienced by the shuttle which led to its breakup over Texas, 16 minutes before it was due to land, the newspaper stated. "Even if Nasa had discovered the cracks that appeared at take-off, it would not have been able to do anything to save the crew," the article read. The newspaper report drew a guarded response from Tim Stevenson, an engineer at the Space Research Centre at Britain's University of Leicester. In a telephone interview Stevenson said that although he had not seen the pictures, what appeared to be cracks might actually be a trick of light. "You can't see very much of the wing from inside the space station," he said. "It may be that the shot you see there is of antennas. There are thin wires that run along the hinge of the payload bay doors and (in a picture) they would appear in contrast. They would appear over the wing as a thin line." He added: "To be honest, the crew would have observed (a big crack) very quickly, particularly if it was big enough to be observed in any kind of video footage, and they would have acted very differently if they had observed it." Another point, he said, was that a large, visible crack on the top surface of the wing "would manifest itself as a structural failure very early on. "Given the point at which Nasa said the break-up occurred, the shuttle would have already undertaken its S-turn manoeuvres (to slow its descent), which are relatively stressful. "To put it bluntly, if the wing was going to break up, it was going to break up a long time before that point," he said. Nasa's space shuttle programme director Ron Dittemore said on Sunday that Columbia had seen a significant rise in temperature on the left side in the minutes leading to its disintegration. Dittemore said the drag on the left increased and the onboard computer tried to correct it by bringing the shuttle to the right. The drag could be "indicative" of a missing heat tile or a rough tile on one of the wings. The shuttle had 24 000 protective tiles that resist the intense heat which envelopes the craft as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. Dittemore emphasised that there was no firm theory as to the cause of the disaster, stressing that the investigation was continuing. - Sapa-AFP <span id='postcolor'><span id='postcolor'> I saw it today on UTV and CNN. I dunno, but I don't see how that can be the wing. Look at the Orbiter, to me it looks like there are no viewports that would allow a crewember that kind of view tof he wing from inside. Maybe it's just me. bn880: They couldn't have docked with the ISS, there was no docking mechanism onboard the Orbiter.

Even if NASA wanted to keeo their findings from the public, I think they'd have a hard time doing so. After all we've already seen one leaked document from this mission. Hopefully they will find a way to make the docking system for coupling with the ISS a permanent fixture. So when a danger of re-entre arises, they can dock and figure something out. On the subject of a new propulsion system for escaping into space, SCRAM jets have been considered as another option, although I don't think this is feesable. I'm gonna have a few conversations with some of my Physics Professors, see what they think.

Given the quality of Lagos' Emergency services, that death toll is likley to get higher. Anyone trapped in the rubble will have very littl chance. News gets worse every day nowadays. Edit: It's the capital on Nigeria, Jamesia.

There's no Jet fuel on the Orbiter. The Orbital Manuvering System (OMS)on the Orbiter is fueled by Monomethyl Hydrazine oxidized by Nitrogen Tetroxide. These substances are highley toxic, thats what the warning is against.

Good point Avon. There are 2 Astronauts and a Cosmonaut on the I.S.S. They will probibly have to use the Soyuze capsule to get back to earth. There is always one docked at the station, just in case.