rickair7777

The reason we have a republic rather than a democracy is to that (theoretically) wiser elected officials can take the longer view rather than just helping themselves to the trough.

Pure democracy would see about 40-50% of the population voting expenditures for one thing and one thing only...themselves. It would then be up to the rest of us to target spending for critical infrastructure, defense, law enforcement, etc. The only way this could possibly work is if everyone voted for a percentage based on their own tax contribution...ie no tax, no vote.

This would mean that 35-65 year-olds would do most of the voting, with the retired senior citizens unable to tap the fruit of the labor of their successors.

USMCFLYR

Ours ALWAYS included training. If not the training actually occurring before and during the flyover then certainly for the rest of the weekend.
Maybe other people, services, squadrons did things differently
I certainly never got to take a 2/4 ship on the road for an entire weekend solely for the purpose of a flyover.

Snarge

no, but the sporting events are hyper consumerism... and if the MIC can 'honor' the troops while people are feeling good drinking beer, all the better... why not normalize the Empire as much as possible.



such was the attitudes in ancient Greece and 1770s... white landowners..... but we have progressed haven't we? With a majority passed an 8th grade education....

maybe, however if the categories were limited... it might yeild different results... currently the elites control the treasury and they vote/spend on themselves....

sounds workable.... than the status quo...

Grumble

Having lead and flown a number of flyovers, some for very high profile events, I can tell you without a doubt there is a ton of training to be had that is directly combat related.

Without getting into the weeds, close air support in theater can more ofthen than not require your weapon impacting a certain target at an exact time, within a fluid situation, and that weapon needs to hit +/- 10 seconds.

Going out to your local bombing range and doing that 6-12 times with 25 lb practice bombs is easy. Especially after the first one, when you figure out all the variables. In the real world you get one shot, and guys are depending on you to get it right.

Move the situation to a stadium packed with 100K people, for an event airing on live TV for all your buds at home to see (as well as America). Same circumstance, you've got a fluid situation coordinating with guys on the ground to try and hit a time on target, that is constantly shifting, and you need +/- 5 seconds for it to look good. Perfection is the expectation, and oh-by-the-way, the team set you up with box seats and a 50 yard line appearance at half time. You screw this up, you may not want to show your face at the stadium. Think there's a little pressure there? Granted not life endangering pressure, but still fantastic training.

Couple that with the coordination that goes on weeks ahead of time with ATC, the FAA, local agencies.... for a one time event it's fantastic training, expecially for a junior guy. The recruiting bang for the buck is just gravy on money that's already going to be spent anyway.

jungle

Translation: I wants moar free stuff, and I don't care who gots to pay for it.

Greyhawk161

Just came from my old squadron where several exercises were cancelled. Several GS guys got sent home. Cut one day a week.

Snarge

wow, thanks... I didn't realize how much of a waste of tax payer dollars these flyovers really are,.... throw in the bravado and perfectionism.. 'don't mess this up stuff' and it really seems to benefit a small few.... if we are going to be fiscal conservatives... this is a great place to start cutting the waste! Instead of trying to recruit boys with silly fly bys why not spend the money on fixing the MILs high suicide rate.. just sayin

rickair7777

There's nothing fiscally wrong with flyovers, technically speaking. There is a specific purpose and benefit, plus the opportunity to do training since almost any tacair flying is legit training. One jet flyover probably has more recruiting benefit than 50 enlisted recruiters beating the bushes for a month or two. The military do have a specific and legitimate requirement to recruit new members (until we re-instate the draft)

The problem is that they APPEAR to be wasteful to the uninformed, and will probably have to fall by the wayside for that reason alone.

But you don't seem to have the slightest clue...you're mixing military operators with the highest levels of greed and corruption in our society. Those two are not related.

Ftrooppilot

Sacrifice the "golden cow." In 1976 I was told to cut 10% of my USAFA airmanship budget with minimum impact on the cadet wing. I said OK this cut will only effect 12 cadets and save more then 10%. Cheers from HQ until they found I was cutting the USAFA Parachuting team and an order for two twin otters. They found the money somewhere else.

JamesNoBrakes

Yep, officially it's only done when they think it will benefit recruiting OR in support of veterans functions. They supposedly will combine it with training and do other requested fly-bys if it's "on the way", but I've seen in the last couple years they've been pretty tight with that. It's a joint effort between the military and FAA to approve this, the military from their budget/money aspect and the FAA from the safety side. Many are stopped by either organization due to those issues. The person or organization requesting the fly-by usually has no clue about what they are asking for.