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05-06-2006, 07:51 PM
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#16 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Vivian, Louisiana
Posts: 316
Country:  | Just enough to be ahead of everyone else in my unit!!!!!  | 
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05-06-2006, 08:30 PM
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#17 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Phila, Pa
Posts: 2,516
Country: | Decent question. Keep in mind that to make a kill you have to take the chance to get killed. The ability to stomach that realization and still be an effective killer is what makes an ace.
Plenty of guys (we're talking in the past here, pre-1960) went out, flew their tours and never blew the tape off their guns. Does that make them ineffective- not ace worthy, no, definitely not. They may not've had the opportunity (flying wing, ground attack or in an area where air to air was over- Joe Foss's second tour is a good example). They also may not've been the hard core killer type. And high scoring aces either are or become that type.
But back to the part where you have to take a chance to get killed to get a kill. Some people can't get past that point. Doesn't make them a coward or any of that, those types are generally weeded out. But guys who make kills tend to be pretty cold blooded. Mannock or McCudden once said that they were hired assassins, nothing more. It would be worth keeping that point in mind.
One last point, the guys who get whacked down are generally the newest and least experienced. The US Air Force did a study and found out that a pilot had something like a 25% chance of being shot down on any of his first five missions (note- odds posted could be as high as 50% but I've had a few beers and the first thing to go is "Mr Memory" so take that part with a grain of salt- Note 2. Odds per mission are not cumlative, 25% per mission on each of the first 5 missions) and thereafter the odds of survival increased (or of getting the chop decreased) to the point of a steady 5% per mission (average on that last one, flying an escort mission to Berlin is going to be a more hazerdous, in general, than one to the Normandy). A good ace/killer is going to quickly figure out how to spot the neophytes and go after them. The experts or hard core are much harder to get. Replacements die in groups, veterans die alone. | |
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05-07-2006, 03:47 PM
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#18 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 1,506
Country: | Good post.
Thats why I put the option of zero kills. | |
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05-08-2006, 10:53 AM
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#19 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Phila, Pa
Posts: 2,516
Country: | Thanks Bud.
Reading it now, I'm amazed that I'm that coherent at 9:30 on a Saturday night, kicking around the house with nothing much to do and drinking a few beers.
After reading about it for years, I'm of the opinion that air combat is something of a combination of an aerial mugging/assasination. Get in quick, slash n' stab, get out. The heavier the firepower, the less time spent firing, the better the chance for a break away. Get them but avoid getting "got" yourself. The less time you spend in the furballl, the better your chances of having a drink in the bar later that night. You can't see everything, hence the need to get in and out quickly. The 75% who get knocked down without seeing the guy who gets them weren't all neophytes. Some of them probably got task saturated and some joker slid up behind them--BAAM! | |
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10-14-2006, 06:31 PM
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#20 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 636
Country:  | 2. I'd probably want to be a Lancaster rear gunner.
James.
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10-14-2006, 08:06 PM
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#21 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London
Posts: 2,826
| The minimum required to get the job done and keep my friends safe | |
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10-23-2006, 12:21 AM
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#22 | | Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 69
Country: | Quote:
Originally Posted by plan_D  Being a fighter pilot in World War II, I would do my duty and fly as often as required. I would, however, be happy enough with just surviving the war. | i have the same PoV: i would fly a soviet style, carrying out escort sortees for Il-2, Il-4, Pe-2. not quite a hunter lifestyle, but for me it would be enough to be proud. | |
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10-23-2006, 12:26 AM
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#23 | | Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 69
Country: | p.s. poll is not adequate, and could be one with just one option added: "it's not a factor" | |
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10-23-2006, 12:29 AM
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#24 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 1,506
Country: | Yeah, that would have been a good option.
Oh well.. 
__________________ 
"His motor's conked out!"
"What's the differance, they're all Nazis!"
"Luke, shut up!"
"Fear the hook!"
"Oh.....I wanna fly."
"You mean the kind that go under water and fly up the stairs?"
"What you doing? Oh Nooooo!" | |
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12-04-2006, 12:56 PM
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#25 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Scotland
Posts: 30
Country:  | 100+ to raise morale of your squadron/group. But just surviving war is an achievement. | |
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12-05-2006, 06:34 PM
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#26 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: New Jersey
Posts: 547
Country: | 100+ becasue as LeStuka said it raises morale of people around you and becasue it would be a great achievement to get so many kills and somehow live to tell about it
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"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time."
V-DUB!!!!!!!
My 71 Beetle is now.....in two pieces....  | |
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12-06-2006, 09:56 AM
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#27 | | the old Sage
Join Date: May 2004 Location: Platonic Sphere
Posts: 9,264
Country: | who cares ?
think about just one thing, surviving day or night after night of aerial warfare and making it till wars end without a mishap tragically. | |
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12-06-2006, 10:35 AM
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#28 | | Der Crewchief
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Ansbach, Germany
Posts: 29,837
Country:  | Exactly. I would just do my job and hope to survive. Dont care what I would get.
__________________  US Army Blackhawk Crewchief 2000-2006 Classic ww2aircraft.net quotes: fly boy said: "isn't that the first jet bomber? becasue i have flown one in a flight sim before and i know how it handles" "wait what ok who made the b-2 crash come on people that messed up its a b-2" "ah yes the mistel those things are so annoying is games and in real life" | |
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12-06-2006, 10:19 PM
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#29 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Jacksonville, NC
Posts: 3,229
Country: | Quote:
Originally Posted by DerAdlerIstGelandet Exactly. I would just do my job and hope to survive. Dont care what I would get. | This is very true. I thought this question was kind of strange to begin with...
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If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines | |
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12-07-2006, 04:21 AM
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#30 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 1,506
Country: |
__________________
"His motor's conked out!"
"What's the differance, they're all Nazis!"
"Luke, shut up!"
"Fear the hook!"
"Oh.....I wanna fly."
"You mean the kind that go under water and fly up the stairs?"
"What you doing? Oh Nooooo!" | |
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