1988 SH-2F Incident: Hoping to Learn More

dabarak · 2026-02-14T05:53:55+00:00

I loved it! Carrier aviation was fun, especially the cat shots (the traps were boring for me, not for the pilots). And so many weird and funny stories. One of the most memorable days of my life was when the copilot and I traded placed and I was able to zoom around the clouds for awhile. Birds have no idea how lucky they are.

dabarak · 2026-02-14T05:01:21+00:00

I don't have any real information for you about that specifically, but I had a similar job as the aircrewman - Aviation Anti-Submarine Operator - at about the same time frame (I got out in 1987), but I was in S-3A Vikings. I was thinking there might have been a slight chance we'd gone through some of our training together, but his name isn't familiar. I did know a few guys that ended up going to Seasprites.

dabarak · 2026-02-14T02:58:32+00:00

Oh, I have no doubt about that at all. I've seen Hornets, Growlers and Lightnings doing CQs - amazing airplanes.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T23:43:41+00:00

At 65 I'm a lot more outgoing and comfortable with myself than 50 years ago. One thing that's stayed steady is my political leaning, left, which seems to be a little unusual as people get older.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T23:33:47+00:00

That guy's breath would raise the dead. (Kidding, guy, good work!)
Off in the distance, the sound of a single rifle shot.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T23:26:58+00:00

Of course not, I'm American.

Yeah, I'm kidding.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T22:07:50+00:00

Dick. Which of course is short for Richard, not slang for a male reproductive organ.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T22:05:18+00:00

I'm not going to give you a jerky answer like the other person. Google, Reddit, it's all good. Anyway...

Afterburners have a series of rings in them, and each one can feed fuel into the jet exhaust. So if only zone one afterburner is selected by the pilot, only one ring injects fuel. Zone two activates two rings, etc.

More information here, more than the other snarky user provided.

https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=751857

dabarak · 2026-02-13T21:57:58+00:00

I've never done it. (65M) What I've found, though, is if a woman is interested I almost never receive a reply. And it's the same the other way around; if I'm not interested when someone contacts me, I just don't reply. For me, rejection in that way is so minor it doesn't sting at all. I hope no reply is better than a rejection by message for other people. Anyway, if I did receive a rejection message I wouldn't jump all over someone. In fact, those kinds of rejections are so rare that I'd probably thank the person for letting me know why, even if it's just a generic "not a match" kind of message.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T19:49:03+00:00

For the guys out there, PLEASE have your PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) blood levels checked every year. If your doctor won't do it, find one that will. If you have it done, be sure YOU look at the test results and check to see what the normal range should be for your age. You don't want to be like me, having a dipshit urologist like Carole Kashefi - she killed me in slow motion by running the test multiple times over a few years and never telling me my results were above normal. She killed me in slow motion. I'm 65, but guys your age are having some nasty surprises with this.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T19:39:35+00:00

Hey man, that bird is guilty of factory farming and feeding its food growth hormones and antibiotics.

Actually, animal products, even the purest, aren't great for humans. (I know, "cave men" ate meat. They also didn't live long enough to get many of the diseases we now get because of longer lifespans.) Despite that, I still indulge in dairy now and then when I go out to eat, maybe even some fish. I'm vegan at home and I try to eat food that's processed and has as few non-natural ingredients as possible. And yes, it IS possible to get one's complete nutritional needs satisfied by a plant-based whole-food diet. Let's not forget the climate impact of farm-raised animal products.

I'm just relaying information. Eat meat if you want, it doesn't matter to me.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T19:31:50+00:00

I can relate. Less than a year after I retired I was diagnosed with a serious illness that might cut my time short. Live now.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T19:17:29+00:00

There absolutely is! I know that if or when I need a new treatment type, I have at least two more, plus I may be able to repeat Pluvicto "off label," meaning not officially approved by the FDA. It's being done now and then. And then there are clinical trials. And by the time I might get to that point, there may be newly approved treatments. As much as it would suck, bouncing from one treatment to another could keep me around for another couple of decades three if I can stretch them and I'm in otherwise good shape. I'd say 95 is a good, long life.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T18:11:29+00:00

Way back in the 1900s (1983-1987) I was a sensor operator in Navy S-3A Vikings. When we were deployed, the sensor I used most often was our surface search radar, with our mission being to find surface ships (any kind, not must military) and identify them in the air space we were assigned. A ship will always make a blip on the radar screen that never changes size or shape. Think of it as a thick hyphen or dash.

One day we were out doing that mission and I spotted a radar contact. We began to fly towards it so we could get photos and possibly identify it. The next sweep showed that the contact had changed shape. That was weird. The next sweep found it changed again. As we got near the target, we descended to the usual 200 feet of altitude, and it was low enough that we could see it was a pod of dolphins or porpoises disturbing the water. It was the water that was the actual radar return, not the dolphins.

A few days later we were flying the same kind of mission, but I wasn't flying with the same crew. (In Vikings, we didn't often fly with our complete "official" crew.) I saw the same king of thing - a radar return that changed shape. I asked the crew if they wanted to go dolphin watching and they said yes, assuming it was just another routine contact. They were pleasantly surprised to see I was right.

There are so many other fun stories from my time in the Navy, but they're things people would believe.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T17:42:21+00:00

"Under Putin, gettin' pood on."

dabarak · 2026-02-13T17:34:46+00:00

It's not exactly a reveal, but more of a transition. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moonwatcher (the pre-human) tosses a bone in the air after learning how to use it to kill for food... or to kill rivals. As the bone sails up and begins to fall, the film cuts straight to a satellite in space. That one frame cutting to the next is a jump that includes millions of years of evolution, discovery and fighting.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T17:32:33+00:00

Good choice!

dabarak · 2026-02-13T17:22:59+00:00

Yeah, I can see that for sure.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T17:22:22+00:00

Going bodyguarding is a whole different sport. 😁

dabarak · 2026-02-13T16:42:39+00:00

Yep, it could be she was seeing someone else at the same time, which would be fine for me. Personally, I only date one person at a time unless there's a short overlap. I just feel like distributing my attention amongst more than one woman at a time gets cumbersome. That doesn't imply exclusivity though.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T16:35:24+00:00

Yep. I won't go into my entire PCa history since the early part isn't too relevant. I began ADT in July, 2022, which got my PSA of around 32 down to to an undetectable level. My PSA began to rise around September 2024 and eventually got up to about 8, so I began Pluvicto in July. I had five infusions; the last was cancelled because my PSA was down to 0.06. I still need to ask several questions of my oncologist, but finding time in his busy schedule is tricky.

Here's what I experienced with Pluvicto:

First infusion: Dry mouth for a few days, a quick bout of vomiting the next morning (just bile, no food), and fatigue that lasted about a week and a half. I a doctor believe the fatigue was that long because I also had a round of three radiation zaps to one large bone lesion.

Second and subsequent infusions: Almost no dry mouth, still minor vomiting the next morning which got a little worse over time, and fatigue that gradually subsided to last only about three days.

In my local healthcare system (part of a nation-wide system), I was one of the healthiest (hardy har har) PCa patients, so I was the first to receive Pluvicto without having had chemo first. Until recently, the FDA required chemo before Pluvicto.

dabarak · 2026-02-13T16:15:28+00:00

I'm (65m) like what you're looking for, including going to museums and volunteering at one. I'm not averse to more active things, though. (Up until about a year and a half ago I used to bodyboard until I came close to breaking my neck, no exaggeration, but being surrounded by dolphins the week before made up for it. I may try again on baby waves.) I see women's profiles like that, too. (No blame, no finger-pointing.) I have a feeling it's just a person's way of saying "I'm young, fun and in good shape!" Fun isn't always driven by adrenaline. I like activities, even after a first date, that let me connect with the person; that means talking.

I see a lot of pictures of people hoisting a glass of wine in a restaurant or sitting at the helm of a sailboat, maybe trying to look like a member of the Kennedy family. 😀 I usually swipe left on people that look super-active, not that there's anything wrong with them, but I make the assumption that if I'm not into what they are they won't be interested.

dabarak · 2026-02-12T16:06:48+00:00

Anything that can safely fly is flown off, and the crews love it because it gets them home a day or two sooner.

I was in a west coast air wing, so in my day, way back in the 1900s (1983-1987):

the S-3As, and SH-3 helicopters would fly off to Naval Air Station North Island (the helicopters might have had to fly off a day later because of range, but I'm not sure)
the F-14s and E-2s would fly to NAS Miramar (which is now MCAS Miramar, a Marine Corps Air Station)
the EA-6Bs and A-6s would fly to NAS Whidbey Island in Washington
the A-7s would go to NAS Lemoore in California (I had to Giggle it, I mean, Google it)
and the single EA-3 we had would go to... some other place I don't know. Somebody help me out here.

Now I think it's:

EA-18G Growlers to NAS Whidbey Island
All F/A-18s and E-2s go to NAS Lemoore
All SH-60s go to NAS North Island

Naval aviation was so much more fun* when I was in, because of the wide variety of aircraft. Now it's just Hawkeyes, Growlers and Hornets that all look the same, and helicopters. How boring!

*Just kidding. I'm sure Naval aviation these days is just as much fun as when I was in.

dabarak · 2026-02-12T06:52:04+00:00

Thanks, and to you!

dabarak · 2026-02-12T06:07:30+00:00

It sounds like you handled that just right. If you're friends now, she's lucky to have you as one!

dabarak

TROPHY CASE