The Americans

[Road Guy]

I'm totally hooked on this show!

Especially as an 80's child with the final crushing blow being delivered to the Soviets during this time frame (of course I recall Clinton trying to take credit for it)

I always wondered why whenever I had to get a top secret clearance they went back and talked to your middle school teachers and even elementary school teachers.. pretty cool show (IMO)

 

[Judowolf PE]

We really like it too...Those clearance checks are brutal and the information they collect on you is amazing. Stuff I did in HS with a couple of close friends, nothing bad or even illegal or immoral, just hanging out doing teenager stuff was in my file

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I haven't watched it.

When i went to work for the DoD they were still gaming the Soviets tanks shooting the Fulda gap and the Northern Fleet fast attacks shooting the GIUK choke point. I figured I'd be saying "Oh, that's BS," the whole show.

For some reason, the ads reminded me of Telefon.

 

[Road Guy]

I read the book about all the espionage the US did via submarines during the cold war and the show is similar to that book in that the espionage was low key and well executed, but would have huge complications for both countries if discovered...

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^Blind man's Bluff? That was pretty good.

Craven wrote a book, but it pretty much sucked, which is still hard for me to believe. Even with help, he it wasn't well written.

Programs begun in the cold war that the end of the Cold War made pointless (but the military and /or Congress kept going with them): C-17, 60K aircraft loader, F-22.

 

[roadwreck]

Oh, so this is a new show? When I heard about a show called "The Americans" I assumed it was the name of that show with Honey Boo Boo.

 

[Road Guy]

The 90's + generation probably wont have much interest in this show

 

[engineergurl]

Total spin off of the original topic, but my Dad and I were watching The Patriot last night (on BBC of all channels) and we got talking regarding how military tactics have evolved of the years. I'm going to check and see if he's read that book you mentioned. He told me last night he tends to focus more on WWI and WWII history and reads about the battles of those wars (where as I tend to focus on the earlier ones thru about the war of 1812).

I don't like to read about the Desert Wars or watch movies (like Jarhead) because my life has been too impacted by them, and Dad mentioned he doesn't like to read anything about the Vietnam era because he lived it and doesn't need to re-live it. But this show sounds like something I should mention to him to check out (I'm going to anyway based on your recommendation).

I remember being a kid and my sister and I had a tape deck that had gotten left on when we went to bed. It had this buzzing humming noise it was making and we convinced ourselves that the Russians were coming and ended up screaming and running around the house yelling at my parents because they didn't believe us that the Russians were coming and couldn't hear the planes like we could.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

My dad was Air National Guard in the early sixties and got called upp for both the Cuban Missile Crisis and The Berlin Crisis (went to France for that one).

He said during the CMC, he was a student at USC and a military dude came into his class and told him to report to Shaw AFB ASAP...do not bother t go home and change clothes. He thought it was all coming down, then. Said he and his buddies were hot fueling F-104s in civvie clothes. Some of the guys were flat out bawling because everyone was sure the world was about to end in a nuclear poof.

 

[Road Guy]

in 1995 when I went to OCS (Officer Candidate School) the last 2 weeks we spent at Ft. Lewis Washington and we drove from Ft. Benning , GA to Warner Robins AFB (Macon) to fly there... The plane was late (typical Air Force) and we hung around the runway waiting on our C-130.. At the end of the runway were 2 F-111, they had 2 airman with M-16's guarding them and they were in a fairly secure area, but obviously close to the runway..

I asked one of the air force guys why the F-111's had guards on them and he told me they were "locked and loaded- Nukes" ready to go 24-7.. It was a good reminder that oh yeah we do still have that capability.. just something that seems out of site, out of mind

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I'm pretty sure the F-111s weren't nuke rated in 1995, but I could be wrong. My memory is getting hazy.

I was in WR in 1995 and they didn't have a SAC side back then. I wonder why the 111 was really there. Was it on the terminal side or the far side (which reverted to the SAC side when they moved the B-1s out of ATL) of the field?

As an aside, the WR base was the east coast alternate for the shuttle when the cape was socked in.

 

[Road Guy]

you know I am messed up it was the B-1... we had been talking about the F-111 at work the last couple of days...

I'm an 11B so we normally just try and run whenever we see aircraft cause usually they dont think about us friendlies on the ground..

I dont recall which side of the runway, but it was far away from the main base from what I recall..I'm gonna look on google earth and see if I can see them..

 

[Road Guy]

this is where I recall them, they have a different aircraft there now.. I do remember the little house the pilots stayed at (or at least thats what they told a bunch of future Butter Bars)

 

[Judowolf PE]

I was just getting ready to say, the F-111 was only capable of carring one nuke and that was only on one of the 4 models...there was a special F-111 Ardvark that was capable of electronic warfare and WR was had an electronic warfare wing near that time

 

[Road Guy]

I just feel bad for anyone that had to live in Warner Robbins......

 

[Capt Worley PE]

you know I am messed up it was the B-1... we had been talking about the F-111 at work the last couple of days...

That makes sense. They were transisitoning at the time. Before that side reverted to SAC, it was SpecOps and U-2/TR-1 (I never could get which one was which...I suspect that was the point).

The -111 will always be the godawful TFX to me. The plane that there wasn't enough thrust in all of Christendom to turn into a fighter.

...there was a special F-111 Ardvark that was capable of electronic warfare and WR was had an electronic warfare wing near that time

F-111G. It replaced the F-4G for Wild Weasel roles.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I just feel bad for anyone that had to live in Warner Robbins......

It sucked. It really did.

 

[Road Guy]

one of the elected officials where I work used to fly F-111's .. I don't know why but I always liked the look of the plane, but never really knew what it did..

My in-laws did a short stint in Missouri and we would see the (large flying wing bomber) flying WAY up in the sky the times we visited, it was really cool to see

& just so I dont get the nomenclature wrong, the one that looked like a huge wing

 

[Road Guy]

my wifes entire family (her parents and uncles) grew up in Fort Valley.. we spent a lot of weekends and holidays in that shithole place, (general area)

but did you ever go eat at the Mennonite Farm?

 

[Judowolf PE]

When I was a kid, the F-4 phantoms (flying bricks) would do dog fighting over and around the valleys at the farm. I suppose that's one of the reasons I joined the Air Force out of HS...