a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2540 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: U.S. Drops Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb on ISIS Target in Afghanistan

I'm so jealous of that crew that got to do the MOAB. There's a weird dichotomy in my mind where later I would feel bad for killing strangers, but in the moment where you're doing something that literally no one had ever done before, and you get to see one of the biggest explosions men can make, that's a draw.





nowaypablo  ·  2540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It was not a simple maneuver. Can't find the footage now but the area had to be marked with signals for the aircraft that carried it, and there was also some sort of much-smaller-but-still-wild explosion right at the point of impact 5-7 seconds before the MOAB hit, not sure what it was. Only one person gets close to the MOAB, and that's the guy who waves his hand up and down 2 feet away from it to signal it's ejection from the aircraft. Point is when it comes to the magnitude of weaponry like the MOAB, there's a lot removing any individual from the event.

Not to say there's anything wrong with the title of "I helped drop a fucking MOAB"

user-inactivated  ·  2540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah I just mean flying on the crew dropping it. I did a lot of time on 130s and other platforms doing airdrops so it just makes me miss the Air Force a bit.

nowaypablo  ·  2540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's sick. I'm also a huge fan of sitting down.

(seriously tho thats sick)

user-inactivated  ·  2540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Turn it upside down and sit on it. See how much you like it then.

am_Unition  ·  2540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

What do you think it felt like to drop one of those first nukes, with your heading 45 degrees above the horizon? Probably felt like something.

user-inactivated  ·  2540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Probably felt like, "I bet they have no idea how far this explosion is going to go and we are going to barely get out of this if at all. Fucking Air Corps."