Real "Top Gun" school fines pilots $5 for quoting film

[GaudaPrime]

@Hypoxia

Cocaine cartels have subs.

Their subs are a long way from the Red October. A lot more fibreglass than steel and they don’t go down very deep.

[bolamig]

@Rusty_Blazenhoff

such a professional organization and you want to emphasize that you are at the top of your game, that it’s about professionalism, about good leadership

I can see why they wouldn’t want to keep hearing:

@Rusty_Blazenhoff

“your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash”

[delightfultree]

They probably heard it often enough before installing the fine.

[GiantRobotPilot]

@mlemeut

So the trick is to mangle the quote enough to no longer be a quote but still be recognizable as one…

“I sense a requirement… a requirement for velocity.”

[jerwin]

@MrHarley

Professionalism, and good leadership at the top. That sounds nice.

Mr. Pink is a Professional

[Hypoxia]

@GaudaPrime

Their subs are a long way from the Red October. A lot more fibreglass than steel and they don’t go down very deep.

Fibreglas likely isn’t as detectable as metal. And deep isn’t necessary – just below the target’s waterline will do, explosive-wise. Again, the obstacle is motivation – why would a cartel WANT to sink a carrier?

[VeronicaConnor]

@rocketpj

Training to win dogfights is so 20th century. What equal opponent will the brave pilots of the US AIr Force fight in such a many equal conflict?

Even in the movie they had to contrive a “battle” with faceless MiG pilots doing some sort of scouting mission, but there was no war so nobody could really shoot at anyone. The whole thing was ridiculous even at the time, with the Cold War on. America is super super ready to re-fight World War II, though. Remember WWII and how great America was in that? Guys? Anyone?

The best scene in The Hurt Locker is when they walk past a huge row of (useless in urban insurgency fighting) M1 Abrams and the line is something like, “I’m sure glad we have all these tanks here in case the Russians show up and we need to have a big tank battle”.

[NickyG]

@rocketpj

I’m less interested in how a country might fight the US in a full on war - that is a doomed proposition. Various low tech combatants have shown that the sheer might of the US machine can be fought to a draw (see Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan), but that is at great cost in blood.

If the USA is involved in a conventional war it intends to win decisively, it can do so. I don’t think this is really the goal of conflicts such as Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan.

[rocketpj]

Certainly the US can level any stretch of ground it chooses. Doing so decisively and definitively would mean any last scraps of pretense towards being anything other than an imperial hegemony. I’m still hoping, for all our sakes, that the US will at least aspire to something better.

[NickyG]

Well, I think back to WWII. It wasn’t the US asserting itself as an imperial hegemony that led to our involvement in that total war — it was Germany and Japan. I personally believe the rise of a large, dangerous, imperial, militaristic power can happen again — may very well be us next time in that role. But could also be another country, plenty to choose from that are capable of exercising such tendencies.