The Mission - Attack

1. The mission of the aircraft carrier is to put ordnance on target. Everything else such as Indian Country, unreps, "the grid", SSC, and anything else starting with F- is simply support for the attack mission.

2. You win the war by killing the bastards by the thousands, not one at a time at twenty thousand feet.

3. In peacetime, DCM is something the attack pilot uses to rejoin off the range.

4. In wartime, DCM is something the attack pilot uses to turn and shoot some asshole in the face who's trying to stop the attack pilot before he destroys his high value target.

5. There is no such thing as "defensive" DCM. I become offended when someone jumps me enroute to my target, and much offense is intended when I have to take the time to blow his ass off.

6. Concerning the tally of Medal of Honor winners in southeast Asia, the score tells it all: Attack - 5, Fighter - 0.

7. In wartime, our POW's were not released because the enemy sent representatives to sit smugly at "peace talks". They were not released because domestic antiwar groups unwittingly played into the hands of the enemy, and tied the hands of their countrymen at arms. They were not released because the enemy lost five aircraft to a select few called "aces". They were released because brave men took their bombers downtown and spoke personally to their captors in the only language the enemy understands: Iron bombs raining down on their heads.

8. These lessons have been forged in blood and steel by all those attack pilots and bombadiers who have gone before you; back when happiness was flying Spads; back when jets were hard-lightin' and mean, and only quiche-eatin' airline pukes flew fans; back when Spads roamed valleys and spit death to those who would try to stop them; in an earlier time when the biggest cadillac in town was called BUFF and when men took pride in decorating their leather flight jackets with "I've been there" patches, and the enemy hid every 1 + 45 because he knew the next cycle of the attack carrier was headed his way. Times change, technology changes, but the men in the cockpit must be the same brave warriors every age has counted upon in time of peril.

9. Finally, and this is the bottom line, real men fly attack because they understand the most fundamental law of wartime negotiations; you negotiate with the enemy with your knee in his chest and your knife at his throat.