Regardless, I have no envy for naval aviators. If I were to fly for the military, I'd try to get myself on USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagles. You get to fly from nice, non-moving land bases and you have a top speed of Mach 2.5 and a thrust-to-weight ratio of >1. In other words, you can accelerate in a vertical climb. Let's see a Hornet do that.

Where's the fun in going ballistic? I'd love to fly a Sopwith Camel or a Fokker Dr.I from WWI.

As I'm fond of saying, the Navy has the best of everything.

Obviously, we rule the waves.

But we have the most skilled pilots, evidence above.

We also have the most skilled ground forces (SEALs). After all, when it came time to put a bullet in Osama, who did the President have do it? Yep.

Oh, and a Trident would be like the 5th most powerful nuclear state if it was a state unto itself.

I'll put Marine Force Recon above SEALs, but they have very different missions and, technically, Marines are part of the Navy so you can still claim you have the best ground forces if you like.

Remember, SEALs go to MCMAT to learn their martial arts.

The Navy may have better pilots (this is up for debate, as the difficulty of carrier landings has nothing to do with dogfighting ability) but the Air Force has the better airplanes by far.

Also, didn't they make a movie about Navy pilots? I can't remember what it was called, but it seemed to be a big deal at the time. :)

Also, everybody uses USN technology for missles (Sidewinder, the most successful missile ever). The Falcon was a gigantic piece of shit.

One last thing as a Navy nuc... we all got to read the incident report about the USAF slagging their test reactor... they're not allowed to operate anymore. (Some crazy scheme about a nuclear powered aircraft). To be fair, the Army isn't either (SL-1), and nobody is willing to even consider giving the Marines a fission plant. :P

"USN technology "

The Navy didn't invent the tech, private corporations did.

"Also, didn't they make a movie about Navy pilots?"

There have been movies about Marines since 1918 and, last I checked, that movie to which you refer didn't win nearly as many awards as a little thing called Full Metal Jacket.

Wrong. The Sidewinder was conceived at NAS China Lake by Dr. William McLean, who worked directly for the Navy.

And I'd hope you would understand how parochial the services are about equipment... it speaks to the high quality of the Sidewinder (and the low quality of the Falcon), that the Air Force would adopt a missile developed by the Navy... After all, at the time, the Air Force didn't even want the Navy to have planes at all.

Plus, I have nothing but love for my slightly retarded brothers in green. After all, once we blast the fuck out of the shore, somebody has to go there and actually do the shore thing. I'm only interested in the beach if it involved cheap drinks and loose women. :)

I just have one question for you. Who flies the helicopter that carries the President between the White House lawn and Airforce One? Who guards all the property around the Whitehouse and *every* US embassy aroudn the world? Whose band travels with the President everywhere he goes?

Is it the Army? No. The Air Force? No. The Navy? Hell no! It's the Marines, arrugh!

Qua patet orbis!

Semper Fi!

In Omnia Paratus!

@ Jack_Klein

You have to admit that a nuclear-powered airplane would have been badass as hell. As I recall, they tried to put a small test reactor in a Convair B-36 Peacemaker. Obviously, the technology of the time didn't allow the concept to be feasible, but they were definitely pushing the envelope on that one.

@red - That would be a variation on the boyscout's motto, "Semper Paratus". "Semper Fi" is short for "Semper Fidelis" (always faithful) - our Marine Corps motto.

I know..!

Qua patet orbes is the Dutch marines' motto.

(In Omnia Paratus also exists as a motto in itself)

I know, that's why I responded Semper Fi. Of course, I had to look it up to discover that (sorry, but you probably no more about the US Marine Corps than I do about the Dutch Marine Corps).

Ehm. What I saw in Full Metal Jacket more or less sums it up.

Aren't the Marines part of the Navy still? Technically?

Yes, but they have their own aviators and their own aricraft. Even in WWII The F4U Corsairs between Navy carriers and Marine isalnd strips were different. Now the Corps flies some mean ass gunships mostly while the navy doesn't even have a gunship.

Veterans of the Okinawa campaign have reported that Marine aviators in ground-attack aircraft were much more willing to fly lower and closer to the enemy, therefore inflicting more accurate damage.

https://www.google.com/search?q=McDonnell+XP-67+Moonbat&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=Xb4YUv-rAuqB2gW_hoDIDw&biw=1280&bih=699&sei=Xr4YUvXNLofgqAH92YHAAw#imgdii=_

@ Draugnar

What do you think about the McDonnell XP-67?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XP-67

Cool looking bird but she never lived up to expectations. I wish there had been more than one though so maybe a survivor could be located in a museum (like WPAFB and the XB-70).

Those 6 x 37mm cannons tho!

oh this has sidetracked into a US Navy v US Airforce v US Marines
discussion
I'll have to suggest this "World of Warplanes" to my nephew, he is a "World of Tanks"
enthusaist & spends countless hours playing online tank games-- the lazy blighter
He is a classic "over indulged" teenager --never passed any examination or subject in 5 years of private "Secondary skooling"
& would rather spend his time playing online tank games rather than go out & chase young women or have a deadly fast motorcycle, he's 18 and probably hasn't even had a young woman give him a decent head job yet
I gave the blighter a set of golf clubs and he's only used them once in 15 months
he's doing some study in how to make computer games, so he probably already knows about this new game

Actually Draugnar and I were arguing about the sexiest airplane, which I still maintain is the North American F-86 Sabre family (including the Sabre Dog, for those of you who don't like gaping nose intakes)

SR-71 is the sexiest one or two man crewed jet ever made. The XB-70 is the sexiest larger jet ever made. The razor-back Mustang or the Spitfire are the sexiest single prop and the P-61 Black Widow is the sexiest dual prop and the B-17 the sexiest prop powered bomber. All these don't take into account some truly sexy German planes from WWII like the HE-111, BF-109, and the ME-262.

I'd take a P-63 Kingcobra or a late-model P-40 Warhawk over a razor-back Mustang.

Also, the Northrop-McDonnell Douglas YF-23 is the sexiest stealth airplane ever