The Unauthorized Randy “Duke” Cunningham Page

Here's a link to a new documentary about what it takes to become a Naval Aviator. Some good pictures as well as video clips from the doc.


http://www.speedandangels.com/trailer/

Such a nice movie link is far better suited for other venues, and not here.
Cunningham disgraced his country, his office, the Navy, his fellow aviators and shipmates, his constituents, his family, and himself.

No amount of rah-rah fluff, Navy feel-good recruiting film will camouflage or change that here, or mitigate his crimes.

This website is about a criminal. It is not about our fine Navy, or its fine aviators.

Well said John. There is not amount of "Rah, Rah BS" going to salvage Cunningham stall, spin, crash and burn saga.

<,No amount of rah-rah fluff, Navy feel-good recruiting film will camouflage or change that here, or mitigate his crimes.

This website is about a criminal. It is not about our fine Navy, or its fine aviators.>>

Not meant to detract from his crimes. There have been dozens of threads not related to HIM on this website, and from the positive contributions from the memoirs of aviators as well as from the comments of the wannabees, they have been very much welcome.

Nobody has forced anyone to write only about RC's crimes, and nobody forces you nor anyone else to read the off-Cunningham threads.

Besides just about everything has been said about RC that can be said. The guy is in prison...what more do you want?

Well, I for one want $1.25 a gallon gasoline, for starters!

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It's getting down there....if you'ld get the freak out of California. Here in God's country I bought gas yesterday for $1.93 at Costco. NOW, as an exec member, I get a 2% rebate, and my Costco/Amex card has an additional 5% off gas as a promo. So it actually cost me prox $1.81 or so.

<<Date: 01-22-07 21:22

Such a nice movie link is far better suited for other venues, and not here.
Cunningham disgraced his country, his office, the Navy, his fellow aviators and shipmates, his constituents, his family, and himself.

No amount of rah-rah fluff, Navy feel-good recruiting film will camouflage or change that here, or mitigate his crimes.

This website is about a criminal. It is not about our fine Navy, or its fine aviators.>>

To make my earlier point, John, even YOU enjoyed the threads and contributions that had NOTHING to do with the criminal aspect of this website; to wit...and THIS is from just ONE thread:

uthor: john (—-.san.res.rr.com)
Date:   03-20-06 09:02

I agree with Paul. Our attack pilots (A-7 and A-6) always had many more combat missions that we fighter guys, over 2 cruises. And that 300 number does seem high. (BTW, we just counted "green ink." North, South, Laos, Cambodia, or BarCap… nothing else.)

On his web page, it looks like he is standing in front of an F-4. (It's odd that the side number is a 600 series. I have never seen an F-4 with other that 100 or 200 series.)
http://www.richardearnestforcongress.com/news/contentview.asp?c=32439



Author: john (—-.san.res.rr.com)
Date:   03-21-06 11:37

LB & Paul,

Absolutely fascinating stuff!!! You guys bring back a flood of memories. And your recollections and descriptions are right on the money.

I checked into VF-121 a few days after that tragic F-8 crash into the hangar. Knew one of the widows. Knew and flew with most all of those early Top Gun, "Scream of Eagles" guys. Fought the F-8 and F-106. Remember the Israelis and their astonishing gun camera film. Was sitting in class at Top Gun the day Cunningham and Willie bagged that 1st MiG.

(I'll stay out of your F-8/F-4 debate, though)

Your posts are a great trip down memory lane. Thanks.

Author: john (—-.san.res.rr.com)
Date:   03-21-06 20:30

I have read Remarque, Hemingway, Crane, and even Zinn. And I have witnessed the inexplicable horrors of war. And as many old warriors do, I have come to abhor war.

Nevertheless, those days at Miramar were surely exciting. And I found my two years of flying in combat absolutely exhilarating. I thoroughly enjoyed the extreme flying, the overwhelming challenge, and the adrenalin rush of it all. I sought out the most difficult missions, and extra missions. (Then at night, we used to sit around and debate the war and politics. I was neither a hawk nor dove. I just loved my job and did it as best I could.)

I imagine that if I were young and single again, I would still thoroughly enjoy flying in combat. The problem is now, I'm anti-war. I could not see myself flying or fighting in anything but a rare and most extreme case, "just" war. Anything else would be a major problem. If drafted, I now wonder what I would do, knowing what I know now. I would have to take a difficult stand.

We had one guy quit in the middle of the cruise. He was off the ship within an hour and flown to Cubi to await a fight home. Another ship's squadron CO met him there, and talked him into returning to our squadron. He flew back and rejoined our squadron. Talk about controversy! But it didn't bother me one way or another. But for many it did.

My disillusionment came years later with the peacetime Navy. I quit then after 10 years, and as an LCDR. (Stayed in the Reserves, though)

Since I experienced it first hand, I never had an interest in Vietnam era books, until only recently. Now I have just started to read some. I now find them very interesting, where I had no interest before. (I think this Cunningham debacle has rekindled my interest in this stuff after so many years.)

I never saw anyone decked, except for a couple of black shoes who came into the Cubi Cat Room wearing earrings. I had great CO's (except for one) RO's, and wingmen. Our squadron only lost 2 guys who were POW's and actually beat us home. (Although the attack bunkroom next door got wiped out during the cruise. We started to make friends with those guys, and later, we were sorry we did.) We got a rare Presidential Unit Citation for having the most days on line in the history of the war.

We had only a few weak things happen while flying over the North. But never did anybody ever leave his wingman. BTW, did Dose leave his wingman to bag his MiG, or was that a bad rumor?

How come Grant never gets much mention? Wasn't he the bait that gave Cunningham his MiG's?

I didn't know Cunningham went home after that first MiG. Was that because of his augmentation problems, or that he got a MiG, or just normal leave? Cunningham was very good, but on a good day, I was better. One of my last hops in the reserves in F-14's was against him. There was no love lost between us.

It was a later CO of VF-96 while in Yuma on a det., who walked over to me at the BOQ pool to inform me, a stranger, in the kindest way possible, that my father had just passed away. He already had an F-4 arranged and got me back to Miramar within the hour. Cdr. A. N. was a class act.


My apologies to Dan Anderson, for us hijacking his superb Cunningham website, eating up his band-with, and turning this into our own personal, old fighter pilot's remember when, forum.
Dan, I'll try to be more disciplined, and on topic in the future. Sorry.

Author: john (—-.san.res.rr.com)
Date:   03-30-06 10:09

A picture of Earnest with the unusual # 611 modex can be found at the top-center of his website.
http://www.richardearnestforcongress.com/

Most databases list the first Navy air-to-air kill of the Vietnam War as VF-21's Cdr. Page and Lt. J.C. Smith, off the USS Midway on 17 June 1965. The first kill listed for VF-96 was much later in May of 1968 (Air Force exchange Hefferman and Navy Lt. Schumacher). I don't have the book, so I can't comment on the 9 April 1965 /VF-96 MiG kill you cite. Perhaps it is not in the database because a MiG downed them.

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_243.shtml

Earnest was an Academy grad, class of '64. Played with Roger Stauback in the Cotton Bowl. Was in VF-96 from 1967 to 1969 . . . so he might have left just as LB was arriving.

I't interesting that he is now just starpting to run for Congress at about the same age as Cunningham was planning on retiring for Congress.

Still, "over" 300 missions seems unusually high for any F-4 driver. One wonders if that was some serious, rounding-up (like Kaloogian's specious Baghdad photo), or an unusual, but accurate number.

Author: john (—-.san.res.rr.com)
Date:   03-30-06 11:08

ChiCom??!!!

That brings back memories of two, 180 degree-out, precessed gyro mistakes:
One, a 30 plane Alpha Strike headed toward Hainan Island . . . until somebody realized the obvious - we were going east instead of west;
And another off a MigCap, thinking we were going southeast to "feet-wet" but actually were headed northwest. And we ended up (briefly) in Communist China.

And, your point is?

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The point is John is critical of a link to a new documentary showing what it takes to become a Naval Aviator and said at the top of this thread "This website is about a criminal. It is not about our fine Navy, or its fine aviators."

But he has participated in the rah rah, telling of tales, and enjoying other tales from fellow aviators, none of which were about the criminal.

It's spelled h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y.

And again, your point is?