Marine Pilots Investigated for Drawing Penis and Testicles With Plane

[babylonsister]

Now there's a headline...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/marine-pilots-investigated-for-drawing-penis-and-testicles-with-plane?ref=home

Marine Pilots Investigated for Drawing Penis and Testicles With Plane
@AircraftSpots

Two U.S. Marine Corps pilots have been grounded and are under investigation after a recent digitally mapped flight path over Southern California appeared to take the shape of a penis and testicles. The trail, made over the Salton Sea in California’s Colorado Desert, was reported in late October by the Twitter account Aircraft Spots. It showed a penis- and testicle-shaped flight path with the plane exiting the scene from the tip of the penis. The pilots onboard were flying out of the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, once home to the U.S. Navy flight school known as Top Gun—the basis for the movie franchise. Major Josef Patterson, spokesman for the Miramar-based 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, said the fliers were “being investigated for flying a pattern resembling an obscene image” and “are currently not flying pending the results of an ongoing investigation.” Although they’ve been grounded, the pilots are still providing “vital squadron ground support functions,” said Patterson. Last year, the Navy admitted one of its aircraft drew penises in the sky over Washington state.

[greymattermom]

2. So these men are more interested in penis plural

than vaginas. Did I get that right?

[Girard442]

3. Don't you long for a time when this would have been the worst thing that happened this week?

I mean, some disciplinary action is probably called for, but I can't be bothered to expend any outrage ammo on this one.

[rampartc]

5. They are children

With incredible egos. Put a warning in their service record and send them to sea.

[democratisphere]

4. Roughly half the population has that image. How can it be obscene?!

What is wrong with a little harmless fun?!

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. Why...there are pearls to be clutched!

Didn't you know?

[democratisphere]

19. Know now. Don't they chew on them too!

[Midnightwalk]

6. Shocking Misuse of Pilot's Equipment

Now that's a headline

I see one of these every couple of years and always laugh. It has gone on forever.

[link:http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/06/worlds-earliest-erotic-graffiti-astypalaia-classical-greece|]

[bluedigger]

7. They used to have KP duty for heinous crimes like this.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

38. peelin taters in the army

(In case some are too young to know Lonzo and Oscar, they were comedian - musicians, perhaps best known for "I'm my own Grandpa". This one is a bit slow and tedious but on topic).

[mn9driver]

8. Let me provide a little background here.

This image did not appear in the sky. The aircraft in question is a T34C turboprop trainer. It is unpressurized and is only rarely operated above 12000 feet, so contrails aren’t produced. The aircraft ceiling is 25000 feet but nobody does that more than once because the cockpit heat can’t keep up and the oxygen masks smell like dirty socks. I have never seen a T34 make a contrail. The image could only be seen on a radar tracking website if the specific aircraft and flight were selected.

This particular track shows that the flight originated at Navy El Centro, where it spent some time doing touch and go landings. Then it proceeded north under VFR flight rules and flew the path that produced the image in question. Then it flew to Miramar. This was a training flight and pilots are free to do what they want. I flew many of these types of flights, in that area, in that aircraft, a long, long time ago.

To summarize, no rules were broken and the only people who would see the image were those who specifically wanted to observe the track of that specific training flight, of which there are dozens every day in the area between El Centro and Miramar.

Suspending these pilots is absurd.

[USALiberal]

9. No, it was unprofessional and childish. And prevents it from being common. Nt

[mn9driver]

10. You're entitled to your opinion.

But it is uninformed and illustrates a lack of understanding of the context of both the flight itself and the operations that these pilots perform on a daily basis.

Have a nice day.

[USALiberal]

12. So your plan is to tell them to continue drawing penises? Boobs ok too? Nt

[mr_lebowski]

29. Yes, because seriously, who gives a shit? Nobody sees it other than a radar operator who's tracking

the flight. Which it probably one of these guys buddies ... that they were just trying to crack up that day.

Sure it's a silly prank, but it harms absolutely no-one, and the guys were just doing their job, but having a little fun with it.

[USALiberal]

30. Unprofessional, but i guess that means nothing to many here....

Draw USA, no issue, draw a flag, no issue, but draw a dick and you look like a fucking grade schoool idiot!

[mr_lebowski]

32. I guess some men keep in touch with their inner adolescent ... and others don't ...

I'll leave it at that

Good day

[mn9driver]

36. I find straw man debates uninteresting

Have a nice day.

[LakeSuperiorView]

37. How would you draw boobs without it just being a figure 8?

If one stops to think about for even a second, one realizes that the only figures one can "draw" with radar are continuous lines. I suppose a pilot could spell boobs in cursive, sort of, but as an image?

Puritan hangovers from the 16th and 17th centuries are completely ridiculous.

[obamanut2012]

13. Exactly -- why this is funny is beyond me

Why military get a pass for this "boys will be boys" frat antics is beyond me.

I would be fired for something similar.

[USALiberal]

14. Because they usually get away with it. Nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. If this pilot drove his car around on country roads in a pattern that spelled out "Fuck You"....

or drew a penis, for that matter, would that be as "Unprofessional"?

As the poster above stated, NO ONE COULD SEE THE IMAGE unless they specifically looked at a unique website that traces flight paths.


Last year pilots from Boeing did a long distance test flight during which the flight path drew an outline of the plane they were flying and the outline was basically half the size of the lower 48. As is the case with this Navy aircraft, the only way to see the outline was by looking at a graphic created by the flight tracking website.

Was THAT unprofessional?
https://www.wired.com/story/boeing-787-8-drawing-test-flight/

[USALiberal]

16. That was a private company. Not marines. You....

Are welcome to draw all the dicks you want as a private citizen. Good luck!

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Except that the Boeing flight was mandated by the FAA

This was a REQUIRED endurance test.

From the article I linked above;

The crew, embarking on an 18-hour, government-mandated endurance test flight, didn't feel like flying in circles. Instead they had the plane carve out a self-portrait spanning 22 states, with its nose pointed at Washington state’s Puget Sound (home to Boeing), its wings spanning from Michigan to southern Texas, and its tail in Huntsville, Alabama.

Except for the rare person who spotted the jet making unusually tight turns at cruising altitude, this performance was invisible to all but the aviation geeks who spend their downtime ogling air traffic through online tracking services—and it was meant mostly for them.

[USALiberal]

20. FFS, your ass can draw dicks all you want today! But i bet if a boeing....

Pilot did in on company time, he would be punished.

[Act_of_Reparation]

24. Dubious ethics.

"Punish person X because the same would happen to person Y" doesn't really address whether or not the offending action is wrong or worthy of punishment.

[A HERETIC I AM]

25. Fine. Of all the things to be upset about....but you go right ahead.

[USALiberal]

28. You understand now! Good! Nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

35. Oh, I understand alright.

I completely understand your position and why you hold it.

Yup. Sure do.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

43. I find it hard to believe they were "free to do what they want" on a training flight.

I didn’t get my license in the Marine Corps but I did go on training flights at the university where I got my ratings.

At no time was I told I could take a plane out and goof off. I was given tasks to complete. I’m sure the Marine training schedule is much more stringent.

The penis thing is a non issue as far as I’m concerned. But the judgement thing is a whole other issue. These guys are aspiring to get behind the controls of $50 million dollar plus airplanes with other people’s lives at stake. I just don’t see how their commanders are going to overlook even a little bit of hot-dogging.

Being a pilot yourself, I’m sure you know the statistics of young pilots killing themselves while fucking around.

[mn9driver]

50. I don't find it hard to believe at all.

The flight’s call sign ended in 91. That indicates a “general purpose-not otherwise specified” flight. In other words, “take the airplane for the day and log some stick time and some landings”.

Yes, we did that when we had nothing else to do, or we needed to stay current in a second type of aircraft. The T34C is no longer used to train pilots; it is a utility airplane. The Marines use it to clear and spot for the many bomb and gunnery ranges in the area. That’s not what these pilots were doing that day. They were out messing around and logging flight time and bounces.

[Separation]

45. Absolutely!

I have spent countless of thousands of hours beating the air into submission (I flew in helos) and anything that you can do that is within the boundaries of being safe and legal, you just do sometimes.

Add to the fact that all Marines (I would even include Female Marines) have drawn at least one phallic piece of art in their time in the Corps. Just that most of the time, it is done on a shitter house wall that is normally 150 degrees baking in the desert sun, or in their training schoolhouse bathroom stalls (the head) connecting one to a picture of an instructor they dont like, or in their little book of knowledge they carry around in their top left pocket.

AFTER EDIT: Maybe its just my juvenile way of thinking, but that whole beating the air into submission has a whole double entendre to it as well.

[lapislzi]

11. This is why the aliens have written us off

They have seen the writing in the sky.

[dagnuguy]

21. They're jarheads

It's pretty much what they do. I'm impressed that it wasn't done in crayon like usual.

[sl8]

34. It was probably after lunch, so they didn't have any crayons left.

https://popularmilitary.com/savage-kid-asks-marines-want-eat-crayons-airport/
Savage kid asks Marines if they want to eat some crayons at airport
(Video at link)

[Initech]

22. 8::::::::::::::::::::::::::{)

[aikoaiko]

23. In Olympic skating, skaters would have to demonstrate a figure 8 to show technical competency.

This penis figure seems right up a Marine's lane.

[Sneederbunk]

26. Are they being booked for air shows?

[thbobby]

27. The pilot was a MAGA patriot. Obviously drawing trump.

[TeeYiYi]

46. Obviously not. 8{)

TYY

[thbobby]

47. Thx for the chuckle TeeYiYi!

[Initech]

31. Must have been watching their local news cast!

[progressoid]

49. Bwaaaaa!

Yes, I laughed.

[Tipperary]

33. Why are males so obsessed with their junk?

I find it amusing... and kind of pathetic.

[Decoy of Fenris]

39. Because dicks are funny? Same with testicles, really. Anything genital-related.

They're for the most part adorably (or downright) ugly appendages, they're shaped very oddly, they make a hilarious slapping sound when properly maneuvered, they have a plethora of tricks of both mobility and durability. They have the power to make men both pleased and pained, they're our main external point of both weakness and strength, truth told, the list goes on.

If I had to pick one answer, I'd have to say because my junk lets me pretend to be both a prop plane while vertical and a helicopter when horizontal?

[Kaleva]

48. The average Marine doesn't know what a vulva looks like. So they draw what they know.

[albacore]

40. Marines draw dicks. It's what they do. Been that way ....

...probably from the beginning. Tun Tavern's men's room probably had dicks drawn on the walls.

Note: Tomorrow is the 242nd birthday of the Corps.

Happy Birthday to all my fellow Marines. Semper Fi... and Semper Gumby.

AND THE REST OF YOU DISGUSTING MAGGOTS WILL WISH A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE CORPS!!!

[Separation]

44. I would be willing to bet

That somebody drew a picture of George Washington with a dick pointing to his mouth at Valley Forge.

Semper Fi, and all that!

[blitzen]

41. I think Dylan Maxwell did it, although he said that at the time of the incident he was...

relieving his bowels at Priceless Moments, because he doesn't like the soft squishy toilet seats at his friend's house.

[Separation]

42. LMAO

The investigation should be, "Who in the Marine Corps hasn't drawn a penis somewhere. Whether on a friends face after he has passed out, or on a shitter house wall." There could be a great coffee table illustrative book about the many types of drawn peni, penises? Sure, this fine aviator took it to the next level. He was obviously out on a trainer, and what fantastic navigational skills a pilot must have to be able to draw one high in the sky.

[Doreen]

51. These are the "men" who are supposed to be protecting our contry?