I have been thinking of posting something for a couple of weeks now, but I was having a hard time coming up with any kind of coherent message. I am in Honolulu and from work I can hear and see a lot of the military and commercial traffic coming and going out of the shared runways of Hickam Air Force Base and Honolulu International Airport. At some point, it was clear that there was a DRAMATIC increase in the volume of fighter traffic. It has been sustained at a higher than normal level for weeks. My first thought was that there were training exercises going on. I was a little puzzled because training exercises have always been covered in the paper because of the added visitor count angle and the wish to let people know what was happening to cut down on the noise complaint calls. About a week ago, I heard a couple flights of jets go by between the city and the interior mountains. I made it outside for the third or fourth group and saw that they were fighter aircraft. I could not see markings and I did not recognize the aircraft. The profile made me think "Tornado". They were definitely NOT the Hornets or Raptors that are based here. Jets taking that route to Hickam is unprecedented! Today, I heard a very different sound and rushed out side to see a B2 make its departure. Another unprecedented event! So, I go back to the sentiment of the thread title. What is going on? I think I can say that the start of all this can be tied to the start of the mess in Crimea. I just can't imagine that there would be any thought of getting into a shooting war with Russia right on their border.
A bunch of F22's were here in Savannah for training recently. There have been large groups of fighters and re-fuelers here training since February 1st. Now there are f16's, re-fuelrs and a few others groups here. I thought it was training that was suspended from the sequestration mess finally getting done, but who knows. A car dealer buddy that sold a car on ebay had to give the money back to the buyer as all the freight forwarding companies said there is no space available for the next few months from any of the east coast ports to Europe.
I think it has something to do with China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea arguing about Diaoyu/Senkaku islands and oil that "can be found" around the islands. And as it goes, if some one is arguing about anything, specially if it has anything to do with oil, usa has to be waiving their guns too.
