Not terribly unlikely. Could be some old retired dudes making bank.
Hope so. Lots of hours spent preparing for this foe, so it’s good to use them skills
Why not? Flying Tigers did it. Ukraine has many foreigners in their military. Why not pilots?
Totally makes sense.
Why make this statement, to boost his own credibility as an analyst meanwhile giving Russia a propaganda boost…pfffft
Nice, but should everybody know it ??
It sounds nice BUT if anything happened to them or they got caught they would lose their military benefits. Who knows maybe a few don’t care about that or they are being paid enough not to care.
Given the going rate Ukraine is offering soldiers and officers that have retired, I wouldn’t be surprised that retired pilots or even mechanics signed up.
Given the volume of F-16 sent to Ukraine by NATO, I’d say there wasn’t enough time to train volunteers, so they appealed the retired pilots. US has allowed soldiers to join the foreign Legion, and it makes no difference to join UAF either.
In hindsight, this is from Fox News, and they are picky with who goes on their program.
Imagine training most of your career to blow up Russians and then skipping out on the chance to do so.
This is a massive intelligence gain for all western defense companies because they are getting real time information on all their equipment systems, especially new drone and anti drone warfare. Sucks for Ukraine being the fodder but those fighting for their own homeland should be more motivated.
to be fair, Ukraine has publicly called for volunteer pilots. They had a campaign before. It’s not really a secret.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a lot of interest from ex pilots that want to eliminate the modern day nazis.
Plenty of pilots who flew the F-16 dreamt of Air to Air and did nothing but CAS during their career.
Being said, ain’t no way this old dude is in the loop of current affairs.
I’m mostly wondering about how they manage with communication. Isn’t the radio traffic almost certainly in Ukrainian?
Maybe a crash course in Ukrainian, similar to how NASA astronauts in the ISS need to be adept in Russian?
Long live the international solidarity!
If a retired pilot wants to gank a Russian invader in Ukraine then by all means. If i was a pilot and given the chance to shove a missile up som Russians afterburner with the missile guided in by a Saab awacs then i would take the offer every time.
Ukraine is a sovereign country and Russia has no business in dictating who can do what on their soil. If they wanted half of bloody NATO there then its their choice and not Russia to dictate
Mad props to any American/EU/Asian or whatever pilots taking up arms for Ukraine. I hope you make some good bank and I hope the F16 can fly fast and high with those massive balls of steel of y’all. Good hunting.
If I were a former US fighter pilot I sure as hell would give both my testicles to be able to fly against Orcs even at almost 60 years old… Box 1… Splash 1… Sadly I cannot… Instead I rage donate as I hope you all do if you can… https://help99.co, https://u24.gov.ua, https://nafo-ofan.org at least fight Orcs online, join #NAFO…
I’d be surprised if they weren’t TBH…
So what?
We know that Russia is importing North Koreans by the trainload to be meat fodder in it’s war. And it’s not like Russia didn’t have it’s pilots fly MiG-15s during Korea.
Fox News!
Maga, conspiracy source nr2 after X
This is most likely true. Ukraine started recruiting ex western military pilots to conduct missions defending Ukrainian airspace last year. No public reporting on it Im sure to try and keep any pilots identities hidden. These guys are probably making bank as well.
I flew to Warsaw in February 2022, and I flew with a few what I could only assume were retired US military. I ended up sitting across the aisle from one guy, we talked for a bit on the flight and at the baggage claim area. he was middle-aged and from the Midwest, super nice guy. Anyway, I knew not to ask him many questions, just small talk. but I did ask why he was doing it, he said, he felt motivated and almost obligated to do something when he knew he still physically could. To quote him, he said “ I feel like I have one more run left in me”. He also said that what he does would be valued and he knew he could contribute.
He told me he was a specialist, and he had three giant military duffels and a Rusack. Prior to coming to offer Support, he was told, bring absolutely everything you can think of, and extra, because once there, the likelihood of getting what you need when you need it is very low. I explained my connections to Ukraine, and thanked him for what he was doing. And that was it he was off.
I don’t think I’m telling anyone anything they don’t already know, there are American military veterans over there in different capacities. I can even see a retired Air Force captain, helping with training and technical support, but actually flying? That’s a different story, the propaganda win it would give Russia outweigh the damage. especially if the plane went down in Russian held territory or Russia itself. as unlikely as that would be, the possibility of it has to be considered.
Just my opinion, who knows, but I don’t think it would be smart for any retired American pilots to partake in combat flights.
I take everything said on Fox News with a massive grain of salt, its success is one of the worst things that has happened to the United States in my lifetime.
Not a remote possibility. Just as soviet pilots flew north Vietnamese planes, American pilots flew Chinese warplanes during WW2. I’ll not be surprised if there are Americans flying planes for both Russia and Ukraine.
Whatever it takes to stop out the Russian orcs
Sweet. I don’t care who’s flying it as long as they’re hitting Russian targets.
I can’t say for sure that there are no American pilots flying Ukrainian F-16s, but given that this is a Fox News clip and you’re lucky if 8% of their “reporting” is accurate, so on balance, until evidence to the contrary surfaces, I’m going with no.
Good. Now shut up about it. Loose lips sink ships!
I’m a bit skeptical that former (retired) USAF pilots are active in the war zone. Coms would be a bitch as Ukrainian controllers and coms between pilots would have to be in English. Or the American pilots would have to learn enough Ukrainian to get by. In either case it puts a lot of people at risk. I’ve flown in countries where I had to learn enough of the local lingo to get by but it’s rather more difficult, especially when radio chatter gets garbled. Maybe former USAF pilots with Ukrainian backgrounds that speak Ukrainian as a 2nd language? But that would whittle the numbers to only a few, probably. If there are former USAF pilots in Ukraine, I would guess they are supporting as instructors, using their backgrounds and contacts in the defense industry to support logistics etc..
Anyway, it’s a nothing burger to anyone but the ruZZians who want to make a big deal of “NATO” troops in Ukraine, while they ship in thousands of NK and bring in idiots from every poor country who think they’ll make big money and only work in a safe area back in ruZZia. Jeez, even a few yankees got sucked into that one. Good riddance, morons.
Whoever is flying Ukrainian a/c, I wish them every success and pray they return safe from every mission.
Slava Ukraine!
**Eyewitness Accounts**: Some **U.S. aircrew reported hearing Russian being spoken over enemy radio** or noticed highly advanced flying maneuvers.
Who cares. No different from the following Volunteer groups.
1st American Volunteer Group flying for Nationalist China before and during WW2.
Eagle Squadron was a group of US volunteers flying for the RAF prior to US entry in WW2.
Escadrille de La Fayette consisting of US volunteers flying for France during WW1
Kościuszko Squadron was an American volunteer air squadron flying for Poland during the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet war.
Yankee Squadron was another American volunteer unit flying for Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
It would be un American to not have a volunteer air group fighting in Ukraine.
Awesome.
Officially, no. Unofficially, yes. More then likely. I think people would be very surprised. Vietnam for example had Russians flying. It was a secret everywhere but the Soviet Union.
I sure hope they are.
Pretty sure they made it legal for vets to do exactly this under contract.
There were retired US pilots flying missions in Angola and Colombia after Vietnam. I wouldn’t be even half surprised if there weren’t a few over in Ukraine. The US military is huge with lots of retired soldiers, sailors, and airmen. We know there’s Marines and Army on the ground with the foreign legion. It stands to reason there’s some in the air as well.
Best thing they can do , flying under real combat missions.A huge opportunity and honorable mission to save lives.
Of course this is happening and a lot more. I don’t want to know about it. This is how it should work. Why do we feel the need to publicise what help is happening. As long as the machine is working behind the media frenzy. Good luck to all involved.
Hope there’s some ground crews too. Those are just as critical to missio0n success, and probably easier to keep safe and far away from combat.
ruzzians killed Americans in Korea and Vietnam.
Fuck ruzzia.
I heard all the voting machines were rigged in 2020 on Fox as well.
So putin was technically correct when he said that a lot of the more complex systems being sent over to Ukraine cannot be operated without foreign experts, or at least they could but it would take years to train Ukrainian personnel to be proficient with them. So he’s technically correct when saying that when some of these systems hit russia, its a nato weapon with nato/ex-nato personnel hitting russia with a Ukrainian uniform on
42 comments
Im not even surprised
Not terribly unlikely. Could be some old retired dudes making bank.
Hope so. Lots of hours spent preparing for this foe, so it’s good to use them skills
Why not? Flying Tigers did it. Ukraine has many foreigners in their military. Why not pilots?
Totally makes sense.
Why make this statement, to boost his own credibility as an analyst meanwhile giving Russia a propaganda boost…pfffft
Nice, but should everybody know it ??
It sounds nice BUT if anything happened to them or they got caught they would lose their military benefits. Who knows maybe a few don’t care about that or they are being paid enough not to care.
Given the going rate Ukraine is offering soldiers and officers that have retired, I wouldn’t be surprised that retired pilots or even mechanics signed up.
Given the volume of F-16 sent to Ukraine by NATO, I’d say there wasn’t enough time to train volunteers, so they appealed the retired pilots. US has allowed soldiers to join the foreign Legion, and it makes no difference to join UAF either.
In hindsight, this is from Fox News, and they are picky with who goes on their program.
Imagine training most of your career to blow up Russians and then skipping out on the chance to do so.
This is a massive intelligence gain for all western defense companies because they are getting real time information on all their equipment systems, especially new drone and anti drone warfare. Sucks for Ukraine being the fodder but those fighting for their own homeland should be more motivated.
to be fair, Ukraine has publicly called for volunteer pilots. They had a campaign before. It’s not really a secret.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a lot of interest from ex pilots that want to eliminate the modern day nazis.
Plenty of pilots who flew the F-16 dreamt of Air to Air and did nothing but CAS during their career.
Being said, ain’t no way this old dude is in the loop of current affairs.
I’m mostly wondering about how they manage with communication. Isn’t the radio traffic almost certainly in Ukrainian?
Maybe a crash course in Ukrainian, similar to how NASA astronauts in the ISS need to be adept in Russian?
Long live the international solidarity!
If a retired pilot wants to gank a Russian invader in Ukraine then by all means. If i was a pilot and given the chance to shove a missile up som Russians afterburner with the missile guided in by a Saab awacs then i would take the offer every time.
Ukraine is a sovereign country and Russia has no business in dictating who can do what on their soil. If they wanted half of bloody NATO there then its their choice and not Russia to dictate
Mad props to any American/EU/Asian or whatever pilots taking up arms for Ukraine. I hope you make some good bank and I hope the F16 can fly fast and high with those massive balls of steel of y’all. Good hunting.
If I were a former US fighter pilot I sure as hell would give both my testicles to be able to fly against Orcs even at almost 60 years old… Box 1… Splash 1… Sadly I cannot… Instead I rage donate as I hope you all do if you can… https://help99.co, https://u24.gov.ua, https://nafo-ofan.org at least fight Orcs online, join #NAFO…
I’d be surprised if they weren’t TBH…
So what?
We know that Russia is importing North Koreans by the trainload to be meat fodder in it’s war. And it’s not like Russia didn’t have it’s pilots fly MiG-15s during Korea.
Fox News!
Maga, conspiracy source nr2 after X
This is most likely true. Ukraine started recruiting ex western military pilots to conduct missions defending Ukrainian airspace last year. No public reporting on it Im sure to try and keep any pilots identities hidden. These guys are probably making bank as well.
I flew to Warsaw in February 2022, and I flew with a few what I could only assume were retired US military. I ended up sitting across the aisle from one guy, we talked for a bit on the flight and at the baggage claim area. he was middle-aged and from the Midwest, super nice guy. Anyway, I knew not to ask him many questions, just small talk. but I did ask why he was doing it, he said, he felt motivated and almost obligated to do something when he knew he still physically could. To quote him, he said “ I feel like I have one more run left in me”. He also said that what he does would be valued and he knew he could contribute.
He told me he was a specialist, and he had three giant military duffels and a Rusack. Prior to coming to offer Support, he was told, bring absolutely everything you can think of, and extra, because once there, the likelihood of getting what you need when you need it is very low. I explained my connections to Ukraine, and thanked him for what he was doing. And that was it he was off.
I don’t think I’m telling anyone anything they don’t already know, there are American military veterans over there in different capacities. I can even see a retired Air Force captain, helping with training and technical support, but actually flying? That’s a different story, the propaganda win it would give Russia outweigh the damage. especially if the plane went down in Russian held territory or Russia itself. as unlikely as that would be, the possibility of it has to be considered.
Just my opinion, who knows, but I don’t think it would be smart for any retired American pilots to partake in combat flights.
I take everything said on Fox News with a massive grain of salt, its success is one of the worst things that has happened to the United States in my lifetime.
Not a remote possibility. Just as soviet pilots flew north Vietnamese planes, American pilots flew Chinese warplanes during WW2. I’ll not be surprised if there are Americans flying planes for both Russia and Ukraine.
Whatever it takes to stop out the Russian orcs
Sweet. I don’t care who’s flying it as long as they’re hitting Russian targets.
I can’t say for sure that there are no American pilots flying Ukrainian F-16s, but given that this is a Fox News clip and you’re lucky if 8% of their “reporting” is accurate, so on balance, until evidence to the contrary surfaces, I’m going with no.
Good. Now shut up about it. Loose lips sink ships!
I’m a bit skeptical that former (retired) USAF pilots are active in the war zone. Coms would be a bitch as Ukrainian controllers and coms between pilots would have to be in English. Or the American pilots would have to learn enough Ukrainian to get by. In either case it puts a lot of people at risk. I’ve flown in countries where I had to learn enough of the local lingo to get by but it’s rather more difficult, especially when radio chatter gets garbled. Maybe former USAF pilots with Ukrainian backgrounds that speak Ukrainian as a 2nd language? But that would whittle the numbers to only a few, probably. If there are former USAF pilots in Ukraine, I would guess they are supporting as instructors, using their backgrounds and contacts in the defense industry to support logistics etc..
Anyway, it’s a nothing burger to anyone but the ruZZians who want to make a big deal of “NATO” troops in Ukraine, while they ship in thousands of NK and bring in idiots from every poor country who think they’ll make big money and only work in a safe area back in ruZZia. Jeez, even a few yankees got sucked into that one. Good riddance, morons.
Whoever is flying Ukrainian a/c, I wish them every success and pray they return safe from every mission.
Slava Ukraine!
oh shit we need an American version of this…
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDJlxMYjqPM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDJlxMYjqPM)
**Eyewitness Accounts**: Some **U.S. aircrew reported hearing Russian being spoken over enemy radio** or noticed highly advanced flying maneuvers.
Who cares. No different from the following Volunteer groups.
1st American Volunteer Group flying for Nationalist China before and during WW2.
Eagle Squadron was a group of US volunteers flying for the RAF prior to US entry in WW2.
Escadrille de La Fayette consisting of US volunteers flying for France during WW1
Kościuszko Squadron was an American volunteer air squadron flying for Poland during the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet war.
Yankee Squadron was another American volunteer unit flying for Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
It would be un American to not have a volunteer air group fighting in Ukraine.
Awesome.
Officially, no. Unofficially, yes. More then likely. I think people would be very surprised. Vietnam for example had Russians flying. It was a secret everywhere but the Soviet Union.
I sure hope they are.
Pretty sure they made it legal for vets to do exactly this under contract.
There were retired US pilots flying missions in Angola and Colombia after Vietnam. I wouldn’t be even half surprised if there weren’t a few over in Ukraine. The US military is huge with lots of retired soldiers, sailors, and airmen. We know there’s Marines and Army on the ground with the foreign legion. It stands to reason there’s some in the air as well.
Best thing they can do , flying under real combat missions.A huge opportunity and honorable mission to save lives.
Of course this is happening and a lot more. I don’t want to know about it. This is how it should work. Why do we feel the need to publicise what help is happening. As long as the machine is working behind the media frenzy. Good luck to all involved.
Hope there’s some ground crews too. Those are just as critical to missio0n success, and probably easier to keep safe and far away from combat.
ruzzians killed Americans in Korea and Vietnam.
Fuck ruzzia.
I heard all the voting machines were rigged in 2020 on Fox as well.
So putin was technically correct when he said that a lot of the more complex systems being sent over to Ukraine cannot be operated without foreign experts, or at least they could but it would take years to train Ukrainian personnel to be proficient with them. So he’s technically correct when saying that when some of these systems hit russia, its a nato weapon with nato/ex-nato personnel hitting russia with a Ukrainian uniform on
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