The US Navy today announced that it has released a senior Al Qaeda terrorist after questioning him extensively for 27 days while he was held prisoner aboard a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. In a humanitarian gesture the terrorist was given $50 US and a white Ford Fairlane automobile upon being released from custody.
The following photo shows the terrorist on his way home just after being released by the Navy.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Enterprise, eh?
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Yeah, I noticed that. Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
They gave him a Fairlane? They haven't made those since, like '77...
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
LMAO, that's hilarious! Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
Did they use the catapult for that?
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
I believe that's the idea. It's probably just them trying to show off the power of the catapults to the crew of the Enterprise.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
It looks like a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon, with a car bouncing off in the dust Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Surely a more impressive demonstration of their power would be to, oh, I don't know, hurl an expensive jet into the air? I mean, I can't quite imagine the seaman (haw haw) working aboard a carrier who thinks "Yeah, these F-16 takeoffs are OK, but what would really impress me is watching my Chevy go into the drink."
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
I think it's to help put it into real world terms. People know how fast cars accelerate so when they see that, they'll know how fast those catapults are.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Not to mention it throws the car clear in the air, without its engine on, I'm sure. Meust impressive.
Snay: I also thought of C&H, the way the car seems to travel in such a careless, happy-go-lucky way. "WEEEEEEE!!!!"
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Am I the only one who assumed the picture was photoshopped?
Posted by Daryus Aden (Member # 12) on :
nope
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Nope...
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
"Ford's early attempts at Fighter aircraft prove less then suscessful."
or
"Andrew Dice Clay is buried at sea."
Posted by Daryus Aden (Member # 12) on :
Or you could just say that its typical of Ford design and build quality. Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
Sol,
F-16's don't fly from carriers.
And they do this from time to time, rigging objects to the catapults and launching them. Small cars are a favorite. Though how they manage to hook the automobile to the catapult without ripping the undercarriage off is beyond me.
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
car = tangible object
"An F-14 weighs TWENTY-FIVE times that much?! No way Jose!"
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Another joke making the rounds...
quote:Saddam's body doubles were gathered last week having lunch. One of the top generals came into the room, and announced "For you, I have some good news, and some bad news."
The good news he said, was that Saddam had survived the bombing of his palace.
"What's the bad news?" asked one of the body doubles.
The general replied, "He lost a leg."
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
I'm pretty sure it's photoshopped. Looks like there's evidence of a clone stamp work around the car.
And yeah, I'm also highly skeptical that you could hook up a small car to one of those things, fire it off, and not scatter chunks of it across the flight deck.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Cats are set by weight. When they first test them after installation, they uses a small flatbed cart that weighs a ton or so & shoot it off the bow. Don't you guys ever watch Discovery Channel?
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Hmmmm, that line sounded a lot more interesting from "Today's Active Topics". Launching cats off carriers is just so much more mundane Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, gosh, my snarky reply wasn't technically accurate. OH NO! It is impossible for me to be snarky about that.
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
Tom, I'm 99% sure it's completely legit. Why else would they have the entire crew standing on the flight deck. Doing that with a real jet wouldn't be smart, with the jet exhaust and all.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
They've done it before. It's a fairly common event on carriers, as far as shooting autmobiles with steam catapults off the bow of large naval vessels can be considered common.
And Sol, it would've been quite easy to make that snarky, with a Nixpicking reference of some kind.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Ok, now I'm confused about who is talking about whom.
Crews gather on the deck for other things. Photoshop is a deft tool in the hands of some, so there's nothing saying that "aircraft carrier crew stand on deck" image and "catapult in action" image were taken together.
At the same time, if I had an aircraft carrier, I would so be shooting all kinds of things off the catapult. So, who knows.
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
Why would the crew be huddled behind the catapults for any other reason but to watch the catapults?
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Instead of all of this conjecture and speculation, why don't we simply ask Wraith where he got the picture. I mean, the worst case scenario is that he got it from a random email....in which case we'd still have lost nothing. But hopefully, he'd have some real insight on the origins of this *cat* launching picture.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
See, now that would be significantly more interesting. Where can we get a picture of them launching a cat?
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mucus: Instead of all of this conjecture and speculation, why don't we simply ask Wraith where he got the picture. I mean, the worst case scenario is that he got it from a random email....in which case we'd still have lost nothing. But hopefully, he'd have some real insight on the origins of this *cat* launching picture.
Worst case scenario, I'm afraid . To be honest, I'd assumed it was photoshopped as well, but I can't offer any 'real insight'. Maybe we should e-mail the US Navy .
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
Oh yes, I can just see the response to THAT email...
From: The United States Navy To: Wraith
In response to your question, yes, we in the United States Navy have nothing better to do with our dozen aircraft carriers then entertain the thousands of seamen assigned to them then to launch Ford Fairlanes off the catapults on their decks. We'd prefer Ford Edsels, but we couldn't find any. The crews appear to like this entertainment, as the amount of mantraining has decreased by large amounts, merely because the men no longer have time to bugger each other silly. The ship in your picture, for example, is now at 65% mantrain active crewmembers, down from 70%.
Thank you for your inquiry, Rear Admiral John "Caboose" Fomoco
_________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Email Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now
Hilarity would ensue.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
LOL
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
And the US Navy does Yahoo. Nice touch.
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
I figured if the Bank of Nigeria could use Yahoo, so could the Navy.
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