B-52 crash at Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane.

I would have to agree with Grieg that aggressiveness is necessary in a military combat pilot, just from the nature of the job. Aggressiveness must, however, be tempered with discipline; tragedy of one form or another will occur sooner or later, otherwise.

 

my dad was an ord officer tasked with inspecting the handeling and care of thermo nuclear ARTILLERY shellls entrusted to battery commanders in the us army of the late 50s and early 60s ...it was his feeling that ALL combat comanders ie. inf ., arty , armour types were by nature a pugnacious ,aggresive and cocky bunch ...his fear ,even as a lowly leut and capt was that these lanyard yanker cigar chomping colonels would not EVER allow their weapon to fall into enemy hands if overrun ...that they would fire the nuke round wether they had official permission or not ...( can you blame them? ) this rash action could of course start the world down a slippery slope which was , perhaps best not left to individual lt colonels ...later , us govt policy changed . nuke howitzer shells were removed from all individual battery comanders control and in fact removed from the inventory altogether ..i think b52 commanders are likely of this same stripe of cat whatever hunter s thompsen might have thought when comparing them to the oakland ca chapter of hells angels motorcycle club.. its true , field grade officers dont share their women folk with their brother officers or stomp on the local gentry in bar rooms and taverns.... but they are punacious in a much more lethal , quiet and subdued kind of way , are they not ?