Georgia governor Sonny Perdue gets a look inside the Super Hornet.
The U.S. military presence at the Paris Air Show this year is larger than at any other time during the Bush administration. A Navy LT who preferred not to reveal his name spoke with me about this and more while we walked the DoD’s static display of U.S. aircraft. An F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot based in Oceana, Virginia, the LT was frequently interrupted by the demands of high-profile visitors curious to see the inside of the aircraft’s cockpit. After Georgia governor Sonny Perdue was satisfied, a former Soviet MiG pilot and Moldovan minister of defense now serving as that country’s ambassador to NATO carefully examined the F/A-18 Super Hornet’s components. I didn’t detect a spy-camera, but I did ask his Boeing chaperone if Moldova is in the market for fighter jets. The well-meaning exec chuckled as he motioned to a nearby HARM air-to-ground missile. “They can’t even afford one of those,” he said, let alone a strike fighter like the Super Hornet. After the VIPs took off, the pilot explained that he was pulling double duty in France–in addition to the standard DoD role, he also claimed a responsibility to help Boeing, the F/A-18’s manufacturer, sell airplanes. But the LT had one more self-assigned, unofficial mission: to elevate the sagging reputation of the United States here in France. And he also offered a stunning defense of the French people, who he claimed are completely misrepresented back in the States. According to him, the French are friendly, speak more English than they used to–which he said is a shame and evidence of the destructive power of our pervasive culture–and have been much better war-time allies than we give them credit for. We say the LT’s entitled to his opinion on this matter, but his wife, a WEEKLY STANDARD subscriber he confides, might disagree. Getting back to the aircraft, the LT–perhaps in his capacity as a flack for the F/A-18–said the manufacturers are responsive to the concerns and demands of the pilots who have to fly their planes. When another Oceana-based squadron experienced an ejection mishap, Boeing was quick to help rectify the potentially-fatal problem. And when the F-14 was about to be decommissioned by the U.S. Navy, Northrop still put out “100 percent effort,” making repairs to the bitter end.
