Name:   Buteye - Subject:   I find Date:   11/9/2018 10:05:11 PM (updated 11/9/2018 10:15:11 PM)

it pathetic and downright disgusting to see that retired Colonel Martha McSaliy may lose her bid for U.S. Senator from Arizona to Kyrsten Sinema. McSally, 52, currently represents Arizona's second congressional district serving on the House Armed Services and  House Homeland Security Commissions. Before joining Congress, she served 26 years in the Air Force, and retired in 2010 as Colonel. She is the first female pilot in the Air Force to fly combat and the first to command a fighter squadron in combat in U.S. history. She attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and

received her master's degree from Harvard University. Sinema, 46, has represented Arizona's 9th congressional district since 2013. She attended Brigham Young University, and Arizona State University.and was the first openly bisexual member of Congress. Her republican rivals remind voters of her past as a big government, far left progressive who has refashioned herself in Congress as a moderate to reach her political ambition. She worked on Ralph Nader's political campaign in 2000, leading anti-war protests and once wore a pink tutu while doing so. While McSally was flying combat missions against the Taliban, Sinema said she had no problem with Americans defecting to the Taliban. She said, "I don't care" if you join the Taliban. "Go ahead".                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 In contrast, I see McSally as a true patriot with love for her country and with leadership and achievements that would make it extremely difficult to find someone else that could offer America anywhere near her ability to represent the people of this great Nation.

After completing her fighter pilot training she was deployed to Kuwait in January 1995. "I was a young and new fighter pilot and here I was in Kuwait," she said. "On my first flight over Iraq, we were enforcing the no-fly zone, and as I crossed the Kuwait/Iraq border, I'll never forget the feeling I had asked for this and now I was here". In July 2004, she took command of the 354th Foghter Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB Arizona,becoming the first woman to command a fighter squadron.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             One of her most memorable missions was also the first time she deployed weapons in combat. Her squadeon was called to take out insurgents in very rugged terrain in Afghanistan. We had to identify all the many friendly positions while working with a "controller" on the ground. We had to identify the "friendlies" who were climbing up the canyon to get away from the enemy and get outside the safe distance of our guns. "I shot some rockets to confirm the enemy location, and we honed in on the target". Then things got more complicated. "On my last rocket pass, my heads up display failed with all our computerized weapons sights. I had to rely on the very archaic backup called 'standby pipper,' which was a hard sight. I needed to quickly get ready to shoot the gun manually, where I had to be at an exaxt dive angle, airspeed, and altitude when opening fire in order to be accurate. We destroyed the enemy on several passess. We train for this trype of malfunction, but I never would have imagined shooting the gun in "standby pipper' in combat like this". Colonel McSally's squadron won the 2005 Air Force Association's David C. Shilling Award that is given for the best serospace contribution to national defense.