microblog · @VetDadJoe · civilian · 21 January 2026, 14:30
"We'll fly out of Maine."
Sir, I have loaded those aircraft. Flying out of Maine means a tanker crew doing fourteen hour cycles in Arctic weather to put gas in one fighter, every day, forever.
They will do it. They will not complain. Somebody should say out loud that you are spending them, and that spending them has a bottom.
I have about $40k in savings. It took eleven years to get there. I am not rich and I cannot afford to be clever. Yesterday the EU froze US government assets. Today my banking app looks exactly the same as it did on Friday. I do not know whe…
Host nations revoke diplomatic clearance for American tanker sorties at Ramstein and Mildenhall, and close western European airspace to any aircraft staging toward the Arctic.
Every US tanker track out of Mildenhall and Ramstein has gone dark this morning. Not rerouted. Gone. Host nations have pulled the diplomatic clearances. No tankers means no Atlantic air operations from Europe. That is the whole game.
In coordination with allies, the United Kingdom has suspended diplomatic clearance for US offensive staging and aerial refuelling operations from UK territory. Support for NATO eastern flank rotations continues unaffected.
Note the second sentence. Nobody is thinning the eastern flank to punish Washington. Not one government has been willing to make Moscow the beneficiary of this. That restraint is the most impressive thing anyone has done this month.
They have closed their runways to us. Their runways — which we paid for, which we built, which we have defended since before their parliaments existed in their current form. So we'll fly out of Maine. It's further. It costs more. Every tanker crew in this coun…
They have closed their runways to us. Their runways — which we paid for, which we built, which we have defended since before their parliaments existed in their current form. So we'll fly out of Maine. It's further. It costs more. Every tanker crew in this coun…
People keep saying "the Germans closed the runways" like it is a headline. The man who closed the runway coaches my son's football team on Wednesdays. He came round on Sunday with a cake. He looked absolutely wretched about it. None of this is happening betwee…