davebarrack
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Grrl Power #1295 - Well there's your problem
🕑 Added 2024-09-23 10:00:10 +0000 UTCThank you for the support! You guys are awesome!
As far as I can tell, a Pave Hawk is basically the same thing as a Blackhawk, just with a different loadout? But I decided on the Pave Hawk based on my deep military knowledge, AKA I googled "what helicopters does the air force use for transport" or some such.
I don't know how likely it is to take out a helicopter with a dumbfire RPG, but it's not like helicopters have point defense. I assume flares and probably ECM, but nothing that would help against a blind, jet-powered thing-go-boom. My impression of RPGs is that they are relatively short range, and not terribly accurate. So "a lucky shot" while probably pretty unlikely, is not entirely out of the question.
I saw someone mention that Peggy's skintone looks weird in the last few pages. I agree, actually, but I didn't notice because I think my drawing monitor is maybe slowly dying? I post the comic on my other, "main" monitor, but that one is intentionally set a slightly higher contrast that it should be, just cause I like the way it looks. Nothing extreme, but neither of them are really set up for Adobe sRGB color space. The cintiq really should be, and I did get one of those monitor color calibration tools and used it, but the recommended settings made everything look oversaturated, almost blown out depending on the color. It's entirely possible I was doing something wrong, but I prefer to blame the monitor. It's a Cintiq 34", the largest one they ever made, but they didn't make them for long, and I think it's because they had manufacturing problems. The backlight is uneven if you had a solid color on the screen, though it's fine if I'm working in CSP. Dark parts of the image shows red, speckled lines like... I don't know, part of the screen is delaminating or something. Anyway, I'm posting this using a different monitor and the colors are better, so I'll try adjust the weird colors going forward.
Comments
akrasia
It's worse if they're leading you.
eddi_TBH
One damn thing after another. And they are chasing you.
eddi_TBH
I did not know that. Considering the mix of drought and brush fires there and elsewhere, it makes sense.
Gelatinous Cube
"At least she's in the shade" Yeah, I've heard the military runs on caffeine, nicotine, and dark humor.
Otoger
i think the two are not the same scene, the third panel is the reason she was transferred there not from the moment it happened, pretty sure at least
AlpineBob
"Just call them Marksists!" Perfect! LOL
Cleodora Silvestri
That bullet-shaped missing chunk in the cover rock on panel 3 suggests that Peggy had him in her sights and his lucky shot threw her aim off. Dude got LUCKY.
Brett Dunbar
Man in the sense of person generally is far older than the sense of adult male. the old broad sense is derived from proto-germanic while the narrower sense is observed from 1000. While the nrrower sense eventully became the primary sense the old broader definition survived in literary english.
Dave Barrack
Fixed!
Mathew Aaberg
Yeah I was having a dumb moment and assumed it was burnt because it wasn't desert camo.... like an idiot. I think video games has started to affect my brain. On an unrelated note did you know Australia has more firefighting aircraft than it does military ones. Tells you where the real threats are lol.
TrixieTurner
See the least believable part of this entire comic is the lack of slurs the soldiers use while deployed.
eddi_TBH
The Afghan in panel 3 just had a religious experience. A bullet through the scope just as he took his head away. "Well that uses up all my kismet for this lifetime. I'm going home. You guys tell me how the movie ends."
eddi_TBH
A piece of that rotor might account for the nose scar. Since they look equally dark, they probably did happen in the wreck.
eddi_TBH
Behave you two. Your jokes don't have a leg to stand on.
eddi_TBH
Which need the runways they are planning to build at this FOB. The Air Force usually handles logistics with their helicopters. The Army and Marines get the combat models.
eddi_TBH
Notice the trails of smoke to the upper left. The chopper took several bounces and apparently shed debris and/or sprayed fuel all over the place. Most of it's paint job is intact so the part Peggy is under didn't burn.
Aaron Mauthe
Just call them Marksists! Wait…
Kazzellin
It's hard to tell from the image, but is this also where Peggy got her facial scars, then?
Kazzellin
Truly, that is a very convenient boulder.
Jacob Bissey
She also has no right to complain about
Jacob Bissey
Yeah, but this way she at least has one left
Jacob Bissey
Honestly, a lot of those sorts of -man words, especially military ones, are actually desexed by default, if only by simple virtue that when they were defined originally there weren't women in the role so there wasn't a real need to differentiate by gender until fairly recently, at which point trying to replace the -man suffix with -woman is simply clunky and jarring, so most people just treat the -man suffix like it's referring to mankind rather than men, which it arguably is, if only by accident.
AlpineBob
Depends. If it is afternoon, the shadows will just get longer. If it's morning... Hopefully a rescue crew will be there before it's an issue.
AlpineBob
I find it entirely likely that the armed forces will desex the terms "Marksman" and similar, just as the entertainment industry has desexed the term "actor". A bit harder, with 'man' actually in the word, but having a singular term, instead of two sexed ones, just seems easier, paperwork-wise. D'oh! Of course Sniper is already desexed! But I still can see it - "Best Marksman" awards don't need to be relabeled for Peggy and such...
martin leske
should have taken the left leg and left the chance open for "atleast she is alright" joke ;D
Paul Sparks
An RPG can take out a helo, especially with a tail rotor or rotor hit. Just ask the boys of the 160th SOAR and 10th Mountain Division in the Battle of Mogadishu. Three RPGs shot down three Blackhawks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu_(1993)
Dave Barrack
Yup, fixed!
Dave Barrack
At least once.
Phoenix
You are not wrong about the RPG being able to take down helicopters! The Mujahadeen trained *specifically* to perform that operation against Russian Hinds... and then turned around and used it against American Black Hawks and Chinooks as the Taliban. So the scenario is not so much Lucky Shot as Real Nightmare for many pilots!
Adam C.
Pave Hawk or MH-60 is the Special Operations version of the UH-60 Blackhawk. They are operated by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) under USASOC. In my personal experience, they are the best-goddamned pilots and aircrews I have ever flown with.
Greg Morrow
My question is how many times did Dave doublecheck which leg Peggy lost when drawing the last panel?
Town Crier
RPG's and such are known as "Dumb", or "Fire and Forget" munitions.
Town Crier
Sucks that you were in a no-fault country. The insurance companies are not gonna be nice about this.
David Chuhay
3rd panel should read “I was being transferred TO a new F.O.B”, no?
Tie Toter
"The Golden BB" (a lucky shot by some bored grunt with a rifle), was apparently always in the back of an aviators mind. Manfred von Richthofen was believed to be a victim of such.
KnightRider007
You can FEEL Peggy's expression at Sydney's interjection -.-
Justaguy
Well in the shade for the next ½ hour anyway...
Marc Vun Kannon
The burning of the chopper might have cauterized the wound so she didn't bleed to death, unless the pressure of the chopper was preventing that already.
Mike
I don't know what's different (I am so not an artist), but Peggy looks a lot prettier lately. She was always cute, but these last few strips has made her look a little more feminine, maybe?
Marc Vun Kannon
Yeah, that blade stopped just in time.
Woodrobin
A RPG is basically a bazooka that got beach body ready. Stick the rocket on the front, the tube holds the firing mechanism and directs the rocket exhaust behind you instead of it blow-drying the skin off your face. Stabilizer fins, so it goes mostly straight barring crosswinds -- which rotor down wash definitely counts as being. They're mostly intended for tanks which don't have giant fans above them to blow the rocket off course (although I imagine the Russians might try that soon -- they've already resorted to attaching corrugated roofing to make them look like sheds from the air, if they're holding very still and thinking sheddy thoughts). You would have to be extraordinarily lucky to hit a copter unless it was hovering. That's how the mujahideen got a few Russian ones -- the Russians rolled in slow to strafe the fighters, up pops one that was hiding with an RPG, and Hind go bye-bye. Later, the mujahideen got some guided shoulder-fired missiles, but that early tactic worked way more often than it should have.
Marc Vun Kannon
Forward Operating Base
Matthew Paulin
Also, helicopters and snipers are typically Army or Marines, rarely in the Air Force. The Air Force has airplanes to move stuff around.
Matthew Paulin
What does F.O.B. mean in this context? In the army, that acronym was for "Fresh Off the Boat", which was slang for 'new guy'.
Thomas Dorner
Guess who will lift the chopper from her ... ;-)
Forecaster
Think "wanted it know" is supposed to be "wanted it known" in panel 3
3of4
The question is, did Peggy roll a Nat 1 or the guy with the RPG a Nat 20?
Mathew Aaberg
How is the chopper burnt out and she is unharmed.... actually nevermind suspention of disbelief mode activate!!!!
John C Butler
An RPG to the tail rotor will pretty much do it. Unless the helicopter is traveling forward above a certain airspeed with enough air passing over the vertical stabilizer to counter main rotor torque, it will immediately begin yawing uncontrollably in the direction the main rotor is spinning.
Brett Peirce
It's ok, it's a dry heat anyway
Michael Obert
Get to de Choppa . . .wait, no. Tragic Peggy backstory go 😞
Steve Ronuken
Looks like she was lucky not to lose her head
