This guy is a badass

[AztecWarrior]

Orestes Lorenzo was a Cuban serving in the Cuban Air Force in 1991. He formerly fought in Angola. He decided to leave Cuba, but he promised to come back, somehow, even if he had to swim, to pick up his wife and two kids.

He made it to the US in a Mikoyan-Gugverich MiG-23 in 18 minutes. It was too fast for the USAF to react. He flew over the naval base in Key West and landed. He asked for and got political asylum.

The Cuban government placed his wife under surveilance, suspecting that they were going to attempt to leave, too. Orestes got visas for his family and they were going to return, but the Cuban government did not let them go. An official told the wife:

"You're not permitted to leave the country. Your husband had the guts to leave in a MiG. Let's see if he has enough to come back."

Pretty much a slap in the face for human rights.

After calling diplomats and even going on a hunger strike, the Cuban government still denied them the right to leave. He decided to take action. When a Mexican group that supported the mentally ill vistited Cuba, they gave his wife a map of where to be and a code key for telephone calls. They were tapping the phone lines, too.

Numerous times, agents tried to trick her. One approached her and offered her a boat trip off. She denied. That saved her from an instant 3 years in jail.

Imagine if the USA was like that.

He aquired a second-hand Cessna 5819X from donations, and he phoned the Mexican group. They called the wife. Some of the code words they used were "Bring me shoes, size 5 1/2 and 6 1/2" (he'll be there between 5:30 and 6:30 AM) and "I'll get you money to buy a TV and videocamera" (he'll be there tomorrow).

The next day, Orestes takes off. He flies just 6 feet off of the ground...yes, SIX FUCKING FEET, to avoid being caught on radar. He evades radar, and soon appears over Havana. He is going to land on the highway!

However, there is a huge rock on the highway! And 500 meters ahead, a bus and a truck!

He sees his family in bright orange shirts. He dodges the boulder, and sees the truck drivers getting off of the road. 60 cm. off of the ground, he pulls the choke lever, pulls up, brakes, and barely makes the landing. The right wing nearly smacked into the truck.

He pulls a 180, everyone gets on, and he takes off, flying low again. Once he's out of missile range, he pulls up. He made it back to the USA.

Is that not a badass?

http://observercc.com/archives/dec02/flight.htm

For the non-believers, there is a link.

[EineBeBoP]

thats..... fucking amazing.
hes one hell of a guy.

...im speechless.

[Neon Apocalypse]

:jawdrop:

[Bighoss]

Gg

[Sputty]

Meh
:groovy:

[Mr1337Duck]

Holy shit, talk about balls.

[Kikinchikin]

just like in SWAT. he landedon the highway. WOW! That guy tiene los cojones grandes!

[Sputty]

I could do better

[Zodiac]

Holy shit, talk about balls.

no, talk about BS.

[Neon Apocalypse]

yeah it may have been stretched a little, or ALOT.

[Infernus]

Orestes Lorenzo was a Cuban serving in the Cuban Air Force in 1991.

Cuba has an Air Force?

[AztecWarrior]

no, talk about BS.

:rolleyes:

Skeptic, are you?

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=36JSECPLGQ&isbn=0312953178&itm=2

The book exists.

[AztecWarrior]

Cuba has an Air Force?
Cuba's into that whole Communism thing, so they got ex-Soviet equipment. :durr:

[Infernus]

Do they still have one... ITS TIME FOR BAY OF PIGS II, RETURN OF THE REPUBLICANS!

[AztecWarrior]

Yes. They have a few MiG-29s and earlier models.

The first failed when air support was turned back. :mad:

[Derfud]

Bleh, leave small countries alone.

[Infernus]

But its right there... I mean we can go to Nroth Korea by route of Cuba

[AztecWarrior]

Derfud: It's not aggressive imperialism, the people of Cuba are living in destitute poverty. They are not free. Have you read "1984"? Read it.

Infernus: I can't see your logic. Why do we need Cuba to go to North Korea? Can't we go from China?

[Everay]

cant we go from china....take china over or do we have a air base there?

anyways, its impressive that he did that, man 6 feet off the ground, im wonder what the wind was like, over water it speeds up

[Zodiac]

:rolleyes:

Skeptic, are you?

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=36JSECPLGQ&isbn=0312953178&itm=2

The book exists.

I stand corrected :thumbsup: But you must admit the first link was a bit questionable consitering the type of "news" sites you have posted in the past.

[Everay]

zodiac...are you implying that Geocities websites arnt trust worthy news sources? :P

EDIT BTW nice avatar zodiac

[321]

I could do better

:D

[NightWalker XI]

Holy shit dude....that guy rocks...he must one hell of a pilot too

[Firefly]

"Take over China"...

Yeah that's a good one. That would be a slaughterhouse- for the United States. People bitch and moan because we lost a couple hundred people in Iraq- can you imagine the total clusterfucking goatfuck if we tried to take China?

[Happy lil Elf]

Flew from the U.S. to Cuba six feet above the water? Nope, sorry but I'll have to call bullshit on that one. Someone is taking creative liberties with the story, and uneeded ones at that. What he did is amazing enough without having to add shit.

[NightWalker XI]

Flew from the U.S. to Cuba six feet above the water? Nope, sorry but I'll have to call bullshit on that one. Someone is taking creative liberties with the story, and uneeded ones at that. What he did is amazing enough without having to add shit.

erm....no, he went to 6feet heigh jsut before he was within radar range, not the whole journey

[Happy lil Elf]

Radar range is still a significant distance, flying 6 feet of the water in a Cesna is a little more than I'll believe. Twenty feet I could buy, hell maybe even 15, but no one would be dumb enough to fly 6 feet above the water for any significant distance, especially in a cessna. Both of those heights would be good enough to be under radar and would both still be on the gusty (or insane depending on how you look at it) side of things. One could also argue that flying at 20 feet seems like flying a 6 since both are much lower than your average pilot will ever want to be unless he's landing.

I just don't buy 6 feet and never will. Someone shows me a video of him doing it and I'll believe it, until then someone is exaggerating something.

[Firefly]

Radar range is significant if you're a powerhouse nation that wants to watch anything coming from China, and that's generally surveillance satellite enhanced.

If you're a dirt-poor country like Cuba, with a handful of old 1950's Soviet knockoff gear, then you're probably operating outdated coastal radar that's more suited toward monitoring ocean-craft than watching for hordes of Yankee imperialist invaders. I'm willing to bet that their military airbase radar is only slightly better.

[Spider]

"Take over China"...

Yeah that's a good one. That would be a slaughterhouse- for the United States. People bitch and moan because we lost a couple hundred people in Iraq- can you imagine the total clusterfucking goatfuck if we tried to take China?

The militia alone outnumbers the U.S army :lol:... since it's practicly the entire population... :lol:!

[NightWalker XI]

Thye aint called the peoples army for nothing =)

[Firefly]

Actually the Chinese military is facing drawdowns just like we are. They are converting a large number of "border forces" to paramilitary-style police units. This is primarily due to lack of money, shoddy equipment that needs to be phased out or consolidated (making less units), and reduced threat now that China is seemingly playing along on a world scale.

Not every Chinese citizen is a member of the military, and it's surprisingly less these days as they pretend they are not venturing into capitalist areas.

The Chinese military's equipment is mostly second-hand junk or copies of old Soviet equipment. Despite that, a weapon is still a weapon, and still dangerous. The Chinese military's biggest threat is its Army. They do have a Navy and an Air Force, but their Air Force lacks significant punch since most of their aircraft are old and outdated. Their Navy consists of noisy submarines and some destroyers and frigates; the surface portion has updated weapons on older hulls. Their land forces are a threat because of the numbers- while small, they are still larger than American forces. They also have a sizeable ballistic missile program that has a good range of reach.

Against those odds, you simply do not invade, especially when you don't have many close-range staging points. Another reason why we don't bitch-slap China is because they are a nuclear power, and a stabilized threat. Meaning, they know what's good for them and they know their role- while lethal, they are also not interested in anything other than reclaiming Taiwan.

[Spider]

I didnt say their entire population was in the army :lol:!

I said most of their population is loyal to them... making them a more then strong militia...

I don't care who the fuck you are no delta rangers or whatever will live thru 100's of people throwing themselves at them with machettees (sp?) and multiple other sort of improvised weapons...

Considering the chinese population is now in the billion's if I remember... that militia is more then impressive...