back to article Dell starts up 'Top Gun' for channel hotshots, leather jackets and all

Dell's chief storage guy, ex-fighter pilot Darren Thomas, has a new strategy to encourage the troops and get storage geeks to fly: make them Storage Top Guns with leather flying jackets to go with it. Certified Dell and channel storage folks get a leather pilot's jacket emblazoned with badges, like a Storage Domain Champion …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Who cares of the motorbike!

    "One more question: what do you have to do to get the F-14?"

    1. Steve the Cynic

      Re: Who cares of the motorbike!

      These days you have to steal one from the Iranians...

      (No, seriously. The F-14 has had two operators, the US Navy (ex-operator) and the Iranian Navy (current). They bought them back when the Shah was in power.)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Who cares of the motorbike!

        I know, but the real star in Top Gun was never Cruise or its motorbike - anyone can drive one - it was the Tomcat - only a handful could fly it - (the real Navy pilot flying it in the movie later on became an astronaut - IIRC the Hubble repair mission was commanded by him). It was sad to see them chopped - but the question is always the same - "how to get an F-14?" :-D

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Who cares of the motorbike!

        BWT: AFAIK Iranian F-14 are land based (of course, no carrier there) and operated by the Iranian Air Force, not the Navy.

  2. cheveron

    flight jacket

    That's an A2 army type flight jacket he's sporting in that pic. USN pilots wear the G1 type which are easy to distinguish by their shearling collars.

  3. The BigYin
    Joke

    Our server is goosed!

    See title

  4. Beavercheese
    Black Helicopters

    bom bom be bom

    Revvin' up your Servers

    Listen to her howlin' fans

    Storage under tension

    Beggin' you to upload and go

    Highway to the Data Zone

    Ride into the Data Zone

  5. Mark C 2
    Pirate

    Apirational

    Probably because he wished he was a Naval Aviator.

    In the UK the selection process for the RN Fleet Air Arm is tougher compareed to the RAF; while you need to be in the 80th percentile to pass the RAF's tests for Pilot / Navigator you needed to be in the 90th percentile to pass for RN Pilot / Observer. And you will most likely end up going rotary.

    "..landing on a carrier at night, in rough weather with no lights, radio or radar because there's an enemy sub in the area, you are low on fuel, and the carrier has been changing course to avoid the sub" is how the Commodore on my selection board told me.

    Fly Navy, eat crab.

    1. SkippyBing

      and the carrier has been changing course to avoid the sub

      A convenient excuse for not being in the right place when you're supposed to be landing on the damn thing, again...

  6. ukgnome
    Joke

    Seeing that jacket took my breath away

  7. corcoran

    That guy is an irritating over-achiever, amiright?

  8. Darth7
    Happy

    OK, OK, The jacket is an A2, as the furry collar is too much. I didn't fly F14, but I did fly F4's. Never landed on an Aircraft Carrier, and the "TOP GUN" reference is to the movie. The Navy program was called Fighter Weapons School, not Top Gun. THat's the "nick name" of the top grad. No offense to my Navy Colleagues, in fact, my father was a Naval Aviator.

    But the Jacket is cool and the program was a huge hit at Dell Storage Forum where we had lots of excitement around our launches.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nerdsville

    Warrior, Wizard, Warlock, and Fluid Data Architect ? Nooooh

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