I draw your attention to the 3rd paragraph:
http://www.aviano.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=4350
And await the 1st keyboard commando’s response to attempt claiming that each of Aviano’s squadrons does not maintain and armed flight of Falcons with crew and support personnel on garrison standby for short-notice missions in accordance with the aforementioned standard USAF fighter wing Emergency Action Plan.
As has been repeatedly made clear, F-16s would be of little use in this particular instance unless the goal is to machine gun crowds of people. That would not have helped the situation.
You’re almost through the looking glass here Acewiza. You’re about to bust through it and prove to these ‘people’ here what a goddamn military genius you are. You’re clearly America’s must underutilized strategic weapon and your vast, vast understanding of military operations it a remarkable thing of beauty.
I’d type more but I need to stand up and salute my screen while singing God Bless America because when I read your words here my heart screams “Freedom”!
Close air support does not normally involve “machine gunning crowds of people.”
That’s not what your cite says, no. It says:
You, based on nothing you can cite, interpret that to mean that, per your scenario, F-16s loaded with drop tanks and 20mm shells can be launched in 90 minutes.
Because it’s not normally done with a load of drop tanks and 20mm shells, outside the combat range of the aircraft.
Nor is it generally done in a city full of civilians.
Happens almost every damn day in Afghanistan. Kinetic effects are rarely necessary after the first pass.
The lack of actual knowledge displayed by the majority of posters in this thread is really astonishing.
Sure, why not. Any luck on finding some sort of evidence that the Senate Intelligence Committee was hoodwinked, and the F-16s were ready to launch and could have helped in some way?
Evidence of common knowledge would be superfluous.
Nor will I be duped into divulging classified details of such matters.
If all you’ve got is “Trust me!”, you’ve got nothing. Sorry.
ETA: Also, how can it be both common knowledge, and classified?
In an urban environment, with crowds of people, and most of them not targets (and even the targets uncertain), F-16s would be useless and possibly worse. Acewiza is wrong. There are aircraft that might help, but F-16s are not one of them.
So far, Acewiza has demonstrated extremely poor knowledge of military matters.
Thanks for once again demonstrating your true lack of knowledge on this topic. It is common knowledge the major military powers maintain arsenals of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The procedures, specifications and capabilities of those systems are highly classified.
So, which aspect of F-16s at Aviano being ready to launch in 90 minutes to a destination outside their combat range is common knowledge, and which is classified?
He could tell you, but then he’d have to order an intercontinental ballistic missile strike on your house.
While yours comes from … where did you say, exactly? 
Psst … someone with actual possession of classified information does not normally acknowledge that in public. So you know.
And launching an ICBM at Benghazi would, and I’m just guessing, probably *not *have saved the ambassador there.
Your education on this topic, at least as far as I am concerned, has come to an end.
Ahh, arrogance combined with an imaginary (sooper secret, can’t tell you) expertise.
Great combination.
Does anyone else remember the poster way back during the first days of the Iraq invasion who claimed sooper secret inside knowledge that there were positively, absolutely WMD’s and they would be found? But he couldn’t tell us how he knew because he was a Very Important Person? And then he disappeared off the boards when he was proved to be wrong?
So, right back to “Trust me!” then.
No thanks.
Is that the metric now? We don’t send in troops to save Americans when they’re endangered because someone might get hurt? How about the police or fire fighters? Was anybody faulted for the rescuers who died in the WTC buildings?