Hwang and Boomer, In for the Kill(s)

Ahh, yes. The famous Captain Jeff "Claw" Hwang Double MiG Kill e-mail.

I shared this on an older site I was involved with. It actually got me international recognition. But then some I lost a struggle over an ethics question over posting someone's personal e-mail on a public site. Then more and more web sites began doing it. Finally it appeared in some books, one of which substantiated it that it was, in fact, the real deal. And now that it's in the public domain, I'm posting it, with my 3-D rendering of the battle scene (which I've decided I am going to work some more on in the near future).

Also keep an eye out for another article (from an old Air Forces Monthly magazine) I'll be sharing here about this shoot-down from the enemy's point of view. It makes for some VERY interesting reading.

Not many good words for AWACS here. Ron/Byron, run this off for the
controllers this weekend. DA Bros, Well, I'm finally back in England
after being TDY since the end of
January, at least for two weeks anyway. Got sent direct to Cervia AB,
Italy,from
Operation Northern Watch in Trukey after being at the Incirlik AB for
over 7 weeks ("Luv the 'Lik" no 'mo ! ). My house and yard
is a total mess! There doesn't seem to be an end in sight in the Kosovo
situation, but the war is over for me for a while. Some of
you probably already heard throught the grapevine about what happened to
"Boomer" Mcmurry and I. Here's the proverbial "Rest
of the Story"...

Boomer and I were tasked as Bosnia-Herzgovinia DCA on 26 Mar, vul time
from 1500Z to 1900Z. We were established on CAP
over Tuzla for about an hour after initial refueling. At 1602Z, while
eastbound approaching the Bosnia/Yugoslavia border, I got a
radar contact 37 nm to the east, 6k', beaming south at over 600kts. Of
course AWACS had no clue and did not have any inkling of
someone was flying on the other side of border (although he was real
good at calling out every single friendly WEST of us!). I
called out the contact and Boomer was locked same. Without an ID and not
tactically sound to cross the border at the time, I
elected to pump our formation in a right hand turn through south and
called "PUSH IT UP, BURNER, TAPES ON!" (we were
initially flying .85M, 28K') and rolled out heading west/southwest. At
that time I didn't think anything much would happen. I figured
the contact would probably continue south or turn east and remain well
on the east side of the border. Nevertheless, I called the
flight lead of the south CAP over Sarajevo and gave him a craniums up on
the posit of contact, altitude, and the heading. This entire
time AWACS still had no radar contact, even after I called it out on the
radio. Man, running away with the contact at our six
o'clock with AWACS not having any clue was NOT comfortable! Boomer and I
continued west for a total of 60 sec (about 10 nm)
before I directed the formation to turn back hot, again turning through
south in an attempt to get some cut-off. Boomer was on the
northside of the formation (left side as we rolled out heading east). We
both got contact BRAA 070 for 37 nm, 23k', target now
heading west (hot towards us). AWACS finally woke up and starting seeing
the same thing. Now, I'm
Starting to think SHIT IS GONNA HAPPEN (evident with the increase of
about two octaves in
>>> my voice!). It was fairly obvious this guys originated from FRY, and
there were no OCA missions at the time. Checked AAI
for friendly squawk: nobody home! We still needed to get clearance from
AWACS to engage, so I requested (codeword) and got
no reply from the controller (pretty sure he had no 'freakin clue what
that codeword meant!) About this time both Boomer and I got
good ID on the target in our own cockpit and with threat hot towards us
inside 30 nm decided to blow off the AWACS/clearance to
engage restriction and go for it! Target was now inside 30 nm and I
directed Boomer to target the single group. I broke lock and
went back to search in 40nm scope and 120 sweep. The target check turn
towards north west (about 14L aspect) and descend to
high teens. Boomer and I checked about 30 deg
>left to northeast for cutoff. This check turn slung me aft in the
formation so I stroke it up to full AB to get more line abreast. I
called "COMBAT 1, ARM HOT" and saw Boomer's wing tanks come off with
bright flames under the wing. Pretty impressive! I
was well over the Mach when I punched my tanks off and
the jet jumped up abruptly (you can see it in the HUD). Took a quick
look back to check and see if my stabs were still intact... I
rolled my elevation coverage looking from about 5K' to 21K' and no
kidding stay
in search for at least one full frame (believe me, I wanted to go back
to single target track SO DAMN BAD !!!) AWACS started
calling out two contacts, lead trail. Sure enough, I was starting to see
the break
out on my scope! At about 20nm, Boomer called "FOX 3, 18K' !". I saw the
cons/smoke came from his jet and thought:
SONOFABITCH!!!! I gotta get me some!!! I commanded miniraster on the
leader and as soon as the radar lock (about 17nm),
immediately thumb forward to HDTWS. My first shot
>came off inside 16 nm from the leader. When I pressed the pickle
button, it seemed like an ETERNITY before the missile actually
launched, but when it did...WOW!!!! I have never shot an AMRAAM or AIM-7
before at WSEPand don't think I have a chance in
hell of shooting more missiles at WSEP
>>> after this!). The missile came off with such a loud roar/whoosh, I
not only heard it clearly in the cockpit above the wind noise,
radio comm, ear plug, and helmet, I actually FELT the rocket motor roar!
In the HUD, you can see the flames shooting out from
the tail end of the missile, and
the smoke and cons following it! Stepped immediately to the trailer in
HDTWS and press and held the pickle button for at least 3
seconds. Again, thinking: COME ON, DAMN IT! LAUNCH!!! The second missile
came off just as impressive as the first after
the same painful delay. I yelled "Dirk
1, Fox 6, lead trail!" ("Cricket" Renner later critique my comm as
incorrect 3-1 terminology... EAT ME!!!) Since Boomer was the
primary shooter, I assumed he was locked to the leader, so I kept the
trailer
as the PDT. Didn't want to screw with a good thing, I stayed in HDTWS
inside 10nm ("Dozer" Shower, our WIC dude, promptly
critic me for NOT going STT inside 10nm upon reviewing my VSD tape, thus
I still have to pass my IPUG Tac Intx ride!). Both
targets started a check turn to the southwest (14L
to H to 16R aspect) and continued to descent to low teens. Approaching
10nm, checking RWR to make sure we weren't targeted:
"Dirk 1 naked !" "Dirk 2 naked !" "Dirk, let's go pure!" From 30K', both
of us rolled our jets inverted and pointed nose low directly at
the TD box on the HUD, and pulled throttle to idle. I think my heart
rate at this time was reaching my aerobic limit for my age (you
know, that formula: 220 minus age...)! Against a broken cloud
background, I saw a tiny dot in the TD box about 7 to 8 nm out.
>>> "Dirk 1, tally ho nose 7 nm, low !" Realizing I saw the trailer, I
was praying Boomer would soon follow up with a tally call on
the leader. Approaching 5 nm, I'm scanning in front of the trailer for
the leader but no joy. Shit! The trailer continued his left turn to
southwest and I was looking at approx 14R aspect.
Inside of 5 nm, thumb aft to AIM-9 and tried twice to uncage but the
tone was not there. Just then, between the HUD and the
canopy bow (about right 12:30 to 1 o'clock position), I saw the leader
explode! The best visual description I can think of is if you
held a torch from one of those Hawaiian Luau party, and swing it through
the air. The flame with a extended tail trailling the torch is
exactly what I saw! Turning my
attention back to the trailer, the trailer exploded into a streaking
flame seconds later just as I tried to uncage the missile the third
time! Never mind!
"DIRK 1, SPASH TWO MIG-29s,
B/E 360/35 !!!"
Heater, I'm ashamed... I was screaming like a woman! Didn't really
bothered to keep an eye on the fireballs, so I didn't see any
chutes. Later report confirmed both pilots ejected safely. Not that
neither
Boomer nor I would've felt bad if they morted. Anyway, I called for
Boomer and I to reference 080 heading and short range radar.
Thumbed aft to AUTOGUNS and plug in full AB and accelerated to 460 kts
at 20K'. My cranium was on a swivel and breathing
like I just ran a full sprint! "Dirk 2, blind!"
Crap!!!! I looked north and it took me a few seconds to find Boomer
(about 3.5nm left and stacked high). Tried to talk his eyes
back to me, but Boomer called out to west in a right turn. I waited a
few seconds
to sanitize and turned west as well. During the turn, I immediately
pulled into double beeper due to airspeed and Gs (looking back, I
should've over G so the mission would've been more impressive... :-)
Rolling out, I was 3 nm in trail of Boomer, so I had him
shackled to the south to pick up line abreast. The fun wasn't over yet.
Boomer got an AUTOGUN snap lock less than 10 nm south
of us, low alt, with no ID. I told him to press for VID while I followed
him 3 nm in trail. We were diving back down to the
>>> low teens and I saw ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on my radar! Boomer all of a
sudden pulls up and yells "Dirk 2, unable ID!"
That's BAD!!! I just about shit in my pants! I saw nothing and after a
few seconds I asked Boomer if he saw ANYTHING at all.
Boomer said he didn't see anything, so we just stroke it up and separate
to the northwest for a while, then came back for a second
look. Nobody home! Boomer thought it may have been a bad radar lock. I
sure hope so! The rest of the sortie was one excitement
after another. While on the boom, AWACS controller started calling out
every single ground traffic as possible contact crossing the
border into Bosnia. For a while it sounded like a mass attack on Tuzla!
By now it was night time, and Boomer (in an offset 3~5 nm
trail) and I were still running around with our hair on fire! One time
AWACS called out contacts very low alt moving towards
Tuzla westbound. I didn't see squat on my tube, neither did Boomer. As
the position of group started getting closer to Tuzla, I
expected tosee a burst of explosion from the airfield underneath! Boomer
and I were gonna go from "heros to zeros" real soon!
Finally I turned the GMTR setting on my trusty APG-70 to low and
immediately saw the targets. Locked them up and show 80 kts
ground speed! I wanted to reach through the mic and strangle the shit
out the controller! AWACS later called out Mig CAPs just 15
nm northeast of the border! Boomer and I were ready to "Pop a cap in
their ass" across the border as soon as we got contact and
ID! Again, nothing on the radar. We even did two iterations of grinder
with a
two ship of Vipers and no one got a solid radar hit. That night we
committed and armed hot THREE MORE TIMES AFTER the
Mig kills based on ridiculous AWACS calls! No kidding, by the time our
replacement showed up (4 hours of vul time later), I was
totally exhausted and drained! The flight
across Adriatic was uneventful, and Boomer and I finally had a moment to
think about what happened.
After I landed and pulled into dearm, I saw a freak in flight suit and
wearing a reflective belt, jumping up and down. Sure enough, it
was "Freak" O'Laughlin welcoming us back! Taxi back to the chocks was
like having a bunch of kids following an ice cream truck! Everyone came
running out and waited at the parking spot for Boomer
and I. Boomer taxied in front of me as I pulled into my spot. Losing all

professionalism and radio discipline (yada yada...), I called out on Ops
freq: "Boomer, YOU're the SHIT!!!" Getting out of the jet
and greeting all the bros and maintainers was THE GREATEST MOMENT OF MY
CAREER!!! Our Ops Grp commander
"Wilbur" Eddy was first to shake my hand, followed by the mob! We were
laughing, shouting, hooting, high fiving, and hugging! It
was awesome! Couldn't wait to review the tapes, we all piled into the
"Turtle" and watched my HUD tapes. Thank God it recorded
everything clearly, including the fireball from the trailer. "Homer"
Samuel and "Bull" Mitchum almost knocked me over when they
came storming into the Turtle! We were all screaming and
jumping so hard in the Turtle I though it was going to tip over! Too bad
Boomer's VSD tape did not run, and his HUD tape was
washed out due to high aperature setting. Boomer and I were laughing and
high fiving entire car ride home! We weren't even
suppose to fly that day! Some afterthoughts: It no kidding took over a
day for this to finally sink in. It felt almost surreal that
day/night. "Fish" Bonita, our
MX officer, said it best when he saw me hours after I shut down engines:
"So, Claw, have you landed yet?" Only one word can
describe this event: FUCKING_UNBELIEVABLY_LUCKY!!! Not the fact we shot
them down, but that they were airborne
during our watch. Any Eagle driver could've easily done what Boomer and
I did, but as "Heater" Griffin said: "You guys won the
lottery!" The sequence of events happened in our favor like the planets
lining up. The jets, the missiles, the radar (well, at least
mine) performed marvelously! Our MX dudes deserve the bulk of the
credit. We had no spares that day. The crew chiefs and the
Pro Super, Jim Snyder, absolutely BUSTED THEIR ASS working red balls and
launched us on time! Boomer, my wingman, what
can I say? Regardless of whose missile hit
>which Mig, WE shot down two Fulcrums that afternoon. We succeed as a
team, and fail as a team (good thing it was the former)!
Boomer did an OUTSTANDING job of finding the group, working the ID
matrix, and target according to plan. If I didn't have faith
in him, I would not have broke lock and break out the lead trail
formation. Of course I'm proud of what we did, but there's one thing
I'll really stick out my chest for: To everyone who taught me and
influenced me on my tactical flying and gave me long
debriefs (though painful at times), especially "Razor" Johnson, "Elwood"
Amidon, "Heater" Griffin (even though he's a meat
gazer...), "Homer" Samuel, "Dozer" Shower, "Nuts" Destasio, and "Bear"
Gibbs, I DID NOT LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!! It
doesn't get much better than this guys! Well, maybe two more kills would
be pretty cool... That's all I have to say about that!
Claw, aka Po

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