The Smallest Plane- the Weight Is Over!

So there I was, watching some sincerely fun little documentary about the World's littlest piloted airplanes. There was one that, in particular, caught my eye.

The MC-15 comes in weight wise, at just under 250 pounds. The show stated, but I have not confirmed but I trust the source enough and it's unlikely enough to matter at any point in my lifetime that my wife will let me get one, make one, or ever fly one, that the FAA only requires you to get a pilot's license if your aircraft weighs 250 lbs. or above.

But despite the reality of it all, I decided that I would set apart a few thousand brain cells to fantasize about maybe getting one some day when my wife wasn't looking, out of town, and I had someone with an empty garage to hide it in. But those thousand or so brain cells went back up for rent when I realized something...

I'm not a small guy. I mean, I'm not, like, morbidly ginormous, but I'm not skinny. As a matter of fact, my weight bobs up and down just below, never breaking the 250 mark. On the show, I watched this popsicle stick skinny guy exhale before he squeezed his maybe 150 lbs frame into the plane.
And he made that plane look even tinier when he was in it. And as it sped down the runway. and I swear those wings just shrank even more.

But up he went! And he zipped around, looking to all the World like a normal airplane. When he brought it in to land, it was a nice, smooth glide in and touch down (though too slow for the grand flight finale white cloud poof + tire screech).

I was sold. I sat there and rewound the DVR over and over watching this little plane. My son comes in, watches me watching. Finally asks me about the plane, as his interest is kinda peaked, too.

"It's a 200 lbs plane, and since it's less than 250 lbs, you don't need a license to fly it."

My son, just barely smart enough to be a smart alec, replied wryly, "So, it has to weigh less than you, and then anyone can fly it."

So, yes, the FAA has declared that if this plane weighs less than 1 Fritz you don't need a license."

Black History Month conclusion- Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr.

My apologies for not being more involved with my Black History posts in February. I realize it's now March, but life, health, etc. have been in the way. And I could not let this entry go off to the digital ether.

Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. is another big, big achiever. He flew in Vietnam as Col. Robin Olds' executive officer, and like Olds, had also flown in World War 2 and the Korean War (WWII 1/2). His blazing rise would eventually result in earning 4 stars for his flag, and a life of interesting stories no one else can tell, except to say this guy did it all.

Read more about General James at:

http://nationalaviation.org/james-jr-daniel/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_James,_Jr.

His burial at Arlington Cemetary:

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/djames.htm

This concludes this year's official Black history Month air superiority entries. More to come next time!

Are Aces Gone Forever?

In the April 2012 Air Forces Monthly magazine,  Roland Dansereau asked one of the Louisiana ANG's Squadron's commanding officers the following:

"Are aces gone forever?"

To the uninitiated, it could be construed as a pretty insulting question (Hey, fighter pilot, why aren't you an ace yet?). But the heart of the question is, "The U.S. hasn't been seriously challenged in the air for over 30 years, and when it has been challenged, we clobbered the enemy. Is anyone ever going to climb up and throw a serious fighter force against ours, in enough quantity that we'll finally be able to produce some aces?"

The pilot responded with amazing maturity and professionalism: "I feel strongly both ways. I hope not because I have trained my whole career to test myself in battle against enemy pilots and airplanes and I am confident that if there are five targets out there, I would be an ace.

"I hope so, because that means that our country and our military won't have to go through the horror and cost in blood and treasure that a major war would bring. The world is a dangerous place and eventually somebody is going to contest our ability to control the sky.

"They will lose."

Yugoslavia March 1999 Team Effort

Yugoslavia March 1999 Team Effort

Code One Magazine July 1999

SEAD aircraft are usually the first on the scene to provide force protection for subsequent strike packages. The Block 50 F-16s fly in both air-to-air and air-to-surface modes. Equipped with the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile, these "Viper Weasels" have a unique capability to destroy enemy radar sites. The ultimate responsibility of the SEAD mission is to ensure that no allied aircraft is shot down by surface-to-air missiles. The Block 50 F-16s also carry HARM Targeting Systems, which provide sensor coverage over target areas for strike aircraft. They arrive early and build a picture before the strike aircraft get close so that the strikers can adjust routes accordingly.

A Block 50 F-16 pilot from Shaw’s 78th Fighter Squadron achieved the first USAF F-16 air-to-air kill of the Kosovo war when he shot down a Yugoslav MiG-29 near Belgrade on 4 May. The F-16 was one of four Block 50 aircraft heading for a tanker after a SEAD mission. The MiG-29 took off from Batajnica Air Base near Belgrade and was detected by a NATO E-3 AWACS. The F-16s were immediately vectored to engage the threat. Five minutes later, one of the F-16s locked onto the MiG and fired two AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles. A few seconds later, the MiG exploded.

A USAF press release quoted the Shaw pilot, identified as "Dog," after the flight: "We have the world’s finest multirole aircraft in this squadron, and we proved it," he said. "We took off with a primary mission of suppressing ground and air-to-air threats, and we showed the flexibility and the training of US and allied pilots."

The F-16 pilot also stressed the team effort involved with every mission. "My flight members and crew chief, and the weapons and munitions folks, make sure I have equipment that works," he said. "Frankly, if one of my fellow F-16 pilots hadn’t made the first call stating he’d heard the AWACS communications, I might not have turned around and gotten the successful engagement. Of course, the AWACS controller got me there, so it was a team effort from start to finish."

Shooting Fish In a Barrel

Bosnia February 24, 1994 "Like Shooting Fish In A Barrel"

It's not all Eagles and MiGs around here. F-16 Falcons..ahem... Vipers... have contributed plenty to the US's reputation of dangerous skies. The Following is from the UK's 1999 Air Force Year Book and was one of the first published accounts of the action in question.

I have other interviews of this account that I'll be adding over time. So keep coming back!

BACKGROUND

On February, the 86th Wing's 526th FS Black Knights arrived at Aviano with its Block 40 F-16s to take over NATO duty just as the alliance and the UN were locked in a stand-off with Serbian forces around Sarajevo, after a mortar round had killed a dozen people in a market.
Three weeks later the squadron played a key role in the shooting down of four Serb aircraft. As a result of that short engagement, Captain (now Major) Bob "Wilbur" Wright became the highest-scoring F-16 pilot. At the time, for operational security reasons, the USAF refused to identify Wright publicly because he was still flying missions over Bosnia as part of Operation Deny Flight. It was several months before he was named when the (then) Lockheed Fort Worth Company presented him with the Dryden Semper Viper Award, for "superior airmanship".

SHOOT DOWN

The engagement began just after 0530 hr on 24 February 1994, when a NATO Airborne Early Warning Force Boeing E-3A Sentry detected a flight of six fast jets heading southwards from Banja Luka towards central Bosnia. It later transpired that the Soko G-2 Galeb aircraft had taken off from Ubdina air base in the serb-held Krajina region of Croatia. Wright and his wingman, the then little known Captain Scott O'Grady, were on combat air patrol over Mostar in southeast Bosnia, using the callsign Black 04 and 04. They were serving with teh 526th FS, which had been detached for temporary duty to Aviano from Ramstein AB in Germany.
A fighter controller onthe AWACS vectored the two pilots to intercept the Serb aircraft. At the same time, the AWACS began issuing radio warnings to the Serbs, ordering them to land or exit the UN-mandated "No-Fly Zone" - otherwise they would be ngaged. They did not respond to the warnings.
At 0542, Wright and O'Grady issued their own warnings to the Serbs, which were also ignored. This was just after Wright had seen the serb aircraft make bombing runs on an arms factory in the Muslim-held town of Novi Tarvnik. Wright saw explosions on the ground and requested permission from NATO's Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Vicenza to engage. Under the UN and NATO rules of engagement, NATO had a "single key" in such circumstances, so the CAOC was almost immediately able to clear Wright to react to the blatant breach of the "No-Fly Zone".
The Galebs were now heading northward, trying to drop to low level to use the mountainous terrain to hide from any NATO radar surveillance. Wright, however, was on their tail. At 0545 he launched his first AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-toAir Missile (AMRAAM) at the Galebs. The semi-active radar-guided missile easily found its mark on the first Galeb, which was flying at some 5,000 feet. The remaining Galebs had dropped to a few hundred feet ot make their escape back to Ubdina. Wright pressed on, closing into AIM-9 Sidewinder range. He launched two missiles, which were seen to impact and turn the Serb aircraft into fireballs. No parachutes were seen by the F-16 pilots.
With his missilesa ll but exhausted and his fuel running low, Wright now handed over the chase to O'Grady, who had been flying top cover for his flight lead. O'Grady dropped down to engage and fired Sidewinder but it did not lock-on, and missed. Black flight was now approaching "bingo fuel" so they pulled off to refuel from a KC-135R Stratotanker orbiting over the Adriatic Sea. Another pair of 526th FS F-16Cs, Knight 25 and 26, had been vectored by the AWACS to take over the intercept. At 0550 Knight 25 managed to get in behind teh remaining 2 Galebs. He got a good lock and downed one of the aircraft with a Sidewinder.
By this time, the Serb aircraft were close to the international border and the F-16s had to break off the pursuit because NATO was not empowered to engage aircraft outside of Bosnian airspace. The remaining Galebs were were able to return unharmed to Ubdina. Within minutes, news of the first offensive military action in teh history of the NATO alliance was flashed around the world. Wrighta nd a number of his colleagues later gave a number of media interviews about the incident, using their callsigns as identification, but they quickly returned to operational flying.

MiGs Should Avoid Showers

The following is from another F-15C MiG Kill, and was published in the Air Force Magazine, published by the United States Air Force.

Nellis hero receives Distinguished Flying Cross- Air Force Air Combat Command News Service Feb 29, 2000

By Staff Sgt. Ed Scott

Air Warfare Center Public Affairs

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (ACCNS) -- An U.S. Air Force Weapons School captain recently received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts in Operation Allied Force over the former Republic of Yugoslavia March 24 during the first offensive action in North Atlantic Treaty Organization's history.

Operation Allied Force was a 79-day air campaign carried out in response to what President Clinton called Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic's "brutal repression in Kosovo."

Capt. Mike Shower, flying an F-15C, was escorting the first of two strike packages - one package flew into southern Serbia while Shower's package went north over Belgrade. The strike packages were made up of 10 F-117s and two B-2 bombers with escort coming from a total of eight F-15Cs and F-16CJs.

"It was (a) crystal clear and dark (night), with about a 50 percent moon," Shower said. "The Serbs left all their lights on - it looked like you were flying over Disneyland."

Shower said he was scared when the strike package first crossed the line, especially since his package was the first in and last out.

"I've been to Iraq on three different trips in the no fly zone," he said.

"But when we crossed that line it was like - wow - this is a real conflict, a full-up war," he said. "They're going to fight and try to defend themselves. This hit me pretty hard because I'd never been in this before."

Approximately four minutes into the mission, Shower said they heard a "Splash one MiG-29" (a MiG-29 has been shot down) call from Airborne Warning and Control System from the south strike package. We got a little excited at that point since there was no doubt the Serbians were going to launch their aircraft. Six minutes into the mission, the captain's radar picture was complicated by an unidentified aircraft taking off from Batajinica Airfield, a MiG-29 base in northern Belgrade.

"From that point I went from being afraid and looking outside the airplane for surface-to-air missiles launching to being physically afraid, something like paralysis," he said.

Shower said, once the aircraft call had been made training took over and the fear went away in just a few seconds.

"I went from being afraid to watching the radar and into more of an adrenaline mode and I have to protect the package," he said.

At that moment, the strike package faced another challenge - protecting aircraft the escorts could not see nor had any idea as to their location. The F-117s work independently and have their own flying lines and timing.

"It's not like a typical package that is all together and you can be a shepherd," he said. "You can't see them on radar. It's dark so you can't see them visibly. You really don't know where they're at, so altitude really becomes important."

Shower relayed the information stating the MiG-29 posed a serious threat. One minute later, after ensuring a clear field of fire and a positive identification, he launched two AIM-120C Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles. Missing with his first shots, he pressed that attack well within range of the MiG-29's own missile line of fire.

"Under normal circumstances I could have fired my missiles, turned and ran away," he said. "You don't know where they are (F-117s) so I didn't think I had a choice of turning around and running away. You've got a MiG-29 running around in the area and there is a chance he could get lucky and find a stealth."

The chance the MiG-29 could have found a friendly made the situation risk factor high so Shower said, "we had to get in there and get the guy."

While shooting at the MiG-29, there was a F-117 between Shower's F-15C and the MiG-29. The next night, the F-117 pilot told Shower the first time he knew he was in an engagement with the MiG-29 was when he saw the first two missiles come across the top of his aircraft.

"He (the MiG-29) was about six miles away and I'm up pretty high pointing at him when I took my last shot," Shower said.

The captain said the final shot illuminated his aircraft from the rocket plume so the F-117 pilot could tell the two aircraft were approximately 2,000 feet from each other. The missile went right across the front of his aircraft down to the MiG-29 which blew up about 7,000 feet underneath the F-117. The MiG-29 crashed within 25 nautical miles of Batajinica Airfield.

"If it had been daytime, there might have been a whole different ending to the story," Shower said.

Four minutes after this engagement another MiG-29 took off from the airfield and once again Shower committed his flight to the engagement.

"You're thinking you might get one of these (MiG-29) in a night and here we are getting another one 11 minutes into the mission," he said. The mission called for them to have an hour in-country.

"Here he is in the beam (radar missile sites) and I knew he was the bad guy, but we can't get a full ID (identification) on him," he said. "We were lacking one piece of information - there was no doubt, but I couldn't shoot."

Not being able to identify the aircraft, Shower had to break off the intercept turning away from the MiG-29. The MiG-29 continued north apparently chasing a part of the strike package, later turning back south. In the meantime, Shower turned his element south after AWACS called out three other MiGs south of his position.

"We're quite concerned and excited with the call of three MiGs south of us over Belgrade," he said.

"I drive over Belgrade to the edge of the SAM rings and there's nothing there," he said. About that time the other MiG-29 in the north turned around, called by the F-16's. Shower turned his element north and ran a final intercept, achieving a lock and ID as a hostile MiG-29. He took a single shot at 5 miles but observed no fireball and was unable to pull in behind the MiG-29 for a second shot due to the close range and nighttime considerations. After maneuvering his aircraft, he was able to achieve another lock on, but could not get close enough to the MiG-29 to fire before reaching the SAM rings around Belgrade.

"I'd had enough for one night and I was glad it was time to return home," he said.

During the 50-minute flight back, Shower said he started sitting down lower in his seat - "sorta becoming jello." Returning home, he started hearing the radio calls: "one kill, possibly two along with the other package possibly getting one." He said the adrenaline started kicking in again. By the time he landed, he said the parking area was filled with people wanting to see the aircraft and hear the stories.

"I had shot four missiles in one night and punched off the wing tanks, so I had the only plane that looked empty," he said. "Everybody was shaking hands."

Prior to the flight, a maintenance troop had approached Shower and handed him a baseball that had been designated as the squadron's "Grim Reaper Ball."

"The maintenance man told me he felt like I was going to do something tonight and asked me to take the ball up with me," Shower said. The captain stuck the ball in his helmet bag and loaded it into his map case.

"Sure enough, this reaper ball for the squadron is with me on the first mission when I get a kill," he said. "I thought that was pretty cool and when I held it up everybody started cheering."

Shower said everything was really exciting for the next few hours - "basically, I didn't sleep until the next day."

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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