Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

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TopGun clipping. All fighter wings have these competitions, and this was my first win. Germany, 1990. Every bachelor fighter pilot should have a fast car. This Porsche became my favorite toy—next to an F-16, of course.
Inbound SCUD missile being destroyed by a Patriot battery at the start of Desert Storm, 1991. 23rd Tactical Fighter Squadron “Fighting Hawks” Hunter Killer team ready for takeoff in the first Gulf War. (See chapter 3.)
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VIPER PILOT A MEMOIR OF AIR COMBAT
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Epigraph There are only two types o
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Author’s Note I WROTE THIS BOOK M
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Simple. Or not. The Second Gulf War
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But men were dying. Our men. I stra
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I was now truly on my own. But my w
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“CHIEFTAIN . . . ROMAN 75 is off
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ground every aircraft on the contin
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missions, though puny by modern sta
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extract ourselves from Vietnam, and
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LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AFTER FOBAIR AN
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In November 1965, the first five Wi
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many cases, from lives lost. With t
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2 Cold War and Hot Times “IF THE
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IT WORKED LIKE THIS. The first two
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loathed most FAIPs. So, Daddy Rabbi
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conjunction with some properly embe
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At least long enough for me to star
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We were taught the basics of our va
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Southeast Asia within the past twen
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typical Type-A FNG, I wanted to mak
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listen to a few seconds of the audi
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LEARNING THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS
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search-and-rescue in the event a je
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I nodded, now an expert on all Span
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of passage and a tradition. So, dur
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eathing matched my heart rate as th
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Clouds of white-feathered brown dus
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Euphrates River was almost turquois
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Suddenly a thin, pole-shaped object
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firing solution and a visual on the
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As I watched the jets spiral down a
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ackup targets, weapons, and timing.
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“I—” “C’mon boy . . . spi
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clueless non-fighter type (male, th
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pilot who spoke up was called “Li
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“Well, he happens to be correct.
Page 77 and 78: nice quarters had to go to the tran
Page 79 and 80: extra flying time with no brief or
Page 81 and 82: the flight controls working. Everyt
Page 83 and 84: was still up, which was bad. Pullin
Page 85 and 86: Mubarak was very definitely in powe
Page 87 and 88: shaking their heads. I thought it w
Page 89 and 90: around. In fact, there was a wrecke
Page 91 and 92: disconnected. But he couldn’t get
Page 93 and 94: family with brains—and weapons. I
Page 95 and 96: “Sir” “Look at the fucking gr
Page 97 and 98: 5 Patchwearer FIGHTER SQUADRONS, LI
Page 99 and 100: currencies, and upgrades, must also
Page 101 and 102: Where the commander is the personal
Page 103 and 104: weapons. In this case, barring a mi
Page 105 and 106: The point is, as a Target Arm, you
Page 107 and 108: 6 Intermission SINCE I WAS ONE OF T
Page 109 and 110: societies. Restrictions upon these
Page 111 and 112: attlefield thinking, and they insti
Page 113 and 114: until the building shook and I sudd
Page 115 and 116: one of the rooftop sentries could d
Page 117 and 118: any event, neither worked out very
Page 119 and 120: looming when the Twin Towers came d
Page 121 and 122: iver side . . . and the point of im
Page 123 and 124: face. Hijackers are cowards. In my
Page 125 and 126: took off the next day for the bleak
Page 127: Photo Section Undergraduate Pilot T
Page 131 and 132: Self-portrait during a surface-to-a
Page 133 and 134: Beni Suef, Egypt, 1992. A shot of m
Page 135 and 136: Baghdad reeling from Shock and Awe,
Page 137 and 138: 77th Fighter Squadron “Gamblers
Page 139 and 140: Like father, like son . . . Me and
Page 141 and 142: 7 Shock and Awe March 19, 2003 0530
Page 143 and 144: wingman on a two-mile string, allow
Page 145 and 146: Even as I watched, the fiery plume
Page 147 and 148: could fly through the green world o
Page 149 and 150: problematic. And irrelevant. I coul
Page 151 and 152: 17,000 feet, panting hard. The RWR
Page 153 and 154: 8 Sandstorm SOUTH OF NASIRIYAH, I P
Page 155 and 156: “Loud and clear, ROMAN . . . we
Page 157 and 158: “None of us have ever seen the bu
Page 159 and 160: uneasiness poked up through my bell
Page 161 and 162: tell him my heading, altitude, airs
Page 163 and 164: “Ali Tower, ROMAN 75.” No reply
Page 165 and 166: There. I’d just created an instru
Page 167 and 168: “Five copies.” “Seven copies.
Page 169 and 170: There! White painted runway marking
Page 171 and 172: and burned bread—but it smelled h
Page 173 and 174: particular day he happened to be to
Page 175 and 176: no mass uprising of the people to t
Page 177 and 178: “WICKED 23, this is RAMROD.” Th
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Taking a deep breath, I pushed the
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SAMs or big stuff, I couldn’t tel
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own villages lined the banks and I
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This went on for a few minutes whil
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10 SAMbush April 6, 2003 1104 local
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and— “BEEP . . . BEEP . . . BEE
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ombs. These things are terrific Wea
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the main canal and everything down
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SA-6s, so we’d give it a wide ber
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well, which rarely happens, when th
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tracers cut through the sky. “ELI
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on the way out.” I turned down th
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the boy. He didn’t have any HARMs
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I sent a data-link, turned hard to
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11 ELI 33 April 7, 2003 1046 local
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obviously tracking and others just
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The second missile had disappeared,
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clear of downtown. Sixty-one hundre
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6.1 miles. I leaned back and center
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the Gs that pressed me into the sea
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His reply was instantaneous. “ELI
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12 Endgame IT LOOKED LIKE A GIRAFFE
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us, we accounted for seven tanks an
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were two big runways that came toge
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moments. When they did open up, the
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morning Hunter Killer mission. We w
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“Affirmative. Clear all friendlie
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and stared down at the intersection
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eneath me, I stared across the pond
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as he hung in perfect formation off
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Epilogue SEVEN MONTHS AFTER THE GAM
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July parade. Her son, a young Marin
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Acknowledgments NO ONE WRITES A BOO
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FOX ONE/TWO/THREE: Air-to-air missi
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VUL: Short for “Vulnerability”
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Map of Iraq
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warriors in, 306 washing out of, 37
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Basra (Iraq), 145, 179 Battle Damag
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CONAN (Desert Storm call sign), 68,
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Eisenhower, Dwight D., 155 electro-
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F-117 jets, 179 FABLE (Iraq War cal
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generation gaps, among pilots, 47-4
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statue of, 285 U.S. attempts to kil
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Jackson, Mike, 155 jamming in Deser
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iefings about, 83 Desert Storm and,
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offensive jamming pods, 18 Office o
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Kosovo and, 155 low-altitude flying
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Sheikh Isa Air Field (Bahrain), 193
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U.S. invasion of Iraq as act of, 18
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U.S. casualties in, 27 U.S. pullout
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About the Author U.S. Air Force Lie
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Copyright VIPER PILOT. Copyright ©
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*For help along the way with acrony
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