Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

to the same heading, so we were running parallel to each other about three miles
apart. From the corner of my eye, I saw the flash as my wingman fired another
HARM at the site that was shooting at MOXIE.
“STOIC Two . . . Magnum SA-3!”
“Come off south,” I commanded immediately and watched him reverse his turn
away from me. We ended up in trail, me behind him, heading away from the city. I
crossed his tail, sent a data-link, and weaved back to the west.
“STOIC Two . . . come back right . . . one’s at right, two o’clock . . . three miles,
low.”
I heard the tickle from his radar a few seconds later and saw the familiar Viper
spike behind me. With radars, data-links, and night vision, I wasn’t too concerned
about my guys getting lost. Looking back between Baghdad and the western
blackness, where MOXIE was, I couldn’t see the missiles. I wasn’t optimistic that
the HARMs had actually hit anything, but they might’ve forced the SAM targeting
radars off the air.
“STOIC and MOXIE, push back to Alex.”
“Alex” was a pre-briefed rejoin point beyond the reach of most of Baghdad’s
air defenses. I always briefed such a point in case we needed a safe place to get
together. It was also used as a fallback position in the event of an aircraft
emergency or radio failure. Floating comfortably between the unfriendly earth
below and the stars above, I stared up through the canopy at the sky. The stars
were brilliant, like millions of wet diamonds on a black quilt. Beyond number.
0535 IN THE MORNING OF MARCH 19, 2003. WE HAD JUST STARTED THE SECOND GULF
WAR.
STOIC 67 and MOXIE 71 were four F-16CJs originally tasked to be on station
in Killbox 87 Alpha Sierra south of Baghdad. The old demarcation was called the
Line, the 32nd Parallel, and this had just been rescinded so we could roam all the
way up to Saddam’s front door. The main idea of this was to divert the Iraqi air
defenses, including any MiGs, onto us, because we knew something the Iraqis had
just figured out. The war was officially beginning tonight. In fact, it just had.
Operation Iraqi Freedom. I realized I was breathing a little hard, and chuckled.
Flying at night was the best time to Weasel, in my opinion. Seeing the stuff that
was being shot at you was the biggest advantage. Nighttime also made optical
launches nearly impossible for the bad guys. Of course, defensive reactions were
much more difficult, because you lacked the normal daylight visual cues. A pilot