Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

tell him my heading, altitude, airspeed, and lots of other things. He just matched my
airspeed, kept the radar locked, and maintained whatever distance I wanted all the
way down. Piece of cake, as they say.
“Ah . . . ROMAN 75 this is LUGER.”
I couldn’t wait to hear this. “Go ahead.”
“ROMAN . . . we’ve got several other flights of fighters holding in the airrefueling
tracks who also need to divert.”
I had thought I was the last flight out of Iraq, but apparently not. “ROMAN
copies . . . how many”
“Ah . . . four two-ships.”
“Shit,” I muttered yet again. Eight other fighters that needed to get down, and I
just got elected.
“ROMAN you were the Alpha mission commander this morning so you’re the
senior pilot airborne.”
Perfect. Well, this is where all that experience was supposed to pay off. I took a
deep breath and looked at the Situational Awareness display, getting a handle on
everyone’s relative position.
“ROMAN copies. Have all strays contact me on Victor 130.225.”
“ROMAN that’s a clear frequency.”
I really hated AWACS sometimes.
This guy was really worried that some Iraqi might hear us talking about diverting
to Kuwait. “Just pass it,” I somehow managed not to bark at him. Slowing down to
250 knots, I adjusted my internal cockpit lights for the NVGs. I also turned up my
exterior NVG lights to full bright. Only someone looking through goggles could see
them—in any event, the Iraqis on the other side of the border weren’t a concern at
this point.
I was about forty miles south of Customs House when the first flight checked in.
“ROMAN 75 this is HEIST 36.”
“ROMAN reads you . . . say numbers, low man’s fuel, and posit from Customs
House.”
“HEIST is a flight of two. 6.7 in Twitch south.”
I jotted it down. “Copy. Stand by HEIST. Any other flights on this Victor, check
in with ROMAN and say fuel.”
Turned out, there was also a DERBY, a MONTY, and a WARDOG—all F-16
two-ships led by junior flight leads. They were each part of the afternoon strike
package that had fallen apart due to weather. By the time I reached Customs
House, I’d figured it out. MONTY was lowest on fuel, followed by HEIST,