Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

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weapons, and returning to base. But it didn’t matter, because he didn’t answer and I had other things to worry about now. Seventeen hundred pounds of fuel. I was so far below Bingo that I wasn’t sure I could reach the border, much less a forward-divert base in Kuwait. I felt the cold sweat drying on my skin as I safed up my weapons and eyeballed the engine gauges to make sure I hadn’t picked up a stray round or two. Passing through 8,000 feet heading southwest toward the border, I broke into the clear. Not much in my life has looked better to me than that weak blue sky. Dropping my mask again, I wiped my stubbled chin and rubbed my eyes. “ROMAN Two . . . One on Victor.” I keyed the mike and waited. No answer. I changed frequencies and tried the AWACS. “LUGER . . . this is ROMAN 75.” Again, no answer. And now I had a decision to make. Maybe my last one. The tanker track was roughly 120 miles off my nose, but there was no guarantee I’d find a tanker there. Or, if I did, he might not have any gas to spare. In which case, I was screwed. About the same distance off my left wing was Kuwait. There were several bases I could probably coast into and manage to land. But without talking to AWACS, I had no way of knowing which ones were open or in good enough shape for me to land. And then I was still screwed. What a shitty day. I’d now been strapped in a fighter cockpit for more than eight hours, and I’d refueled five times. I’d planned on a normal six-hour mission and hadn’t brought food or water. My butt hurt and my eyes ached. I turned the heat up because my sweat-soaked flight suit was making me shiver. I’d flown more than one hundred combat missions by the time this war began and was no novice in combat. I had a hatful of campaign ribbons and medals, including a Purple Heart, from earlier conflicts, and by the time I retired, I had been awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor—one for the First Gulf War, and three for my service in the second war in Iraq. But that was all either in the past or the future. For right now, not far to the west, one of nature’s true nightmares was fast approaching. The khamsin, the sandstorm, was an ominous wave of dirt stretching north and south along the horizon as far as I could see. The sky above the storm was gone. It was appalling. The momentary relief I’d been feeling leaked out of me. A storm like that could
ground every aircraft on the continent, and I realized maybe that was why I hadn’t heard from anyone. That was a nasty thought. Swallowing again, I passed 15,000 feet and stared out at the brown carpet stretching out before me. If I managed to get to 25,000 or 30,000 feet, I could glide to the border and at least eject over friendly territory. Like I said, it had been a shitty day. And it wasn’t over yet.
Page 2 and 3: VIPER PILOT A MEMOIR OF AIR COMBAT
Page 4 and 5: Epigraph There are only two types o
Page 7 and 8: Author’s Note I WROTE THIS BOOK M
Page 9 and 10: Simple. Or not. The Second Gulf War
Page 11 and 12: But men were dying. Our men. I stra
Page 13 and 14: I was now truly on my own. But my w
Page 15: “CHIEFTAIN . . . ROMAN 75 is off
Page 19 and 20: missions, though puny by modern sta
Page 21 and 22: extract ourselves from Vietnam, and
Page 23 and 24: LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AFTER FOBAIR AN
Page 25 and 26: In November 1965, the first five Wi
Page 27 and 28: many cases, from lives lost. With t
Page 29 and 30: 2 Cold War and Hot Times “IF THE
Page 31 and 32: IT WORKED LIKE THIS. The first two
Page 33 and 34: loathed most FAIPs. So, Daddy Rabbi
Page 35 and 36: conjunction with some properly embe
Page 37 and 38: At least long enough for me to star
Page 39 and 40: We were taught the basics of our va
Page 41 and 42: Southeast Asia within the past twen
Page 43 and 44: typical Type-A FNG, I wanted to mak
Page 45 and 46: listen to a few seconds of the audi
Page 47 and 48: LEARNING THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS
Page 49 and 50: search-and-rescue in the event a je
Page 51 and 52: I nodded, now an expert on all Span
Page 53 and 54: of passage and a tradition. So, dur
Page 55 and 56: eathing matched my heart rate as th
Page 57 and 58: Clouds of white-feathered brown dus
Page 59 and 60: Euphrates River was almost turquois
Page 61 and 62: Suddenly a thin, pole-shaped object
Page 63 and 64: firing solution and a visual on the
Page 65 and 66: As I watched the jets spiral down a
Page 67 and 68:
ackup targets, weapons, and timing.
Page 69 and 70:
“I—” “C’mon boy . . . spi
Page 71 and 72:
clueless non-fighter type (male, th
Page 73 and 74:
pilot who spoke up was called “Li
Page 75 and 76:
“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 and 128:
Photo Section Undergraduate Pilot T
Page 129 and 130:
Inbound SCUD missile being destroye
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
Page 179 and 180:
Taking a deep breath, I pushed the
Page 181 and 182:
SAMs or big stuff, I couldn’t tel
Page 183 and 184:
own villages lined the banks and I
Page 185 and 186:
This went on for a few minutes whil
Page 187 and 188:
10 SAMbush April 6, 2003 1104 local
Page 189 and 190:
and— “BEEP . . . BEEP . . . BEE
Page 191 and 192:
ombs. These things are terrific Wea
Page 193 and 194:
the main canal and everything down
Page 195 and 196:
SA-6s, so we’d give it a wide ber
Page 197 and 198:
well, which rarely happens, when th
Page 199 and 200:
tracers cut through the sky. “ELI
Page 201 and 202:
on the way out.” I turned down th
Page 203 and 204:
the boy. He didn’t have any HARMs
Page 205 and 206:
I sent a data-link, turned hard to
Page 207 and 208:
11 ELI 33 April 7, 2003 1046 local
Page 209 and 210:
obviously tracking and others just
Page 211 and 212:
The second missile had disappeared,
Page 213 and 214:
clear of downtown. Sixty-one hundre
Page 215 and 216:
6.1 miles. I leaned back and center
Page 217 and 218:
the Gs that pressed me into the sea
Page 219 and 220:
His reply was instantaneous. “ELI
Page 221 and 222:
12 Endgame IT LOOKED LIKE A GIRAFFE
Page 223 and 224:
us, we accounted for seven tanks an
Page 225 and 226:
were two big runways that came toge
Page 227 and 228:
moments. When they did open up, the
Page 229 and 230:
morning Hunter Killer mission. We w
Page 231 and 232:
“Affirmative. Clear all friendlie
Page 233 and 234:
and stared down at the intersection
Page 235 and 236:
eneath me, I stared across the pond
Page 237 and 238:
as he hung in perfect formation off
Page 239 and 240:
Epilogue SEVEN MONTHS AFTER THE GAM
Page 241 and 242:
July parade. Her son, a young Marin
Page 243 and 244:
Acknowledgments NO ONE WRITES A BOO
Page 245 and 246:
FOX ONE/TWO/THREE: Air-to-air missi
Page 247 and 248:
VUL: Short for “Vulnerability”
Page 249 and 250:
Map of Iraq
Page 251 and 252:
warriors in, 306 washing out of, 37
Page 253 and 254:
Basra (Iraq), 145, 179 Battle Damag
Page 255 and 256:
CONAN (Desert Storm call sign), 68,
Page 257 and 258:
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 155 electro-
Page 259 and 260:
F-117 jets, 179 FABLE (Iraq War cal
Page 261 and 262:
generation gaps, among pilots, 47-4
Page 263 and 264:
statue of, 285 U.S. attempts to kil
Page 265 and 266:
Jackson, Mike, 155 jamming in Deser
Page 267 and 268:
iefings about, 83 Desert Storm and,
Page 269 and 270:
offensive jamming pods, 18 Office o
Page 271 and 272:
Kosovo and, 155 low-altitude flying
Page 273 and 274:
Sheikh Isa Air Field (Bahrain), 193
Page 275 and 276:
U.S. invasion of Iraq as act of, 18
Page 277 and 278:
U.S. casualties in, 27 U.S. pullout
Page 279 and 280:
About the Author U.S. Air Force Lie
Page 281 and 282:
Copyright VIPER PILOT. Copyright ©
Page 283:
*For help along the way with acrony
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