Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

information. “Copy that. We’re in from the south. Two minutes.”
I pylon-turned over the river and looked down at a town on the east bank. “Two
. . . see that walled compound on the northern edge of the city off the left wing”
“AGNEW Two . . . uh . . . contact.”
“That’s our rejoin point. Evens and odds below fifteen K.”
“Two copies.”
“Evens and odds” meant he’d always go to an even-numbered altitude, like six
or ten thousand feet. Plain to see through the Maverick’s seeker was a huge
building shaped like a crescent roll. Beyond it, stretching back to the rivers, were
miles of ruins. As it vanished beneath my wingtip, I realized that this place was
ancient Samarra and the big structure was the Great Mosque.
Leaning forward, I peered through the HUD at the tiny diamond that designated
my mark point. Close enough to start with, I thought, and data-linked it.
“AGNEW Two, capture,” my wingman replied immediately, meaning he’d
received the data-link. He was hanging off my right wing two miles away and
slightly high. Juice, as we called him, was one of the quiet guys who never stuck
out for any reason in peacetime. Good kid, just low-key. Juice, however, became
an icy little killer in combat—proving, once again, that you never really know
about a guy till he sees the Elephant.
“AGNEW Two, call contact on the pond in the river bend.”
We were directly over the Tigris, heading north with Tikrit off the nose. Smoke
columns from Highway 1 still rose off to our right and Tartar Lake shimmered
along the western horizon.
“Contact.”
“Go one pond length west along a light-colored road to the intersection of the
north-south hardball road.”
“Does the lighter road have a curve in it”
“Affirm.”
“Contact on both.”
“One of the launch sites is at that intersection. My target. You’ll remain above
five K and arc east to north. Heads-up for a second launch site along the pond and
for Triple-A.”
“AGNEW Two copies.”
I let the nose drop a few degrees and focused on the Maverick video in my right
MFD. Being heads-down was the one big drawback to using this missile. But I
scanned, looked up and around, then scanned again.
“One is Walking the Dog.” I thumbed out a decoy, turned my RWR volume up,