Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

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NO JOY: Lost visual. Should be used only for enemy aircraft. Often used in place of “blind.” NVG: Night-Vision Goggles. PADLOCKED: Brevity communication for “my eyes are locked and if I look away I’ll lose sight.” PATCHWEARER: Graduate of the USAF Fighter Weapons School. Also called “Target Arm.” RIFLE: Brevity comm for a Maverick missile shot. Used now for any guided munition. ROE: Rules of Engagement. Specific conditions that permit the use of deadly force. ROUTE: A wider, more relaxed version of fingertip formation. RTB: Return to Base. RTU: Replacement Training Unit. RWR: Radar Warning Receiver. Tells the pilot which radar system has locked him. SHOE CLERK: A rear-echelon type. Noncombat personnel. SLAPSHOT: A quick-reaction HARM shot along a line of bearing to a threat. SMS: Stores Management System. Onboard computer that accounts for all weapons ballistics and aiming symbology. TACAN: TACtical Air Navigation system. Provides bearing and range to a selected channel that can be located at a ground station or between other aircraft. TALLY HO: Visual sighting of an enemy aircraft. Sometimes used to indicate sighting any aircraft. TARGET ARM: A graduate of the USAF Fighter Weapons School. Also called a Patchwearer. TD BOX: Target Designator Box which is put around anything locked onto by the F- 16 radar. TOC: Tactical Operations Center. TOT: Time Over Target. UNIFORM: UHF radio. VICTOR: VHF radio. VIPER: Slang for the F-16 multi-role fighter. VISUAL: Sighting of a friendly aircraft.
VUL: Short for “Vulnerability” time. This is the fragged, or allotted, time that fighter is given in a target area. WALKING THE DOG: Streaming an activated towed decoy. WILCO: “Will Comply.” A military way of saying “I’ll do it!” WSO: Weapons System Officer who controlled the radar in older fighters, like the F- 14 and F-4. Not a pilot. ZAP: A data-link. ZIPPER: Clicking the mike several times by way of an affirmative reply.
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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.
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nice quarters had to go to the tran
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extra flying time with no brief or
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the flight controls working. Everyt
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was still up, which was bad. Pullin
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Mubarak was very definitely in powe
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shaking their heads. I thought it w
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around. In fact, there was a wrecke
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disconnected. But he couldn’t get
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family with brains—and weapons. I
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“Sir” “Look at the fucking gr
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5 Patchwearer FIGHTER SQUADRONS, LI
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currencies, and upgrades, must also
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Where the commander is the personal
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weapons. In this case, barring a mi
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The point is, as a Target Arm, you
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6 Intermission SINCE I WAS ONE OF T
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societies. Restrictions upon these
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attlefield thinking, and they insti
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until the building shook and I sudd
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one of the rooftop sentries could d
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any event, neither worked out very
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looming when the Twin Towers came d
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iver side . . . and the point of im
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face. Hijackers are cowards. In my
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took off the next day for the bleak
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Photo Section Undergraduate Pilot T
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Inbound SCUD missile being destroye
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Self-portrait during a surface-to-a
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Beni Suef, Egypt, 1992. A shot of m
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Baghdad reeling from Shock and Awe,
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77th Fighter Squadron “Gamblers
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Like father, like son . . . Me and
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7 Shock and Awe March 19, 2003 0530
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wingman on a two-mile string, allow
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Even as I watched, the fiery plume
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could fly through the green world o
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problematic. And irrelevant. I coul
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17,000 feet, panting hard. The RWR
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8 Sandstorm SOUTH OF NASIRIYAH, I P
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“Loud and clear, ROMAN . . . we
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“None of us have ever seen the bu
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uneasiness poked up through my bell
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tell him my heading, altitude, airs
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“Ali Tower, ROMAN 75.” No reply
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There. I’d just created an instru
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“Five copies.” “Seven copies.
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There! White painted runway marking
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and burned bread—but it smelled h
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particular day he happened to be to
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no mass uprising of the people to t
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“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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Page 197 and 198: well, which rarely happens, when th
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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
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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: FOX ONE/TWO/THREE: Air-to-air missi
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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