Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

was locked by an SA-2 somewhere south of him.
“TRON . . . Music on!” Somewhere an EF-111 had activated his jamming
systems.
“CONAN Four! Missile in the air . . . Mosul.”
I didn’t know if he meant a SAM or had picked up the inbound contrail of an
enemy air-to-air missile.
“SAM off the ground . . . missile in the air from . . . Mosul . . . I . . .” Whoever it
was had picked up a missile from the SA-2 batteries around Mosul.
“TORCH One . . . Magnum SA-2!”
That was us! Snapping my head left, I saw fire shoot out from beneath my flight
lead’s wing. The big HARM missile nosed over for a second then leveled off and
accelerated. I watched, fascinated, as it abruptly zoomed up, trailing thick, white
smoke. I’d never witnessed one actually launched. Managing to look out ahead of
me, I was amazed to see three or four long, gray trails reaching up from the ground
like disembodied fingers.
SAMs!
Four of them that I could count. Even as I watched, they began to arc around in
our direction. I glanced at my warning display and saw several big “3” symbols
overlapping each other in the middle of the scope. A sharp, cold spear shot up from
my belly, through my chest, and I tried to swallow but couldn’t. I had just caught
my first glimpse of the Elephant.
Seeing the Elephant, a symbol of combat since Hannibal crossed the Alps, is
looking Death in the face. Your first real glimpse of your own mortality.
It hadn’t really sunk in until that moment that all of this was very real. The
distant black smears against the pale sky had been aircraft with men inside, a few
moments ago. Those smoke trails coming up at me were live SAMs. High-explosive
warheads traveling at three times the speed of sound and coming directly at my
butt . . .
My skin felt prickly and, as time slowed down, my awareness increased. I
noticed that the cockpit smelled like a wet dog—we had sheepskin covers over the
ejection seats, and this one had gotten wet and mildewed. The big engine vibrated
through the floor and I felt it throbbing against my heels. There was a fly crawling
across the HUD. I had just seen the Elephant. No amount of training can prepare a
man for that first realization that other men are actively trying to kill him.
Hopefully, you don’t freeze; ideally, you just react.
I did.
“TORCH Two . . . SA-3 . . . south . . .”