Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

Mubarak was very definitely in power and the military controlled everything. There
were about half a million soldiers on active duty and half a million more in reserve.
The Egyptian Air Force was the fourth-largest user of F-16s in the world. Military
officers, especially fighter pilots, were treated like royalty. The United States was
giving Egypt more than a billion dollars per year in aid, which made American
officers doubly welcome.
The Egyptian leadership had watched the Gulf War especially closely. They’d
had a long debate over which superpower had superior arms, training, and
personnel. The Iraqi military had been largely trained and equipped by the Soviets,
yet the Americans had crushed it in less than ninety days. Saddam’s armed forces
had been widely feared in the Middle East, at least by the Arabs, and, as our allies,
the Egyptians were thrilled to get young combat veterans like me to train their
pilots.
I was part of a PEACE VECTOR (PV) program, through which American
tactical personnel were “loaned” to friendly foreign governments to provide
technical assistance and training. As the United States was, and is, the world’s
largest arms exporter, this is big business, to the tune of $18–20B annually. I was
essentially a government-sponsored mercenary.
AFTER SEVERAL COUNTERTERRORISM COURSES AND LANGUAGE TRAINING , I was
attached to the Office of Military Cooperation in Egypt. The U.S. embassy
maintained a beautiful apartment for us in the upscale Mahdi section of Cairo.
Marble and earth tones, of course, but very nice and available anytime we wanted
to come into the city.
I was sent down to PEACE VECTOR Three at Beni Suef. This former MiG and
bomber base was about a hundred kilometers south of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis.
In the days of ancient Egypt, it had been known as Crocodilopolis, but
unfortunately, by the time I got there, all the crocs were long gone. Cairo,
Alexandria, and Jiyanklis (on the Suez Canal) also had PV detachments. These
usually consisted of two pilots, a maintenance officer, and a handful of senior
sergeants who were specialists in their respective fields. Each location hosted an
Egyptian fighter wing that was composed of at least two full squadrons. We would
be embedded with the resident Egyptian Air Force units and assist them with all
aspects of military training.
Beni Suef appalled me at first, but that was only because I was used to
Germany. With the notable exception of the Gulf War, I hadn’t seen the shitty