Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: OntosMk1 on November 04, 2006, 02:28:24 PM
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Thought yall might enjoy seeing/hearing some Viper pilots poopin their G-suits as they dodge SAM's left and right. The Title says Bagdad/Iraq but ive been told it was more like Kosovo/Bosnia.
Dodge, perry, thrust, twirl, spin, THWACK!! (http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/LucasStL/1180/)
:aok :O
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Scary!
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Looked a bit like me in my 38G in the midst of a bunch of LA7s and Spit 16s. Difference is that guy survived. I always go down :)
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Man you can hear him breathing hard at the end from pulling such hard manuvers. That stopped my heart.
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I am at work so I had my fingers on the volume nob of my speakers.....
And I have to day that is the most intense military vid I have seen why....
Well I realised that I was holding it so tight that my fingers were herting....
Hope those guys got out alright......
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Originally posted by SAS_KID
Man you can hear him breathing hard at the end from pulling such hard manuvers. That stopped my heart.
Yep, that was a critical moment in the video. When you hear the pilot grunting panting and breathing hard, that's how they are trained to deal with high G forces, their whole body will be tense, they clamp every muscle tight in order to stop their blood flowing away from their brain, and it takes enormous effort. When they sound like that they are probably close to the G limit, they will be sweating as though they had been pumping iron for an hour and they can't stay there very long, probably only around 30 seconds or so, and only a couple of seconds at max G, and it is totally exhausting, and if they relax for a moment they risk backing out.
At the point he is panting like that, you know he has visual on a SAM, he will know it is tracking him, because he will see that the line of sight rate is steady, so he is executing his last ditch maneuver, and he's giving it everything he's got! Every muscle in his body is straining to force his aircraft to higher G to defeat the SAM and he knows he can only keep it up for seconds. If he over does it, he will black out, take a SAM hit, and probably die, if he relaxes the G he will be an easier target for the SAM, take a hit and probably die. So at that moment you know he is riding on adrenaline and sweat as he strains every muscle in his body, for every precious second he can keep it up. Very intense!!
Badboy
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It appeared to me that the pilots found them selves in an unexcpected situation and I am assuming that somthing went wrong with the mission, perhaps they thought the SAM sight had been neutralised or they were unaware of it during mission planning...
Correct me if I am wrong, but they had a number of sam's launching at them and I would assume that they would not just fly into that sort of hornets nest...
The reason why I say this is because if you had to deal with that sort of thing on a daily basis, it must have some serious effects on your mental Health....
I have gotta say To All Vets... You guys deal with the watermelon so that us Civi's dont have to....
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Originally posted by mussie
It appeared to me that the pilots found them selves in an unexcpected situation and I am assuming that somthing went wrong with the mission, perhaps they thought the SAM sight had been neutralised or they were unaware of it during mission planning...
Correct me if I am wrong, but they had a number of sam's launching at them and I would assume that they would not just fly into that sort of hornets nest...
A lot of work was done to eliminate SAM sites, and a concerted effort was made by the special forces of several countries, including the SAS who played a big part in locating and eliminating mobile sites, but there were too many to eliminate them all. Permanent SAM sites are normally located by surveillance aircraft who detect the radar emissions, and those sites are normally very well defended. If you know know they are there it is normal for the mission package to contain a Wild Weasel and SEAD element. They have the specialist role of SAM Suppression. They go in first and if the SAM site operators turn on their radar they are taken out with anti radar missiles like the Shrike that was used in Vietnam against the SA-2 sites. In the Gulf War the (ALARM) Air-Launched Anti-Radar Missile and the high-speed anti-radar missile (HARM) which is a supersonic, long-range weapon that has been used for the last twenty years. Its primary mission is the suppression or destruction of enemy surface-to-air missile radar, early-warning radar and radar directed air defense artillery systems. Modern systems use precision navigation combining a global positioning (GPS) guidance system and an inertial measurement unit. That satellite capability allows the missile to reach the correct target, even if it loses the enemy’s radar signal. These missiles can be launched from F/A-18 Hornet multi-role warplanes, E/A-6B radar-jamming Prowlers and Tornado fighters.
In this case we are seeing an action by a previously undetected mobile SAM site that has launched their entire battery of missiles as quickly as possible in order to remain exposed for as short a time as possible. The aircraft are not equipped to attack the SAM sites and are involved in purely evasive maneuvers. Some of the aircraft are being tracked by multiple SAMs and some by none. The Probability of Kill (PK) for these missiles is fairly low, providing the pilot can gain visual contact and execute the correct combination of spoofing, that is, jamming, decoy and evasive maneuvers for the most serious threat at a time.
In that situation, it doesn't mean the mission has gone wrong, any more than WWII bombers encountering heavy flak. The mission may well have been a success and you can be fairly sure that the SAM locations would have been targeted shortly afterwards.
Badboy
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Badboy,
Thank you for the explanation. You seem to have a good knowledge of what is happening. Just out of interest, what do you do for a living?
Thanks.
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Great Info Badboy...
I dont know why, But I just assumed that it was fixed SAM site (Launch Vehicles and Radar)...
I never thought about the possibility of a mobile SAM (Yep That Was Pretty Stupid Of Me)...
Thanks for your response
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If you listen you here "stroke 4" telling "stroke 3", the F-16 where the vid came from, to break right. Then you hear that "Stroke 4" has been hit and doesnt respond to any further calls. :eek:
I also noticed that you dont hear any sort of "rescue" signal coming over the comms. I can only hope that guy got out all right.
Semper Fi
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Thats actually what Ive always dreamed of doing, flying fighter jet in very dangerous situations, I hope the best for those pilots. Unforunately for me Im gonna have to fly C-130s which are big and maneuver slow so Id be screwed. Ihope they all got out ok. And about that hard breathing, that guys not even doing it right. They tense every muscle in their body and grunt the word "hook" every 3 seconds with a very shard exhale. and I dont think that was over Baghdad, Iraq doesnt really have any AA, or the terrorists dont anyway. In the Gulf War maybe?
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Guys,
After a little research I have figured out where that video came from. On the 19th of January 1991 the largest strike package of the Gulf War began a mission to Baghdad. Made up of 72 F-16's from the 388TFW and the 401TFW - and additional support aircraft (F-15s, F-4Gs, and EF-111s) - it may have been the largest operational F-16 strike ever. The mission was directed to strike the Iraqi nuclear research facility and associated sites in Baghdad - the most heavily defended area in Iraq.
During that mission two F-16s were lost to SAMs with both of the pilots, Mike 'Cujo' Roberts flying 87-0228 and Jeff 'Tico' Tice in 87-0257 being captured and held as POW's.
One of them was the first F-16 lost during Desert Storm, No. 4 in a flight of 4, on a strike package of 8, call sign Stroke that came under SA-3 attack at a target SW of Bagdad, multiple SA-6's were fired, and the pilot assumed that he was hit by an SA-3.
If you listen to you hear "stroke 4" telling "stroke 3", the F-16 where the video came from, to break right. Then you hear that "Stroke 4" has been hit and doesn’t respond to any further calls.
The pilot was captured in an area west/northwest of Baghdad by Iraqi Bedouins a few minutes after he landed. The second F-16 combat loss during Desert STORM was the No. 1 in the same flight and the pilot was picked up immediately by Iraqi soldiers.
From Keith "Rosey" Rosenkranz of the 388TFW:
I was roughly 60 miles in front of Maj. Tice when he was shot down. The strike package we flew in was the largest of the war - 78 aircraft. And the mission to knock out Saddam Hussein's nuclear research facility was arguable the most important mission of the war.
This particular flight to Baghdad happened to be my second combat mission. And it was a long one - over 7 hours.
I had just come off target and because of all of the flack around me, I pulled my nose up too quickly and got slow. As I was turning south, I plugged in the afterburner to help regain speed. Within seconds, my RAW indicator signalled to me that an SA-6 had locked on my jet and was heading in my direction.
As I continued to climb, I looked off my right shoulder toward the ground and saw the missile streaking towards me. Knowing I was slow, I hit the emergency jettison switch so I could get rid of my wing tanks. As strange as this may sound, I wanted to see what the tanks looked like when they came off the jet. I banked the jet back to the left and looked over my left shoulder. The tanks were tumbling in slow motion toward the ground. The vapour from the moisture in the air seemed to wrap around them. To this day, I can still see those tanks tumbling!!!
When I got that thrill out of my system, I decided I had better look back to see if the SA-6 was still guiding on me. Nice priorities, huh? As it turned out, the missile went behind my jet and began to fall back toward the ground.
I finally got my airspeed and altitude back and began to work out the rejoin with my flight lead. The steer point I was flying to was set for the southern border of Iraq. I remember seeing the DME hit 180 when Maj. Tice started screaming on the radios that he had taken a hit. At that point the radios fell silent as everyone listened for his next call.
Within minutes, an EF-111 eventually joined on Tico and started escorting him to the south. As time passed, Tico's F-16 started to lose oil pressure. We had a long ways to go and in my heart I knew he probably wasn't going to make it. His engine eventually seized and his EPU fired, which allowed him to keep his hydraulics for ten minutes. This would give him the ability to still use his flight controls.
When Maj. Tice got to the point where he had to eject, he called out, "I'm giving it my best Bogart." He then said, "That's all I've got." I was taken back by his calmness. My friend Maj Scott "Foot" Goodfellow clicked his mike and replied bluntly, "Good luck!"
I had tears streaming down my face when Tico ejected. I can still hear his voice and I will never forget that mission.
In a speech at the AF Academy, General Welsh said:
I want to tell you about two things I heard that I'll never forget.
The first one was during one of our missions in the Baghdad area. An F-16 from another unit was hit by a surface-to-air missile. Over the radio, we listened to the pilot and his flight lead talk as he tried to make it to the border so rescue forces could get to him. He'd come on every now and then and talk about how the oil pressure was dropping and vibrations were increasing. Then his flight lead would encourage him to stick with it.
This went on for about 15 minutes. Finally the pilot said, "Oil pressure just went to zero." And then, "My engine quit." Finally he said, "That's all I got. I'm outta here." The silence was deafening. I'll never forget those 15 minutes."
Col. Jerry Nelson, 401st TFW (P) commander, said wing pilots knew they might get shot down in combat. "But when it happens, there's really no way to prepare for it," he said. "When our pilots got shot down, it hit us hard. With everything we did, we remembered those two guys."
A ritual quickly developed. Before every mission, pilots stepping out of the operations building would slap the top of the door, above which is painted, God Bless Tico and MR. Fellow pilots called Captain Roberts "MR."
The two pilot's tactical call signs became the names for squadron flights. "Tico and Cujo flights flew every day," Colonel Nelson said. "They were with us all the time."
"I still think about the day Cujo and Tice were shot down and the faces of the Pilots we they returned, red faced and teared eyed. But the next day when they came out of Ops and high fived, and said "Lets go get 'em" I still haven't ever respected any other pilots as I did them." - Kraig Bolus
And the good news:
http://www.lucky-devils.net/tico.html
Badboy
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From the Gulf War Air Power Survey, Volume 2:
The first two attacks on Baghdad were to have formed the pre-lude to one of the more interesting episodes in the war: Package Q. This attack was the largest of the war and did in fact represent an attempt to strike a powerful blow to enemy defenses. Nevertheless, the raid illus-trates how a number of small incidents or frictions none of which by themselves necessarily serious, can contribute to a less than satisfactory outcome: in this case the loss of two F-16s.
The Master Attack Plan called for seventy-two F-16s to attack targets lying on an axis from southeast to northwest across Baghdad in the heart of Iraqi defenses. The package commander and most of the aircraft came from the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing (Provisional), but some aircraft came from the 401st Fighter Wing. In the last chapter we described how Package Q moved out from its bases to link up with tankers on tracks running up to the border. Shortly after 1300, the first aircraft began to roll and the complex ballet to assemble the package began. Each section within the package had received a mission number and call sign. Each mission cell would consist of up to eight aircraft, but smaller numbers of aircraft could make up a mission cell, depending on the target. All of the various pieces need careful coordination in order for the operation to function effectively.
Unfortunately, full coordination and planning did not take place for this mission. The Air Tasking Order reached mission commanders so late that some of those who led missions on 19 January received a brief outline of the day's mission upon landing after an exhausting day's flight on 18 January. When mission commanders from the 401st began coordinating their portion of the mission on the morning of 19 January, they discovered certain crucial changes had taken place during the night. Their original target as with much of the rest of the attack had been the nuclear research facility southeast of Baghdad. But overnight, the Air Tasking Order had changed their target to three major sites in downtown Baghdad.
A major employment problem in the revised tasking was the fact that F-16s would begin striking targets in southeast Baghdad and then work their way through increasingly alerted defenses to the heart of the enemy capital. Such an approach would maximize the exposure of the F-16 train to enemy air defenses; however, it was too late to change the order in which the mission subsets would attack targets. So little time existed between the arrival of the Air Tasking Order and launch time that neither the package commander nor his mission commanders could change the order of the attack. In fact, it is not clear how it was deter-mined that the package would attack targets from southeast to northwest outside of the fact that that was the fashion in which the Master Attack Plan had listed the targets. There was time to coordinate the raid with the units at other bases, but that time was hardly optimum.
For the crews, the mission appeared risky, but within safety mar-gins; their feeling was that earlier SEAD packages had attrited enemy capabilities and that the SEAD allocated would be sufficient to suppress the remaining defenses. Because of distances and fuel consumption, the F-4Gs could carry only two HARMs; moreover they would not have much time in the target area because of their high fuel usage. The F-16s were also heavily loaded, carrying two Mark-84s, two external fuel tanks, two air-to-air missiles, ninety bundles of chaff, and fifteen flares.
Link-up and refueling with the tankers ran into problems. There was bad weather along the tanker tracks, and the tankers approached the release point too early. Consequently, they throttled back to minimum speed, which in turn seriously affected the accompanying fighters. The F-16s were soon close to stalling out, and some had to light afterburners just to stay airborne; four fighters coming off the last tanker fell so far behind that their mission commander ordered them to return to base.
Fortunately, as the package reached Iraqi airspace, it broke out into the open. But Iraqi gunners greeted the Americans with a couple of high-altitude shots in the middle of several formations. Not surprisingly, there were difficulties in communicating among mission groups in the package; the mission commander of the flight attacking downtown Baghdad estimated that he received approximately 80 percent of the calls. Adding to the excitement of the flak exploding below, the Iraqis threw 100-mm shells into the formations. From the moment the package approached Baghdad's air defenses, the Weasels engaged enemy SAM sites. However, there was a problem with the Weasels allocated to the mission; either because of fuel, timing, or the decision of the package commander, not all appear to have made it to Baghdad; moreover, some Weasels did not fire all their HARMs, which suggests that they had to leave because of fuel problems.
Approaching their targets, the “downtown” aircraft (flying F-16s with newer model engines) passed F-16s on the way to, rolling in on, and leaving targets all in a hostile environment. As Maj. John Nichols rolled in to strike his target, the Iraqi Air Force Headquarters, he heard the Weasels call that they were leaving. Unfortunately, cloud cover obscured the target; Nichols rolled off to turn to an alternate target, an oil refinery which was under attack by a portion of his formation.
Up to this point, the Iraqis had fired most of their SAMs ballistically. Within a short time of the Weasel call that they were leaving, SAMs directly engaged Nichols' flight. Many SAMs were now guided and most of his flight had to take evasive action, which included “last ditch maneuvers” such as jettisoning fuel tanks and bombs. Approximately half of the flight struck the oil refinery; others were en route to alternate targets when SAMs engaged and forced them to jettison ordnance. SAMs hit one F-16 just as the last bombs were striking the oil refinery. As the flight egressed Baghdad, evading SAMs, another missile impacted near another F-16. Both aircraft were lost, but their pilots did survive the war. In all, the participants in the wild ride over the capital counted twenty SAMs in the air; one pilot dodged no fewer than six.
The excitement for the survivors did not end when they left Baghdad. To bring an end to their day, a couple of MiG-29s started closing toward the rear of the F-16s as they exited the capital's environs; the F-15 top cover had apparently left with the Weasels. Nevertheless, all the F-16s had to do was turn on the MiGs, and the Iraqis ran. By the time that the F-16s approached the border some were almost out of fuel. One fighter would have crashed short of Coalition territory had not a KC-135 tanker from the Kansas National Guard crossed over into enemy territory. When the F-16 began refueling in Iraqi territory, it had only 800 pounds of fuel on board in the words of the wing commander, flying as a wingman, “an eye-watering situation.”
Obviously, no one factor caused the loss of two F-16s and the possible loss of others. Rather a series of frictions the lateness of the Air Tasking Order, not enough coordination time, a tactical approach that provided the Iraqis considerable warning, fuel problems for the Weasels and other aircraft, bad weather, insufficient attrition of the defenses combined to create a dangerous situation, one ultimately catastrophic for two aircraft.
There were a number of crucial lessons from Package Q. The most obvious was that enemy defenses in Baghdad remained lethal; consequently, it was not worth the risk to send conventional packages into the heart of those defenses, especially when F-117s could strike such targets with little risk. This was entirely the result of its stealthy qualities, which its precision-guided munition capabilities magnified. Conse-quently, enemy defenses never put F-117s in the position where they had to jettison bombs over populated areas, and the chances of civilian casualties that would allow Saddam to manipulate the American media were considerably lessened.
There was, however, a crucial operational turn that the mission's failure caused. Glosson and his planners had hoped that destruction or at least degradation of Baghdad's air defenses would allow them to run large packages of F-16s into the capitol's environs during the daytime. Their targets, as on the morning of day three, would have been the larger command headquar-ters and symbols of the regime, such as those of the Bacth Party, Republican Guard, and Military Intelligence. Most of these structures were so big that F-16s, even though less accurate, could hit such targets with a fair probability of success. As symbols of the regime, the destruction of such headquarters would have major political and military effects.
The difficulties, however, into which Package Q ran, as well as the potential of inadvertent bomb release by aircraft under SAM attack, caused Horner and his planners to decide against sending any more F-16 packages against downtown Baghdad. What speaks well for the American leadership in this air war was the fact that it did not repeat Package Q to prove some doctrinal beliefs of the high command at the expense of aircrew lives. American air commanders adapted to the situation as it was. There would be no more conventional packages into the heart of Iraqi defenses. Moreover, F-16 packages would remain smaller thus more manageable and easier to coordinate and fly for the remainder of the war.
Badboy
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Dam it Badboy.... You da king mate
Thanks for the information
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too cool Badboy....thnx for the 411
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Thank you Badboy. Good reading right there.
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we don't pay these guys enough...
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:aok
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Originally posted by DYNAMITE
we don't pay these guys enough...
No way you can.
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Audio: Benji Ejects, Iraq
Audio Link - Click to play (http://www.flight-level.com/dogfight/benji53.mp3)
Note that the "clicks" and "bells") are from the F-16's Early Warning Receiver (EWR). Each noise represents a certain aircraft/radar/SAM locking onto the plane.
On February 17th, 1991, Captain Scott "Spike" Thomas, with the 19th FS and 363rd TFW temporarily based at King Khalid Military City, was flying a night interdiction mission in his F-16C with the codename of "Benji 53". As the package was coming off of station (egress), his F-16 experience engine problems. Early reports suggested he had been hit by a Surface to Air Missile (SAM), but that has not been confirmed. Thomas's wingman, 1LT Eric "Neck" Dodson, came to his aid and helped him nurse his plane closer to the Iraq-Saudi Arabia-Kuwait border, nearly 40-60 miles south of their position. Dodson assumed control of most radio communictions bewtween AWACs (Bulldog), leaving Thomas free to fly his injured plane.
With less than 30 miles to go to the border, and his plane leaking what appeared to be fuel, Thomas and his wingman realize his F-16 beginning to develop a catastrophic engine fire. With a valiant effort to get as close as he could, Thomas finally decides to eject over enemy territory. His radio contact is spotty once he is on the ground, but Search and Rescue helicopters (a package of 2 UH-60 Blackhawks and 1 MH-53J Pave Low, along with F-15E's providing Close Air Support), located his position roughly 2 hours later. The F-15E's were called in to engage an approaching Iraqi truck with cluster bombs during the extraction.
During debrief, it was realized that an SA-7 Surface to Air Missile (SAM) had been shot at the rescue helicopter in which Thomas was riding, but the missile was out of range and landed short. It was also learned that Thomas had less than 1 hour of freedom, as there were Iraqi troops within 2 miles of him in 2 different directions.
Crew
Benji 53 (F-16C Block 25C, Serial 84-1218)
- Pilot: Captain Scott "Spike" Thomas (BEN53)
Benji 31 (F-16C, ?)- Wingman
- Pilot: 1LT Eric "Neck" Dodson (BEN31)
Bulldog (XX)?
- AWACs E-3 Sentry (BULL)
Transcript
UKN1- "Benji 31, Victor."
BEN31- "Go ahead."
UKN1- "Roger ah, you headin' for Hafr Albatin?" (Emergency divert airfield, Hafr Albatin (OEPA)
BEN54- "Ah, negative. Right now we are going straight towards the border, the closest route. You've got the--I've got the nearest divert for you, Hafr Albatin for one-thirty-four, is that what you've got?"
BEN53- "Yeah I got it, I'm not gonna make it."
BEN31- "Why not?"
BEN53- "I won't make it there, I'm ah looking to do a crossing and get out."
BEN31- "Is there something wrong still?"
BEN53- "This is all I can get man. Neck, I'm gonna go--I'm going less than max range. I guess I should go max endurance."
BEN31- "What's your FTIT and, ah, RMP rate?"
BEN53- "Okay, my FTIT rate is 870, RMPs 94, its just not givin' me any thrust. Oil pressure's at 40."
BEN31- "Okay, lemme come back and look at you again, okay?"
BEN53- "Cool."
BEN31- "Dude, I'm gonna punch my tanks out (interrupted "No we're good) so I can stay with you, all right?"
BEN53- "Cool."
BEN31- "Ah, what's your gas rate at?"
BEN53- "46."
BULL- "And Five-three, you have some friendlies north four."
{SOUNDS OF EARLY WARNING RECEIVER, FRIENDLY F-16's LOCKING BENJI 53 ON THEIR RADAR}
BEN31- "You are leakin' tons of fluid and it looks like gas, that's why I am wondering what your gas is."
BEN53- "Okay."
BEN31- "It's all comin' out right where the hook meets the engine."
BEN53- "Copy. Okay, how far do I have to go . . . to the border?"
BULL- "Border is 60 miles."
BEN53- "I might make it Neck."
BEN31- "Yeah, you will Homer, man, don't worry."
BULL- "And Benji, ah, your friendlies are tally with you."
BEN53- "Copy."
BEN31- "Is this all the airspeed you can get?"
BEN53- "That's it man. I can dump the nose, but I really don't want to. I wanna keep this wing goin' for me."
BEN31- "Yeah."
BULL- "Five-three, ah, confirm you're a single-ship?"
BEN53- "Negative. I've got a wingman here."
BULL- "Roge."
BEN31- "Ya know Spikey, if you need some more lift, you might want to throw your flaps down."
BULL- "Five-three, border is, ah, 55 miles."
BEN53- "Copy. Think I'll hang out for a little while, Neck."
BEN53- "Okay."
BULL- "Roge."
BEN31- "Say distance to border, Bu-Bulldog."
BULL- "Border 54."
BEN31- "Understand you've got, ah, choppers in the air?"
BULL- "Benji, you want choppers?"
BEN31- "That's affirm (?). You guys better scramble them now!"
BULL- "Roge."
BEN31- "Vector 'em to where we're gonna be."
UKN1- "(?) Five-one, did you copy that?"
BEN31- How you doin' Homer?"
BEN53- "Hangin' in man."
BEN31- "Cool. I'm with you all the way."
UKN- "Roger, did copy."
BEN53- "I'm gonna try the flaps (interrupted)."
BULL- "Benji, border 50."
BEN31- "Copy 50. Bulldog, Benji."
BULL- "Benji, go ahead."
BEN31- "Copy, understand that ah, this border area is pretty clear with threats?"
BULL- "That's affirm, I'll check for ya."
BEN31- "Check please."
BEN53- "Flaps up a little bit Homie."
BEN31- "Cool."
BEN53- "That and my AOA is down a little bit."
BULL- "And Five-three, we're checkin' for ya."
BEN53- "Okay."
UKN1- "Benji 41." Did he mean Benji 31? UKN1 is the same pilot from the beginning of recording.
BEN31- "Go."
UKN1- "Anything we can do to help?"
BEN31- "Say again?"
UKN1- "Anything I can do to help?"
BEN31- "Ah, you might wanna get on a tanker, get some gas and be able to, ah, help with SAR."
UKN1- "Okay."
BULL- "Five-three, border 44."
BEN31- "Eight staff (?), left ten."
- "Benji 1, Benji 2 Victor."
BULL- "Benji Five-three, if you could squawk emergency please."
BEN31- "Do you got that Spike or do you want me to do it?"
BEN53- "Yeah, I got it. I dunno if that's such a good idea, is it?"
BEN31- "I dunno. Bulldog, Benji, is that a good idea right where we're at?"
BULL- "That's what I was instructed, ah, I'd say no, I've got a good contact with you."
BEN31- "Okay, good, keep that contact. Do you got choppers in the air?"
BULL- "Affirm, they are on their way."
BEN31- "Copy that."
BEN53- "Bummer dudes."
BEN31- "Wh-What's goin' on man?"
BEN53- "Just bummer."
BEN31- "Okay, now you've got fire comin' out of your engine. Looks like it's fallin'."
BEN53- "What's fallin'?"
BEN31- "Well, it looks like you've got sparks and **** comin' out of your engine now."
BEN53- "Okay. Bulldog."
BULL- "Go ahead."
BEN53- "Okay, I-I'm havin' a more serious problem now, okay?"
BULL- "Roge."
BEN31- "Understand, choppers are in the air?"
BULL- "That's affirm. Border 40."
BEN31- "Neck, you tell me if you see any fire."
BEN31- "Okay, it's red sparks poppin' out right now."
BEN53- "Okay, just tell me if you see a fire."
BEN31- "Okay. Stay with it dude."
{Fire Begins}
BEN31- Okay, you're-"
BEN53- "I-I'm gettin' out!"
BEN31- "Okay, you're on fire."
{Ejection seat}
BEN31- "Okay, Bulldog, we've got him out, we've got him out! He's out of the --"
{Unknown Horn} Possibly stall horn, or engine-out horn in Benji 53 cockpit (plane is now gliding pilotless, did not explode)
BEN31- "Bulldog, we have a good chute. Bulldog, Benji, do you copy?"
BULL- "I copy, marked."
{Sound of rushing wind, still recording inside Benji 53?}
Audio Link - Click to play (http://www.flight-level.com/dogfight/benji53.mp3)
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How do I play it? When I click on the link I am directed to a site whith a download arrow which gives me a .flv file.
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Bummer, still can't get it to open the video.
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Originally posted by slimm50
Bummer, still can't get it to open the video.
I think you need to allow cookies on that site for the video to play.
Badboy
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Originally posted by Badboy
I think you need to allow cookies on that site for the video to play.
Badboy
I am allowing cookies from that site. I don't know what the problem is. The videos will d/l, just won't open for me. Oh well...no biggie.
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Good job Badboy, you found the Lucky Devils website!
If you think that's intense, you should see the rest of the video, what you are seeing is 'ET' defending and 'dodging' at least six SAM's in less than five minutes as his altitude and airspeed were forced lower during the longest sustained 'High-G' evasion that I've ever seen - before he was able to make his escape. This footage was taken by the pilots of the 614th TFS 'Lucky Devils' on the 19th of January 1991, during the first daylight raid on downtown Baghdad - during Package Q, the largest single strike mission of the war, and likely the single largest F-16 strike package ever flown into combat.
Sadly the Lucky Devils lost two aircraft to SAMs that day with both of the pilots, Mike 'Cujo' Roberts flying 87-0228 and Jeff 'Tico' Tice in 87-0257 being captured and held as POW's.
As maintenance troops, that Saturday in January was the day that the war really hit us - it followed the jets and came right back to our base. We'd been in and out of chem gear during SCUD warnings, but this made it personal.
I was working NBC Decon at EOR when the aircraft returned from the mission. They skipped past us and went straight back to the ramp. I can't even begin to describe how it felt to count the jets as they touched down, having jettisoned their external tanks, and to know that they weren't all there... Hoping that perhaps they stopped in Saudi for fuel, but knowing that just wasn't the case.
Bill Hinchey was the dedicated crew chief on the aircraft Tico flew on his last mission. "Just before the jets landed, they told me that it was my jet that went down..." I'll never forget the look on Bill's face as I sat the the next table from him in the chow hall that night. I felt as bad as he looked. It was definatly our roughest day in Qatar.
For more information about the Lucky Devils and the Package Q mission,
I invite you to visit the Lucky Devils in the Gulf War at:
http://www.lucky-devils.net (http://www.lucky-devils.net)
3.7 million pounds of ordinance, 1303 sorties, 42 days, 24 aircraft. The 'Forgotten 1000'.
Mike Kopack
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F-16A/B/C/D P&W/GE Crew Chief and Phased Maint.
56TTW/63TFTS 1987-1989
401TFW/614TFS 1989-1991
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Originally posted by The_Marine
... And about that hard breathing, that guys not even doing it right.
Thanks The_Marine, I'll personally let ET know that you disapprove of his breathing technique as he was dodging his sixth Iraqi surface-to-air missile in about 4 1/2 minutes - without Wild Weasel support, without any chaff/flare (which were inop on his aircraft that day) and seconds after seeing two of his friends being blown out of the sky.
Perhaps I can have him contact you for some lessons to allow him to breathe a little more to your liking?
Sorry if I seem a little 'hostile' here, but the video above is not a simulation, it is not a game. It is real life with no resets or 'do-overs'. You do things the way you need to to complete the mission and survive, not necessarely the way some 'book' tells you to.
(http://www.lucky-devils.net/adq1.jpg)
Mike
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Originally posted by MKopack
Good job Badboy, you found the Lucky Devils website!
Yep, excellent site Mike, thank you very much!
Badboy