Another One-hour Countdown

     As I was writing the post in memory of Robin Olds, I was listening to the TV news in the background.  AFN Pacific plays MSNBC’s Countdown from 9-10 AM.  Normally, I turn the TV off as soon as I hear Keith Olbermann’s voice.  Today he’s got a woman named Alison Stewart on for him.  I don’t believe her any more than I believe him, but she’s much easier on the eyes (and ears) than Olbermann. 

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The Legend Will Live

     The living legend just filed his flight plan to Valhalla.  Requiescat in pace.

     Here’s his AF biography.  For those not familiar, Brig Gen Robin Olds (ret), as one of my squadron commanders said, was a fighter pilot’s fighter pilot.  He was a triple ace, and he maintained a presence around the community. 

     I first met him while I was in Texas during Intro to Fighter Fundamentals.  He was our guest speaker for a dining out.  He made it a point to talk to all of us students either one- or two-on-one.  He explained to co-student Andy and I the importance of studying adversary aircraft.  He illustrated his example with his WWII experience, when he and his fellow pilots studied the Messerschmit Bf109 manuals.  He said they’d studied the German fighter enough that they would be able to fly one themselves.  As a matter of fact, their plan if they were shot down in Europe was to sneak onto a German base, steal a BF109, and fly it back to England!

     Gen Olds was probably most famous for Operation BOLO, when his 8 TFW managed to make the North Vietnamese Air Force believe his air-to-air loaded F-4s were bomb-laden, sitting duck F-105s.  The result was a 7-to-0 victory for the USAF. 

     He kept up a very active lifestyle until just recently.  Although he lived in Colorado, I met him twice in 1999, once in Texas and once in Arizona.  In 2003 at age 82, he visited us in Korea [I got quoted in that article, read with caution! — ed.].  He has appeared in Dogfights on the History Channel, and was featured in the Pacific Aviation Museum’s introductory movie. 

     Goodbye, then, to one of the Greatest Generations’ greatests. 

**********

4 Jul 2007 Update:  Here’s an article about the funeral. 

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“Vacation”

     I just got back to Japan from a two-week stint away from my offices.  My wife and I managed to get to Hawaii and to my home of record.  I’d like to say it was a great getaway.  In reality, it was mostly a way to get away from the office to get some other non-related work done.  On the other hand, it was really nice to see our family and friends. 

Posted in Travel, United States | Comments Off on “Vacation”

Heroes’ Run

     Mr Gary Patriquin contacted me earlier this week! He’s planning a Heroes’ Run on 28 Jul in Lockport, IL to benefit the Travis Patriquin Family Memorial Trust Fund and to the Children of the Fallen Soldier Relief Fund.  Please click here for a link to the Herald News Online story for more details.  Here’s a link to the MySpace site. 

     If you’re in the vicinity of Lockport (southwest of Chicago, just north of Joliet), I encourage you to sign up to run! Perhaps you can’t be there, but would like to help sponsor a runner or the event itself? Either way, please contact Mr Patriquin at herosrun@yahoo.com

Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs, US Army | Comments Off on Heroes’ Run

Comment on an E-mail

 

     Everyone is familiar with those e-mails that seem to make the rounds all over the Internet.  I received one of them from two different people asking me to verify whether or not it was true, and I thought I’d post the e-mail and my response here on my Blog for future reference.

 Global Hawk

This is a photo of the Global Hawk UAV that returned from the war zone recently under its own power. (Iraq to Edwards AFB in CA) – Not transported via C5 or C17….. Notice the mission paintings on the fuselage. It’s actually over 250 missions…. (and I would suppose 25 air medals). That’s a long way for a remotely-piloted aircraft. Think of the technology (and the required quality of the data link to fly it remotely). Not only that but the pilot controlled it from a nice warm control panel at Edwards AFB. Really long legs- can stay up for almost 2 days at altitudes above 60k.

The Global Hawk was controlled via satellite; it flew missions during OT&E that went from Edwards AFB to upper Alaska and back non-stop. Basically, they come into the fight at a high mach # in mil thrust, fire their AMRAAMS, and no one ever sees them or paints with radar. There is practically no radio chatter because all the guys in the flight are tied together electronically, and can see who is targeting who, and they have AWACS direct input and 360 situational awareness from that and other sensors. The aggressors had a morale problem before it was all over. It is to air superiority what the jet engine was to aviation.

It can taxi, take off, fly a mission, return, land and taxi on it’s own. No blackouts, no fatigue, no relief tubes, no ejection seats, and best of all, no dead pilots, no POWs.? Pretty cool!

My response is below: 

    It is an RQ-4A Global Hawk.  That’s about all the well-meaning author got right in this e-mail. 
    They’re stationed at Beale AFB, CA; not Edwards.  This one is deployed.  I can tell you where I think it is, but I probably ought not.
    Global Hawk is basically a supplement for the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.  It is not remote controlled, but it isn’t manned, either.  Rather, the ‘pilot’ programs the mission on the ground, loads the mission data on the ground; the aircraft then takes off completely on its own, flies its mission, returns to base, and lands.  It’s remarkable enough as it is that it can do that.  From takeoff to landing, no one touches it at all.  On the other hand, if the bad guys are shooting at it, they get as many free shots at the sitting duck as they can possibly take.  It really does fly high enough that the only things that could realistically intercept it would be MiG-25, MiG-31, possibly Su-27 and F-15; SA-2, SA-10, SA-12, SA-20, or Patriot could also reach up and touch it.  And remember, it flies what it was programmed to fly.  The Global Hawk can’t detect anything shooting at it and get out of the way or turn around.  The ‘pilot’ can upload a change of mission, but that’s not the same as flying it. 
    Global Hawk cannot — REPEAT — cannot exceed the speed of sound, carry air to air ordnance, or shoot down other aircraft.  It takes great pictures, but that’s all it does.  Here’s the fact sheet on Global Hawk from Air Force Link: 
    The RQ-1 Predator is the remotely piloted UAV.  It doesn’t fly very high.  There are two people at a console for it at all times, one flies the vehicle, the other operates the sensor package.  The MQ-1 Predator is the same as the RQ-1 except the MQ-1 can carry up to two Hellfire anti-tank missiles.  Again, it’s another pretty incredible system.  Here’s the link for Predator. 
    There will be a newer version of Predator coming up in a year or so, it will be the MQ-9 Reaper.  Here’s the link for the Reaper factsheet.  Reaper looks just like Predator, but Reaper is about twice the size.
    In any case, Predator does not have a radar, it too only has a camera (albeit a very good one).  It has no chance against enemy air defenses whatsoever, and requires a completely permissive air environment (Read:  Me and my fighter pilot buddies must sweep the skies clean of enemy aircraft and surface-to-air missiles for this critter to have a chance to do its work). 
    The story about the aircraft in Alaska flying Mach schnell and shooting AMRAAMs from long ranges and still going undetected was actually the Air Force’s newest fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor.  Here’s the link.  Here’s a bit of the RED FLAG – ALASKA story at F-16.net.  A better article about the RED FLAG – ALASKA exercise is in the Feb issue of Air Force Magazine.  

 

     I hope this answers some questions about this particular e-mail!

Posted in Internet, USAF | 1 Comment

And I Thought Weasels Were Wild!

     Last month, the guest speaker for a local Air Force Association luncheon was retired AF Col James Gilliland.  AFN was there to capture the story.  (Thanks, SrA A!)

     Col Gilliland talked about a couple missions over north Vietnam in his RF-4C.  Every airframe had its share of ‘fun’ going north along the various Route Packs, or even going "Downtown" to Hanoi.  The RF-4C guys had to go screaming in just over the rooftops to get pictures of targets that had just been hit.  Needless to say, once a target has been ‘serviced,’ the enemy in the target area is generally a little bit more on alert than pre-strike, so it’s that much harder to take the air defenses by surprise.  It amounts to more people shooting at you more accurately.

     And I thought going into harm’s way to get SAM to try shooting at you in the first place was dicey! At least Weasels can shoot back.  RF-4Cs only carried cameras.

     Col Gilliland also pointed out that while folks like he and I are immensely proud of our fighter heritage, the Air Force became a separate service on a C-54 transport aircraft, apparently the instruments of the National Security Act that handed the Army Air Corps assets over to the Air Force were signed on said transport on 18 Sep 1947.  The actual aircraft, according to records, was Sacred Cow itself, President Roosevelt’s own transport.  Most of us Airmen know about the role of the C-54 in the Berlin Airlift, but few of us knew the Air Force became a separate service on board that aircraft.  I suppose it would have been difficult to hand the documents over from one P-80 to another.  Even so, I’ll bet Robin Olds would have found a way.

     Interestingly, Col Gilliland jokingly remarked it was a tense time over North Vietnam when Gen Olds was at aerial victory #4, as none of he and his buds wanted to inadvertently fly across that legend’s gunsight and become aerial victory #5; they were more afraid of him than of the NVAF. 

     A fun side-note:  The JASDF pilot in the background on AF.mil and in the video is my buddy "Bell," we went through T-38 training in Texas together.   It’s truly a small world! Who’d’ve thought eight years after UPT we’d be flying fighters together at Misawa?

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Milblogging

     I need to thank someone I don’t even know! Kathi S. referred my Blog to Milblogging.com (here).  Thanks, Ms S.! I appreciate you taking time to check in here.  I think Milblogging.com is a great tool for folks to find out a little bit about what goes on out in the trenches, and back on the home-front (even when the home-front is 7,000 miles from your home of record!).

     I browsed through a couple other blogs, unfortunately I had no real time to scan any of them in detail.  It looked like most would make for good reading.

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Switching to Guns

     Monday I flew an iron-oxide-laden BFM hop with Lt Col Z.  I had the most bizarre gunsight glitch I’ve ever seen on a Viper, and the usually spot-on, trusty sight led me astray more than a couple times.  That said, I adapted after a couple passes and started getting the hang of things again.  It was good to get out and pull some Gs finally.  The 11-month layoff certainly didn’t make it easy, but at least it was fun!

     Tuesday Cash, Lt Col Z, Spidey, and I tried to knock out Cash’s FLUG-5 (four-ship unopposed SAT), but Lt Col Z had an issue with his jet that forced him to RTB nearly immediately after takeoff.  Cash, Spidey, and I pressed out and got a good low-level in across northern Honshu (there’s still snow on the mountains, but not nearly enough to ski on anymore; snowshoeing may still be a possibility at upper elevations).  Last, we flew over to the range and emptied 250 rounds each of PGU-27 training rounds in two high-angle strafe passes.  It was the first time I’d actually fired live rounds in about 10 months.  Thanks to all the dry passes I’ve done the past few months, it was a pair of successful passes, even with the worst crosswinds I’ve ever seen on final. 

     I hope I get to do more of these flights in the next few weeks!

Posted in F-16 Operations, USAF | Comments Off on Switching to Guns

Chris the Red

     Yesterday I helped play Red Air for Colt’s flight lead upgrade SEAD mission.  Shep, Agent, and I had to try to defend a point target, we had theoretical SAM backup, so Blue Air had the tougher job. 

     Since we had to mimic other airplanes, that made life tougher for us.  That, and Agent and I both had two wing tanks while Shep had a single centerline tank (and otherwise clean for FCF) D-model, so every time Shep went to MIL power, I had to use at least min-AB to keep up.  On the other hand, I had an ECM pod to help make life worse for Blue Air. 

     Overall, we had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, although a couple merges occurred, I didn’t get to turn with any other jets; Shep managed to sneak in a couple times.  Personally, I think whenever Blue Air was shooting BVR into our formation, he kill removed me so he could get to a merge.  I recall him being lit up with Blue Air’s radar a lot more often than I was! But he was the element lead, so it was his prerogative. 

     I need to get to FLUG myself so I can kick my wingmen out and get to more merges!

Posted in F-16 Operations, USAF | Comments Off on Chris the Red

Global Warming, Local Effects

     Yesterday, Global Warming struck again.  This time, it forced me to scrape frost off the windshield of the car. 

      I left my coat and an artic-capable sleeping bag in the car.  I’ll probably stop carrying them in July, which I hope will not be too early!

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