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 Hair On Fire
Some nights, the missions were tranquil. Others were three-to-four-hours, hair-on-fire hell raising. The three largest factors for me were getting gas to get there and get back many times, peeing in the Viper, and staying alert enough to come back and land after a ten-hour mission at night.
– Lt. Col. Mark, 332nd AEG
Winchester
Texas 17 was one of the real heroes of the war. He was King Kong and left his mark on the Kandahar control tower before the Marines blew in and claimed they conquered it. I worked with Texas 17 on two of my AFAC missions. On both missions, I came back to base totally Winchester, without rockets, bombs, bullets, flares, or fuel. A big grease smudge covered the side of the aircraft from firing the gun so much.
– Lt. Col. Mark, 332nd AEG
Nice View
I’ve flown many night missions and have seen some awesome desert sunrises and sunsets. I watched a huge meteor storm in November. I almost watched it too much, since we had some AAA detonating at our altitude at that time. I listened to a Walkman to and from the AOR. The tanker guys occasionally amused us on the long flights to and from Afghanistan by placing interesting photos on the boomer’s window.
– Lt. Col. Mark, 332nd AEG
- boomer – operator of the refueling boom on a tanker
Divert-N-Go
I was flying in a four-ship of F-16s in early December when we all ran low on fuel. Since our tanker arrived twenty-five minutes late for the first aerial refueling, each of the four Vipers cycled through the boom for a quick sip of gas. The tanker developed pump difficulties and began delivering a very slow off-load. I took on about 3,000 pounds of fuel and got off the boom so my wingman could take his turn. While he was refueling, I got a trapped fuel warning, which is normal for a partial or slow fuel offloads. I cycled my aerial refueling door and monitored my fuel levels. My external fuel tanks, which were not feeding, read 1,500 pounds each. My wingman experienced the same problems with a very slow offload. My trapped fuel state continued. The closest divert base was 120 miles away. With approximately 2,000 pounds of usable fuel showing, we got the tanker turned toward the divert base. The tanker continued to work its pump malfunctions. As the tanker made a series of turns toward the base, I got a low fuel warning on my aft tank.
En route to the base, the other members of my four-ship tried to refuel without success. We finally determined the entire flight would have to divert. While trying to coordinate the divert through the tanker, I asked for the position of the runway. The base was hard to see at night from our altitude. Spotting the runway about two miles behind the flight and calculating less than 600 pounds of usable fuel, I sliced back and informed my wingmen that I was an emergency. I headed for the runway, dissipating energy and maintaining a one-to-one glide ratio while S-turning to final. I called the tower frequency, landed, taxied, and shut down with less than 400 pounds of fuel indicated.
With a big OEF mission planned, our flight lead decided to get the jets turned to get us back on our way. We called for a British fuel truck, refueled the jets ourselves, and turned all four Vipers. We briefed some British crew chiefs on how to launch an F-16 and took off an hour after landing. Once in the AOR, we searched a designated area for an hour before locating an enemy convoy. My two-ship destroyed four large tracked troop carriers, one tank, one BMP, two trucks, one towed artillery piece, and dozens of military personnel—all at night with the awesome targeting pod and SADL of the Reserves Vipers.
– Lt. Col. Mark, 332nd AEG
- divert – unplanned landing at a nearby friendly air baseone-to-one glide ratio - distance/altitude slope for an approach to landing; a steep approach in this case
- BMP – Russian designation for infantry fighting vehicle
 F-16 Participation
We put the F-16s in the fight because they used less gas. We ran some numbers on fuel requirements for a Strike Eagle mission from our operating location. We figured out that we could send four F-16s twice a day for less fuel than it would take to send four F-15Es once a day. Since tankers were a limiting factor, the F-16 was a force multiplier. We here at the OSW base made it happen. Viper drivers in the CAOC kept F-16s in the fight.
– Col. Dave, 332nd AEG Commander
- CAOC - combined air operations center; central control authority for air operations
Area Brief
One of my first missions was way up north around the Mazar-e Sharif area. I checked in as an airborne FAC and talked to the GFAC, or someone I thought was a GFAC. I asked the GFAC to authenticate. He replied, “We don’t do that.” I then asked for an area brief. I got the same reply. Finally, the GFAC came up on the radio and said, “I’ll make it real easy for you. The good guys are on horses. The bad guys are in tanks. And they’re all around us.”
– Col. Dave, 332nd AEG Commander
- authentication – radio procedure combatants use to ensure they are communicating with friendly forces
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