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Danger41

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Everything posted by Danger41

  1. It should probably go in the war stories thread, but I briefed this during the history portion of a roll call as part of the sacrificial LPA. I remember focusing exclusively on the AMRAAM portion but let slip that it was a Viper (which all the bros knew and were waiting) and got shacked, instant justiced, point of ordered, and old/new business into a Jeremiah Weed induced psychedelic journey that I still haven’t recovered from.
  2. There’s no built in reaction times to TOLD to PC-12/U-28 stuff. One very unique calculation is the turn back altitude for if you lose the engine on takeoff. We used to train to that regularly prior to the Demise 25 crash at Clovis Muni. Now guys only get exposure to that in sim refresher training and updated CAP.
  3. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-19/iran-nuclear-inspectors-detect-uranium-enriched-to-84-purity?leadSource=uverify wall lovely
  4. Rico got another Fulcrum in Allied Force. All the Eagle kills in OAF were interesting for one reason or another, but Claw Hwang’s 2 Fulcrums are my favorite. I can’t remember all the details, but he basically screwed up everything in the engagement and was given extra TI rides in his 4 FLUG even though he killed 2 migs haha. @Steve Daviesprobably had the details on that. There was another (I think) Mig-25 kill a Viper dude got in a D model while on a checkride with an F-4 wingman. He got a 4 on his grade sheet and EQ on the eval.
  5. This is the type of scenario I’ve got on my hands.
  6. So I’m getting to the point where my kids are needing all the fun and expensive dental and orthodontic procedures. I’m AD and the dental insurance for Tricare standard is not great. Anyone have any gouge for supplemental insurance for this situation?
  7. Very interesting. How does the syllabus look for T-38 tracked students now? I’m so far out of the UPT loop so please pardon the ignorance.
  8. Both vital skills that enabled a variety of Rip-Its and snacks to be delivered to the forward bases us lowly Draco nerds inhabited. My thanks to the Talon community!
  9. Tank’s inner monologue right now.
  10. Another one up near the border with tankers and Eagles IVO.
  11. That is an extremely niche reference and I know the exact incident you’re referring to. Actually happened twice to different guys. One is a complete goofball and the other is a literal rocket scientist that is also a goofball.
  12. At least Brits value being witty and gifted with oratory (that’s max performing an STS) instead of whatever MTG, Lauren Boebert and the like are going for. I’m not even talking about policy, it’s just annoying behavior. And all these MP’s at least dressed like they belong and not like they’re trying to track down 101 Dalmatians to make a new coat like that moron.
  13. Regardless of your political feelings, I wish we could stop this stupid heckling from the crowd. JFC it’s so embarrassing.
  14. Is this the 1500 a month maxed out flight pay discussion for Reserve component (is that RC)? Any discussions on this for AD?
  15. 1. Change DoD back to “War Department” 2. 51st State with capital city “Formerly Known as Port au Prince” 3. Profit? Kidding but at this point, that’s probably not a bad idea. Every few years this sort of thing happens there.
  16. I think we had the Gunship get a P-kill on the dudes running it because we tried to get the Vipers to drop a 500 pounder on it but we couldn’t make it happen due to airspace constraints with the border being 200 meters away and too many engagements going on simultaneously to get a clear bomb fall deconfliction. But honestly, my memory is kind of crappy at this point. My brain prioritized COD Zombies with the Ray Gun and gun game dominance.
  17. I know you were saying and I didn’t take offense in the slightest. I was also not being facetious with saying you’ve done a ton of risky flying, REMF or not. Anyone else have a story to share?
  18. I’d suggest you do what you want and let your intentions of a B-21 transition be known. You bring up good points on all and I won’t pretend to know the inner political workings of Bomber Mafia politics, but make yourself as credible as possible and have a good reputation for interpersonal skills. Initial cadre, especially for a crown jewel program like B-21, will need to offer more than being a good stick.
  19. With all your PIT and UPT experience I’m 100% certain you’ve had more risk to life and limb than I did in all my deployments.
  20. Looks like it was a Raptor that took the shot so it’s back to 104-0 for the WGASF and 1-0 on balloons for the 5th Gen boys.
  21. What airframe for WIC? I’d suggest you do the WIC thing because that’s an easy discriminator. I got selected as the demonstration pilot and then initial cadre for SOCOM’s Armed Overwatch program and the only thing that discriminated me was being a grey Patch.
  22. @argstarted the other thread about Gunships in Desert Storm and I recommended a war stories thread because I’m sure this group has some good ones. I’ll kick it off. Decmeber 2, 2014 Nangahar, Afghanistan Flying Draco out of Bagram and a raid comes down that we’re going to support and run the stack for. We weren’t doing hits every night but by dumb luck, I’d been on a few as we rolled through the schedule. As some of you know, they’re usually a bit hectic at first when the helo lands and then it’s pretty chill as they make callouts and not much would happen so that was what I expected. We brief up, get out there, get everyone checked in and ready to go. We had 2 Vipers, a Gunship, a few RPA’s, Compass Call a ways off, and the helos that had a couple DAPs and 4 60’s. TOT hits, all the sensors are assigned and I’m looking out the window and I see multiple 12.7 and 23mm open up from all along this river bank/village that were covered up until we landed (1). We haven’t even made comms with the ground force yet and it’s a madhouse immediately. I vividly remember seeing tracers crisscrossing the village and then under NVG I can see airburst going off above the Gunship and behind where he was (shooting at the sound). The assault force gets out and are immediately under fire. I had some young guys running sensors and a pretty weak swimmer (that got much better but he was a 1st Lt at the time and somewhat weak) as our CSO who, in theory, should be running the show in this instance but kind of locked up a bit and was overwhelmed. I started directing sensors and getting directive to get people sorting and finding targets. We finally get the JTAC on the radio and I unload the situation to him (overly wordy and crappy comms) and he basically tells me to run it because they’re under fire (gunshots and yelling in the background). I had some very good Viper pilots (2 Patch wearers I come to find out) and had them tracking targets, RPA’s on ADA positions, and the Gunship in close on the good guys. I started working with the DAPs and we would find stuff and they’d kill it. Time goes on, we start thinning out targets, the assault force is clearing the northern village and it turns out to be a dry hole so they start moving about a KM south toward the secondary objective. As they move, it’s more of the same with the sensors except we split to help the Gunship escort the assault force and to find targets for the DAPs with the other. As this is going on, I’m starting to realize that the timeline has gone to absolute hell and we won’t be able to support this whole thing so I call back to our TOC and tell them to wake up the crew that would be flying the first line of the day to backfill us (2). Every jet there worked extensions and Tac C2 worked tanker reflows and all that. The whole team came together to support the guys on the ground and we didn’t get any push back. Incredibly awesome teamwork and proud moment for me as a member of the USAF. While I’m neck deep in trying to secure all that, the ground force is moving to the southern area and enemy fighters pop out of VC style spider holes and engage them from about ten feet. By the grace of God, no friendlies get hit and they kill the enemy and continue to move (3). They eventually make it to the southern compound and start to make call outs IAW the ROE. I’ve got two bingos (one for JBAD and one for BAF) and know I’m getting close to having to leave. I didn’t want to go to JBAD because I knew our MX flow at the time we didn’t have enough airplanes to backfill our backfill (jet happened to be in phase) if I went to JBAD but I couldn’t leave until we had another Draco because everyone else was gainfully employed and I assumed we’d lose the Gunship at Dawn (Spirit 03) and didn’t want the ground force to lose their comm lifeline. Personal thought at the time was that this would take until about noon the next day. About this time, my good friend and his crew that got shaken awake and scrambled check in on comms and I start filling them in. I’m doing a handover and they show up and match sensors and see DAPs killing targets under our sparkle and we hand that off (an easy confirmation haha). As they’re making it, I commit to BAF and know I’ll be landing at min fuel but that’s fine. We are about done and their radios all take a shit and lose crypto at the exact same time that an assault force member gets shot and the ground force calls for an urgent CASEVAC (4). Our backfill has no comms and the ground force is relaying the CASEVAC 9-line in rapid fire to my aforementioned weak swimmers who dropped their nuts and did a picture perfect job and made that happen to get the helos back for the exfil (5). My backfill gets one (of their 10) radios working and takes the stack and the situation over and we get out of dodge. I run the numbers and realize we will be at emergency gas when we land so I coordinate to zoom as much as the mighty Draco can and get into a glide profile to enter a 69 mile right base. I call the SOF (A-10 guy) and tell him to get everyone out of our way and he worked with everyone to clear it out for us. He does it and I get cleared to the numbers and land with 78 pounds of gas. I’ll never forget that number haha (it also went up about 70 pounds when I reset the counter on the ground so I didn’t shut down and get towed back). We shut down, get back to the TOC and things are still happening but long story short, we got everyone back a few hours later (6). I’ve never felt anything like that and I was absolutely jacked and when I landed and came down off of that, I couldn’t sleep for a long time and was antsy hearing about the fate of the wounded assaulter because I assumed he died based on how it sounded over the radio. When I found out he lived, I can’t explain the feeling of relief and flush of emotions that happened. He was sent to Germany and ended up being paralyzed, unfortunately but he’s alive today and sounds like he’s thriving. Anyways, I felt like I earned that 1/20th of an Air Medal. 1. Turns out one of our Afghan allies let his Taliban buddies know we were coming and they decided to try to make this a Blackhawk Down scenario. 2. We didn’t have a backfill and a 4 hour gap from when we would land to when those guys would takeoff for the first line of the day to coincide with sunrise. The LPA and junior enlisted that were awake and running our graveyard ops absolutely killed it getting those dudes prepped, getting them food, etc. I was incredibly proud of those folks that didn’t whine or complain at all and just made shit happen. Draco standard. 3. https://www.army.mil/article/147892/1st_battalion_75th_ranger_regiment_honors_its_heroes The dudes that got the Bronze Star with V were for this part. 4. https://www.socom.mil/fighting-on-to-the-ranger-objective The Rangers that got Silver Stars above in 3 were for this part. True heroism. 5. Army helos were sitting at level 1 at JBAD and were there in minutes. They earned DFC’s for this deservedly so. 6. Later on I heard from that intercepted comms said something like “how are they finding us? They’re killing us and we can’t see them.” Over 25 EKIA and a great mission for SSE overall.
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