ArticlesReader.com Menu

Newest Articles
Most Viewed Articles
ArticlesReader.com RSS
Submit Article
Login
Signup

Search the articles

Articles Main Categories

Advice
Animals
Automobiles
Business
Career
Communications
Computer Programming
Computers
Entertainment
Environment
Family
Fashion
Finance
Food
Health & Medical
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet Business
Internet Marketing
Legal
Leisure & Recreation
Marketing
Other
Politics
Reference & Education
Religion
Self Improvement
Sports
Technology & Science
Travel
Writing

Subscribe

Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Syndicate

Related Products

Home::Travel

Afghan Air Angst

Author : US Navy Captain

Afghan Air Angst

Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
Read this entire feature FREE with photos at
http://jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/globe02/asia02/angst/usnav.html

Editor's Note: This feature was forward to us anonymously from the frontlines of Afghanistan. We can not verify authorship or authenticity, but it sound's damn real — some of the fun experienced by one U.S. Navy Hornet pilot....

Here is his after-burner tale:

Thought y'all might get a kick out of a recent experience of mine. I'll chop this for an 'Approach' article. Thinking the bits about the hot Air Force chicks is probably gonna have to come out. I'll leave in all the trash talkin' though.
In case anyone asks, flying around in an F18 without a canopy is bad for the skin. Twenty thousand feet over Afghanistan in an open-air McDonnell Douglas Cabriolet is just a bad, bad place. Air's real dry up there; causes the skin to dry out. That and the wind chill of course.

0130 launch: Fifth and final planned tanker rendezvous. (25K MSL guessing 280-285 knots). Had 13.0 onboard but wanted to run my wingman back through because he only had 10.0 or so with an hour and a half to recovery. Sun was not up (0600) but it was bright enough. My goggles and goggle bracket were both stowed. Tanker had finished consolidating a half hour before and had four recievers (including myself) immediately afterwards. I was the fifth guy to tank. The boom operator recycled the hose between me and number four (dash two of the oncoming Marine section). The boom operator called "clear" before I tanked. Tanking appeared normal to me. Air was smooth. Hose cut loose and I pulled the power back and picked up the nose in order to try and "ride the wave."

Refueling probe did not feel too much stress based on vibrations I felt in the cockpit. Hose seperated about seven feet up from the basket. KC10 take-up reel on the refueling hose didn't do it's job. Didn't take up. After some wailing and flailing the KC10 and I disconnected but I still had part of it with me. The basket and seven feet of hose. The hose had a ten pound fitting on it that was quickly revealed when the wind stripped off the rubber sheath from the hose. Once revealed it proceeded to beating the living shit out of my airplane. "This is gonna be bad, this is gonna be real bad," I thought. I was right. After twenty sufficiently violent whacks the canopy gave up the ghost. I never thought about what a shattering canopy would sound like. Up until then, of course. I figured since it's made of plastic it shouldn't sound like glass. Wrong. Sounded just like when you go flying through a plate glass window. Of course, all the glass went out vice in. Cockpit went from eight grand to ambient in about a heart beat, which was a pretty small unit of time right then.

Don't know exactly where the KC10 went. Last I saw him he was turning for the sout west, spewing gas in the air and spewing words over the radio. "Bossman" had no time for little 'ole me. One of his Air Force brethren was experienced in discomfort. Had to yell at him to get his attention.

At first (before I put the top down) I thought I could make it home. "Okay, it's 650 away, I got 13.5....probably have to go pretty slow and kinda low. And that hunk o' shit on my nose can't be doing much for my gas mileage. This should warrant a ready deck. Yeah, one or two passes before they have to barricade me. And I ain't boltered yet so..."

Descended about three thousand feet and decelerated to about 260 by the time the canopy blew. Then the glass shattered.

"Okay, Jacobabad it is. My boarding rate at a 10,000 foot airstrip is even better."

Went down to about nineteen K and put out the speedbrake. Fitting was still beating up the jet while passing through 240 knots. At about 230 the beatings stopped and I started down, maintaining airspeed. Flight controls and engines appeared fine. Ball was a little out of center but that was it. Didn't have to turn to put JBAD on the nose. It was straight ahead.

Nav system told me it was 260 NM away. My body told me it was pretty damn cold up there. The KC10 remains were still trying to get at my head so I started descending and decelerating (opposing states so I'm not sure I did either one that efficiently). Leveled off at twelve thousand. I stopped getting beat up, the fitting just hung in the slipstream by my canopy bow, at 230 knots. So there I was...Eight thousand feet above Afghanistan at 230 knots. "You know, If a guy really wanted to get shot by a MANPAD he'd fly a profile alot like what I'm doing right now." Oh well. It's at times like this when you just make a decision and go with it. If you pull it off then it was, "...outstanding airmanship, and in keeping with the highest tradition of the United States Naval Service..." If you don't pull it off, if you get bagged, well...maybe they'll name a safety award or the new Base Gym after you.

Read this entire feature FREE with photos at
http://jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/globe02/asia02/angst/usnav.html

By Navy Captain - Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent - at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

About the Author

The Navy Captain Jetsetters Magazine. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

Spam emails More free articles

More related feeds

Afghan Air Angst
Afghan Air Angst Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.comRead this entire feature FREE with photos athttp://jetsettersma.

Nothing written in the newspaper or presented on TV should be ...
The situation with reporting from the middle east, particularly Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan cannot be believed because the information mostly comes from stringers who at least fear for their lives if they irritate al Quaeda, ...

A product of the GI Bill
Granted, it is a different war, this ill-defined War on Terror that is playing out in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the consequences of war -- however it is currently defined -- remain the same. Men and women volunteer to fight our fight, ...

Iran Respects Strength, Not Weakness
US ground forces are already stretched thin by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, making any military strike heavily dependent upon air power and cruise missile attacks. Given the dispersion of Iranian nuclear facilities and the measures ...

The Audacity of My Hope
This isn't just general angst) I was tempted to blog it. The key nonsense:. Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. ...

30 June SWJ News, Op-Ed, and Events Roundup
The fallout - a storm of critical press and angst on the Internet - forced the militaryâ€™s newest headquarters to back off its moving plans. Since he took over AFRICOM on Oct. 1, Gen. William E. "Kip" Ward and his deputies have been ...

Change is in the eye of the beholder
The Sunday edition of the New York Times reported that â€œOn the Road in America,â€ a 12 part series chronicling an RV tour of the US by four Arab twenty-somethings (three guys, one girl) during the summer of 2006 is set to air on the ...

Gitmo Trial Judge Swap
Usually, the Trial Counsel (JAG jargon for prosecutor) was the focus of his angst. Everything, from the air conditioning to occupancy of the Judge's parking space, was the TC's fault. On one occasion, my best friend and I swore we heard ...

European Policetrainer Conference 2008
[You could think of blocking the escape routes as an immediate action then containing the area before calling for a dog unit or air support.] The subject always invests 100 per cent in running away, but Poko advises that officers ...

Thaindian News
Managing ailments and angst with yoga. Posted: 27 Jun 2008 06:38 PM CDT. By Madhusree Chatterjee They are getting tips on luxury liners in the open seas, refining techniques in austere huts in the hills, getting fit in air-conditioned ...

Afghan Air Angst

Related articles