Every Man a Tiger (1999)

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Every Man a Tiger (1999) Page 71

by Tom - Nf - Commanders Clancy

Salman Pak Biological Warfare Center

  Samdan, Abdullah Al-

  SAMs (surface-to-air missiles)

  Wild Weasels and

  SANG (Saudi Arabian National Guard)

  Santos, José

  SAR (search-and-rescue)

  RSAF headquarters cell

  SAS (Special Air Service, British), operations in Iraq

  Satellites

  Saudi Arabia

  Iraqi threat

  defense against

  military leaders

  Scud attacks

  and servicewomen

  troops killed by friendly fire

  See also Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF)

  Saudi National Guard

  Saudi pilots

  Sawyer, Dave

  Schmidt, Eric

  Schriever, Bernard A.

  Schulte, Dave

  Schwartz, Paul

  Schwarzkopf, H. Norman

  and air campaign

  and battlefield interdiction

  and biological warfare

  and bridge destruction

  briefings

  daily

  and civilian casualties

  command center

  and DCINC

  and Dugan

  ground campaign

  start of

  Schwarzkopf, H. Norman (cont.)

  Horner and

  insecurity, psychological, of

  and INSTANT THUNDER plan

  and integration of forces

  meeting with King Fahd

  and oil spills

  and psychological warfare

  and Push CAS

  and rotation policy

  and safety of troops

  and search-and-rescue missions

  and target selection

  troop deployments in Saudi Arabia

  and war planning

  Scowcroft, Brent

  Scud missiles

  defense against

  SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense)

  Seara, Oscar

  Search-and-rescue. See SAR

  Security, for battle plan

  Self-confidence of fighter pilots

  Senegal, infantry

  Sepkas

  September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks

  7th MEB (Marine Expeditionary Brigade)

  Seymour Johnson AFB

  Shaikh, Abdullah al-

  Shamrani (Saudi Captain)

  Sharp, Grant

  Sharpe, Sandy

  Shaw AFB, Reconnaissance Center

  Shaw, Bernard

  Sheehy (Air Force captain)

  Sheikh Isa Air Base, Bahrain

  “Shock and Awe,”

  Shrike radar homing missile

  Simms (U.S. Captain)

  Simon, Bob

  SIOP (Single Integrated Operations Plan)

  Situational awareness

  Solnet, Claude

  Soviet training of Iraqi pilots

  SPACECOM (Space Command)

  Space forces

  Space people

  Space Warfare Center

  Sparks, Billy

  SPEAR (Navy team)

  Special Operations, British, and Scud launchers

  Special Operations Forces (SOF)

  Schwarzkopf and

  Special Tactics Personnel (STPs)

  Speed of action

  in future wars

  Spiritual leader, Horner as

  Squadrons

  Staff officer, Horner as

  Stan Eval (standardization and evaluation) pilots

  Stanfill, Ronnie

  Starling, Dane

  Statistics from Gulf War

  Status of forces

  Stealth aircraft

  See also F-117 aircraft

  Stillwell, Joe

  Storage area, destroyed by A-10s

  Strafe patterns

  STRATCOM

  Strategic air campaign

  Schwarzkopf and

  Strategic Air Command. See SAC

  Strategic air power

  Strategies

  Successes, of Gulf War

  Sudairy, Ahmed

  Sultan, Prince of Saudi Arabia

  Sultan, Sultan Adi al-Mutairi

  Battle of Khafji

  Summers, George

  Sununu, John

  Super Saber aircraft (F-100D)

  Supercruise

  Superpower, U.S. as

  Support elements

  Surface-to-air missiles. See SAMs

  Surge rates of sorties

  Surprise, military doctrine of

  Surrender by Iraqis

  Suter, Moody

  Swain (Air Force captain)

  Sweeney, Walter

  Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

  Systems of systems

  T-33 (T Bird) aircraft

  TAC (Tactical Air Command)

  counterproductive policies

  TACC (Tactical Air Control Center)

  and ATOs

  layout of

  start of Desert Storm

  Tactical Air Control Parties (TACPs)

  Tactical air power

  Tactical mobility

  Tactics

  ineffective, in Vietnam

  Taif Air Base

  Ta Khli, Thailand

  Talil (Saudi Admiral)

  Tankers (aircraft)

  Tanks, Iraqi

  destruction of

  Tapline Road

  Targets for air strikes. See Air strike targets

  Target trackers

  Task Force NORMANDY

  Tastett, Bobby

  Taylor, Zack

  Team effort, international

  Technology, new

  Tel Aviv, Scud attacks

  Television:

  coverage of Gulf War

  interviews

  and psychological warfare

  sets for Desert Shield troops

  Temper tents

  Tenoso, Ed

  Ten Percent War

  Terror, weapons of

  Test programs, Nellis AFB

  Thailand, U.S. military in

  Than Hoa Bridge

  Thatcher, Margaret

  Theories of war

  Third Army, U.S.

  3rd Infantry Division

  335th Tactical Fighter Squadron

  363d Tactical Fighter Wing

  “Thuds.” See F-105 aircraft

  Thumrait Air Base, Oman

  Timeline, Desert Shield/Storm

  Timely action

  TISEO (TV telescope)

  Tolin, Tony

  Tonoso, Ed

  Tornado aircraft, losses

  TOT (Time on or over Target)

  Totalitarian systems

  Towner, John

  Training:

  of Coalition forces

  for nuclear delivery

  of transport pilots for combat

  for weaseling

  Transformation

  Transportation system, Iraqi

  Troop transport aircraft, Gulf War

  Trust, among commanders

  Truth, Creech and

  Tullo, Frank

  Turk, John

  Turki (Saudi general)

  Turki bin Bandar “Little Turki” (Saudi major)

  Turki bin Nassar, Prince

  24th Mechanized Infantry Division

  2v2 ACT (air combat tactics) mission

  Tyndall AFB, Florida, Horner at

  U-2 aircraft

  Unified commands

  United Arab Emirates

  United Arab Republic, infantry

  United Nations Inspections Teams

  United States military, reorganization of

  Unmanned drone aircraft

  Unmanned systems in future

  USMTM (U.S. Military Training Mission) compound

  Vandenburg AFB, California

  Van Huss, Pete

  Van Meter, Bill

  Vehicles, Iraqi, destruction of

  Vice wing com
manders

  Vietnam War

  failures of

  fighter pilots

  Horner’s views

  ineffective tactics

  inefficient policies

  VIIth Corps

  battlefield preparation

  and close air support

  ground war

  target list

  Voice Product Network

  Volant Solo aircraft

  Volmer, Al, daily routine

  Vulnerability of computer systems

  Waller, Cal

  War

  goals of

  Horner’s views of

  television and

  Warden, John

  Warriors, fighter pilots as

  “Warthogs.” See A-10 aircraft

  Wartime, flying in

  Washington administration, and Vietnam War

  Washington Post

  Watkins, Jack

  Weapon system operators (WSOs)

  and low-level tactics

  Weapons and Tactics

  Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)

  Weapons Tactics Team

  Weaseling

  Weather:

  and Desert Storm

  information about

  Webster, William

  Welch, Bill

  Welch, Larry

  West, “Tiny,” 470

  Wheelus, Libya

  “Whiplash Bango Alert,”

  Wide-area munitions

  Widows of fighter pilots

  Wild Weasels

  in Gulf War

  Willard, Gary

  Williams, Clint

  Williams AFB, Arizona

  Will of enemy, destruction of

  Wing commanders

  Wingmen

  Wings (Air Force units), rating of

  Wing/Squadron Command Posts

  Wing Tactical Operations Center, Thailand

  Witt, Randy

  Wives, of military personnel

  of Air Force pilots

  WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction)

  Wolfowitz, Paul

  Women:

  Arab men and

  in Gulf War

  World War II

  Wratten, William

  XVIIIth Airborne Corps

  ground war

  Yeosock, Betta

  Yeosock, John

  daily routine

  Horner and

  and psychological warfare

  and Push CAS

  as Third Army commander

  Yugoslavia, military operations in

  Zayed, Sheikh (UAE)

  1 Later F-15 models could be used in other roles, as well.

  2 Born Margaret, but called Pud from childhood. Ellen and Mary Lou were the other sisters. Chuck was the only son.

  3 After he finished gunnery school, Horner intended to apply for a regular commission, the type academy graduates got; but before he could get his paperwork together, the Air Force changed the procedure. In the new dispensation, a board selected the ones they wanted instead of letting people apply directly. Later, while he was stationed at Lakenheath in England, Horner was called into his squadron commander’s office one day and asked if he would accept a regular commission, since a board had selected him for one. “Sure,” he answered. And so he was resworn into the Air Force in 1962.

  4 In World War I, World War II, and Korea—even though some fighters carried bombs—the fighter’s primary weapon was its gun, and most fighter actions were gunnery actions: air-to-air and strafe of ground targets. Hence, when a young pilot went to school to learn how to be a fighter pilot, he went to gunnery school. There he would also learn to drop bombs, even nuclear bombs, and shoot missiles.

  5 The mechanics had installed one of the pulley reels upside down, so both ailerons moved in the same direction. This made them flaps and not roll controls. And this made the rudder the only roll control the pilot had. His aircraft was going too slow, however, for it to generate the control moment he needed to use the rudder to keep the wings level.

  6 An Immelmann is half a loop with a roll on the top. The roll allows you to return to level flight after you’ve reversed your direction. If you want to make the loop smaller, you pull more Gs in the climb, but that means your airspeed at the top is slower.

  7 When Horner entered the Air Force, there were about 900,000 people on active duty, of which about 130,000 were officers, and about 70 percent of those were rated. Today there are about 350,000 in the Air Force, with about 70,000 officers, of whom about 20 percent are rated.

  8 FACs work on the ground with Army units as liaison with close air support fighter-bombers.

  9 The NG stands for “new guys.”

  10 If MiGs got into a bomber fight, the bombers would jettison their bombs and fight them. Even if the MiGs didn’t shoot anyone down, the bombers still jettisoned the bombs . . . which meant they were ineffective. In order to counter this air-to-air fighter threat, the practice was to dedicate a few fighters to patrolling the area, so for insurance a few fighters were designated MiG CAP (Combat Air Patrol).

  11 That is, he set himself up with relation to the flight leader’s plane so that the leader’s wingtip light was on the star painted on the side of his jet. This means Horner was flying in the right position fore and aft and up and down. Then all you had to do to make sure the flight stayed in close formation was to hold this position and keep the same distance out, usually so his wings didn’t overlap.

  12 Fortunately, Tastett bailed out and lived, then spent years in the Hanoi Hilton.

  13 Roger Myhrum, we should mention, is now retired. After the war, he went on to fly with the F-5 squadron at Williams AFB training Saudis and Iranians, but after that Horner lost track of him.

  14 For combat awards, the Air Medal stands below the DFC, but above the Air Force Commendation Medal, which is usually given for excellence in job performance to company-grade officers. Though it isn’t really a major award, at the time the Air Medal was highly respected. Since the last war was Korea, by 1965 very few medals had been handed out since the early 1950s.

  15 This was not always the case. When he returned to Korat in 1967, Horner served under an old-time fighter commander, Colonel, later Brigadier General, Bill Chairasell. Chairasell used his most experienced squadron commanders to lead, no matter what their rank—a practice of which Chuck Horner seriously approved.

  16 Horner himself stayed on at Korat beyond 100 sorties, because he enjoyed combat. Others stayed on beyond 100 sorties because they wanted to help the unit out. But by 1967, he wasn’t aware of anyone who felt they were going to win this war. When I asked him what we could possibly have done to set up an acceptable end state, this was his answer: “Our overall strategic aim, as far as I can make out, was to devastate the North so badly that they would surrender any hopes of interfering in the South. Naïve. If we had really wanted to show the North Vietnamese we were serious, we probably should have shut down Haiphong and Hanoi, invaded below Haiphong, and cut the country in half lower down. In fact (though we didn’t know it then), as it turned out, all we really had to do was befriend Ho. Seems he wasn’t part of a monolithic Communist plot, and hated the Chinese more than anyone else. Since as it turns out we really didn’t have any loyalty to the South Vietnamese people anyway, perhaps we could have brokered a deal after the French pulled out. But that is twenty-twenty hindsight on my part.”

  17 The Wild Weasels amassed more medals per aircrew (pilot or his EWO) than any other unit in the war.

  18 Later, White Fang was shot down over North Vietnam and stoned to death by villagers. He and his EWO, Sam Fantle, were picked up by the Army and told to run for it across a field. If they were fast enough, the Army would protect them from the villagers. Fantle was fast enough to make it across the field. But White Fang was older than the rest of the Weasels (he had been a flight officer at the end of World War II) and didn’t make it. He had a wife and son. His wife died years later from cancer.

  19 Bill Kirk was a
longtime fighter pilot, who is probably best known for his part in Operation Bolo: In 1967 the F-4s from Ubon tricked the North Vietnamese air force into thinking they were attacking F-105s. The F-4 wolf pack used the 105 call signs, and for the first time carried ECM pods and used radio discipline (something they were not noted for). Since the F-4s were the only friendly aircraft north of the Red River, they were allowed to use AIM-7 missiles beyond visual range, with just a radar lock on the target. As a result, they got face shots on MiG-21s out of the North Vietnamese base at Phuc Yen and shot a number of the North Vietnamese fighters before they could attack the force they thought was bomb-laden. The result was that the North Vietnamese MiG-21 force had to stand down for six months while they worked out what happened. It was a brilliantly planned event. Kirk eventually retired with four stars—after some trials and tribulations getting the first one.

  20 SAC is today called STRATCOM and it remains in the ICBM missile silos and missile subs, but it has lost its onetime clout. Though there is still a CINCSTRATCOM to execute the SIOP, no one believes the Russians and Americans will destroy the world. Meanwhile, the SAC forces were merged with TAC forces into a command called Air Combat Command, or ACC. Today, the ACC headquarters is located at Langley AFB, Virginia, where the TAC headquarters was once located, and is mostly commanded by former TAC personnel. The ICBMs themselves later came under the Commander, Air Force Space Command, since ICBM technology and space launcher technology are the same, while the strategic MFP-1 forces (nuclear missiles, boomer subs, and, when on alert, bombers) are now under the operational command of CINCSTRAT. The MFP-1 air defense forces are all now in the Air National Guard and come under CINCNORAD (one of Chuck Horner’s last jobs on active duty) when on alert.

  21 Suter died in 1997, but not before he was told that the Red Flag Complex at Nellis would be named in his honor.

  22 Called “The Grr,” and the father of “Little Grr,” Horner’s aide in 1990 when he was himself Ninth Air Force Commander.

  23 The following discussion very closely follows Bill Creech’s analysis in his excellent book, The Five Pillars of TQM: How to Make Total Quality Management Work for You, Truman Talley Books/Dutton, 1994, pp. 126-138.

  24 In fact, the situation changed dramatically between the time of the briefings and when the war became a reality. The greatest benefit of the Camp David briefings was to reassure the President that his military leaders were capable of reasonable planning and thinking. As it turned out, none of what Schwarzkopf and Horner briefed at Camp David came about: the Iraqis didn’t come into Saudi Arabia in any significant way, the forces available to Schwarzkopf, both on the ground and in the air, increased significantly, and the battlefield in January and February of 1991 was far different from the battlefield they might have fought on in August 1990.

 

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