by Tom Clancy
Wise, old pilots look for an early, easy kill, relying on experience and knowledge; and they don’t play fair. They pick a weak one from the pack they’re fighting, go for a quick kill, and then blow through the fight. The young pilot fails to recognize the weak ones, so he moves in close and turns and burns. He is strong and quick, however, so he can get away with it. When a pilot’s old, he tires faster, and he avoids the pain of lots of sustained Gs. He can still pull them — but why, if he can succeed with less effort and more brains?
★ At the end of the training, Horner received his first operational assignment: he’d be flying F-100Ds with the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, England. His faith had paid off. Suddenly the Air Force needed fighter pilots again. He and his entire class had dodged the fate so many previous gunnery school graduates had suffered, condemnation to B-47s. They were going to join the fighter community worldwide.
Before he left the States, there was a short stint at Nellis AFB in Nevada for top-off training. There, Horner checked out in the F-100D, got training dropping live bombs, did day and night air-to-air refueling off a KB-29 tanker, fired a live AIM-9B heat-seeking missile, and planned and flew realistic combat missions.
Since the F-100D had a better nuclear bombing system than the F-10 °C they had trained in at Williams before coming to Nellis, and since the primary mission of the 48th TFW was to sit on alert with a nuclear weapon targeted for the evil empire, there was a great deal of emphasis on delivering nuclear weapons (their secondary mission was conventional weapons delivery). The training for that involved flying a single ship in at low level — between 50 and 1,000 feet above the ground — while navigating and making turn points and accurate timing at 360 knots. A pilot would arrive at an initial point at a specified time, accelerate to 480 knots, and by means of very accurate visual navigation, he’d arrive at a precomputed offset point (upwind) from a target. From there, he’d start an afterburner Immelmann,[6] so that at a precomputed angle (just over ninety degrees — almost straight up), a gyro would release a 2,000-pound nuclear shape (in training, filled with concrete). After release, he’d bring the nose below the horizon on his back, roll wings level upright, and make a high-speed escape away from the blast of the nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, the bomb was climbing to 30,000 feet. There it would run out of speed, swap ends, and fall to the ground. The time of flight of the weapon gave him the time needed to escape the blast.
Since it was not easy to do all this accurately, an instructor pilot would usually orbit the target to document release time and to score the hit: you can see the dust fly when 2,000 pounds of concrete going warp nine hits the desert. The SAC generals called this method of delivery “over the shoulder,” but the pilots, who had no love for the nuclear tasking (if all you and your adversary are doing is deterring each other, you are both being stupid), had another name for it. They called it “Idiot Loops.”
SQUADRONS AND WINGS
For all the impressive technology of its multirole aircraft, equipment, and weapons, for all the freedom of the environment in which it operates, the U.S. Air Force is structurally only a few degrees away from feudal. It is an organization of knights and squires. The knights are those who are rated (to fly), while the squires are all the others — the vast majority of the force — who keep the planes in the air and the bases running. In the air, only the knights — the rated — fight the enemy. Though the majority of the rated are officers,[7] rated enlisted members include flight engineers, load masters, gunners, and parachute jumpers — PJs, rescue men. PJs were among those most decorated during the Vietnam War.
The elitism of the rated is a given. The knights of the sky, by virtue of their position, are offered automatic respect (which they can, of course, forfeit). In practical terms, that means that the enlisted troops like to see their officers behaving like heroes; it increases their own stature as the people who keep the heroes in the air. On the other hand, officers who don’t behave like proper knights of the sky get into big trouble: there are a million moving parts under the skin of an aircraft, and only the enlisted force knows what is working and what might get the pilot killed. Wise officers make sure their relationship with the enlisted force is respectful — both ways.
By contrast, the enlisted do most of the fighting and dying in traditional armies, and rank is all-important. In these organizations, nothing is left to chance, communication tends to be top-down, and command means telling a crowd of enlisted guys with loaded weapons who didn’t ask to be there in the first place to go forth and charge up the hill, when even the most dense among them can figure out that about half of them are going to get killed or wounded.
In the Air Force, the transaction is far different when an officer strolls out to his jet and chats for a moment with his crew chief — a person who selected the Air Force in order to grow his (or her) technical expertise. The officer asks, “How is the jet?” and the enlisted man (or woman) answers, “The jet’s ready to go. Good luck. Let me help you strap in. Go get one for me.” Much is implied in this exchange. The crew chief knows that the officer, who is about to go risk his life for his nation, for his unit, and even for him or her, has entrusted his very life with his crew chief ’s talent and ability to take responsibility. The officer will die if his chief has forgotten to connect a fuel line or rig an ejection seat properly.
The mutual dependence between the rated and the enlisted in the Air Force is profound.
★ When Horner arrived at Lakenheath in the 1960s, this is how a squadron and a wing were set up.
In flight, the basic fighting element consists of two ships, but most fighter flights are made up of two elements — four ships. Two elements are more than enough aircraft for the flight leader to keep track of and manage. In a flight of four, the most experienced pilot is usually the flight lead, number one, and he usually flies in front, with number two on one side and number three on the other; number four flies on number three’s wing opposite the flight leader. If you hold up your left hand, the middle finger is number one; the index finger is number two, a wingman; the ring finger is number three, the element lead; and the little finger is number four, another wingman.
The flight leader plans the mission, determines the goals to be achieved, briefs the flight, navigates, dictates the tactics, and in general works all the details.
The element lead, or deputy flight lead, backs him up and takes charge if for some reason the lead is unable to maintain the lead (if he loses his radio, crashes, aborts, or is shot down). He also keeps track of navigation, in case the leader gets lost; clears the sky behind numbers one and two aircraft; keeps track of his own wingman, to make sure he is doing his job; and thinks about what he would be doing better if he was the leader.
Number three and number one run the flight and make the decisions about how to attack, what formations to use, and whether or not to penetrate bad weather. It is their job to get the mission done and bring the wingmen home alive.
The wingmen, number two and number four, are the greenest flyers. They are expected to keep their mouths shut unless they are low on fuel, have an emergency, or see an enemy aircraft approaching the flight (especially from behind it) — but only after no one else has called it out.
Though watching over four aircraft is near the limit of any single leader’s abilities, air-to-ground missions will sometimes contain up to sixteen aircraft. This is usually not a problem, as long as nothing goes amiss in the preplanned mission. However, if an enemy fighter somehow works into the middle of a sixteen-ship flight, it will be a chaotic mess, with airplanes all over the place trying to kill the enemy, stay alive, and regain order.
In determining who is to be the flight leader, rank in itself is not an issue. However, since flight leaders are usually the experienced pilots, they are more often than not captains and majors, or — higher still — lieutenant colonels, such as the squadron commander and the ops officer. In Vietnam, however, when the Air Force frequently used nonfighter pilots, the flight le
ader was often a young lieutenant with sixty to ninety missions under his belt leading around majors and lieutenant colonels who had come from bombers and thus weren’t credible in fighters. (This was one of the many U.S. failures in Vietnam that resulted from the rotation policies: a pilot came home after 100 missions in the North or after a year in the South, and other pilots were rotated in for their chance at combat… whether or not they had been trained in fighters, or even — for that matter — in conventional war.)
All young jocks aspire to make leader. Most of the time, they do it by working their way up a complex training regime: first, check rides as element lead, then a few rides with an instructor on the wing as practice lead, and finally a flight-lead check ride. That system isn’t always possible, however. At Lakenheath, for example, there was no established flight-lead check-out program. Instead, the squadron flight commander, operations officer, standardization and evaluation pilot, instructor pilot, or the commander flew with a pilot a few times, looked at his check rides, then just published orders making him a flight leader.
★ There are four flights in each squadron, with about six pilots in each flight. The primary work force of the squadron are the line pilots — that is, the combat-ready pilots. Flight commanders are always line pilots, while instructor pilots, functional test pilots, and standardization and evaluation pilots may or may not be; the ops officer and squadron commander are overhead pilots. The command chain runs from line pilots through the flight commander, who is the line pilot’s first line supervisor, to the squadron commander (but the squadron operations officer has a great deal to say about each pilot’s life, and he usually becomes the next squadron commander) up to the wing director of operations, and finally to the wing commander.
Flight commanders shepherd the five pilots assigned to them. They work with the ops officer’s shop to schedule missions for their assigned pilots; they tell them when they are going on alert; what sorties they will fly and when, and when they will go on temporary duty (TDY) to places such as Wheelus or to Germany as a forward air controller (FAC);[8] and, most important, they write their pilots’ Officer Efficiency Reports (OER). That is to say, they chew their asses and pat them on the back.
The squadron commander runs the squadron; he tells everyone what to do based on what he is told at the wing staff meetings. The operations officer’s job is to make sure the operation goes smoothly. Thus, he watches over the squadron’s monthly schedule and makes sure it is workable. Then he makes sure that the flying schedule is going as planned; and he makes changes as pilots call in sick, aircraft break, the weather turns bad, or as someone needs a special, unanticipated training event. He also works with the other squadrons to coordinate missions and training. And finally, if the commander is flying or TDY, he backs him up by attending wing staff meetings and taking over other duties, as appropriate.
Other important members of the squadron staff:
Stan Eval (standardization and evaluation) pilots administer check rides and tests, inspect operations for compliance with regulations, and check on the personal equipment of the troops to make sure they are taking care of the pilots’ masks and G suits. From Stan Eval pilots, line pilots get an instrument check (capability to fly on instruments), tactical check (capability to fly a combat mission), and flight-lead check (capability to lead other pilots around the sky).
Instructor pilots fly with the new pilots until their initial check ride, and also with pilots scheduled for upgrade (such as someone who is about to become a flight leader).
Weapons and Tactics pilots, usually fighter weapons school graduates, watch over bomb scores to make sure the squadron is doing a good job or if it needs extra training in bomb-delivery techniques; they keep track of the weapons-delivery systems, to make sure maintenance is keeping the guns harmonized with the gun sights and the release racks working properly (the release racks have to give the bombs a precise shove when the bomb shackles are blown open); they conduct training classes at bomb commanders school; and they keep the tactics manuals up-to-date and available for the line pilots to study in their free time.
Trainers keep watch over individual training records and make sure the flight commanders are scheduling their people for needed training programs.
Intelligence, usually a lieutenant, is nonrated. He keeps track of enemy threats, conducts classroom training on such things as SAMs and enemy aircraft, and helps in mission planning.
★ A typical squadron schedule at Lakenheath would usually start with the maintenance troops coming in at 0300 to get the jets ready. At around 4:00 A.M., the first pilots scheduled to fly would open the squadron and make the coffee; they will be on duty after 8:00 P.M., for a typical day of over twelve hours. Supervisors start arriving at 0500.
The flying schedule begins with three four-ship flights taking off at 0600, 0615, and 0630, for an hour-and-a-half mission; followed by three more four-ships at 1100, 1115, and 1130; followed by two more four-ships at 1600 and 1630. The first eight sorties would go to an air-to-ground range for bomb deliveries. The other four aircraft would be configured without external fuel tanks and bomb racks and would engage in two-versus-two air-to-air training in airspace off the coast. All of those aircraft would be “turned” to the same mission in the midday “go,” and four of the bombers would drop off the schedule for the third “turn.” Some pilots fly twice; others only once.
If few jets break during the day, then the aircraft set aside for spares will not be required, which might allow an add-on sortie or two. On the other hand, if the jets give a lot of trouble, the maintenance troops might work until midnight.
Also on the schedule are the pilots who are on alert, attending ground school, in the simulator flying practice instrument and emergency procedures missions, at the altitude chamber for their annual chamber ride, or who are TDY to the weapons ranges, to Germany as forward air controllers, or back in the States for fighter weapons school.
The schedule is roughed out monthly with range times, takeoff times, and number of sorties. Names are filled in weekly and changed daily, with the next day’s schedule usually posted by 4:00 P.M., so each pilot can check it in time to go home and get some rest if he has to be back by 4:00 A.M. Starting in 1969 (and still in force, except during wartime), pilots were required to have twelve hours off before flying.
Also at work in the scheduling process is the law of supply and demand: if there is to be a workable schedule, a squadron needs so many flight leaders. For instance, if the daily schedule calls for four four-ship flights in the morning, four more in the afternoon, and three more later in the afternoon, that means a total of forty-four sorties (what they called “4 turn 4, turn 3”). Say a pilot can fly twice a day. Then about eleven four-ship flight leaders are needed, plus someone on the duty desk and in the tower. Since some of those forty-four sorties require an IP or check pilot, that means about fifteen flight leaders are actually needed.
There are about thirty pilots available in the squadron, plus a few overhead — the squadron operations officer (he may have an assistant) and the commander (who also has an adjutant, an intelligence officer, and a maintenance officer, who are not rated). However, four of the pilots are on alert; five are attending school in the United States, or are at Wheelus, Libya, for gunnery training, or are attending bomb commanders school; three are on leave; two are on Duties Not Include Flying (DNIF) with colds or sprained ankles from sports; two are processing out to return to the States; three are new pilots who just arrived and are looking for a house; and three more are in Germany on forward air controller duties. That means that twenty-two of the thirty pilots are not available. You can get some help from the five wing staff attached to the squadron for flying, but that still only makes thirteen pilots to fly, with fifteen flight leaders needed… That kind of math went on all the time.
★ The wing commander is the senior commander on the base and has about 3,500 people under him. In the past, the wing commander was a colonel (as were his deputy and his vice
commander), but now he is a brigadier general. Immediately under the wing commander comes the vice wing commander (usually a steady old hand whose job is primarily to help a young up-and-comer who will probably get promoted to general), who fills in when the wing CO is flying, TDY, or otherwise off-base. Under the vice comes the DCO, or deputy commander for operations, who runs the three flying squadrons (and who usually moves up to wing commander); the DCM Maintenance, who is responsible for all the aircraft maintenance (a big job which can make or break the wing; the DCR Resources, who runs supply, finance, and the motor pool; and the base commander, who watches over civil engineers, services, security police, legal, public affairs, and personnel.
Above the base level (at the time Horner was in England) was a three-star numbered Air Force commander (in those days, most Air Force one-and two-stars worked in the Pentagon), then a four-star Air Force Command commander (commanding TAC, SAC, MAC, USAFE, or PACAF), then the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Secretary of Defense, and the President.
The Goldwater-Nichols Law of 1986 changed all of that, at least in terms of operational command, but that was twenty years into the future
LAKENHEATH
In October 1960, after three months at Nellis, Chuck and Mary Jo Horner left for England. Their C-118 transport landed at RAF Mildenhall, and they boarded a bus for Lakenheath just a few miles away.
RAF Lakenheath was in Suffolk, just north of Cambridge, and about two hours’ drive time northeast of London. Originally a World War II base, whose Quonset huts and brick tower looked like sets from Twelve O’Clock High, it had been closed after the war, but been reopened for B-47s, which for a time sat alert with nuclear weapons. There was a problem, though. A dip in the runway too often caused the big bombers to get airborne before they had enough speed to maintain flight. Most of the pilots would relax and let the aircraft settle back on the runway, but a few of them would struggle with the controls and try to fly. The aircraft would stall, fall off on a wing, and wind up a fireball.