‘I assured him that I know his official green Chevy pickup very well and would certainly avoid him,’ David Storm, USAF F-4 Phantom II pilot
The F-4 Phantom II was first developed by McDonnell in 1958 for the US Navy as a defensive “top cover” for the fleet. Nevertheless, the F-4 was later used by the Air Force, Marines, and fifteen other countries worldwide. It served as a target drone, an air defense suppression platform, an interceptor, a fighter, a bomber, a close-support attack aircraft, and a reconnaissance aircraft. Four air forces are still using the Phantom as of 2022, 64 years after the first F-4 took to the skies.
Pilots of the F-4 were taught to fly the Phantom II at a very low level before it was deployed as a fighter bomber. Former USAF F-4 Phantom II pilot David Storm stated:
‘In the late ’70’s, I was in Stan/Eval (Flight Evaluation) in the F-4 wing at Nellis. When giving crews their Tactical Flight Eval, they would plan a low-level mission to the range. I would take off early and hide out in the mountains and desert and try to attack them to check their visual lookout.
‘As happens with any fighter, they occasionally were late or had to abort which left poor me with an F-4 full of gas and 3/4 of the state of Nevada to play. It was a good chance to practice ridge crossings, “ultra” low-level flying, and such. There were wild horses to chase and an occasional RV to avoid. One day, doing a “snake check” down a jeep trail as low as I could go, I came over a little rise and was eyeball to eyeball with a pickup truck. 6-G pullup, and hope he made it home with clean underwear!
‘Second half of the story – I came home one day and my neighbor was outside to meet me. He was the State Brand Inspector for Nevada – yes, they had one. Most of his duties were up on the BLM land / Nellis ranges, investigating cattle rustling. He accused me of running him off the road in my F-4, which happened quite often to him.’
Storm concludes;
‘I assured him that I know his official green Chevy pickup very well and would certainly avoid him.’
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