“Wait till you experience this,” D-Right said laughing.
Whatever is about to happen to me, I’m going to remember the rest of my life.
RAWHIDE 46 rear cargo ramp closed shut taxiing to the bow catapults. Several people standing on the deck moved by my window. The Load announced we were taxiing into the cat so get ready, this will happen fast. Within minutes the engines opened full up as the Load screamed,
“GET READY! GET READY! GET READY!” and he put his head down on his chest.
I looked out the window to watch this. Cat shots are a loud BANG followed by a big backward jerk. After the bang, I came out of the seat about a half inch… remember the seats face the tail! Stripping on the deck is a blur. Three seconds later another BANG and RAWHIDE 46 was airborne. Zero to one hundred sixty knots in three hundred seven feet.
I looked over at D-Right screaming as loud as I could,
“I GOTTA DO THAT AGAIN!”
He just laughed at me, a big smile on his face. During the long ride home, we discussed what I had learned, and asked him a lot of questions.
The SAC tanker community knows very little about how the Navy air wings operate.n Jeddah’s big wing of tankers are about to refuel some of the largest carrier strike packages in combat history and very few in SAC’s tanker plan community understood how the Navy does business. We didn’t even speak their language. Hey Joe explained Airwing’s daily flying operations and how they created a daily flying schedule. The carrier had a confidential communications card with their preset radio frequencies on it.n The carrier, called “Mother,” had a TACAN atop the mainmast tankers could navigate off of. Mother’s TACAN channel change periodically so having their Comm Card is important. VF-32 has its own squadron with common radiofrequency to talk to each other. I understood deck cycle time, going from launching aircraft to recovering aircraft, and how it affected refueling operations. Most importantly, Hey Joe explained how the Tomcats and AEGISnCruiser defend the tankers during refueling.
Understanding Airwing’s fuel requirements and what it means to be “on the ladder” was critical to Jeddah’s operations. If you are below a predetermined amount of gas during flight, you are “on the ladder.” Hornets are notorious for being on the fuel ladder. USS Saratoga had two squadrons of Hornet strike fighters Jeddah’s tankers will drag to the Iraqi border. Our job was to keep the Hornets OFF the ladder! The senior AEGIS Cruiser Captain is responsible for Battlegroup air defense, not a commander on the carrier. All air defense assets belong to the senior AEGIS Cruiser Commander to defend the battlegroup. The senior Airwing Commander controls all strike responsibilities including the AEGIS Cruiser’s Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, TLAMs. This Composite Warfare Commander concept is entirely foreign to Air Force operators.
One new idea we are trying with the Navy is the hose multiplier concept. The KA-6Ds launched and joined Air Force tankers early in PRUNE and RAISIN tracks, the long air refueling roads Guard KC-135E Models drag the strike packages toward Baghdad. Hose multiplier works like this; each KA-6D fills up off the KC-135s before the strike packages arrived at PRUNE or RAISIN refueling control points. Once full, KA-6Ds moved to our wings trailing the BuddynStore Drogues as another contact point strike fighters can plug into for fuel.n Hose multiplier KA-6Ds gave KC-135s the ability to refuel two airplanes simultaneously off each tanker, saving massive amounts of time. It was impossible for all twenty-six to thirty-four strike fighters to get their required fuel before reaching the Iraqi border if we don’t use hose multipliers. When a KA-6 said they are on their way to my Iron Maiden, I always gave them as much gas as they wanted. The gas then spread to all the Navy fighters and jammers. KA-6s overflew the recovery cycle in case someone had trouble getting aboard or had an emergency. I do not know who came up with this idea, but it saved our collective refueling plan butts when used in combat.
On Wednesday 19 December my crew was scheduled to refuel the Red Sea air wings.n I wrote Hey Joe’s squadron common frequency on my lineup card, hoping he may be airborne during the sortie. Kevin’s Mom and Dad sent our crew a Christmas package containing four Santa hats and lots of chocolate. Feeling the Christmas spirit, all of us took our new Santa hats on the flight.n We were in a giving mood. Kevin, Rick, and I put the Santa hats on and then our headsets, Kenny’s hat over his headset. The wind was blowing hard out of the north at about thirty knots while taxiing out to the center runway. Taxiing out to the end of the runway, Kenny and I opened our windows at the same time. A thirty-mile-an-hour blast of wind went through the cockpit
“Oh crap!”
Kenny’s Santa hat went out the window in a red flash.
“Just tell me it did not go down the engines!” I looked at the engine instruments to see any hiccups.
Kennynleaned out the open window and saw it blow into the airfield fence.
“It’s on the fence off the taxiway.”
What do I tell the Supervisor about Flying? ”Hey SOF, can you go pick our SANTA HAT out of the airfield fence just off the taxiway to the center runway?”n We discussed what we should tell the Ramp SOF as a crew. Kevin said I wouldn’t tell him anything. It’s in the fence and won’t hurt anybody. Good plan. We closed the windows and took off.
A controller in the AEGIS Cruiser called RED CROWN cleared us into the Battlegroups airspace. RED CROWN passed us off to Strike Control, a radar controller inside Kennedy’s Carrier Information Center, their version of our COYOTE Ops command post. Kenny dialed in Swordsmen Common in Comm Two of our brand-new Rockwell Collins ARC-210 radio. I keyed the mic and said,
“Hey Joe check!”
“Hey Joe here…”
“Sluggo’s flying the tanker!”
“Be there in ten minutes!”
He called back minutes later saying he’s locked us up on the radar.
“Where are you, Hey Joe?”
“On your nose for three miles.”
I started looking for him out in front of us. I didn’t see him…
“Hey Joe, where are you again?”
“Look up!”
Peering up through the eyebrow windows, two Tomcats roll inverted on their backs and pull as hard as they can toward the Boom.
“Boom, Pilot, here they come!”
“Looking for them…”
“OH JESUS!”
Hey Joe in Gypsy 200, the Airwing Commander’s brightly painted billboard jet, and his wingman in Gypsy 201, the Squadron Commander’s billboard jet, leveled off behind the Drogue.
“How much can you give us, Sluggo?”
“How much do you want?”
“Can you give us each 10K?”
“If I can get some good pictures of you off the wing afterward, I’ll top you both off.”
“Deal!”
Gypsy 200 and 201 own the bar. After getting his gas Gypsy 201 moved down to the Drogue. Hey, Joe parked out my window, camera up to his face. He’s pointing at us, laughing. Hey, Joe’s pilot Dawg moved high and close to my window. Both point down at me.
They see the Santa Hat.
Gypsyn201 joined on Hey Joe’s left side after getting his 10,000 pounds. Both Tomcats just sat there motionless in perfect fingertip formation. Hey Joensnapped several pictures and stuffed his camera down beside him. Then I heard Dawg’s voice on the radio,
“Gypsies… Burners… NOW!”
The engine exhaust nozzle opened wide. Long tongues of orange flame grew longer and longer as each stage of the afterburner ignited. Gypsy flight lurched forward and upward gaining speed. Hey, Joe called Strike passing 32,000 feet.n He left us at 21,000.
My crew in EXXON 55 stayed airborne for two more hours refueling whoever came up.n Strike Control took us up to one of the MiG CAP stations near the Gulf of Aqabah. A-6Es, A-7Es, EA-6Bs, and F-18s of the Saratoga plugged into us.n At one point we could see Mount Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments. The wind was blowing hard for landing back at Jeddah but straight down the runway. After stopping by Tanker Ops to drop off all our gear, we hopped a bus for the compound. Our kitchen table was piled high with packages of candy and Christmas chocolate. Laying on one of the kitchen chairs… is Kenny’s Santa hat. Four KC-135 Life Support airmen shared our apartment. Driving across the ramp Life Support saw a red object in the airfield fence. Stopping to pick it out of the fence, they realized it was a Santa Hat. They see Kenny’s name inside. Arriving back at our apartment, they laid it on the chair so we would see it walking in from our flight.
D-Right meets me in the hall after Hey Joe’s mission… “Come with me Captain…” Big ATO changes came from Black Hole… 3/4s of our first three days of ATO missions changed… I came in at 1500 Wednesday to fly and go home Thursday morning at 0600 after working ATO changes all night.)
Missions increased in intensity through Christmas. Massive C-5 and C-141 transport planes took gas on a track just north of Jeddah over the Red Sea, delivering additional forces to the Gulf Region. Galaxys and Starlifters took 60,000 to 80,000 pounds of fuel, dropped below us turned left at Wejh, and joined an airway across Saudi Arabia tonGassim. Special Envoy James Baker met with Saddam’s closest advisor Tariq Aziz in Geneva on 9 January hopefully to find a possible diplomatic solution to the conflict. After seven hours of discussions, the meeting broke up. James Baker told Minister Aziz the coalition had a numerical and technical advantage over Iraqi forces. Aziz did not seem too impressed until Baker told him if Saddam uses weapons of mass destruction the US would use all weapons in its arsenal. Azziz knew Secretary Baker meant nukes. Meetings ended without a solution.
11 January D-Right found me in the hall. “Come with me Captain.”
Walking into our secret vault, he spun the safe’s dial. Handing me a piece of paper from a folder marked TOP SECRET on an orange cover sheet, D-Right said one word to me, read. Only the top quarter of the page is written on. It said,
FROM: USCENTAF/CC
TO: All Units
SUBJECT: Operation Desert Storm
MSG: Implement Wolfpack. D-Day is 17 January 1991, H-Hour is 0000Z or 0300 local Baghdad time. Good luck and good hunting. Horner
Wolfpack, the code name for the first three air campaign ATO days, commences at 3 am Thursday morning Baghdad time, 17 January 1991. Three days later the 1709th’s Deputy Commander for Operations, Colonel Buster Dell, selected our crew for one of the most important missions of opening night, refueling the first F-4G Wild Weasel package into Baghdad. Lack of Wild Weasel support is a NO-GO item, only the Stealth Fighters, and cruise missiles are allowed into Iraq without Wild Weasel support. Kevin talked with John Boy, the Wild Weasel Package Commander twice on a secure phone. Three nights prior to opening, large groups of fighters and tankers raced north on PRUNE, RAISIN, LIME PRE, and OLIVE PRE toward Iraq, turning around short of the border. Horner conditioned Saddam’s radar operators to see big formations coming toward them and turn around; they’re not coming tonight but excuse me while I go change my laundry.
A message at the compound late Wednesday afternoon 16 January said my crew’s report time was 2200, the time to Implement Wolfpack. B-52s left the States earlier today for cruise missile launch boxes in the Red Sea, and then on to secondary targets destroying Iraqi airfields. Black Jets drop their bombs on Air Operations Centers controlling Saddam’s defenses at 0300. A telephone exchange building nicknamed “The AT&T Building” in downtown Baghdad is the next Black Jet target, cutting off communications throughout Iraq. When John Boy’s Weasels appeared out from under my jet, I turned TUNA 64 Flight south for Jeddah. None of them said a word seeing the next wave of aircraft pass on our left at 840 miles an hour of closure. On this moonless night, hundreds of red rotating beacons go by quickly out Kenny’s window heading north. After landing, one of Vonnie’s Crew Chiefs placed a cardboard stencil of Aladin’s Lamp above the entry door. A red JennienLamp spray painted on the side of Rolling Thunder symbolized my crew is not part of the expected ten percent losses, we are alive after our first combat mission. About an hour after arriving back at our apartment, Rick said I had a phone call. It was my Dad. I wanted to tell him everything but can’t for security reasons. I emphasized to him we were really busy and really tired during our thirty minutes phone call.
Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit is available to order here.
Photo by LCDR Dave Parsons / U.S. Navy and Mark Hasara / U.S. Air Force
