Wow! Tough audience.
Reminds me of the sign we were supposed to get outside our squadron at the 'Heath: "Check your slack at the door, because none will be offered here!"
1. Guilty as charged on trying to plug my book (at least you found my website :icon_wink). The truth is, I'm advertizing with Google and I just got a report today saying that my ads had shown up on this site. Since I'd never heard of it, I thought I'd take a look. I started off telling a joke, but deleted it when I thought it might be a bit offensive for a first post.
2. The book is a work of fiction and autobiograhical only in the sense that I wrote about what I know. In fact, only the first chapter is about military flying. Most of the rest is about Colombia and drug trafficking. I was certainly not questioning its validity.
3. Yes, I could have Googled to confirm what I already knew. Frankly, what I "knew" 22 years ago, is now pretty distant in my memory. Too many adult beverages, perhaps. Just thought I might strike up a conversation about the raid. Guess that might not have been a good idea.
4. The old "is an F111 pilot a fighter pilot canard." No, the Vark is not reeeally a fighter in most respects... except speed. I've heard that line many times from many Navy guys over the years (not to mention a few AF F15/16 guys). Back in the day, I'd puff up my chest and defend myself. Now, I don't really give a sh*t, the AF put an "F" in front of it so that's good enough for me. And it was a long time ago. I'm certainly no longer one now... retired in '97. Yanking gear on a 73 and laying over in the Caribbean is OK for an old fart like me.
Thanks for the reference to the 20 HARMs for Bengazi, FLYTPAY, I thought they were over by Tripoli too.
Oh well, Troll spray away, if you must!
PS. One thing's for sure, you guys are pretty fast on the replies!
Quick edit: Didn't see the last part of FLYTPAY's post. I claim only to have been at Lakenheath flying F111s. I wasn't on the raid, got there in November of 85. Raid was in April, i was still getting theater indoc and flight lead upgrade. And how they picked the crews (especially when the size of the attack package grew exponentially at the last minute) is a very long story. As was the use of 2000 versus 500 pound GBUs due to "political considerations." as was flying around France and Spain. etc. etc. You got me, WTF is IADS, Integrated Air Defense System?