Stroke 4 is hit....SAMs 2, USAF 0

[HeyJoe]

Captivating HUD video from USAF F-16 cockpit circa Desert Storm in which 2 F-16s get bagged by SAMs

 

[BACONATOR]

Repost. Crazy video though.

 

[Catmando]

Having heard a number of tapes of actual SAM evasions, I have concluded this:

Air Force voices are normally one octave higher in these situations than Navy (and maybe Marine too) voices.

In fact, one of the AF voices near the end of this vid was incredibly about 2 octaves higher than I have ever heard from a Navy pilot!

Therefore, if you would want to construct a military 'Vienna Boy's Choir', you could have Navy and Marine pilots rightly singing Bass and Baritone. Then have the high-octave voiced AF F-16 drivers quibble over who sings Alto and Soprano.

But I do think that last squeakily scared F-16 pilot near the end surely gets to be the Soprano.

 

[Pugs]

Captivating HUD video from USAF F-16 cockpit circa Desert Storm in which 2 F-16s get bagged by SAMs

I remember this. It was a strike that went forward even though their EF-111 escort went down in the chocks. Lesson learned: A few smart electrons makes a difference and your EW cover is a go / no go criteria.

 

[HeyJoe]

I met one of the guys a couple of years later who had been hit and spent some time "in jail" and he was wasn't too enthused with the USAF "doctrine" of letting the "patch wearers" plan their strikes and dictate their tactics from afar, which led to flying the formation straight and level over SA-3 sites because they believed they were invulnerable. Saw another video where the SA-3s were whizzing through their formation and nobody was maneuvering because "patch wearers" told them the EF-111 jamming and their own pods would protect them...kinda like Vietnam all over . We planned every detail of our own strikes and the lead planner was the strike lead who actually flew and led the mission so we avoided the known SAM envelopes whenever possible and brought serious SEAD along when they couldn't be avoided (like in target area)...and I never heard voices like that from a Navy aircraft and I saw plenty of SAMs.

 

[Swanee]

2 Guys in this strike got hit, punched out and became POWs, both from the same squadron. It was the first daylight raid over Baghdad. Tapes are from the 617th Wing king's viper (a vet of both Korea and Vietnam).

I'm sure anyone's voice would be pretty high if they you were told that you would be invincible, then had to evade a half dozen or more SAMs in a short period of time.

Another note is that one guy in this strike came back only to find his chaff/flare bucket full. They never fired off.


There is a lot of info out there on this raid, package Q. more info at www.lucky-devils.net

 

[HeyJoe]

Tapes are from the 617th Wing king's viper (a vet of both Korea and Vietnam).

A vet of Korea? and Vietnam? Vietnam maybe, our Wing Commander flew in Vietnam as an 0-2, but Korean conflict was in early 50s, which would make him a 40+ year guy...highly unlikely.

Regardless, nice link! "Tico" was my counterpart at ACC (in AAM world) afterwards and got to know him and his story fairly well. Last heard, he was a LtCol and had his own F-16 squadron in PR.

 

[Rasczak]

What a rush....

 

[MKopack]

Hi, thanks for interest in the "Package Q" mission, which took place on the 19th of January 1991. It was the first daylight raid on Baghdad (don't let anyone tell you that only the Stealths went downtown) and the largest single strike package of the war, with 72 F-16's in addition to the supporting aircraft. The video that you are seeing is from "ET's" aircraft as he avoids at least five SAMs that directed to and guiding on his aircraft - without functional chaff.

From "The Call" at Lucky-Devils.net:

Soon it was time to take a break from the planning and head out to EOR to prepare for our decon inspections on the returning aircraft. We loaded up 'Decon 1' and headed out down the ramp and across the hard-packed sand to the end of the runway. I put my chem suit on, keeping an eye to the sky looking for the jets, listening to the brick to hear if the MOC had an ETA, but the net was quiet, probably more quiet than normal thinking back. Soon the first aircraft appeared, with no overhead break, they were coming straight in. I counted each aircraft as I'd gotten into the habit of always doing and was several into my count when I noticed something odd "What's that under the wings?" it took another couple of aircraft before someone answered, "They've all blown their wingtanks, that's the mounts..."

From that moment I had a bad feeling about it and as I continued to count the last aircraft touched down "They're not all here. There are two missing." The bad feeling had gotten worse. I'd hoped that two had needed to stop in Saudi or Bahrain for fuel, but inside somehow I knew that it wasn't the case. As we waited for the aircraft to backtaxi to our position, they cut back across the runway, skipping our inspection, and were headed straight back to the ramp. "Everybody in the truck, let's go. Now."

I had the decon deuce-and-a-half flying on the way back to the ramp and we arrived just as engines were shutting down where we heard the news that the two were down over Iraq. A lot of unrecorded records were set in the next few minutes as the aircraft were ICT (combat turned with simultaneous rearm and refuel)(the QA guys were told to stay in the hangar because they didn't want to see what was going on) just in case our guys could get back up there to help in the search. In the end, because of the distance and the fact that more capable aircraft were already tasked and overhead they didn't go.

Still pretty much in shock, four or five of us walked up to our Wing Commander, Col. ‘Jed’ Nelson, as he walked out of debrief and although I’m sure that he had a hundred more important things to do, he patiently explained what had happened. Mike 'Mr.' Roberts, whose son would be born in the next few weeks, went down over Baghdad and was feared lost and Jeff 'Tico' Tice was down in the desert between Baghdad and the Saudi border.

Within an hour we'd seen the HUD tapes taken during the mission. Mr. took a SAM amidships, his aircraft, 87-0228, just exploded. It didn't look as though anyone could have survived, but Col. Nelson said that he thought he'd seen the canopy come off as the wreckage descended, the first step of the ejection process, so there was at least a sliver, if only a sliver, of hope. Tico's aircraft, 87-0257, took a proximity hit and was sprayed with shrapnel. He struggled with the dying aircraft as far as it could take him, roughly halfway back to the Saudi border, when he was forced to make a controlled ejection. We felt pretty confident that if he could get hunkered down until dark there was a good chance that we'd get him back. We watched as 'ET' Tullia dodged at least 5 SAM's guiding on his aircraft with no operational chaff/flare, in the best example of defensive flying that I have ever seen.

While growing up, my heroes weren't baseball players or sports stars; they were people with names like Luke, Bader, Malan, Stanford-Tuck, Gabreski, Zemke, Olds and Ritchie. I'd read about losses and sacrifice, but now I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut. It was a long walk back to Tent City that night. I sat in the chow hall, just looking at my dinner, while at the table across from me sat Bill Hinchey, the crew chief who had launched out Tico, sitting alone. I felt as bad as he looked, and knowing Bill, I know that he felt much worse.

http://www.lucky-devils.net/257dave2ss.jpg

This photo is likely the last taken of Tico's 87-0257, pulling into EOR on the 19th of January. Hours later this aircraft was lost to a SAM during the largest strike package of the Gulf War. (Photo by Dave Merriman, 401AGS A Shop Avionics, EOR RAW Check)


For more on 'Package Q' (and possibly a little better quality video) please visit us at http://www.lucky-devils.net

Mike Kopack
Lucky Devils Phased Maintenance / Decon
Torrejon AB / Doha, Qatar

 

[TheBubba]

Mike,

Thanks for the background and link.

 

[Catmando]

I'm sure anyone's voice would be pretty high if they you were told that you would be invincible, then had to evade a half dozen or more SAMs in a short period of time.

Not necessarily.

It is both interesting and instructive to listen to that F-16 audio - especially the tones of voice and information relayed - and then compare it to the audio of an Air Force Wild Weasel mission that MIDNJAC posted here some months ago.

The Wild Weasel audio includes a MiG engagement, heavy AAA and SAM launches, and a shoot-down and SAR. But despite all that, their voices are very matter-of-fact, just like another day at the office. They sounded like they had been there before – which obviously, they had. Experience is the best teacher.

Radio discipline in combat is essential. While it is easy to become overly excited, it is clear, concise and informative transmissions that are absolutely necessary for mission success. The quality of those transmissions can often be measured by the pitch of the voice.

With the repetitive experience of multiple missions in extremely high and multiple threat environments, transmission voices drop an octave, better information is relayed, and better radio discipline is maintained - as can be heard with these guys (even if they are AF ) here:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wild_Weasel_mission_5_November_1967