Another of my Heroes

 So, still in quite a bit of pain.  A little more than a week before I can get in for an MRI and find out what the.... is going on.  Not much fun.  Just found out that Little J and Wife had a miscarriage on child #2.  So...again, not much fun.  Decided I'd resuscitate a posting from one of the first posts I put up 13 years ago or so.  Through the years, we've discussed one of my heros a few times.  Here's one of those stories.  Unfortunately....

Source

 

 So...Off we go!

We were both assigned to the 435TFTS at Holloman AFB NM. Suffice it to say that even though I was qualified as an "experienced" fighter pilot flying time wise, I learned a lot from Ras during flight briefings and debriefings, and in the air.  Some of the most important things I learned from him were taught in the Squadron Bar. After he PCS’d to Fort Carson for his last assignment in the Air Force as an ALO, I lost touch with him and didn’t reconnect with him until I saw his book “When Thunder Rolled” on Amazon.  Bought it immediately, and started reading.  It was like being in the Bar again; I’d heard most of those stories. A few years ago, I managed to track him down and restablish our friendship.  Unfortunately, he's no longer with us.  As I mentioned last week, Heaven to me would be flying fighters in against and with both He and Vegas. Yes, that would be heaven.

But the post really triggered a memory of one flight he and I had together while at Holloman.

Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) are  exactly what the name implies, at the most basic level, how do you maneuver a fighter so as to kill another fighter and/or avoid being killed yourself.  It’s not just pull on the pole as hard as you can.  It’s using your energy wisely, regaining it when you can, using gravity to enhance the effect.  Most of the Lead In Fighter Training program consisted of BFM rides, and throughout the flying portion of my career, a sizeable portion of my rides were BFM also, whether I was in an Air to Air Squadron or an Air to Ground Squadron.  BFM skills are critical and very perishable. 

BFM rides involved two aircraft, a 1 v 1, and typically there were two types of setups.  In the first setup, one jet takes a position 30 to 45 degrees off the tail of the other and 6000-9000’ away.  In a real world fight, this is a very dangerous position for the person in front to be in.  Once participants are ready, the fight is started with a “Fight’s on” call and maneuvering commences.  The fight typically continues until a kill shot is taken by one or the other fighter, a fighter manages to disengage successfully, the desired learning point has been achieved, or a safety factor is encountered.  (Over G, going through minimum altitude, min fuel etc).

The second type of setup is a neutral setup, typically called a “Butterfly”.  The two jets start in tactical formation about 6-9K’ apart and the flight lead calls for a turn away from each other of 45 degrees.  At some point the flight lead calls for the turn in and both aircraft turn back towards each other for a head on pass.  The flight lead will call fight’s on at some point,  typically immediately prior to the pass so that maneuvering can begin.

This now leads to a decision on the part of both fighter pilots.  Do I want a two circle fight or a one circle fight?  There’s an excellent discussion of this here , but basically, if your turn radius is better than the other jet's, try for a one circle.

 

Back in the day, I used to be able to draw a fight diagram much better.  My apologies.

  If your turn rate is not better than the other, try for a two circle fight because you’ve got more turning room to use.

 

  

I say “try”, because the other guy also gets a vote in the fight. He has to turn in the direction you expect him to otherwise ....  I was about to learn how to make that happen.

So,  There I was………….*  Ras and I were scheduled for a 1 v 1 BFM ride in Beak Charlie, the closest air to air area to Holloman.  Basically Cloudcroft NM was the Western Boundary  Roswell the Eastern and  Ruidoso the Northern.  That proximity meant we’d have maximum gas for fighting.  Typically, when these rides went on the schedule, they were immediately filled by students riding in the back seats, however, this time it was just Ras and I.  (He had told the Duty Officer not to allow any students, you’ll understand why shortly).

Briefing was short and sweet, here’s the frequencies, joker and bingo fuel levels and a discussion of which BFM setup we were going to use (Butterfly).  We had flown together enough as IPs that not much else was needed.  We step to the jets, crank up, formation takeoff and we’re in the area.  A couple of G awareness turns . (The AT-38B was getting old and we needed to “tune” our bodies to what the mandated G limit was, so that we didn’t overstress the aircraft and reduce its lifespan.  Must have worked, this story occurred about 30 years ago, and the airplanes are still flying.)

Everything’s ready to go, a quick fuel check from Ras and he calls for the turn away.  I check 45 away and rollout, snap my head around so as to keep sight of Ras.  Got him, we continue on heading for a bit and he calls turn in.  I’m pulling right on the g-limit, get pointed at him and unload the aircraft to get some speed back.  We’re about a mile out now and I’m planning for a two circle fight, since I’m a little above him, I plan to slice down to the left leading the turn as much as I can.  At that point, Ras calls fight’s on and pulls up and takes a head on gun shot. 

At the time, the safety rules prohibited any gun shots within 45 degrees either side of head on, so I’d never seen a head on shot.  Also, since the guns on most fighters are boresighted with the aircraft, where the gun is pointed is where the aircraft is pointed. If Ras has taken a gunshot, the gun is pointed at me and so is his aircraft.  Ras passes close aboard.  This has left me somewhat startled and there’s a pause before I start to maneuver.  I roll left and start the pull, expecting Ras to have done the same which should put him somewhere above my tail pointed away.  I can’t see him and call blind (another safety thing, if he calls blind also, we knock it off and get altitude separation).  He calls “continue”.  I’m in big trouble, he sees me!  I’m still frantically searching for him looking over my left (down) shoulder, when something catches the corner of my eye.  I crank around to the right, just in time to see Ras swooping down on the back side of his vertical circle. He's gone for a one circle fight, using the vertical and by virtue of being below me and pulling up for the shot, he's lead turned me.  When he got to the top of his loop, he was slow and inverted, so gravity helped him turn much faster.

Fortunately, he’s not in guns range yet, but he’s closing fast.  I break back right and up, trying to force his nose into lag  (pointed behind me), but I’m running out of airspeed and he’s not.  I see his nose slide out in front of me and I start to make out the intakes on the side of his jet (with my eyesight at the time, that was my indication that he was about 2500’ away, AKA guns range.  With my eyesight now, I think he'd be in my back seat before I saw intakes).  I roll the aircraft until the canopy is about 45 degrees below the horizon and plant the stick in my lap.  I’m jinking…Hard.  Roll the aircraft again,  push the stick forward.  Again,  and Again and Again, but Ras is still back !there, he hasn’t called any shots, but I ain’t getting away either.  I’m expecting a knock it off for lesson learned, but no.  I’m jinking for about a month and a half until we get to bingo.  Knock it off and head home.

Back in the debrief,  Ras walks in with a couple of beers, hands one to me and says “Juvat, there are no safety ROE (Rules of Engagement) in combat, and there’s no knock it off”.  Then he took a couple of sips of beer as he let me ponder that.  He then followed with “Best Jinking I’ve ever seen, I never got a shot.  Let’s talk about how you did that, I want to learn how.”

I miss him.

 

If you'd like to read more of his stories (and I highly recommend you do), he published three books before he passed, One in conjunction with Robin Olds, the other two autobiographies about his assignments (yes, Beans, more than one) in South East Asia.  Excellent stories.

 

 Rest in peace, Warrior! Ed, you deserve it!

Peace out, y'all!

• What’s the difference between a fairy tale and a war story?  A fairy tale starts with “Once upon a time” and a war story starts with “So there I was”.  

Pot Pouri with a contest (of sorts)

 Just a short post today, as I've mentioned, we're off to College Station today until Friday to assist MBD and The Rev in prepping their new home for move in.  I believe this week's focus is on painting and refinishing but could be mistaken.

Also, congratulations to The Rev for graduation from the seminary.  He is now OFFICIALLY "The Rev". Call Sign to be italicized because...Well because I said so.

 On a similar note, one of my best friends from working in the school district days is retiring soon.  When I retired, they gave me a pen and pencil set which was, well let's just say "Spesh-ULL" So I decided I'd make her one myself.  I'm using Olive Wood for the Pen and Pencil and Bloodwood for the case.  Why, you may ask? Well, the Olive Wood was harvested from Bethlehem. No, Beans, not Pennsylvania, Israel.  Why Bloodwood? Well you know the other end of that Bethlehem story. Although, proceeding into retirement isn't quite the same reward as ascension into Heaven, it still is a pretty good reward.  

But, I think she'll be thrilled by the gift.  

In any case, I decided I'd better practice a bit and hone my turning skills before I went all in on the actual gift.  But first...

I decided to straighten up my shop.  Took about a week and a couple of bazillion trips to the dump.

But...

One might notice the nearly finished (only one more coat of sealant needed) project in the background.  Mrs. J wanted two and I adhered to her wishes.

Second one's on the left

Now, where was I?  Oh yeah...Shop straightened up, I finished that and started turning the pen blanks.  Once done with that step, I started putting the finish on them.  I decided after watching a boat load of videos to try a CA Glue finish.  I'd done it once before, but got, at different times, both my finger and a polishing rag stuck to the wood be pen.  One was painful to get off, the other was just a finger.

But in the spirit of  "Never Give Up...Never Surrender", I tried again.

One layer on

The 8 coats of CA (6 thin and 2 medium thick) later, I though it looked pretty good, so I continued on and broke out the plastic polish.

Finished Blanks

Now the pen blanks looked really fantastic (IMHO) and I got excited about the project, and learned a very important lesson.  I took the blanks off the mandrel (the axle the pen blanks spin on during turning) and did the final sanding of the ends to remove any excess glue/finish.

Then broke out the pen press and started inserting all the internal parts.  And Voila!

Decided this needed to go to Mrs. J for all the help, guidance and love she's given me all the years.

Also, because I made one pretty big mistake.

I think, but could be mistaken, that Sarge has offered up a large reward to the first commenter who posts the correct answer of what that mistake is.

Anyone?

On a couple of minor notes.  Spring has been extremely windy (Booo!) but decently rainy.

That's in one night.  While 2" isn't much in Sarge or Bean's part of the world, it's a significant percentage of our annual average rainfall.  So...

Thank you, Lord!

So, took the Mom's in my group (Mrs. J and LJW) out to lunch yesterday at a local winery.  Very nice meal.  Good Wine.  Fun Conversation.  At one point, I was asked to go bring something in from the car.  Right next to our parking spot, a group was loading up to go home.  Walking by their car, I noticed an older gentleman standing there as his son was helping his wife into the car.  I also happened to notice that his car had a USAF sticker on the rear as well as an F-4 sticker.  I asked him if he'd been a pilot.  He said yes.  Seems he'd started flying fighters in the P-80 progressed through the F-86 and F-100 and his last flying slot was in the F-4.  I related my flying career and the intersection thereof in the F-4.  We talked for about 20 minutes swapping flying stories til his son said they needed to leave.  He left me with a final story.  Apparently, when the Thunderbirds converted to the F-4, they did it at George.  He served as their IP and when qualified, they invited him to fly along in a few shows. We talked about each of the airplanes he'd flown and he asked about the Eagle.  It was cool to relay stories to someone who could identify with them (for both of us.) It really made my day to meet him.

Went grocery shopping the other day. (Yes, Beans, cooking meals and doing the grocery shopping is my job.  Mrs. J's job is planning large and expensive vacations for her customers.  I'm good with the arrangement especially when the commission check comes in.)  In any case, I was pontificating over what we should have for Mother's Day Eve (we had plans for the actual day) just her and I.  Rounded the Corner in the HEB meat department and found the perfect idea.

Yes, my friends that is a boneless ribeye sliced almost all the way through down the middle leaving it about 1" thick on both sides.  That one was priced at $31.  Went over to the normal steak area in the meat department.  This one was cheaper than two of the same weight bought separately.  Done Deal!  Cooked it on the Barbecue (Charcoal, Tuna, not gas) to what I deamed perfection.  Served it with my "Perfectly Baked Potatoes", a Caprese Salad,  a bottle of Australian Shiraz and it turned into a sweet evening.

So, as I said at the beginning, off to College Station we go, an ample store of Ben-Gay is packed.  We'll be back on Friday and we'll try to check in regularly, but.

Peace Out, Y'all!

Texans

 So, last weekend was kind of a suck-a-roo.  Mrs J and I were recovering from some bug that frankly knocked us on our butts. Consequently, when we got an early morning call from our guests things didn't go swimmingly.  The conversation went like this.

"Hello, this is juvat"

"Juvat, we have a problem!"

"Oh, what is it?"

"You've got mice"

"Yes, we live in the country."

"Well, when we woke up this morning, there was a mouse eating our leftovers from dinner last night."

"A mouse got in the refrigerator?"

"Of course not, the leftovers were on the counter"

Silence.

"And there's mouse poop all over. It's unsanitary and unhealthy"

Silence

"We're going to leave and we want a full refund."

"Fine, and don't let the door or either of the gates hit you in the ass on your way out."

OK, the latter was spoken only in my head.

They left, we went and checked on the place.  Found one small mouse poop in a corner in the kitchen.  BTW for those readers interested in Field Mice Scatology, mouse poop is about the size of a grain of salt.  

Yes, Beans, these folks went on the official juvat "Do not rent to these idiots ever" list.

On a more pleasant note.  Although this picture was taken in February, It was still an accurate picture until a few days ago.

What a difference 1/4" makes.

 Yeah, we finally got a little rain.  Thank you, Lord!

So, a couple of days ago, Chant Brother Cletus commented that the Confederate Air Force (from days of old) AKA the Commemorative Air Force in this more politically correct age, was holding one of its quarterly training sessions.  Evidently, if you're going to fly in an airshow, the gummint would like you to be current on the rules and procedures as well as have practiced recently.  Whoda thunk the gummint might actually do something smart? It happens so rarely nowadays.

Back on Target, juvat!

On Target, Aye, Sarge.

In any case, Saturday evening, the guys went off flying.  My property is 4.5 miles from the Runway.  Close enough to land quickly if needed, but away from the airport and all it's procedures.  Yes, I got buzzed a lot.  Yes, I wish I'd win the lottery so I could buy an Airplane and join them.  Yes, Yes, Yes.

In any case, and just to prove that Cecil B. DeMille I'm not, I videoed them flying by.  Unfortunately, I don't have a quality video camera, merely my cell phone, but for your viewing pleasure.

Oh, this Post's Title?  All the aircraft in the video are AT-6's.  Much like the F-15 is named Eagle, guess what the AT-6's name is.

P.S.  There is a silver lining to Little J and DIL's 15 day, very strict, quarantine on their return to Honk Honk.  Due date is late October.