You’d have to know a pilot, or be a pilot to really understand the camaraderie that exist between them…they trust each other blindly, without question. I have to tell you a little story about Rip that is non-combat related, but gives you a sense of the unity between pilots. My Boss gave a Christmas party at his house, and from there, everyone headed to the big squadron party at a restaurant about 20 minutes out. I asked Rip if I could ride with him…sure he says. Neither of us had directions, so we were following Shlem (who kind of knew where to go, but not really). We got to a point and wasn’t sure of which way to go, Rip and Shlem stop and discuss directions…while they’re discussing, a load (about 6 or 7) of AFI plated vehicles pass us headed for the party. I said ‘I think we should just follow them’…Rip says, "no, I’m following Shlem…he’s not sure, but he thinks it’s this way…I trust my fellow pilot…I’d follow him anywhere." Sure enough, we followed Shlem; got to the party, a few minutes later the load of cars we’d seen headed in the other direction all pulled up. This is just an example of Rip’s dedication and trust he has with his aviator comrades…I can understand why he’s upset about not being able to fly in the war right now. Well, on with his story.
"This is my first time in combat, and I was on my second mission. I got to work and didn’t know that an F117 (The Stealth) had been shot down, and was wondering why the strike package had been canceled. I walked into the mission planning room and saw Digger and Tug and asked them "what are you guys doin’, weren’t you supposed to be on a strike mission"? They replied "yeah, an F117 got shot down and we’re seeing how we can help plan for a SAR." They were on alert status for the rescue. I was really angry and upset and just wanted to do something to help. I was flying with O’Malley and I told him that no matter what, while we’re up there, if they need us to go, no matter where they ask us to go, we’re just gonna go, no matter where. I didn’t know at the time, but the SAR package had already launched.
We were stepping early so we could spend time talking to the crew chief, and the crew chief and everyone were concerned about what we could do to help….the patriotism was immense…just the desire to help was so great…everyone just was wanting to know what we could do to help. I believe any one of us would have done just about anything to help. If they were told to put 10 bombs or ten missiles on the plane, they would’ve done it.
So we take off. As I’m checking in with Magic, I hear a Sandy (A-10) call sign, and these guys must have been bingo –10 and they asked for direct snap to Aviano from Serbia, and Magic didn’t ask any questions, and just gave them a Vector and said "cleared, present position, direct Aviano"….that’s almost unheard of. Then shortly after there was a 4-ship of F16 CJs, and they were checkin’ out and they said "we’re as fragged, minus 1 AGM88" (HARM missile).
The whole night I was flying, I was just thinking about the F117 that had been shot down…I was just so angry…I wanted to know what was going on…what could we do…is there something we could do…where is this guy at? Each time I’d land on a refueling tanker, I’d hook up to the boom and talk to the boomer and crew asking them if they had any info on the 117 pilot…if the pilot had been rescued? None of the tankers I hooked up to that night knew anything…they didn’t even know that we had lost a 117.
Later on the F15s didn’t bring enough planes to replace everyone in the CAP, so we had to keep extra Buzzards in the CAP and I asked to stay just in case they needed help with the rescue mission…I just wanted to be there to help, because I knew we were going to do whatever it took. So I asked Gimp if he wanted to stay a little while longer…and he replied "Why not, I have nothing else better to do," so I asked Glib (the CAP commander) with all things being equal, can we stay? But with fuel level and everything, we got sent back.
When I landed that morning, Gimp had already landed a little while before me, I walked up to the crew van and I shake Gimp’s hand to say ‘good mission and stuff’, and he tells me "Oh, by the way, they rescued the 117 pilot." I didn’t know before, but that’s when I realized that that’s what the Sandys were doing out there, and why the CJs had shot a HARM…they were part of the rescue mission. It was just a good feeling…an awesome feeling when I found out he had been rescued."
