With all of the improvements in aircraft systems and procedural safety, it’s still a damn risky business.
My dad told me a story one time in an answer to my question, “Did you ever feel like you that you came close to making us fatherless?”
This was from a guy whom had spent a year over Laos and another going to Hanoi.
He paused and then spoke matter-of-factly, “There was a time in the Voodoo at the range in England that I came within a second or two of doing that. We had a range that was near the coast. After I made my last gun pass, I rolled inverted and went afterburner over the range tower. The tower was near the water and I had thought many times about how cool it would be to buzz the tower inverted as I fly off out to sea. That day was overcast and after my pass, went over the water, and suddenly realized that due to the ocean and sky having roughly the same shade of gray, that I was completely disoriented. At the speed that I was traveling, I knew that I must be near the water. My gut was to pull, but at the last second I pushed hard hoping that I was still inverted. I was, and when I looked over my shoulder, could see where my jet blast had disturbed the water. Scared the crap out of me.”
Really? Your screen name is JediMaster. Figured you knew about going from the dark side of the force…
Actually, with the demise of the EB-111 the USAF doesn’t have electronic warfare aircraft. The Navy was filling in with Prowlers for a while. Now with the Growlers I think they have some kind of joint squadron…like a Zeedonk…but different…
No he didn’t. The USAF has some claims on the growler for EWAR purposes. Here is his own explanatation from a few years back when he was asked about the swap (and if he was going to the boat).
