Soddim
If this is authentic let it be a lesson to all who have the opportunity to impress an ab initio as a passenger in a high performance aircraft. The sortie is theirs - for their benefit, not an opportunity to show off or to look big. I have met many people who received less than they deserved in their trip of a lifetime and each time I concluded what a selfish pilot they must have flown with.
It sounds like a normal Combat training sortie to me, bit of fighting , bit of low level, bit of range work. What exactly are you objecting to?? The sortie sounds straightforward, are you getting caught up by the journos prose?? Can you really rely on the Journos expertise?? Not a move in the description of the flight I wouldn't expect in a normal sortie of this type. Bye the way the sortie is not for THEIR benifit. They (the lucky ones) are permitted to ride in the back of a training sortie, which is solely for the training benifit of the pilot. It will come out of his training hours at the end of the month, simple.