I. M. Esperto
10th Feb 2002, 19:05
I got this from a friend:. .Fun over Afghanistan Some of the fun experienced by one of our Hornet . .pilots....
Thought y'all might get a kick out of a recent experience of mine. I'll . .chop this for a Navy Approach article. Thinking the bits about the hot . .air force chicks is probably gonna have to come out. I'll leave in all . .the trash talkin' though.
In case anyone asks, flying around in an F18 without a canopy is bad for . .the skin. Twenty thousand feet over Afghanistan in an open air . .McDonnell Douglas Cabriolet is just a bad bad place. Air's real dry up . .there, cause the skin to dry out. That and the wind chill of course.
0130 launch. Fifth and final planned tanker rendezvous. (25K MSL . .guessing 280-285 knots.) Had 13.0 onboard but wanted to run my wingman . .back through because he only had 10.0 or so with an hour and a half to . .recovery. Sun was not up (0600) but it was bright enough. My gogles . .and goggle bracket were both stowed. Tanker had finished consolodating . .a half hour before and had four recievers (including myself) immediately . .afterwards. I was the fifth guy to tank. The boom operator recycled . .the hose between me and number four (dash two of the oncoming marine . .section).
The boom operator called "clear" before I tanked. Tanking appeared . .normal to me. Air was smooth. Hose cut lose and I pulled the power . .back and picked up the nose. Refueling probe did not feel too much . .stress based on vibrations I felt in the cockpit. Part of the hose had . .seperated about seven feet up from the basket.
KC10 take-up reel on the refueling hose didn't do it's job. Didn't take . .up. After some wailing and flailing The KC10 and I disconnected but I . .still had part of it with me. The basket and seven feet of hose. The . .hose had a ten pound fitting on it that was quickly revealed when the . .wind stripped off the rubber sheath from the hose. Once revealed it . .proceeded to beating the living **** out of my airplane. "This is gonna . .be bad, this is gonna be real bad," I thought. I was right. After . .twenty sufficiently violent whacks the canopy gave up the ghost. I . .never thought about what a shattering canopy would sound like. Up until . .then of course. . .I figured since it's made of plastic it shouldn't sound like glass. . .Wrong! Sounded just like when you go flying through a plate glass . .window. Of course all the glass went out vice in. Cockpit pressure . .went from eight grand to ambient in about a heartbeat. Which was a . .pretty small unit of time right then.
Don't know exactly where the KC10 went. Last I saw him he was turning . .for the south west, spewing gas in the air and spewing words over the . .radio. "Bossman" had no time for little 'ole me. One of his Air Force . .brethren was experience discomfort. Had to yell at him to get his . .attention to tell him I was no longer there.
At first (before I put the top down) I thought I could make it home. . ."Okay, it's 650 away, I got 13.5....probably have to go pretty slow and . .kinda low. And that ****ing hunk o' **** on my nose can't be doing much . .for my gas mileage. This should warrant a ready deck. Yeah one or two . .passes before they have to barricade me. And I ain't boltered yet . .so..."
Descended about three thousand feet and decelerated to about 260 by the . .time the canopy blew. Then the glass shattered.
"Okay, Jacobabad it is. My boarding rate at a 10,000 foot airstrip is . .even better." Went down to about nineteen K and put out the . .speedbrake. Fitting was still beating up the jet while passing through . .240 knots. At about 230 the beatings stopped and I started down, . .maintaining airspeed. Flight controls and engines appeared fine. Ball . .was a little out of center but that was it. Didin't have to turn to put . .JBAD on the nose. It was straight ahead.
Nav system told me it was 260 NM away. My body told me it was pretty . .damn cold up there. The KC10 remains were still trying to get at my . .head so I started descending and decelerating (opposing states so I'm . .not sure I did either one that efficiently). Leveled off at twelve . .thousand. I stopped getting beat up, the fitting just hung in the . .slipstream by my canopy bow, at 230 knots. So there I was...Eight . .thousand feet above Afghanistan at 230 knots. "You know, If a guy . .really wanted to get shot by a MANPAD he'd fly a profile alot like what . .I'm doing right now." Oh well. It's at times like this when you just . .make a decision and go with it. If you pull it off then it was, . ."...outstanding airmanship and in keeping with the highest tradition of . .the United States Naval Service..." If you don't pull it off, if you get . .bagged, well...maybe they'll name a safety award or the new Base Gym . .after you.
Managed to grab the **** bag that was flying around the cockpit and . .stuff it in my helmet bag. While stuffing other things away the . .Inflight Pac was ripped out of my hands. It went over the side in a . .flash. "Scotty's gonna hate that." Inlet temp read 3. Buffeting . .while hunkered down behind the glareshield wasn't that bad.
My wingman was still with me through all this. Because of some late . .tankers and shuffling to get guys that were using our tanker to go . .further north he only had 10K in gas so he definitely wasn't gonna make . .it back. Well, not definitely, he could still tank after all. But . .because of how I had to sit in the cockpit to minimize the wind blast I . .needed him to watch over me. I was pretty much hunkered down for the . .ride at this point.
Seat lowered, visor down, cockpit heat up full and hunched over staring . .at one of the TV screens in the cockpit. It's weird the thoughts that . .come to you during times like this. "You know sitting this close to the . .screen is bad for my eyes." Had to snicker over that one. I could look . .right and left and see the Afghanistan and then the Pakistan scenery . .slowly drifting by. Too slowly. On the descent the airplane's computer . .was displaying how long it would take me to get to the divert given my . .decelerating airspeed. "Okay, 20 minutes not bad I can do that no . .pro...oh thirty minutes now. Okay piece of cake... Forty!? **** ." . .Settled out at forty eight. In the end I didn't really look outside . .much. Just peeked over the dashboard every couple of minutes to make . .sure the velocity vector was on top of the upcoming ridgelines. This . .part of the world is not pretty by the way.
Once everyone realised the seriousness of the situation they started to . .talk to me. The AWACS switched me over to the E2 in charge of the . .south. They started relaying stuff I needed to tell the boat. The . .parts the jet would need in order to make a flight back out again. The . .fact that my wingman was going to make the 0900 recovery vice the 0730, . .stuff like that. "The boat wants to know how badly the canopy is . .cracked." I couldn't believe that one. I thought he would have heard . .all the wind in the cockpit and known. "It's not cracked, it's gone. . .I'm flying a convertible." Apparently that line made it through all the . .nets loud and clear. The next day I was talking with the CSAR guys in . .Jbad and they said they got spun up when the read that on chat. (It's . .all real time chat nowadays.) What did not get through was the driver of . .the convertible. I know the E2 guy knew who I was (the conversation by . .the end had degenerated to callsigns. Gretzky and Duck. Not . .professional but somewhat comforting) but somehow the ship was waiting . .for me to return at . .0900 vice my wingman. All this technology...
As far as the cockpit was concerned there were two different and . .distinct regions. From my knees down I was toasty and warm. "This . .little piggy" was getting sweaty in fact. Then the chilly zone above . .that. The wind was swirling around pretty good and I was trying to grab . .all the paper and shove it into my helmet bag. Only lost one bit of . .classified stuff. Not too bad all things considered. After twenty . .minutes I started getting the shakes; after thirty they were fully . .developed. I tried to stuff my whole body down by the rudder pedals . .with limited success. Kept my hands warm though. Thank God for auto . .pilot.
About this time my wingman came up and said, "Hey can you reach out and . .grab that thing, pull it in?" I looked over at him (not that he could . .see me) with a look of shock. Stick my arm out into that wind, get my . .arm blasted back and thrashed on the glass shards sticking up . .everywhere? "Have you lost your mind?!" "Oh yeah, guess it's kinda . .windy. Sorry." Like I said, it's strange the thoughts you have . .sometime.
My wingman and I talked about the airfield. Frequencies, layout, the . .fact that the locals like to shoot at planes landing there. You know, . .just normal airport talk. We talked about landing on a runway, . .something neither of us had done for three months. And we dumped fuel . .to lighten the load. We both were carrying two thousand pounds of . .unexpended ordnance so the Air Force guys were gonna love us. Lastly we . .dropped the landing gear in close formation and compared airspeed and . .AOA to make sure the KC10 hadn't damaged my AOA and airspeed probes as . .well. I had him land first because I thought the hose might drag on the . .ground and get rolled up on by the nose wheel. After that who knew what . .would happen.
Dumped down to 3.0 each. Airspeed and AOA checked accomplished at 170 . .and 150 knots. Appeared fine. Approach was initated from 5k AGL when . .the threshold was ten degrees down. Started to slow the descent at . .about five hundred feet. Landed on speed at the nine board. Don't . .remember seeing a VASI or anything. Airfield diagram on approach plate . .doesn't show any landing aids.
The plane flew fine with all that junk on it. Just had to use the . .rudder pedals, which is kind of an emergency procedure for a Hornet . .pilot. When I slowed to on speed I got the "sunroof effect" pretty . .bad. You know when you're zorching down the road and you open the . .sunroof but leave all the other windows up? That vibration you get . .until you crack another window? Well I got kind of an advanced case of . .that during my Space Shuttle descent to final. We both rolled out . .fine. Well maybe not fine. We had to use all ten thousand feet and . .both had smoking brakes. (Our brakes hadn't been used like that in . .awhile. On the boat the wire brings you to a gentle stop without them, . .of course.) The emergency crews were waiting for us. And they were . .pointing and gawking as would be appropriate for a situation such as . .this. Couple natives looked on in a disinterested matter.
Of course I had to do a flight physical after all this. Had to make . .sure I wasn't on drugs before I launched on my six hour mission into . .Afghanistan. The facilities in Jacobabad ain't that bad. I'm here to . .tell you we are number one in tent technology. Our tents kick ass. . .They got AC and everything. Since it's an Air Force base they got all . .the best entertainment. Drew Carry and Joan Jett had been there . .already. Shania Twain was supposedly coming too (broke my heart, if . .only I'd had better timing...). And of course the Toga Party on . .Saturday. Can't forget that. Yeah, it's kinda like the boat. Except . .for the booze and the Toga Parties. Other than that it's just like the . .boat. Other random observations: Air Force got all the good . .buildings. Marines are on the outskirts, again. The boys from the 101st . .are spoiling for a fight. Hate coming in behind the Marines all the . .time. Dust over everything. Lots of people there that don't look like . .they are in the normal military. . .I don't care what any psychology major would say about it, it's just . .cool carrying a gun everywhere. MREs are not too bad. Could see how . .people would get sick of them though. Tent city was a little slice of . .American suburbia right in rural Pakistan.
Only Air Force base I've ever been on that didn't have any hot chicks. . .Of course I was only there for 24 hours. The place is a FOD nightmare.
The maintainers showed up about four hours after I did. After the . .appropriate amount of gawking they got to work and fixed it well enough . .for the RTB in under four hours. Nice job all around. By the end the . .basket and hose were removed, the canopy had been replaced and the LEX . .repaired with 300 mile an hour tape. ("Americans. Can Do Easy.") . .Three of the guys showed up and then disappeared with two big boxes of . .geedunk. They were on a booze hunt. They succeeded. The Air Force . .settled all the maintainers into two spare tents and they had a grand . .'ole time.
The next morning I took off low and fast at sunrise. Low and fast was . .due to the locals and the guns, of course. Not because it was fun. I . .checked in and the E2 said, "It's good to hear your voice again." The . .RTB was uneventful right up until the end. A PTS shaft died and . .subsequently one of my Hydraulic systems gave up the ghost when I . .dropped the gear. I got a couple of spurious flight control cautions . .but didn't really give it much thought as I was working the landing. As . .I started the approach turn the nose started to wander and I got another . .caution tone. I lost one aileron, one rudder and half a horizontal . .stab. I hit the reset button and I think everything cleared. Then I . .saw the Hydraulic Cautions come up. Hitting the reset button suddenly . .went from normal response on short final to a big mistake. When the . .aileron failed again I realized I sorta needed to get aboard the first . .time. "Man, first I miss Shania and now this. This is just not my . .week." I got it aboard because the Hornet is a fantastic jet. I got a . .Fair grade for the pass because I'm not very smooth when I'm rattled.
I pretty much assumed I was in trouble throughout all this. A canopy . .has got to cost 70 or 80 grand. Depending on how much repairing the . .windscreen and the airframe were...it could cost over 200 grand. Which . .would mean a Class B mishap. Which would mean I was screwed. Again. . .Thinking all this and then seeing the CO waiting for me when I landed . .made my heart sink. But that was not the reason he was there. The . .decision was made somewhere to make a big deal about this in a good . .way. Just like that...dirtbag to hero. Funny. Turned over bodily . .fluids to VFA-147 Safety Officer.
This isn't the first thing that's happened to me out here you know. . .We're flying the **** out of these jets and it's starting to show. I . .had to come back from the box with an engine shut down a week or two . .before. I'm starting to feel like that LT that keeps getting hosed in . ."The Bridges of Toko Ri." I got my letter in after all. I'm getting too . .short for this **** . Oh well, statistically speaking the rest of cruise . .should be smooth sailing. What are the odds something like this will . .happen again?
Thought y'all might get a kick out of a recent experience of mine. I'll . .chop this for a Navy Approach article. Thinking the bits about the hot . .air force chicks is probably gonna have to come out. I'll leave in all . .the trash talkin' though.
In case anyone asks, flying around in an F18 without a canopy is bad for . .the skin. Twenty thousand feet over Afghanistan in an open air . .McDonnell Douglas Cabriolet is just a bad bad place. Air's real dry up . .there, cause the skin to dry out. That and the wind chill of course.
0130 launch. Fifth and final planned tanker rendezvous. (25K MSL . .guessing 280-285 knots.) Had 13.0 onboard but wanted to run my wingman . .back through because he only had 10.0 or so with an hour and a half to . .recovery. Sun was not up (0600) but it was bright enough. My gogles . .and goggle bracket were both stowed. Tanker had finished consolodating . .a half hour before and had four recievers (including myself) immediately . .afterwards. I was the fifth guy to tank. The boom operator recycled . .the hose between me and number four (dash two of the oncoming marine . .section).
The boom operator called "clear" before I tanked. Tanking appeared . .normal to me. Air was smooth. Hose cut lose and I pulled the power . .back and picked up the nose. Refueling probe did not feel too much . .stress based on vibrations I felt in the cockpit. Part of the hose had . .seperated about seven feet up from the basket.
KC10 take-up reel on the refueling hose didn't do it's job. Didn't take . .up. After some wailing and flailing The KC10 and I disconnected but I . .still had part of it with me. The basket and seven feet of hose. The . .hose had a ten pound fitting on it that was quickly revealed when the . .wind stripped off the rubber sheath from the hose. Once revealed it . .proceeded to beating the living **** out of my airplane. "This is gonna . .be bad, this is gonna be real bad," I thought. I was right. After . .twenty sufficiently violent whacks the canopy gave up the ghost. I . .never thought about what a shattering canopy would sound like. Up until . .then of course. . .I figured since it's made of plastic it shouldn't sound like glass. . .Wrong! Sounded just like when you go flying through a plate glass . .window. Of course all the glass went out vice in. Cockpit pressure . .went from eight grand to ambient in about a heartbeat. Which was a . .pretty small unit of time right then.
Don't know exactly where the KC10 went. Last I saw him he was turning . .for the south west, spewing gas in the air and spewing words over the . .radio. "Bossman" had no time for little 'ole me. One of his Air Force . .brethren was experience discomfort. Had to yell at him to get his . .attention to tell him I was no longer there.
At first (before I put the top down) I thought I could make it home. . ."Okay, it's 650 away, I got 13.5....probably have to go pretty slow and . .kinda low. And that ****ing hunk o' **** on my nose can't be doing much . .for my gas mileage. This should warrant a ready deck. Yeah one or two . .passes before they have to barricade me. And I ain't boltered yet . .so..."
Descended about three thousand feet and decelerated to about 260 by the . .time the canopy blew. Then the glass shattered.
"Okay, Jacobabad it is. My boarding rate at a 10,000 foot airstrip is . .even better." Went down to about nineteen K and put out the . .speedbrake. Fitting was still beating up the jet while passing through . .240 knots. At about 230 the beatings stopped and I started down, . .maintaining airspeed. Flight controls and engines appeared fine. Ball . .was a little out of center but that was it. Didin't have to turn to put . .JBAD on the nose. It was straight ahead.
Nav system told me it was 260 NM away. My body told me it was pretty . .damn cold up there. The KC10 remains were still trying to get at my . .head so I started descending and decelerating (opposing states so I'm . .not sure I did either one that efficiently). Leveled off at twelve . .thousand. I stopped getting beat up, the fitting just hung in the . .slipstream by my canopy bow, at 230 knots. So there I was...Eight . .thousand feet above Afghanistan at 230 knots. "You know, If a guy . .really wanted to get shot by a MANPAD he'd fly a profile alot like what . .I'm doing right now." Oh well. It's at times like this when you just . .make a decision and go with it. If you pull it off then it was, . ."...outstanding airmanship and in keeping with the highest tradition of . .the United States Naval Service..." If you don't pull it off, if you get . .bagged, well...maybe they'll name a safety award or the new Base Gym . .after you.
Managed to grab the **** bag that was flying around the cockpit and . .stuff it in my helmet bag. While stuffing other things away the . .Inflight Pac was ripped out of my hands. It went over the side in a . .flash. "Scotty's gonna hate that." Inlet temp read 3. Buffeting . .while hunkered down behind the glareshield wasn't that bad.
My wingman was still with me through all this. Because of some late . .tankers and shuffling to get guys that were using our tanker to go . .further north he only had 10K in gas so he definitely wasn't gonna make . .it back. Well, not definitely, he could still tank after all. But . .because of how I had to sit in the cockpit to minimize the wind blast I . .needed him to watch over me. I was pretty much hunkered down for the . .ride at this point.
Seat lowered, visor down, cockpit heat up full and hunched over staring . .at one of the TV screens in the cockpit. It's weird the thoughts that . .come to you during times like this. "You know sitting this close to the . .screen is bad for my eyes." Had to snicker over that one. I could look . .right and left and see the Afghanistan and then the Pakistan scenery . .slowly drifting by. Too slowly. On the descent the airplane's computer . .was displaying how long it would take me to get to the divert given my . .decelerating airspeed. "Okay, 20 minutes not bad I can do that no . .pro...oh thirty minutes now. Okay piece of cake... Forty!? **** ." . .Settled out at forty eight. In the end I didn't really look outside . .much. Just peeked over the dashboard every couple of minutes to make . .sure the velocity vector was on top of the upcoming ridgelines. This . .part of the world is not pretty by the way.
Once everyone realised the seriousness of the situation they started to . .talk to me. The AWACS switched me over to the E2 in charge of the . .south. They started relaying stuff I needed to tell the boat. The . .parts the jet would need in order to make a flight back out again. The . .fact that my wingman was going to make the 0900 recovery vice the 0730, . .stuff like that. "The boat wants to know how badly the canopy is . .cracked." I couldn't believe that one. I thought he would have heard . .all the wind in the cockpit and known. "It's not cracked, it's gone. . .I'm flying a convertible." Apparently that line made it through all the . .nets loud and clear. The next day I was talking with the CSAR guys in . .Jbad and they said they got spun up when the read that on chat. (It's . .all real time chat nowadays.) What did not get through was the driver of . .the convertible. I know the E2 guy knew who I was (the conversation by . .the end had degenerated to callsigns. Gretzky and Duck. Not . .professional but somewhat comforting) but somehow the ship was waiting . .for me to return at . .0900 vice my wingman. All this technology...
As far as the cockpit was concerned there were two different and . .distinct regions. From my knees down I was toasty and warm. "This . .little piggy" was getting sweaty in fact. Then the chilly zone above . .that. The wind was swirling around pretty good and I was trying to grab . .all the paper and shove it into my helmet bag. Only lost one bit of . .classified stuff. Not too bad all things considered. After twenty . .minutes I started getting the shakes; after thirty they were fully . .developed. I tried to stuff my whole body down by the rudder pedals . .with limited success. Kept my hands warm though. Thank God for auto . .pilot.
About this time my wingman came up and said, "Hey can you reach out and . .grab that thing, pull it in?" I looked over at him (not that he could . .see me) with a look of shock. Stick my arm out into that wind, get my . .arm blasted back and thrashed on the glass shards sticking up . .everywhere? "Have you lost your mind?!" "Oh yeah, guess it's kinda . .windy. Sorry." Like I said, it's strange the thoughts you have . .sometime.
My wingman and I talked about the airfield. Frequencies, layout, the . .fact that the locals like to shoot at planes landing there. You know, . .just normal airport talk. We talked about landing on a runway, . .something neither of us had done for three months. And we dumped fuel . .to lighten the load. We both were carrying two thousand pounds of . .unexpended ordnance so the Air Force guys were gonna love us. Lastly we . .dropped the landing gear in close formation and compared airspeed and . .AOA to make sure the KC10 hadn't damaged my AOA and airspeed probes as . .well. I had him land first because I thought the hose might drag on the . .ground and get rolled up on by the nose wheel. After that who knew what . .would happen.
Dumped down to 3.0 each. Airspeed and AOA checked accomplished at 170 . .and 150 knots. Appeared fine. Approach was initated from 5k AGL when . .the threshold was ten degrees down. Started to slow the descent at . .about five hundred feet. Landed on speed at the nine board. Don't . .remember seeing a VASI or anything. Airfield diagram on approach plate . .doesn't show any landing aids.
The plane flew fine with all that junk on it. Just had to use the . .rudder pedals, which is kind of an emergency procedure for a Hornet . .pilot. When I slowed to on speed I got the "sunroof effect" pretty . .bad. You know when you're zorching down the road and you open the . .sunroof but leave all the other windows up? That vibration you get . .until you crack another window? Well I got kind of an advanced case of . .that during my Space Shuttle descent to final. We both rolled out . .fine. Well maybe not fine. We had to use all ten thousand feet and . .both had smoking brakes. (Our brakes hadn't been used like that in . .awhile. On the boat the wire brings you to a gentle stop without them, . .of course.) The emergency crews were waiting for us. And they were . .pointing and gawking as would be appropriate for a situation such as . .this. Couple natives looked on in a disinterested matter.
Of course I had to do a flight physical after all this. Had to make . .sure I wasn't on drugs before I launched on my six hour mission into . .Afghanistan. The facilities in Jacobabad ain't that bad. I'm here to . .tell you we are number one in tent technology. Our tents kick ass. . .They got AC and everything. Since it's an Air Force base they got all . .the best entertainment. Drew Carry and Joan Jett had been there . .already. Shania Twain was supposedly coming too (broke my heart, if . .only I'd had better timing...). And of course the Toga Party on . .Saturday. Can't forget that. Yeah, it's kinda like the boat. Except . .for the booze and the Toga Parties. Other than that it's just like the . .boat. Other random observations: Air Force got all the good . .buildings. Marines are on the outskirts, again. The boys from the 101st . .are spoiling for a fight. Hate coming in behind the Marines all the . .time. Dust over everything. Lots of people there that don't look like . .they are in the normal military. . .I don't care what any psychology major would say about it, it's just . .cool carrying a gun everywhere. MREs are not too bad. Could see how . .people would get sick of them though. Tent city was a little slice of . .American suburbia right in rural Pakistan.
Only Air Force base I've ever been on that didn't have any hot chicks. . .Of course I was only there for 24 hours. The place is a FOD nightmare.
The maintainers showed up about four hours after I did. After the . .appropriate amount of gawking they got to work and fixed it well enough . .for the RTB in under four hours. Nice job all around. By the end the . .basket and hose were removed, the canopy had been replaced and the LEX . .repaired with 300 mile an hour tape. ("Americans. Can Do Easy.") . .Three of the guys showed up and then disappeared with two big boxes of . .geedunk. They were on a booze hunt. They succeeded. The Air Force . .settled all the maintainers into two spare tents and they had a grand . .'ole time.
The next morning I took off low and fast at sunrise. Low and fast was . .due to the locals and the guns, of course. Not because it was fun. I . .checked in and the E2 said, "It's good to hear your voice again." The . .RTB was uneventful right up until the end. A PTS shaft died and . .subsequently one of my Hydraulic systems gave up the ghost when I . .dropped the gear. I got a couple of spurious flight control cautions . .but didn't really give it much thought as I was working the landing. As . .I started the approach turn the nose started to wander and I got another . .caution tone. I lost one aileron, one rudder and half a horizontal . .stab. I hit the reset button and I think everything cleared. Then I . .saw the Hydraulic Cautions come up. Hitting the reset button suddenly . .went from normal response on short final to a big mistake. When the . .aileron failed again I realized I sorta needed to get aboard the first . .time. "Man, first I miss Shania and now this. This is just not my . .week." I got it aboard because the Hornet is a fantastic jet. I got a . .Fair grade for the pass because I'm not very smooth when I'm rattled.
I pretty much assumed I was in trouble throughout all this. A canopy . .has got to cost 70 or 80 grand. Depending on how much repairing the . .windscreen and the airframe were...it could cost over 200 grand. Which . .would mean a Class B mishap. Which would mean I was screwed. Again. . .Thinking all this and then seeing the CO waiting for me when I landed . .made my heart sink. But that was not the reason he was there. The . .decision was made somewhere to make a big deal about this in a good . .way. Just like that...dirtbag to hero. Funny. Turned over bodily . .fluids to VFA-147 Safety Officer.
This isn't the first thing that's happened to me out here you know. . .We're flying the **** out of these jets and it's starting to show. I . .had to come back from the box with an engine shut down a week or two . .before. I'm starting to feel like that LT that keeps getting hosed in . ."The Bridges of Toko Ri." I got my letter in after all. I'm getting too . .short for this **** . Oh well, statistically speaking the rest of cruise . .should be smooth sailing. What are the odds something like this will . .happen again?