There I was...... Tripoli 15th April 1986
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There I was...... Tripoli 15th April 1986
Standing on the roof of the villa, my 29th Birthday party..........Woooosh woooosh bang bang. Ta for the fire works 
C'mon that stray bomb on the French Embassy. You meant it didn't you
C'mon that stray bomb on the French Embassy. You meant it didn't you
Funny how that turned out now didn't it....of all the embassy houses we could have hit....coincidence one thinks?
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LowNslow, must have been a late night party. Kate Adie had already gone to bed with just her earing on a waft of perfume. At least that was her story.
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Pontious, it was VERY late. The still had been tapped that day and there was a goodly supply of Flash (home brewed alcohol for the uninitiated) to be drunk. I seem to recall that we suceeded. 
We were all expecting something, we were just hoping it wasn't going to be B-52's
The following night the sky over Tripoli was alight with AAA as the Libyans opened up on any passing cloud or owl daft enough to be occupying the airspace. We watched a SAM 7(? big noisy thing) being launched off the nearby seafront. It went vertically up and up and up and we all waited for it to self detonate. It didn't. Then we waited for it to come back down...... The following day the Libyan press celebrated shooting down one of the "American agents of Satan". Closer examination of the picture revealed that the "American airplane" bore a more than passing resemblance to the missile fired the previous evening.
We were all expecting something, we were just hoping it wasn't going to be B-52's
The following night the sky over Tripoli was alight with AAA as the Libyans opened up on any passing cloud or owl daft enough to be occupying the airspace. We watched a SAM 7(? big noisy thing) being launched off the nearby seafront. It went vertically up and up and up and we all waited for it to self detonate. It didn't. Then we waited for it to come back down...... The following day the Libyan press celebrated shooting down one of the "American agents of Satan". Closer examination of the picture revealed that the "American airplane" bore a more than passing resemblance to the missile fired the previous evening.
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For the USAF perspective on the raid I can recommend: Raid on Qaddafi: The Untold Story of History's Longest Fighter Mission by the Pilot Who Directed It (ISBN:0312929986) by Robert E., Col. Venkus
The author was on the 48thFW at Lakenheath at the time. He was pretty disillusioned by the hierachy's insistence on using tactics dictaed by the hierachy and left the USAF as a result. One of the F-111 pilots invovled once told me that they were ordered to fly line astern at a set altitude and at the same time interval (2 minutes I think). It was no surprise therefore in his view that by the time the third jet came on target that the gunners had got their range.
The author was on the 48thFW at Lakenheath at the time. He was pretty disillusioned by the hierachy's insistence on using tactics dictaed by the hierachy and left the USAF as a result. One of the F-111 pilots invovled once told me that they were ordered to fly line astern at a set altitude and at the same time interval (2 minutes I think). It was no surprise therefore in his view that by the time the third jet came on target that the gunners had got their range.
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I think that mission has now been superceded in sorty length by the F15 package that operated Kuwait - Afghanistan - Kuwait and posted a 15 Hour plus flight time with 10 refuels.
Possibly an endless supply of piddle packs needed to get through that one!
Possibly an endless supply of piddle packs needed to get through that one!
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Reggie Mental, ah, they were using Vietnam tactics then. I heard exactly the same story from there. The F111 flew the same route every night. The gommers then put a TFR jammer behind a ridge. F111 creams over the top, gets a TFR fail and immediately initiates a climb - BANG.
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Katie buffs up
Somewhere in a US TV archive there's a very rare piece of footage from this night. Kate Adie writes in her autobiog that she and her camera team had gone to bed (separate beds) when hell broke loose.
Within seconds they were filming the night sky and the flashes through a window. A short time later a US TV team came into the room and started filming - and then put their camera lights on for a few seconds to reveal the war-hound and cameraman completely starkers as they went about their business.
Mind you, I'd not waste too much time chasing the footage...
Within seconds they were filming the night sky and the flashes through a window. A short time later a US TV team came into the room and started filming - and then put their camera lights on for a few seconds to reveal the war-hound and cameraman completely starkers as they went about their business.
Mind you, I'd not waste too much time chasing the footage...
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PN
Wasnt that because they couldnt overfly certain countries therefore had a limited route due to fuel issues? I dont know for sure, just asking, as quite coincidentally this came up in conversation the other day.
The F111 flew the same route every night.
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Oggin and PN
I would have thought that with the size of the package, which included sea based assets as well that it would have been quite a constrained environment and the Pigs would have had to use the same IP and run ins?
Need Knucks and Mud Movers to comment perhaps.
I would have thought that with the size of the package, which included sea based assets as well that it would have been quite a constrained environment and the Pigs would have had to use the same IP and run ins?
Need Knucks and Mud Movers to comment perhaps.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
The Vietnam case was, I understand, more like singletons flying nuisance raids rather than the more modern force packages in the GW. For the Libyan raids you may be right. I thought though that USAF and USN were operating in different sectors and different times slots.
Even the mighty V had a tactic that put nos 2 and 3 on opposed tracks from no 1. Poor sod was no 4 who was planned to follow no 1 90 seconds later.
Even the mighty V had a tactic that put nos 2 and 3 on opposed tracks from no 1. Poor sod was no 4 who was planned to follow no 1 90 seconds later.
