Thanks for the detail, sir. And amazing airmanship, courage, and determination on that mission. Thanks for getting Boots out. Beers on me if you're ever in Annapolis.

Seems like this comment should be pinned!

@@JustinLong1977 Great idea. Done.

Here comes the roosters.

My brother Maj Ed Ashley was commanding the AWACS on a rescue mission that was written up in Readers Digest....not sure if this was his mission or another rescue. I think on his mission they rescued the crew...he called in strikes against Republican Guard coming after the Crew.

5

@spyone4828 another good reason they aren't worth shit and looked upon as a crybaby medal more often than not lol

did you see Ratsy again after he was released?

@@pontiacGXPfan I saw Rat one more time after we got back before he transferred.

@@pmurray0511 you were with the Sluggers when all this happened right? was the skipper Bluto(James McFillin)or Santa(Don Santapaola)?

@@pontiacGXPfan Santa

@@pmurray0511 then Brian(Rocky) Fitzpatrick WAS the Sluggers' XO. He was interviewed in the Robert Wilcox book Wings of Fury

Dock. I most remember you saying "pilot, tail, up 5, we're kicking up dust" so we climbed from about 15 to 20 feet

👊💪

I'd like to nominate this for a pinned comment as well, Mooch.

@@thomastrask1230 Sounds like the UK Buccaneer crews at Red Flag. "OK Gentlemen, final attack run, no lower than leader."

@dokken440 awesome pic of the Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low IV!!

Dave McGhee, that’s a GR8 personal interest memory- Bringing the News to proud parents! Noticed yer Esty shop offerings - will be in touch 🔜 ! Gummit P’day💰 only comes 1 🦅 drop / month LoL 😝

Yeah I bet he did lol

I had a Stratotanker buddy of mine that said on more than one occasion the tankers flew further north than directed to help a plane low on fuel. Thanks guys!, lots of people appreciate it more than you think.

@@jamesfuria3939 when I flew KC-135’s in Afghanistan we would refuel Special Ops AC-130’s and MC-130’s. Due to the differences in performance envelopes we had to descend with them from 10k’. We took it to 1500’ AGL in the Hindu Kush mountains several nights, and then call disconnect. Got our asses chewed for leaning forwards in trying to get gas to the ass kickers.

@@jamesesenwein5152 That took some professional stones. Good on ya and your entire crew, for just doing it and taking the heat later. I'm sure that the crews looking back up at you through their windshields are still grateful.

The single-seat fighter version of the F-15 has a perfect record against the enemy (one got oopsied by his wingman), the Mudhen ... well, it's a low-level medium bomber, they get shot down rather often by ground fire.

That ancient SA-2 missile must be bad ass, shooting down an F-15 and 2 U-2s in the 60s, many B-52,s in Nam.

We did the same thing when I was in VF-102 flying over B-H in '95.

I still have vivid memories of the Sara's hangarbay laid out with the survivors of the ferry boat. And the casualties layed out on the flight deck. Real bad way to spend Christmas.

Read a book written by an A10 pilot. His squadron flew all the way to Iraq non stop. A gruelling ordeal in a plane that flies as slow as a WW2 prop plane. Even sketchier when the refuel probe starts leaking fuel into the cockpit ! Nothings easy in aviation. Especially in wartime.

Thanks , I was just about to ask if Search and Rescue always uses the call sign "Sandy".

SOMETIMES?!?!

Thanks, Doc!

@@WardCarroll Thank you, Ward! It was my pleasure.

Hey doc thank you for your service and welcome home!

@@1-501Infantry Thank you, it was my honor to serve!

Doc , you're a WAR CRIMINAL . 500,000 Iraqi kids killed . Do you think the price was worth it ???? Your honor to serve rotten WAR CRIMINALS politicians

Thats awesome. My dad was CINC of 23AF, ARRS in the late 1980s. Pavelows rule the night.

That 'simulation' got a giggle out of me too

Ultimate training aid!

Umm....that's real footage

It's amazing how realistic these simulations are these days ;)

Roof of the Sara?

@@rolltidelbc2832 Bah, I wasn't clear… I was on the flight deck of the Saratoga. Some don't know what roof is and, of course, some wouldn't know it was the Saratoga. Thank you. I was in a hurry.

@@ut000bs I was crash crew on Sara at that time.

@@rolltidelbc2832 I was with VAQ-132.

@@ut000bs Sparky here, the OPS O in 132. TP was the CO I'm still in contact with Panic the pilot in the story

And Hogs too!

@@terryboyer1342 Definitely!

Did you know you were in the area which had a more significant incident? The killings on November 19, 2005, in which a group of United States Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians?

@@ahmedvawda1282 that’s not what the video is about is it

@@ahmedvawda1282 shall we discuss how many innocent Iraqis were killed by other Iraqis?

@@dandychiggins8329 yes I know. After the 20 year anniversary of the war of mass DECEPTION I want people to remember the 1.2M Iraqi victims also.

@@ahmedvawda1282 no you don’t, you are trying to push an idea that the US went to war to kill Iraqis. And btw General Odierno was told by Saddams top generals that there were nuclear weapons in Iraq prior to the invasion. So unless your some deep cover intel agent maybe just comment as to the facts of this video which took place in 1991. Also those Marines you spoke of were charge with war crimes.

Certainly a better one than 'Behind Enemy Lines'!

Movie yes, but not Hollywood-like.

Along the lines of the movie BAT21

One of my side jobs as a 67U in the Army was ALSE and the Prick 90's were just plain amazing equipment for the time. Batteries were the only thing about them that I had to monitor/test closely/often. Once I got on flight status I turned my cage over to another 67U. The equipment was very simple but, there was a lot of it and every piece very useful with at least two purposes for each Item. I was glad to have gotten the experience with the gear before I went to survival training.

@@wretchedexcess1654 Yes on those battery mx checks, and really frustrating that we couldn't provide more, expedient shop-level repair for the internal PRC problems. It was great that you had that familiarity when you showed at survival training -- huge advantage. By the time I retired in 2016, we were getting so much new gear, so fast, that I felt like an impostor for all of the stuff I did not know. Thank God for all of those sharp, great kids I had to carry the load and blast through the new iPad tech orders! I hope your flight status years were good ones. Thank you for showing up, every day.

Be like... Go tell the Master Sgt. your looking for a PRC E8

I definitely sent a few PV2’s to see the Prick E7!

to my knowledge the PRC-112 never passed the Standard Navy Water Immersion Test no matter what they did to it

Sir, I served under the RIO callsign Rat. He made it a full career in 2007 I was in his retirement ceremony. He recounted his experience twice in my remembrance. Both times it came with heavy emotions. I personally moved on and was deployed in 2012 to Afghanistan where I personally had a event where I too still am effected by it to this day. Everyone handles PTSD in there own ways. Some better than others, the best thing we can do is acknowledge its existence and ruthlessness.

I absolutely love that they stuck around with our downed crew and told the approaching trucks "not today son..."

Capt. Paul Johnson (PJ) was known as likely the best A-10 pilot at the time. another great story is when PJ got hit by a SAM during Desert Storm and had a hole in his wing big enough to crawl through, and was down to flying the plane with just cable and pulley, and flew that plane home. you can see it in this video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q9J9gZVj2Lerh58.html (BTW I'm a Desert Shield and Desert Storm Army Vet)

what REALLY went on behind the scenes compared to the "Official release stories . Empire of Chaos , Death & Destruction killed millions people , sent a country back to stone age , open the sectarian pandora box .Time for the fallen decay country Send ALL its WAR CRIMINALS to the ICC

@@freegedankenzurbaukunst5613 you mean the illegal invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein back in 1990 which led to Desert Storm in 1991?

@@michaeldavenport5034 That idiot got trapped like a rat by the Empire of Death , Chaos & Destruction . It was used by the Empire of Death , Chaos & Destruction to destroy Iran ( Google WAR CRIMINAL Rumsfeld shaking hand with Saddam Hussein ) . Koweit was the promised gift to do it . And that idiot felt on the booby trap . PS / When will USA send their WAR CRIMINALS to the ICC ??? I know the answer . Never . But karma is the bitch . At the end , you will get what you deserve . Clio never ever forgets

Yes, I totally agree, such attention to detail.

William, I write for a living. First, I must agree with you about Ward. He is a great writer, more important, he is a great story teller...two different talents.

You couldn't have said it better. Gifted and intelligent.

See my reply on this very topic! The short answer is yes! Semper Fi

Only the best on my channel. 😜

My Father was a WW2 marine bomber pilot deployed to Pacific Theater. Flew a modified Mitchell bomber (PBH-1 modified with 3 canons and rocket rails?) No real action. Mostly guarding shipping lanes. His last flight was to deliver one of their bombers to a museum in Oklahoma. He took a Marine buddy on the flight who had never flown before. The windshield blew out, fortunately at low altitude. He managed to land and was told a replacement windshield would be installed the next day. My Dad said I have been flying these things for 4 years and my final flight almost got me. You can get some one else to fly this to the museum and he walked off. That was the end of his service. Pretty sure his buddy never went up again after that. Told to me by one of Dads squadron . I thought it was kind of funny.

VXE-6 Navs were issued hand-held GPS's. We used to tape a wired antenna to the outside of the plane, it was fed through the copilots side window. The GPS's worked well in parts of Antarctica. Part of the testing was to find the GPS blind spots. 94 - 96 time frame.

@@vxe6vxe6 I flew with VR-53 in the late 90s. Had a few members who flew served with VXE-6, load master flight engineer AM McMurtry rings a bell

James, I can offer you this background on 'non-ejection' sequences for beacons, although I'm pretty sure the fighter crew had them somewhere in their harnesses too, as once they separated from the seat, everything was hanging on the risers and within reach. Hope to hear details from the huge wealth of combat experience vets who know what worked -- desert flats, versus the Alaska terrain that my wing's crews operated in normally. For the bailout (non-ejection) BA-18/-22 chutes: the AN/URT-33 beacons had a either/or "continuous" or "timed" mode selector, on the bottom -- you couldn't get to it while the rig was packed -- we normally set them 'continuous,' unless directed toward hostile environment ops. The beacon pocket sits high in the pack interior, and an activation plug (simply interrupts the "cocked," pre-armed & set signal circuit) lanyard is looped to the chute's folded/stowed risers. As the chute opens/deploys, the risers snap taught and the lanyard yanks the plug out... ELT "yelp" signal begins. Also, re the hostile area choices of an active signal (not encrypted on the ELTs), there was a pull tab on the side of the chute pack, integral to that plug-activation lanyard loop, that simply loosened the loop and prevented it from yanking the plug out during riser extension -- you intentionally did NOT to have an automatic beacon, then once on the deck and out of your harness, you pulled the beacon and could yank the plug and turn it on/off. The aerial antenna (one for the URT-33, and two for the later AN/URT-44, 406MHz beacon) ran from the top of the stowed beacon and up a narrow sleeve through the folded riser -- when the riser snapped taught, the tip of the antenna peeked out of the top, near the suspension line connectors... best, possible chance for a clean signal, as you came down. You wanted as much of it up high and clear, especially if you went into the drink. Unless you were left hanging high up somewhere, by your harness, you'd want to quick-release/un-ass yourself from being dragged or drowned. Non-ejection flotation was/still is the unwieldy, old LPU-10/P pair of under-arm cells, with a cumbersome, pain-in-the-ass wrap-around harness which interferes with a lot of your other flight suit/armor/mission-wear gear. Fighter/ ejection seat flotation rigs are a variety of "horse collar" LPUs, integral to your harness, which snaps into the seat-installed chute risers. (Our PJs use "PECI" flotation cells -- beer can size, clip-on cells with sturdy, yank-down activation lanyards, which you can move and adjust to fit whatever other gear your wearing...I really wished we could have gone to those --for everybody.) Our manual bailout chutes had standard (cam-over snaps and ring-pull) riser/canopy releases -- leaving you wearing just the harness and pack, containing your beacon, small pocket survival kit, MD-1 (ten minutes) O2 cylinder, Scot aneroid auto ripcord release system (14,000' release, plus-or-minus 1,000'), and your PLD (personnel lowering device) 150' nylon webbing line -- which was s-folded into a large pad/pocket, between you and the chute pack (kinda heavy & bulky) and could be removed for theater ops in areas without significant high terrain... like the desert. The canopies in aircrew egress rigs are almost all the classic, 28' C-9 multi-colored canopy, of which there are a ton of modifications for specific desires. Most fighter/ejection seat rigs have SEAWARS (sea water-activated release system) riser/canopy releases, which disconnect you upon immersion -- keeping you from being immediately dragged under by a windblown canopy... and buddy, you get yanked under fast, being dragged backwards by that big kite. I cannot recall if there is a similar system to activate the horse collar LPUs, especially if you're badly injured or unconscious. I know of an F-15 pilot who ejected at very high speed; I believe that hellish opening slipstream even shredded his mouth, so he could not later orally inflate part of his one-man raft (the main cell is CO2, but the tent-like spray shield and floor are oral). One of my (ex-fighter world) buddies knew him, and the gent later gave very credible been-there lectures. We began installing the (UHF) AN/URT-44 406MHz beacons in our (176WG Alaska ANG) chutes around 2012. As much as I was really glad and expecting greater reliability for aircrew survival -- especially in our high latitude/terrain daily ops world, where the older -33 beacon's signal was really degraded & the -44 beacon's pin-point GPS was acquired damn fast & accurately -- I watched a long, cascading shitshow of premature, rush-to-comply, often contradictory command guidance directives over fielding & installing these new beacons. The 'real world' failure events -- and too goddamn quick (AF) blame pointed at maintainers -- started coming fast and frequently. Wonderful, life-saving potential aside, it needed serious shake-down, but they flooded us way before they were proven. I really hope that the beacons have since evolved and work well. I had about 130 of them to install and maintain, and the Achilles Heel, weak components and unending battery & antenna failures had us in the middle of serious, up-chain complaints with the vendors. I loved the SARSAT/COSPAS immediate access database of who owned each beacon (especially a yelping one)... but my cold war upbringing and prior mil years still has me tight-jawed over sharing part of our E&E asset reliability/visibility with the Russians -- COSPAS is the Cyrillic half of the worldwide SARSAT thing. At Elmendorf AFB, the Rescue Coordination Center called the active duty aircrew flight equipment shop (2016) and advised that a beacon was active near them. A civilian supervisor sarcastically called me (inference being that it was the "dickhead air guard people") and claimed it "had to be one" of ours. I opened up the SARSAT site -- he had not -- and there was the active duty shop's chute number, yelping away for all to see... right next to the monthly report of how many OTHER false alarms they had been sustaining all along. I was, and still am, damn proud of my shop's good housekeeping history of having had only ONE inadvertent beacon in our history with the -44s.

Yess I also vote he should create another channel devoting this much attention to his musical ambitions...if ya need a drummer lmk!!! Cheers!!

Speicher's remains were recovered in 2009. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mN-hhJiGvp24ZJ8.html

@@AA-xo9uw Thanks for the correction, don't know how I missed that one... Good to know he was recovered and his family has closure. I was only 12 years late.