US Air Force - ANG F-16s

557 lives on!

Seems like a long time ago now when I think of that fateful afternoon at Clark AB, RP in 1989 when I walked to the door of life support to the flight line. Waiting there was my trusty steed for the afternoon, 557. Start, taxi and takeoff were without issue. The planned "guerilla" package of 33 aircraft to include 12 F-16's, 4 RF-4's, 12 F-15's, 4 C-130's and 1 AWACS was on time for our simulated attack of the USS Nimitz and surrounding infrastructure in port at Cubi Pt NAS. All was going according to plan until I selected afterburner while simultaneously pulling the nose up sixty degrees for the "High 45" pop-up attack. Every red light in the cockpit came on at once while somebody on the radio was shouting that an aircraft "in the pop" was on fire. My first thought was "some poor guy is on fire" then realized, "hey that guy is me"! There I was, at eleven thousand feet, on my back on fire with a 10,000 foot runway underneath me, "Thanks Lord, I can take it from here"!. Quite amazingly, my flight lead "Brutus" Braun had rejoined on me from his "pop" in a maneuver the Thunderbirds would be envious of. He was giving me critical real time information while 557 was quite literally melting away underneath me. I set up the FO pattern by the book but couldn't figure why I couldn't get her to slow down until I glanced at "A" system hydraulics, "zero". Hmmm, that's not good, but "B" was still working albeit cycling plus and minus 1000 psi. The controls seemed a bit sluggish as I lowered the gear on short final with Brutus giving close chase. Flaring an F-16 for landing at 220 Knots seems odd giving landing speed is much slower but in this case, the runway was a welcome sight. The excess speed did lengthen the landing significantly but the brakes worked and I was able to stop in the remaining pavement as Brutus passed by just above, headed home. His parting comment "nice job Smokey, you're missing half your tail" was the best compliment anyone could have given. Of course, my call-sign was now forever sealed.

Epilogue: One year later while deployed to Clark my Squadron Commander asked me if I would like to fly 557 home from it's repair facility at Cubi. Of course I said "yes" and the adventure home began. Despite every single working avionic equipment item failing on the way home, I proudly came up initial at Misawa with a backup ADI and whiskey compass, the Samurai Warrior returns! I'm happy to see 557 still flying even though I have been retired for two years. Sure miss it!

Smokey