Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Old buddy of mine was a RIO in a strike eagle during GW1 and shared some stories. There was the one about being ordered to destroy an entire village because intelligence believed Saddam was hiding out there - he deliberately lazed his bombs long, refusing to kill civilians, the AWACS even ordered them to drop their tanks on the village. But the story that really caught my attention was their run in with a Mig-29 when returning to Turkey from a strike. The RWR announced a strong lock and even though he shifted electrical power to the rear sensors (apparently the E lets you do that) he couldn't find the Mig. With the front seaters agreement they hit the VMax button and he said that the 100 miles to the Turkish border to run, he literally seemed to look down at his displays, and when he looked up they were over the border.

Take this with as many pinches of salt as you like, but the aircraft exceeded Mach 3 and both engines were trashed.

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Pass the Salt please.

Bomb village with innocent civilians...Incorrect

Punch tanks on village with innocent civilians...Incorrect

Violating the ROE's or LOAC, OR another crew inducing you to do so...Incorrect

Showing cowardice in the face of the enemy...Incorrect

AF fighter Nav's are not referred to as "RIO". That is an archaic Navy term, which was once used to describe the rear seat crewmember of the F-4 and F-14. Back seaters in U.S. fighter aircraft are referred to as WSO's.

Mudhens didn't actually deploy to, or fly missions from Incirlik in 'Raqi 1. They deployed to Seeb, Oman and Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia.

Even at vMAX, no model of the F-15 could ever, nor did ever reach Mach 3.

Sounds like your "friend" might need to quit telling you fish stories.

The RIO terminology was my error, and he was certainly an F-15E rear seater because we employed the guy and verified his service as part of his background check.

Tall story, maybe, but he never lied about anything else to me.

I always admired him for refusing to bomb that village, I think it shows integrity, a coward would have dropped on target knowing there could be no consequences, he risked his career.

I would avoid buying a car from him.

OL

Someone with integrity probably wouldn't fabricate stories that make others look bad but make him look good. There are lots of things that don't add up, at least with your telling of his story.

"Old Buddy of mine" is the only part of that whole post that is believable!

A Mach 3 Mudhen Smile

Fonsini,

As there were no F-15Es deployed to Turkey during Desert Storm in 1991 (they were actually all deployed to Saudi Arabia), your friend is a fraud, or an ignorant idiot, or both.

Folks, this one has run its course. His friend is either a phony, bad at telling lies, or a combination of the two. Either way, I think the point has been made. Check your "facts"!

Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

F-15E war stories