Inside the rescue of Lt Col Dave Goldfein
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Now, 20 years later, that pilot is chief of staff of the Air Force. But he still vividly remembers everything that happened that day — and the men who saved him.
The rescue of Hammer 34 — Goldfein’s call sign on that May 2, 1999, mission — has since become part of Air Force lore. In Operation Allied Force, NATO pilots began bombing targets in Serbia March 24, 1999, to force Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic — who had led an ethnic cleansing campaign against Kosovar Albanians — to withdraw his troops from Kosovo. The first phase of the air campaign focused on taking out Serbian air defense systems.
That was Goldfein’s mission the night he was shot down, on the 39th day of the campaign. At the time, he was the commander of the 555th Fighter Squadron at Aviano Air Base in Italy — the storied “Triple Nickel.” Goldfein’s squadron had come up with tactics and a plan to take out the surface-to-air missile batteries that were pestering the coalition air forces, and becoming an increasing threat, using the F-16s’ infrared targeting pods...
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basher54321 wrote:https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/06/19/start-finding-me-boys-inside-the-rescue-of-lt-col-dave-goldfein/Now, 20 years later, that pilot is chief of staff of the Air Force. But he still vividly remembers everything that happened that day — and the men who saved him.
The rescue of Hammer 34 — Goldfein’s call sign on that May 2, 1999, mission — has since become part of Air Force lore. In Operation Allied Force, NATO pilots began bombing targets in Serbia March 24, 1999, to force Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic — who had led an ethnic cleansing campaign against Kosovar Albanians — to withdraw his troops from Kosovo. The first phase of the air campaign focused on taking out Serbian air defense systems.
That was Goldfein’s mission the night he was shot down, on the 39th day of the campaign. At the time, he was the commander of the 555th Fighter Squadron at Aviano Air Base in Italy — the storied “Triple Nickel.” Goldfein’s squadron had come up with tactics and a plan to take out the surface-to-air missile batteries that were pestering the coalition air forces, and becoming an increasing threat, using the F-16s’ infrared targeting pods...
When I went through water survival training a decade later Lt Col Gsoldfein's rescue was presented as the way to do things right and contrasted with Capt O'Grady's rescue as the way to do things wrong. The man had his stuff together and did it the right way.
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