Lessons from the Cockpit

Welcome to the fiftieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, a new milestone for our show!

All of you have heard of an airstrike or raid on something or someone in hiding who popped up in a valley, a downtown building, or a facility along a river. My Air Refueling Control Team planning and executing operations were involved in some of the highest profile attacks we call Time Sensitive Targets or just TSTs. This episode gives listeners a foundation on why and how they happen and a behind-the-scenes look at some of these very news-worthy TSTs. Most of these were extremely intense events and a few were unsuccessful.

Welcome to Episode 49 of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I've wanted to do this one for a while.

My USAF Pilot Training experience was pretty rocky. I almost did not make it through. Fortunately, one really good instructor we called "The Doctor" helped me become an Air Force aviator. The Doctor could fix just about any student's ailments with his incredible teaching skills. To this day, I still remember The Doctor’s Five Rules of Flying and have used them flying KC-135s all over the world and in my personal life too.

Welcome to episode forty-eight of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show!

Reading about how the Iraqi Freedom North War was planned and executed in March and April of 2003, I realized there are a lot of mistakes in the narrative out there. As Chief of the Air Refueling Control Team for the 2003 Iraqi Freedom Shock and Awe campaign, I felt it was a great time to tell what the Air Refueling Control Team experts had to overcome to accomplish some incredible feats, one of those being two of the longest strike missions in Naval Aviation history... 2800 nautical miles roundtrip!

Welcome to the forty-seventh episode of the Lesson from the Cockpit podcast!

This episode continues our conversation with former US Navy Commander Steve Bates and the history of the SH-3 Sea King helicopter. The Navy used the SH-3 for four decades and the Air Force made famous the HH-3 or Jolly Green Giant version, saving hundreds of airmen shot down over North and South Vietnam. The SH-3 also had a unique Cold War role Steve elaborates on!

Welcome to the forty-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King was the US Navy's primary rotary-wing aircraft for decades. Steve discusses training and flying the Sea King used for Fleet Logistics bringing beans, bombs, and mail to the fleet and sailors while underway at sea. Steve also tells us about some of the humanitarian operations he was involved with while at the Pentagon... on 9/11!

Welcome to the forty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

The Air Force created a super-secret squadron located in the Nellis Air Force Base Range Complex, The 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron called "The Red Eagles." Rob Zettel is one of the world's subject matter experts on adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures from his experience flying the F-5E Tiger II with the 26th Aggressors in The Philippines and Russian Mig-21 Fishbed and MiG-23 Flogger fighters with the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron Red Eagles. Z-Man discusses his experiences flying F-4 Phantoms and being an Aggressor pilot with the famous Red Eagles.

Welcome to the forty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! We are fast approaching 15,000 downloads!

Welcome to the forty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

I have been asked for several years to tell the story of flying an American Flag for someone who became a very dear friend and my son Jeffrey's fourteen-month battle with cancer. Both my good friend and Jeffrey both succumbed to this terrible cancer disease. My wife and I decided today it was time to tell this story of a military tradition, patriotism and the American Flag, and compassionate service during this dark period of our family's life when Jeff battled Osteosarcoma.

Welcome to the forty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

How did the concept of air refueling get started and how long has it been around? The answer will surprise you... 1921 with a gas can on a man's back! Experimentation with air refueling methods continued with the flight of the Question Mark in 1929 and the first air refueling company with a patented system created in 1934. The air refueling world owes a lot to the Brits! How we went from prop to jet-engined tankers is a fascinating study in a channel to market brilliant move and risking an entire company in the 1954 air refueling tanker competition. Boeing lost the battle but won the war.

Welcome to the forty-first episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast.

Jeff Fellmeth, callsign Flounder, was my Boss at Kadena while assigned to 18 Wing Plans. We were busy. Flounder tells his exploits and lessons learned from flying the OV-10 Bronco over Europe to being one of the few people I know to fly the F-15C  and F-15E versions of the mighty Eagle fighter. Jeff and I had the great fortune of working for some of the best leaders in the Air Force while stationed at Kadena, without a doubt one of the top three greatest flying and educational experiences of my career.

Welcome to the fortieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

Chief Master Sergeant Dave Nordel had the distinction of being the Senior Non-Commissioned Officer for Air Refueling Wings, Numbered Air Forces, and deployed locations overseas. Chief Dave shares his stories of leadership and lessons learned, many written in his International Best Selling book Giving Back: Life and Leadership from the Farm to the Combat Zone and Beyond.

One chilling story in this episode... Dave deployed to Somalia three days after the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993, with helicopter pilot of Army MH-60 SUPER 61 Mike Durrant still a prisoner of the Somalis.

Welcome to the thirty-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

A week after my first interview with Navy Captain Royce Williams he called me to say "I've thought of more things to talk about!" So this is part two of Captain Royce Williams discussing what it takes to keep the Navy refueled and rearmed at sea. He commanded a Carrier Air Wing during the Vietnam War and the USS El Dorado Command ship as its Captain in the 1960s and he tells us what it's like to lead while "Haze Grey and Underway.".

Welcome to the thirty-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

Military men and women are often sworn to secrecy. Captain Royce Williams was told never to tell anyone about his November 1952. Most air engagements last less than 60 seconds. Royce fought for 35 minutes with seven RUSSSIAN MiG-15 fighter jets over North Korea. He shot down four of the MiG-15s, landing on the USS Oriskany in a snow storm with 263 holes in his F9F Panther fighter jet.

Fifty years later a Russian historian wrote about the air battle. Many are now trying to push for Royce to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. The problem is the US government will not release the evidence!

Welcome to episode thirty-seven of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, part seven of Operation Anaconda and the Battle of Roberts Ridge series!

Retired Air Force Colonel James "Spanky" Dennis began his flying career as a Weapons System Operator in the F-4E Phantom II. The first WSO to command a Seymour Johnson F-15E Strike Eagle squadron, he'd assumed command of the 335th Fighter Squadron "Chiefs" a month before on 9/11, and began flying defensive missions over Washington DC and New York City that morning. Colonel Dennis had to care for and feed a Strike Eagle unit fighting at home and deployed to Kuwait for Operation Anaconda and Qatar for Iraqi Freedom while in command. While at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, he led the air group assigned to a very secret special operations unit called Task Force 20, The Wolverines!

Lessons from the Cockpit is supported by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. These very detailed images are printed on vinyl and can be peeled off and stuck to any flat surface. The links below are the jets Colonel Dennis speaks of in this episode.

Welcome to the sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit series on Operation Anaconda and the Battle of Roberts Ridge.

Chief Warrant Officer Greg Calvert's MH-47 helicopter crew lifted off as RAZOR 1 with a Quick Reaction Force of Army Rangers in the back.  His landing zone was the top of Takur Ghar mountain in an attempt to save Roberts and SEAL Team MAKO 30. RAZOR 1's crew did not know the extent of what was happening atop the mountain flaring for landing. Greg shares his story and lessons learned from his involvement in the Battle of Roberts Ridge.

Welcome to the thirty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

In the fifth part of our series on the Battle of Roberts Ridge we talk with Warrant Officer Al Mack, the pilot of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment MH-47 Chinook callsign RAZOR 3 delivering SEAL Team MAKO 30 to the top of Takur Ghar mountain at 3:30 am Monday morning 4 March 2002. His Chinook comes under heavy fire from enemy forces and SEAL Neil Roberts falls off the back ramp, which begins the desperate search and rescue for him. Al goes into the small details of how this mission unfolded and the lessons learned from the Battle of Roberts Ridge. Numerous changes were made because Al wrote all of his lessons down!

Welcome to another episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast and our series on the Battle of Roberts Ridge and Operation Anaconda.

Arriving in Saudi Arabia on my wife's birthday in 2002, I jumped right into running a team of air refueling professionals. In mid-February, all of us in the Prince Sultan Combined Aerospace Operations Center were hearing about some snake-like operation. Because my Air Refueling Control Team had just accomplished two big "science projects" we felt good. Nobody was ready for what happened. This episode is my Air Operations Center view of what happened in March 2002 in Afghanistan's Shaia Kot Valley, the Place of Kings in Pashtun. There were a LOT of lessons learned after Anaconda applied to planning the upcoming invasion of Iraq.

Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is supported by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. These extremely detailed profile illustrations are printed on vinyl to peel off and stick to any flat smooth surface. Ready-to-Print graphics are available at wallpilot.com

Welcome to the thirty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

One of the greatest assets US leadership owns is the ability to move patients, cargo, and relief supplies anywhere on the planet literally in twenty-four hours. It's all done from one place! Colonel Geno Redmon was my KC-135 Squadron Commander in Okinawa Japan during the mid-90s. As Vice Commander of Air Mobility Command's Tanker Airlift Control Center on 9/11, Geno tells us how air mobility operations were planned and executed to defend the US from attack and move US and allied forces to Afghanistan to hunt Osama bin Laden. His TACC Team leaned way forward watching the Battle of Roberts Ridge unfold through the same CIA Predator video feed I was watching at the Saudi Arabian Air Operations Center. Geno tells the story of the first C-17 crew into Karshi Khanabad and speaking with Marine Corps Brigadier General Jim Mattis as his troops prepared to occupy an Afghan airfield.

Welcome to this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, and it's a great one! This is the second of six episodes on the Battle of Roberts Ridge in Operation Anaconda.

Colonel Scott "Soup" Campbell has the distinction of being awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses in four days during the Battle of Roberts Ridge and Operation Anaconda "for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight" in the Air Force A-10 Warthog. Graduating from the Air Force Weapons School A-10 division while at Pope AFB, Soup Campbell and his wingman K-Nine left Al Jaber Air Base Kuwait on 4 March 2002 after the Battle of Roberts Ridge had started. Over the next four days, Soup and a band of Hawg drivers and support folks provided Forward Air Control and Close Air Support to Operation Anaconda Navy SEALS and 10th Mountain troops from an austere base in Pakistan. This episode is his incredible story of heroism in the air and on the ground when things went very bad in the Shaia-i-Kot Valley of Afghanistan.

Welcome to the first episode of a six-part series of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast on the Battle of Roberts Ridge, episode number 31!

At approximately 3 am on Monday 4 March 2002 a 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment or SOAR MH-47 Chinook helicopter approached the top of Takur Ghar mountain, a critical piece of high terrain looking over the Shah-i-Kot Valley of Afghanistan. SEAL Team Six Petty Officer Neal Roberts fell off the Chinook ramp as Al Qaeda fighters opened fire on the helo. This event begins the rescue and recovery of Neal Roberts and the Battle for Roberts Ridge.

Colonel Matt Neuenswander, callsign El Cid, Deputy Commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, and his air forces are called upon to support events on Roberts Ridge over a thousand miles away. El Cid tells the Lessons from the Cockpit audience his experiences and lessons learned from events during this battle and Operation Anaconda. He and his team must set up shop at an austere airbase in Pakistan so A-10 Warthogs can support air operations trying to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his forces in the Shah-i-Kot Valley.

Welcome to another episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, episode number 30!

I'm asked several times a day "Have you seen the movie"... of course referring to TOPGUN Maverick. Of course I have, the opening night!

During this review, I talk about the Air Force's TOPGUN school, the US Air Force Weapons School based out of Nellis Air Force Base north of Las Vegas. Attendance to the Weapons School is by a competitive review board of each applicant. Often graduates or "Patch Wearers" as they are called get summoned to work complex military operations because of their planning and leadership skills. The scenario of the movie is not as far-fetched as you might think and I give some examples of planning missions, why planners chose a course of action, and some historical operations to strike and destroy nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons facilities as depicted in TOPGUN Maverick. And how do pilots and aircrew members get those crazy callsigns you hear about in the movie?

Thanks for joining us today and welcome to another episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

On today's show U.S. Navy Captain and F-18 fighter pilot Captain Dave "Mongo" Koss discusses leading the opening night strike packages of Enduring Freedom over Afghanistan and a year later executing several of the longest combat air patrol and strike missions near Baghdad in the opening week of Iraqi Freedom's Shock and Awe air campaign. Mongo also takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to lead and prepare the Navy Demonstration Team The Blue Angels for the airshow season. He leaves us with his tested-in-combat six-element formula for leadership in any organization.

Welcome to another episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show!

An opening line in the new TOPGUN Maverick movie is so appropriate for this episode. Our lessons learned discussion is with MiG Killer US Air Force retired Colonel Cesar "Rico" Rodriguez, an A-10 Hawg and F-15 Eagle pilot who DOES have three MiG kills in forty years. Rico tells the story of his two kills during  Desert Storm in 1991 and the opening night of Allied Force over Kosovo in 1999. He also shares lessons learned from working sixteen years in the defense industry with one of the largest defense companies in the world.

Welcome to this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit show!

There is one Air Force airplane that doesn't get a lot of love but every soldier or Marine wants overhead in a troops-in-contact situation: the Republic A-10 Warthog! The Hog is a devastating aircraft in combat and is known for its big GAU-8 30mm gun... Bbrrrrtttt! Buck Wyndham joins us with stories of his missions and exploits during Desert Storm, the first combat employment of the A-10. Buck had an opportunity to see firsthand what concentrated airpower can do to the enemy as he walked around the famous Kuwait City to Baghdad highway, better known as the Highway of Death.

Welcome to the 25th episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show!

Colonel George "John Boy" Walton and his four-ship of F-4G Advanced Wild Weasels pulled up to my KC-135 on the opening night of Operation Desert Storm thirty-one years ago. He explains the Weasel mission and what the 12-ship of Weasels he was leading was tasked to do at 3 am near Baghdad: poke the eyes out of Saddam Hussein's air defenses. You always knew when the Weasels were coming to your tanker... they used BEER callsigns like COORS, LONESTAR, and MICHELOB!

This is a short episode of Lessons from the Cockpit to explain where I've been for two weeks.

My wife and I volunteered for Colonel Gail Halvorsen Memorial service being held this week, 20-21 May 2022, at two Utah Valley airports: Provo Airport's new terminal, and Spanish Fork Airport. The Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation World War II-era Douglas C-54D Skymaster will be on display with a US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III at Provo Airport's new terminal Friday 20 May from 10 am to 3 pm. There will be a re-naming ceremony of the C-17 to "Spirit of the Candy Bomber" at 6 pm.

Saturday 21 May the C-54 and C-17 will be in formation over Utah Valley by 8 am and around noon the C-54 crew will re-enact the Berlin Airlift Candy Drop over Spanish Fork Airport. All of these events are for kids!

If you are within driving distance of Utah Valley later this week, this event will be one of those you won't want to miss.

Welcome to this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show!

I remember Civil Defense drills as a kid in Elementary school living in the Los Angeles area of the 1960s. A horn would go off and we'd all dive under our desks. Russian ballistic missile submarines roamed both coasts of the US. Retired Navy Captain Frank Ellis tells the tactics, techniques, and lessons learned from flying the Lockheed P-2V Neptune Maritime Patrol and Anti-Submarine Warfare plane hunting Russian subs and intelligence collection "Fishing Trawlers" around the world during the 60s and 70s Cold War. Nuclear weapons are involved!

Welcome to this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit!

Air refueling does not happen without the KC-135 or KC-10 Boom Operator being in the Boom Pod of the tanker, flying the big refueling Boom under the plane. These Enlisted heroes are what make air refueling possible. On today's show, our Chief Boom Operator from the 909th Air Refueling Squadron at Kadena Air Base Chief Master Sergeant Dan Jones shares his lessons of teamwork, innovation, and Esprit de Corps with us while flying some of the most intense and memorable missions of our lives in the 1990s. When he and I look back at this assignment, both of us agreed it was the best of our careers! And I took thousands of pictures with my camera from the cockpit.

Welcome to this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit!

There is one thing all US service members promise to their comrades in arms... we leave no one behind! In early March of 2002 coalition forces began military operations in the Shahi-Khot Valley of Afghanistan, known now as Operation Anaconda. The start of this operation did not go well. On 4 March 2002 then Captian Chris Russell, an F-15E Strike Eagle Weapons System Operator, and his pilot Captain Kirk Reichkoff flying as TWISTER 52 took off at midnight from a base near Kuwait City on what became a very long and exhausting sortie. Chris shares with us his lessons learned while covering the downing of a 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment MH-47 Chinook, and the rescue and recovery of SEAL Team MAKO 30 and Petty Officer Neil Roberts after he fell off the helicopter. This is the famous Battle of Roberts Ridge.

Chris was kind enough to send me the cockpit tapes from their F-15E flight lead TWISTER 51. I've included three clips from the cockpit audio in this episode towards the end.

Welcome to episode 21 of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show!

My good friend Dave Mason and I walked and talked moving around the displayed aircraft at Hill Aerospace Museum in Ogden Utah earlier this month. Dave relates how fliers learn in extreme situations to quickly compartmentalize problems and put fears in their place. The number one priority in the air always is maintaining aircraft control, including your emotions and voice! The Reagan 80's was a great time to be a military pilot. Aircrews got to hop in a jet anytime and go out and just do it. One of the greatest tools aviators have is the post-flight debrief, a learning opportunity not many of us use in our daily lives. Walking around the museum Dave shared some of his experiences flying one of the most dangerous missions in the Air Force... the Wild Weasel mission hunting enemy surface-to-air missiles or SAM sites in the F-105G and F-4G Wild Weasel aircraft.

Welcome to episode twenty of the Lesson from the Cockpit show!

You are NEVER alone during flight. Every fighter or bomber aircrew will tell you warheads on foreheads is always a team effort. Ground weapons crews load Maverick missiles a Flight Lead directs after their wingman fires at a target called out by a Joint Terminal Attack Controller embedded with Special Forces teams.  Aviators never forget scenery from the cockpit while flying, particularly at night. Night environments often require equipment changes of the latest and greatest equipment, and what better place to change out helmet visors than on the tanker's wing... at night! In this episode, Lt Col Caroline "Blaze" Jensen tells our listeners what it's like flying the F-16 in Korea and Iraq, and how the US Air Force Demonstration Team, the world-famous Thunderbirds, choose replacements. She knows... she flew with the T-Birds for three years!

Welcome to episode nineteen of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show!

Flying in the F-15 Eagle is an ultimate thrill. I know because I’ve done it three times. But deployed duties where airmen, soldiers, sailors, and Marines solve the most complex problems having theater-wide effects are often the most rewarding.

Lt Col Joe Katuzienski (retired) is one of those US Air Force airmen who impacted air warfare at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war during a crucial time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Flying F-15 Eagles over Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, he deployed twice after the 2003 Shock and Awe campaign to Baghdad and the Combined Air and Space Operations Center in Qatar. Tazz’s expertise impacted the way airpower affected soldiers and Special Forces in the air and on the ground. In this episode, Tazz shares how relationships, using all intelligence and weapons tools available and empowering your people saved lives and resources during the surges in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tazz now flies for one of the major US airlines.

Thanks to Wall Pilot for sponsoring this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit.

Welcome to episode number 18 of the Lessons from the Cockpit show!

On today's show, our guest Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Mo Barrett fights for centerline deciding to fly a very big airlifter or deploy with her Tanker Airlift Control Element (TALCE) team opening airfields for war in Afghanistan on 9/11. Her team makes two large Forward Operation Bases livable and operable with hours and had a unique way of evolving a place to go potty. Something simple every pilot carries on them becomes a tool for democracy and brings a smile to kids' faces as Mo flies the big C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. Women have been flying in our Air Force for decades, but an Ecuadorian Mayor never got that memo.

Welcome to another episode of Lessons from the Cockpit show!

George Nolly passes along his great lessons from logging flying time in O-2 Skymasters as a Forward Air Controller, and fighter pilot in the F-4D/E Phantoms during the intense LINEBACKER campaign over North Vietnam. George even spent exactly one year flying the big B-52! George flew with and now instructs for one of the major US airlines in the 737, and 777s with an Indian airline. He tells us there is no such thing as useless information and relates his most important lesson from a single combat mission over North Vietnam, great words on leadership, fuel is flying's hourglass, and giving control to your best shooters in battle. He shares the audio from WALNUT Flight, asking the Navy for a tanker with just a few minutes of flying time left near North Vietnam's port city of Haiphong!

Welcome to this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit!

Pete Fleischmann flew F-16 Vipers in the Air Force and currently is an A320 Captain for one of the major US airlines. He also trains pilots how to avoid the leading cause of fatal aircraft accidents worldwide in a very unique classroom. On today's show, he tells us where good judgment really comes from, an essential management tool whenever and where ever an airplane leaves the ground, and the importance of basic stick and rudder skills and their role in the loss of controlled flight. Pete also shares some of his planning factors when establishing a No-Fly/No Drive zone over or near a hostile country, something we hear a lot about in the news right now.

Welcome to episode fifteen of the Lessons From the Cockpit Show!

In 1948 Douglas Aviation ran full-page ads of their C-54, a little girl catching glasses of milk dropped from the Skymaster aircraft. The Skymaster was making history during the Berlin Airlift. An aviation Rockstar was born during the airlift, flying a C-54 and dropping candy to German kids gathered along the fences of Tempelhof Airfield. 1Lt Gail Halvorsen became known as "Onkel Wackelflugel" or Uncle Wiggle Wings to the German kids but forever known as the "Candy Bomber" in aviation history. I attended Colonel Halvorsen's funeral last week after his passing at the age of 101.

Welcome to another episode of Lessons from the Cockpit Show!

I had a conversation recently with a Commander I highly respect, for both his leadership skills and impeccable insights on the battlefield and in business. He and I were involved in numerous exercises with other US military services, our international partners, and the extremes of intense air campaigns over foreign nations. This episode captures four of the lessons learned on the battlefield and their application in the business world. Those four lessons are culture, language, requirements, and education.

Welcome to this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit Show!

In this episode, we discuss red underwear, one of the greatest victories AND defeats in modern air warfare, and how a Commander's Conference kept this Navy Captain from being incinerated. Our hero in this episode is Imperial Japanese Navy Captain Mitsuo Fuchida.

Commander Mitsuo Fuchida was an expert tactician and planner, leading many Japanese Navy attacks throughout the Pacific. Flying as an observer in a Nakajima B5N2 Kate attack plane, Commander Fuchida directed the attack of Pearl Harbor. He was almost killed during the battle of Midway and Colonel Paul Tibbets's atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. A chance meeting on a Tokyo street corner leads to Captain Fuchida's conversion to Christianity, his mentor being a former enemy and part of the first US attack on the Japanese homeland, the Doolittle Raid.

A link to why Japan attacked the US:

Welcome to the eleventh episode of Lessons from the Cockpit!

Thirty-one years ago early this morning my crew took off and flew our first combat mission on the opening night of Desert Storm. We refueled the first F-4G Wild Weasel and EF-111A Spark Vark jamming package going to Baghdad, taking down Saddam's integrated air defense system. This mission was intense!

I kept a journal of every event and flight during my deployment 31 years ago. There are a lot of lessons learned not only from flying but being involved in the planning of tanker missions for the largest air refueling wing assembled in US Air Force history... 90 planes on the ramp!

All of us had to prepare our minds for where our bodies were going to take us that night and through the rest of the war. In a nanosecond, I can bring to my mind scenes from some of the missions I flew during months my crew was there: fighter jets on my wing, early warning planes telling us Iraqi MiGs are airborne, and calling out SCUD ballistic missile launches.

Wall Pilot creates custom airplane graphics printed in vinyl which peel off the backing and stick on the walls of your home, office, or hanger. The Mission Commander's F-4G Advanced Wild Weasel my crew refueled the opening night of Desert Storm can be found at this link:

Welcome to the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!

Into whose hands would you place trust and risk your life? Military service members deal with this question every day. There is one community of US Air Force aircraft aircrew members all over the world trust with their lives. Why? Crews flying these two jets have the reputation of ALWAYS being at the right place and right time, but more importantly where they need to go when things go bad. They have saved countless lives and millions of dollars of equipment during wartime. On two occasions fighter pilots accepted a greater amount of risk during complex missions because they trusted the reputation of a community flying a 60-year-old jet and its crews. The same is true for this old jet's younger Big Sister.

On this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit;

Airplane designers analyze three elements when creating an airplane: Range, Payload, and Endurance. All three of these elements are affected by the aircraft's engine.

Two world-famous engines almost didn't make it into their iconic airframes. There were numerous obstacles business and engineering leaders overcame. One engine was within two weeks of cancellation. But companies took the high-risk road and it paid off in billions of dollars of revenue. Both of these engines changed the way the two planes operated, stretching the range, increasing the payload, and lengthening the endurance of these two famous planes.

Special thanks to the book Tanker Pilot and Wall Pilot for sponsoring this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit.

On this the eighth episode of Lessons From the Cockpit:

The US Air Force has its version of TOPGUN, training the best of the best from 18 different weapons, intelligence, command and control, Special Operations, rescue, and intercontinental ballistic missile forces. It's called the US Air Force Weapons School, based at Nellis Air Force Base in North Las Vegas.

A Navy SEAL once said "The more thou sweatest in training the less thou bleedest in combat." During one large force night training event, things did NOT go well for the Weapons School students. One mistake snowballed into the loss of numerous aircraft. If this had been the opening night of a real Shock and Awe campaign, eleven airmen would not be coming home.

The students who flunked this training event took ownership of their mistakes, learned from them, and were better prepared when they crushed their simulated adversaries the following night.

To experience a night mass launch out of Nellis AFB:

On this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit:

The good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Important information is often given up because we spend too much time talking when we should be listening. One day my Boss set up two TOPGUN wannabes to be humiliated and it cost them $30 each!

Welcome to this episode of Lessons from the Cockpit!

There is one training event during my Air Force career I can truly say was transformational. And it started with a 3M sticky note on my desk.

Fearing I wasn't enough for this monumental task, my Commander let my counterpart and me use our creativity, imagination, and initiative to organize one of the most complex and dynamic training exercises in 18th Wing history. And we did it in four weeks.

This exercise trained the largest combined Air Force Wing of seven flying squadrons and three other flying units on how to plan and operate in any conflict across the Far East region. We did it with a Navy Carrier Battlegroup and US Marines as our simulated adversary over an imaginary battlefield.

The education and expertise I gained from this exercise were invaluable while deployed to the Middle East, planning and executing the air campaigns over Afghanistan and Iraq from 2002 through 2003.

Welcome to this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show!

Our conversation with Mike "Coma" Reed continues this week, telling us his story of integrating all the systems in the Lockheed F-22 Raptor, arguably the most lethal fighter jet in the world. Mike explains why the F-22 program and development performed so well and the F-35 program continues to have challenges.

Age and treachery will always overcome youth and exuberance as Mike relates an event with a Russian TU-95 Bear Bomber off the coast of South Korea. It didn't go so well for him and his pilot!

Then-Vice President George H. W. Bush visited South Korea and F-4E Phantom IIs from Mike's 36th Tactical Fighter Squadron, The Flying Fiends, escorted the VP's plane into Osan Air Base Korea. The air corridor and escort operation was called COPE BUSH. Today the Flying Fiends continue to defend the Korean Peninsula from aggression by North Korea and China as a Cold War atmosphere increases in the Far East.

Prints of Mike's two F-4E Phantoms for the walls of your home or office can be purchased from our sponsor Wall Pilot at the following links:

Welcome to this week's episode of Lessons from the Cockpit.

My best friend from my boyhood Mike Reed callsign COMA was in Utah this last week. He and I sat down to talk about his lessons from flying F-4 Phantoms during the Cold War in the Far East and aeronautical engineering.

Sun Tzu's first chapter in The Art of War opens with the line "The art of war is of vital importance to the State." You may not have an interest in geopolitics but geopolitics will always have an interest in you. Coma explains how geopolitics changed his Air Force career goal and directly influenced real-world missions flying F-4E Phantom IIs fighters at Osan Air Base Korea and Clark Air Base The Philippines.

Once your passion for aviation is discovered, you will do whatever it takes to overcome the walls and obstacles placed in front of you. Coma shows how he pushed through the walls of geopolitics and a demanding aeronautical engineering senior project to get into Air Force Navigator Training.

All of us were placed here to do great things. Sometimes bad and horrible things happen in our lives. Coma's mother taught him the "art of moving along", not letting your past be a roadblock to your future after she survived the Japanese bombing and occupation of Manila during World War II.

The two F-4E Phantom II fighter jets Mike Reed flew can be purchased through our sponsor Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, and hanger at:

On this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show:

Twenty years ago this past Saturday, a phone call at 5:50 in the morning caused me to go from fast asleep to full up war in 30 minutes. The United States was under attack.

While driving into work that day I was doing "Taker Math" in my head, the number of sorties and amount of gas it would take to keep all the fighters and Command and Control planes airborne to maintain a NO FLY ZONE over America, and these numbers will astound you!

Talking with a very good friend of mine this past weekend he told me what a fighter pilot is probably thinking when tasked to shoot down an airliner over the U.S. because on 9/11 there were no rules of engagement to do this. How do you stop a jetliner filled with American citizens from becoming a cruise missile that might be flown by one of your airline buddies?

There is a three-word slogan every aviator memorizes to help deal with emergencies in the air. It's so simple and has saved countless pilot's lives.

An instructor in Air Force Pilot Training taught me the five commandments of flying complimenting the three-word slogan. On a training sortie, I violated two of them and almost killed myself.

A Navy SEAL taught me a slogan that guides their training philosophy. This slogan is a reason the US Military is the world's finest fighting force on the planet.

Welcome to the Lessons from the Cockpit show!