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SAM Attack video


Ghost

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here's another version that is slightly better resolution:

http://www.lucky-devils.net/baghdad.html

Apparently a couple of the guys from the 614TS weren't so lucky. Two AC losses on that mission with the two pilots held POW presumably until the end of hostilities.

And Callsign "Stroke 3" was one of those two pilots. What a day, to have dodged SAM after SAM, only to be shot down at the end of it. Yeah, just imagine what he was feeling like after all that. Talk about having a bad day.

The Squadron's Gulf War Website gives a great account of what happened to Package Q over Baghdad.

There was also a good link to a SAAS Thesis on that website though, that took quite some issue with the conduct of the air raids that day over Baghdad: "Effects-Based Targeting: Another Empty Promise?" by T.W. Beagle. Page 67 describes what happened with Package Q, which the pilot on the vid was part of, and of course was one of the guys shot down that day.

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And Callsign "Stroke 3" was one of those two pilots. What a day, to have dodged SAM after SAM, only to be shot down at the end of it. Yeah, just imagine what he was feeling like after all that. Talk about having a bad day.

ET, whose aircraft you are riding during the video was not shot down during the Package Q mission. He was in fact one of our pilots who flew to Saudi Arabia after the war to meet Tico and Cujo after their release.

While the video quality isn't great, this is part of the HUD / VTR tape taken by Emmitt 'ET' Tullia as he 'dodged' at least six SAMs that had locked onto his aircraft during 'Package Q', the first daylight raid on Baghdad, on 19 January 1991. 'Package Q' was the largest single strike mission of the war, and likely the single largest F-16 strike package ever flown into combat.

Sadly the Lucky Devils, flying Block 30 F-16C's deployed from Torrejon AB, Spain, lost two aircraft to SAMs that day with both of the pilots, Mike 'Cujo' Roberts flying 87-0228 and Jeff 'Tico' Tice in 87-0257 being captured and held as POW's.

Another note to this video from Mick Bretz, one of our crew chiefs: "Maj. Emmitt 'ET' Tullia came back squaking code 1. After walking around the jet, he changed it to code 2 (In my mind after what he went through should have been a code 3). His entire Chaff/Flare modules were full!!!!! They never fired off, so all that manuvering was w/out counter measures. Some good flying!!!"

For more information about the Lucky Devils and the Package Q mission, I invite you to visit the Lucky Devils in the Gulf War at:

3.7 million pounds of ordinance, 1303 sorties, 42 days, 24 aircraft. The 'Forgotten 1000'.

Mike Kopack

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"We screamed down the chute, aiming for a SCUD missile storage area. There were missiles going everywhere. They were shooting SAM's with and without radar guidance. The adrenaline was really pumping! I pickled, and came off with nine G's! My 500 knots was converted to 400 knots and my RHAW lit up with a SA-2 at my dead six. I heard AWACS call, "SA-2 Active, western Kuwait!" I thought, "No kidding, he's on me!" I punched chaff, jinked right…and it went away…came back to egress heading…he's on me again…no kidding! My airspeed is down to 350 knots and I'm thinking, "This is it, he's got me!"

As you get slower the tracking solution is easier for the missile and I really had a solid spike, right at my dead six. I've got twenty miles to go to the border, but the SA-2 is closing at supersonic speed and I am convinced that the war is over for me. It was time to punch the tanks off. There is a little plastic cover over the jettison button so that you don't accidentally punch them off. The crew chief had glazed it over with white glue to make it look pretty. I bruised my finger, but the adrenaline rush got that button punched. The tanks came off the airplane, it was clean, and I started to accelerate. Right then, I heard a Weasel guy call "Magnum two." The SA-2 is gone…just like that, and I am outta there!"

While we all love seeing military aircraft put through their paces at airshows, it pales in compairson to what they do operationally. I've just posted an interview, courtesy of Lou Drendel, with one of the pilots in my squadron during Desert Storm, the 614th TFS from Torrejon AB, then Capt. (now BGen) Phil 'Ruhldog' Ruhlman, at the Lucky Devils in the Gulf War (http://www.lucky-devils.net) website.

Along with the the interview, we've got over 250 personal photos of our aircraft, people and places, a photo gallery of official USAF photos, articles, stories, and an opportunity to 'ride along', through HUD camera video, on the "Package Q" mission - the first daylight on downtown Baghdad, one of the most heavily defended targets ever attacked from the air.

I invite you to take a look and hope you enjoy my tribute to the people that support, maintain, and fly the aircraft that we all love to see.

...and you won't even have to sleep in a tent...

Mike Kopack

ex-Lucky Devil Viper Maintainer

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ET, whose aircraft you are riding during the video was not shot down during the Package Q mission. He was in fact one of our pilots who flew to Saudi Arabia after the war to meet Tico and Cujo after their release.

Mike Kopack

My apologies. The article on the site appeared to indicate that "Tico's" plane was the plane in the vid, and of course one of the two lost, so I took it that plane in question had been up twice that day; I stand corrected.:redface:

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...and just so I'm not completely off-topic... We also had some 'steel beasts' at our little base in Doha. These are our two M-60's, "King Kong" and "Godzilla" - yes, Air Force tanks (they were delivered on a ship marked "US Army" just to complete the irony). They were actual AF assets and were quickly marked as the 401st Armored EOD - as we were the 401st TFW (P).

d12.jpg

mike3.jpg

tanks2.jpg

Notice how well the OD green blends into the surroundings. We also wore woodland BDU's.

The plan was that if we had been attacked from the air and we had unexploded ordnance on the runways or taxiways, our EOD guys could use the MBT's blade to push them off of the tarmac. Fortunately we never had to put the theory to the test, but the tanks were fun to drive around in / on.

Visit the Lucky Devils and the Forgotten 1000 in the Gulf War at:

http://www.lucky-devils.net

Mike

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