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Just thought I'd relay the story if what was going on during the flight in 309 on the 29th.
It was a pretty tough day for me, all told.
Every 18 months, USAF pilots must have a Mission Checkride. This is a flight evaluated for your permanent record in which you have to demonstrate proficiency at your combat qualifications.
I have also spent this spring in a 4-ship Flight Lead qualification program. I was a 4-ship flight lead in my previous assignment, but when I was assigned at Lakenheath I was initially only qualified as a 2-ship lead. The upgrade back to 4-ship lead should have happened quickly, but a variety of reasons -- from the requirement in my current job to spend a lot more time driving a desk and pushing papers to the Afghanistan deployment last summer -- kept me from becoming a 4-ship lead. The upgrade is capped off with a checkride in which I have to demonstrate proficiency leading 4 jets through a simulated combat mission.
This sortie in which I'm pictured is the mission which was both my Mission Checkride as well as my 4-ship flight lead evaluation. A double-whammy. No pressure there.
It was a stressful sonafabitch to plan and prepare for -- took two solid days of work to get ready for a single 1.5 hour flight.
The mission itself was a simulated combat mission, what we call a Surface Attack - Tactics (SAT) ride. This is where you fight your way into a target, bomb the target, then fight your way back out. For as much of a pain as it was to prepare for, it was equally a SOB to brief and execute.
Things went poorly for me from the beginning, as I had to maintenance ground abort my jet for a reason I don't remember. You'll notice in the photo that I don't have external fuel tanks...the original jet did, and the other three jets in my flight all had tanks. The "spare" aircraft that I took didn't have them, meaning I had a lot less gas than the rest of my flight.
So, the sortie went okay initially. We got to the rally point, pushed into the route to the target on time, and even had a reasonable success against the bandits that were protecting the target area.
The problems arose when we tried to execute the target attack we had planned. The problem was that the attack was not executable. It was a giant mistake which had been made during the mission planning process which meant that we simply would not be able to find the target, adhere to the strict rules of engagement, and guide our bomb to the point of impact.
The result of this was that my less experienced wingmen both missed the target.
Ordinarily this is a contingency that we plan and practice dealing with. We have a plan to go back and re-attack the target, and we had one on this day, too. Unfortunately, this plan did not take into account that I would have 10,000 pounds less fuel than the rest of the flight! So, I had to go home early because I ran out of gas.
The end result was, a successful checkride, but NOT a successful 4-ship flight lead evaluation. I lead the formation fine, but because I flew home alone, I could not fulfill all the requirements for the flight lead evaluation.
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