|
A LOMAC Mission Report:
My First Medal!
Back
To Page 2
“Colt
11 ready for takeoff.”
Ahead
of us, two British Tornadoes, carrying ALARM anti-radar missiles,
are aloft and heading for target. They will suppress the Sheik’s
minions while I dash for target, and Col. Martin observes
me.
I firewall
the throttles and the big fans spool up.
“Two,
rolling.” Col. Martin is right with me, pulling his
A-10 off the runway first. I hold the nose down to ensure
I have plenty of speed, then gently rotate my 727 off the
runway, pulling up gear and sliding into position over the
railroad tracks leading out of Adler, heading south at 300
feet.
“Smoothly
done, one-one.”
“Thank
you. This craft is marvelous to fly!”
And it
is! It does not wallow like hog at all! Your A-10 has wonderful
pilot aids. It is so easy to navigate — just line up
the marks on the HUD. It is like Su-27 or MiG-29, almost.
Much easier to master than Su-25, in which I trained. We skim
along, just three to four hundred feet high, following the
railroad line. We sweep over a train, and a fire truck motoring
slowly along the Adler-Gudauta highway. Unlike the last mission
to Sukhumi, there is minimal turbulence.
I have
binoculars in my pilot bag. Six miles ahead, and two thousand
feet high, are the British. They have good vantage and can
see much. My AN/ALR-69 RWR reciever is beeping the signals
of Shilka vehicles and the Tarantul’s radar. As we close,
cruiser Moskva is busy, though. She is pounding the tiny harbor
with Bazalt missiles. Muqtadeh’s Tarantul missile corvette
has impudently challenged Moskva with a Kh-41 missile, which
the cruiser easily downed with SA-N-6. Now, the Sheikh’s
men will pay. Three P-500 missiles slam into the waterfront
as the British, high above, watch. One, into a tanker come
with unknown chemicals. It was our secondary target! Two more,
into the missile-boat.
“Two,
IP.”
“Roger.”
Go
To Page 4
Click here
to go to top of this page.
|
