A LOMAC Mission Report: Red Lady Down

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We drove to the weapons depot and supervised as the weapons, B-8 rocket pods and two KMGU-2f pods loaded with AO-25 bomblets were loaded onto the wagons, then sent to the flight line. They were quickly loaded, and I gently lowered myself into the K-36 ejection seat.

It is overcast now. Kolya, the meteorologist, had warned Troy and I not to linger over Sukhumi for this. Visibility would be excellent for us, for a time. But in the afternoon... not so much. Afternoon rains had set in.

	Turbulence at all levels buffeted us as the MiGs rocketed off the airstrip into the grey sky.
	Ground control had computed a flight plan to keep us close to the ground and through mountain valleys, to be near as possible to Sukhumi base before we would break cover and engage. Vasily snuggled in tight to my wing as we entered the river network, sweeping into narrow gorges at near-supersonic speeds, jouncing up and down in the turbulent air.
	"It is like our first trip to Sukhumi, Sacha! Remember how we bounced down the coast?" "Yes, like the rubber ball." We flashed over ridge-lines and down into green, tree-lined valleys.
	Waypoint 7 is the Initial Point. There, Vasily and I would separate. I, to dash for the radar vehicle, which you Westerners call the "Straight-Flush," at high speed and CCIP the bomblets onto target. Thanks to the Predator, we had GCI relay of its location. It would be marked with a diamond in my HUD.

The action began sooner than I expected, as we near Waypoint 7. We turned at Waypoint 6 for the IP, into a wall of cloud.

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