From Mission Set 3:
680601 – Disappearing River
Now, about the time I left the area in “Misty” while drawing more gunfire than ducks over Central Texas, the F-4s were closing right in behind me.
I should know, because on the next mission, Disappearing River, I’m flying one of them. The Rhino is still my favorite of the Cold War-era jets. Big, mean, menacing and as attractive as a mud fence, it represents everything about the power and destruction brought by combat aviation.
This just looks humid as hell.
I follow the coastline and it’s not long until I hear that Misty has hit the waypoint and marked the targets. From a distance I can see white puffs following an aircraft desperately trying to leave the area as quick as possible.
Is that… yep, that’s me…
I arm up the CBU’s first. Judging from the amount of flak that’s chasing the Misty FAC across the sky, I hope to God that one pass does it. Seeing the trucks right above the radome on the nose of my aircraft, I punch off the CBUs and haul back on the stick, pushing the burners like a madman. I can see tracers sailing past my windows and white puffs of smoke crashing around me. They saw me, and they don’t appreciate my showing up after they couldn’t kill the FAC.
…about ten minutes ago.
A little Bondo, new tires…yeah, you’re still gonna be dead.
So there I was…running my ass off.
I could have hung around to see what happened next. I didn’t want to.
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