USN Downs USAF

Story is pretty accurate coming from someone who was not there. Who
gave the details? The USAF orthe USN? Can disuss more in detail if required.

Splash

Splash,

Do you have any information to add to this story? Rowdy wrote the article and got the details on line from multiple sources. I was at Ramstien when this happened and remember the shit storm that followed in close trail, but overall it was kept pretty quiet. About that same time, someone in the 526th shot down their wingman at WSEP with a heater. My personnel favorite was in Alaska when a wingman shot down his flight lead with a heater during a practice intercept on the way to alert with live missiles. The call was a classic -- "Fox 2, oh shit I forgot, lead break left with flares!" As Bluto would say --- "Holy Shitda." There's another story we will have to run.

Jolly

Any historian out there want to address the F4 v F4 shoot down off the coast of NC? Shit happens.

Note to self: when alone and unafraid, do not fly straight and level with a fighter parked at 6 o'clock, especially when said fighter pilot is fragged for live fire ex and is determined to get an X in the box.

Jolly,
The wingman in Alaska didn't shoot down his flight lead. Close, though. It was a BFM set-up and the lead aircraft, 0054, survived the attack and flew again in 1991. Good jet, flew it many times after the heater damage was all fixed up. Gomer

This is a story that I have personal interest in, and it is quite refreshing to read its details from someone else’s point of view.I am not a pilot, but I was a young Aviation Electrician’s mate with the F-14 squadron involved in this incident.
I was twenty-two years old, and I was on top of the world, fixing state of the art fighter jets aboard the USS Saratoga. Far from the kid I was three years prior, shoveling cold patch into potholes for the borough. As a troubleshooter for VF-74, I was often tasked with doing quick repairs between flights. On this particular day, I did a repair on aircraft number 101, a beautiful new plane that still had the original factory paint. The F-14 was not a fly-by-wire plane which links the cockpit controls to the hydraulic systems electrically. This plane linked the cockpit controls to the hydraulic systems mechanically. The turtleback section ran along the plane’s spine and was predominantly occupied with the mechanical linkage that connected cockpit controls to the control surface actuators. The repair that I performed was in the turtleback section just aft of the cockpit bulkhead. Any debris or tools left behind during maintenance in this area could have serious and catastrophic effects on the controllability of the airplane. After the repair, I accompanied the plane and its crew to the catapult for a routinely uneventful launch.
With all the planes launched, I retreated to the AE shop for quick rest break before having to receive the birds from the previous sorties. I no sooner sat my ass down when Master Chief shouted over the bitch box “One-O-One is in the water”. The thought of a new plane crashing due to a mechanical failure did not even enter into my mind, let alone the possibility of being shot down. In my mind, there were only two possible reasons for this catastrophe: pilot error or maintenance error. I immediately rechecked to see that all my tools were in their proper place. My stomach was in a knot with the thought that I may be directly responsible for the loss of a plane and its crew. A trail of black smoke against the brilliant blue sky a few points abaft the ship’s starboard beam came into view, as I climbed onto flight deck’s port side by the waist catapults. Although still very concerned for the wellbeing of the crew, I felt somewhat relieved by the image in the sky. I was fairly certain that any mistake that I may have made in my repairs to the plane could not have caused a plane to break up in such fiery fashion. I headed starboard across the deck. There were orange flames of burning fuel on the sea’s surface eight or so miles away with a column of black smoke reaching thousands of feet skyward. A crowd was gathering as I stopped at the scupper to stare in awe at the distant wreckage. Behind me, a helicopter was readying for the rescue. The voice of a shipmate called to me. “Mac,” he said, “Master Chief just called back to say that he was mistaken, it seems that 101 did not crash, but actually shot down another plane, possibly an Italian fighter jet.” Feeling much relieved, I figured I would just let the situation unfold and present the truth without rumored speculation. I proceeded forward to prepare for the next round of recoveries and launches as Air boss ordered “All non-essential personnel off the flight deck, helmets on, goggles down, float coats on, and sleeves rolled down” in preparation for the resumption of flight operations. I found myself atop another plane doing a preflight inspection as the rescue helicopter was returning. “Please God,” I said lowly, “no bodies.” The helicopter landed, the door opened, and the rescued crew of two was helped onto the deck. They walked toward the island as my cheer blended with the cheers of my surrounding shipmates. The smug looks upon the faces of these two men and the obvious removal of national insignia from their olive drab flight suits indicated to me that these were not the faces of an Italian crew.
With the flight deck in full operation, I anxiously awaited the return of 101. The plane trapped, and I could see the tell tale markings of soot from AIM-9 on the starboard side of the aircraft. My skipper, with cupped hands around his mouth, called to me from the starboard catwalk outside of maintenance control, “What’s it look like, Mac?” “It doesn’t look good, Skip,” I hollered back, shaking my head as I made my way toward him. Acquiring a more conversation permitting distance, I continued, “You’re missing a missile.” After an uncharacteristically explosive rant and string of obscenities, Skipper stormed off below deck.
Part of my duties as a troubleshooter was to follow the crews to the office of our squadron’s maintenance control and debrief them about the performance of the plane’s avionics during their flight. My experiences with this particular young pilot were not very positive, and I did not share the same admiration for him as I did for most every officer in my squadron. In fact, I can not even remember his name. He parked the plane and shut her down as two personnel from ship’s security approached. The plane captain lowered the ladder and flipped open the steps to enable the crew to deplane. The men from security moved closely alongside the crew as they exited the plane. I could not help asking the pilot as he was being escorted away, “Sir… how did she fly today?” He just shot back a snidely glare as the two men directed him and his RIO toward the island, no doubt to stand in front of the ship’s captain. That was the last I ever saw of Mister what’s-his-name.
Fast forward a month or so, and a recovered piece of the wrecked United States Air Force RF-4C sat on the deck of the ship. It was an external fuel tank with some rather large openings torn into it. Someone had placed a sticker next to the larger of the holes; it was a sticker of our squadron’s emblem. As I stood looking at the tank along with two other electricians, another shipmate approached us. As this shipmate grew closer, my two comrades turned away swiftly, and uneasily moved on. Looking up, I snapped to attention, saluted and said sharply, “Good evening, Admiral Boorda.” “As you were, young man,” he responded with a smile. The two of us had a rather candid conversation as everyone else around us kept their distance. Taps played over the 1MC as the sun set and we continued on conversing. I do not remember all the details of the conversation that followed, but I do remember somewhat defending the pilot’s actions that brought down the F-4, citing perhaps a breakdown in communication contributed to the incident. The admiral shot back with a rather colorful remark concerning the character of the pilot. The pilot’s father was also an admiral and Mr. Boorda was much more familiar with this man than I was. I laughingly agreed with his opinion of the man saying, “Yea… I’m not a big fan”. He laughed back, “Well, young man, you won’t have to worry about dealing with him anymore, for that SOB will never fly again.”

I was an AW3 flying in Troubleshooter 611 with Helantisubron Three, The Mighty Tridents. We had just switched out with another Sikorsky SH3H from plane guard to the ASW duties when I heard the Mayday. I was still dressed out from starboard D and moved toward the door with my SAR gear when I heard the unfortunate call from the PG bird: "this is troubleshooter 610"... shoot in sight." AW3 Eric Buchan picked up one of the survivors and they air taxi'd him to the other. The first thing one of them said when the swimmer asked him if he was okay was: "Are the pilots okay?". They believed that they had a midair with the F-14. In the helo, Petty Officer Buchan immediately ripped off their Name tags from their flight suits, which he later sewed on his leather flight jacket. One of the strange things I noticed was that the pictures of the F14 pilot and RIO were gone from the VF-74 picture board by the time we landed. Another humorous incedent from the wardroom that I heard was that the pilot from the F4, (wearing a brand new set of Navy Khakis from the ships store) said: "Its not that we were shot down that worries me. It's that we were shot down by the Navy."
Brett A. Moore
AW1(AW/SW/NAC)
US Navy (ret)

Splash,

I remember you telling this story at Mather... thought you'd be excited to know that the shooter just got promoted to O-7. Wild True Facts, Over.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/16/admiral-nominee-rose-through-ranks-despite-illogic/?page=all

This story is absolutely true; I was flying Vipers with the 10th TFS out of Hahn AB Germany when that knuckle-putz, Dorsey, shot down the RF-4. As a USAFE stan eval team augentee, I later wound up TDY with both of the recce bird's crew members,and their description of the event matches the account written here to a tee. The surprise of being told by the flat-top's skipper that they'd been shot down resulted in the AF WSO having to be restrained from later killing "Mr SA" in a passageway with his bare hands. From what he told me later, I think Dorsey's RIO was actually, and admittedly deserving, to be first in line for that honor! For the honor of many excellent Navy jocks I flew DACT against over the following years, who still didn't like to acknowledge this "incident," I think the RIO should have been allowed to proceed!

"E.T." Holm

I was an enlisted f-16 crew chief stationed at Torrejon AB, Spain when this event happened. Aviano AB, Italy was my unit's (14th FS lucky Devils) forward operating location for cold war ops. We were TDY there for an exercise. I remember two RF-4s parked outside Transient Alert in the Sierra Loop. Although the USSR was our primary adversary at the time, tensions were running high with Libya as well. On a sunny afternoon of normal F-16 sortie launch and recovery, the word got around that we'd splashed a jet. At first I thought it was one of our Vipers, but then somebody said it was one of the TA F-4s and it was shot down! Wow! We're about to go at it with Libya big time I thought. Nope... it wasn't Libya we're told... it was our own US Navy! I still thought Libya had to be involved until my fellow crew dogs and I saw a Navy C-2 on approach for landing. We jumped in our flight line maintenance expediter van and sneaked as close as we could to TA. There was a fair amount of "brass" hanging out so we kept a safe distance so we wouldn't get yelled at. The C-2 was marshaled to a stop and the side door was opened. Out stepped what was apparently the F-4 crew. As I remember it, they were dressed in Navy tan flight suits. One Pilot had his arm in a sling. When I was stationed at Misawa in the 1990s,, Japan I worked with a Viper Pilot named TJ Perrerra (spelling?). He was an RF-4 RSO stationed at Zwiebruken, Germany, the victim F-4's home base, when this all went down and remembered it clearly. It was nice to have some "back-up" for one of my many war stories. Thanks for your article. Nice to see the rest of the story.

Don Russell
USAF SMSgt (Ret)

Nice research. Ten % rule not invoked here, this account is 100% accurate!!! One of my TPS Classmates was in VF-74 with the young man at the time of this shoot down. Hey, a "kills a kil"l just doesn't seem appropriate, the Zoomies (big football players) were very lucky to escape this bafoonery.