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description=The musings & rants of 3 retired military (2 USAF, 1 USN), 1 former WSO, and 1 AF brat. Old AF Sarge, Juvat, Tuna, LUSH, and Beans.;

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landing seven kilometers away once on the ground sergeant chapman established communication with an ac 130 gunship to ensure the area was secure while providing close air support coverage for the entire team he then directed the gunship to begin the search for the missing team member he requested coordinated and controlled the helicopter that extracted the stranded team and aircrew members these actions limited the exposure of the aircrew and team to hostile fire without regard for his own life sergeant chapman volunteered to rescue his missing team member from an enemy stronghold shortly after insertion the team made contact with the enemy sergeant chapman engaged and killed two enemy personnel he continued to advance reaching the enemy position then engaged a second enemy position a dug in machine gun nest at this time the rescue team came under effective enemy fire from three directions from close range he exchanged fire with the enemy from minimum personal cover until he succumbed to multiple wounds his engagement and destruction of the first enemy position and advancement on the second position enabled his team to move to cover and break enemy contact in his own words his navy sea air land team leader credits sergeant chapman unequivocally with saving the lives of the entire rescue team through his extraordinary heroism superb airmanship aggressiveness in the face of the enemy and the dedication to the service of his country sergeant chapman reflects the highest credit upon himself and the united states air force holy crap talk about large gonads advancing by himself and destroying a manned machine gun position then turning and doing the same to a second position while severely and ultimately mortally wounded and this was the citation for the air force cross i d highly recommend reading the story here it took until 2018 for the air force cross to be upgraded to the medal of honor suffice it to say the politics and quid pro quo involved is a bit sickening i ve read a lot of moh stories this one takes the cake source greater love has no one than this to lay down one s life for one s friends john 15 13 niv boy no kidding lord i don t feel a need to be presented with a situation like that but if you say so please don t let me screw it up i ve said a prayer along those lines a time or two under some troubling instances in my day fortunately it was never needed peace out y all posted by juvat at 12 00 am 6 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels heroes medal of honor friday june 5 2026 and so it has begun february 27 2026 ok campers the fun has begun the construction was supposed to start on may 27th but things came up now it s this week but the weather forecast is for rain every day this week the horse barn construction will begin as soon as the weather cooperates a couple of reasons for the horses first plan first the horse area is located on the farthest end of the property from the gate and road better to keep them from getting out of the pasture and going partying on the road second they ve been boarded until now you d have thought they d been staying in the four seasons hotel george v in paris based on the boarding fee but it wasn t quite that good ok not even close yes beans boarding horses is expensive but they will be free to roam in a much larger area than where they ve been cooped up in since we moved here in december so we and they have that going for us now that our builder got back from his vacation the pouring of the slab ceremony will soon be celebrated and construction of our home begun well when the rain stops the forecast is for rain the next 6 days bummer dude completion date is still maybe december but completion is easier to estimate once building has begun as they get organized with the building teams and their schedules my brother s cottage will also be started it ll be about 900 sq ft which is bigger than the cottage he was living in on our property in fredericksburg so onward and upward at some point they ll put in my wood shop and mrs j s sewing cabin and that will be that until we think of something else we need just to give y all a feel for the property enjoy so that s life around here these days speaking thereof tomorrow i ll begin traveling my 72nd turn around the sun i have no plans to call it quits that s up to the guy upstairs thank you lord peace out y all posted by juvat at 1 00 am 18 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels construction thursday june 4 2026 air to air combat i ve been posting air force medal of honor recipient stories for a week or so sarge needed a break i find them interesting especially the ones i m unfamiliar with so you ll be seeing a few more soon however i decided i d resuscitate a posting from one of the first posts i put up 13 years ago or so through the years we ve discussed one of my heroes a few times here s one of my favorite stories about him unfortunately source so off we go air to air combat is fun and exciting in practice i suspect that when it s for real the fun part drops off tell me if i m wrong ed rasimus and i were both assigned to the 435tfts at holloman afb nm suffice it to say that even though i was qualified as an experienced fighter pilot flying time wise i learned a lot more from ras during flight briefings and debriefings and in the air than i thought possible some of the most important things i learned from him were taught in the squadron bar after he pcs d to fort carson for his last assignment in the air force as an alo i lost touch with him and didn t reconnect with him until i saw his book when thunder rolled on amazon bought it immediately and started reading it was like being in the bar again i d heard most of those stories a few years ago i managed to track him down and restablish our friendship unfortunately he s no longer with us heaven to me would be flying fighters against and with both he and vegas yes that would be heaven but rereading that post really triggered a memory of one flight he and i had together while at holloman basic fighter maneuvers bfm are exactly what the name implies at the most basic level how do you maneuver a fighter so as to kill another fighter and or avoid being killed yourself it s not just pull on the pole as hard as you can it s using your energy wisely regaining it when you can using gravity to enhance the effect most of the lead in fighter training program consisted of bfm rides and throughout the flying portion of my career a sizeable portion of my rides were bfm also whether i was in an air to air squadron or an air to ground squadron bfm skills are critical and very perishable bfm rides involved two aircraft a 1 v 1 and typically there were two types of setups in the first setup one jet takes a position 30 to 45 degrees off the tail of the other and 6000 9000 away in a real world fight this is a very dangerous position for the person in front to be in once participants are ready the fight is started with a fight s on call and maneuvering commences the fight typically continues until a kill shot is taken by one or the other fighter a fighter manages to disengage successfully the desired learning point has been achieved or a safety factor is encountered over g going through minimum altitude min fuel etc the second type of setup is a neutral setup typically called a butterfly the two jets start in tactical formation about 6 9k apart and the flight lead calls for a turn away from each other of 45 degrees at some point the flight lead calls for the turn in and both aircraft turn back towards each other for a head on pass the flight lead will call fight s on at some point typically immediately prior to the pass so that maneuvering can begin this now leads to a decision on the part of both fighter pilots do i want a two circle fight or a one circle fight there s an excellent discussion of this here but basically if your turn radius is better than the other jet s try for a one circle back in the day i used to be able to draw a fight diagram much better my apologies if your turn rate is not better than the other try for a two circle fight because you ve got more turning room to use i say try because the other guy also gets a vote in the fight he has to turn in the direction you expect him to otherwise i was about to learn how to make that happen so there i was ras and i were scheduled for an ip currency 1 v 1 bfm ride in beak charlie the closest air to air area to holloman basically we would be fighting air to air against each other for currency cloudcroft nm was the western boundary roswell the eastern and ruidoso the northern that proximity meant we d have maximum gas for fighting typically when these rides went on the schedule they were immediately filled by students riding in the back seats however this time it was just ras and i he had told the duty officer not to allow any students you ll understand why shortly briefing was short and sweet here s the frequencies joker and bingo fuel levels and a discussion of which bfm setup we were going to use butterfly we had flown together enough as ips that not much else was needed we step to the jets crank up formation takeoff and we re in the area a couple of g awareness turns the at 38b was getting old and we needed to tune our bodies to what the mandated g limit was so that we didn t overstress the aircraft and reduce its lifespan must have worked this story occurred about 30 years ago and the airplanes are still flying everything s ready to go a quick fuel check from ras and he calls for the turn away i check 45 away and rollout snap my head around so as to keep sight of ras got him we continue on heading for a bit and he calls turn in i m pulling right on the g limit get pointed at him and unload the aircraft to get some speed back we re about a mile out now and i m planning for a two circle fight since i m a little above him i plan to slice down to the left leading the turn as much as i can at that point ras calls fight s on and pulls up and takes a head on gun shot at the time the safety rules prohibited any gun shots within 45 degrees either side of head on so i d never seen a head on shot also since the guns on most fighters are boresighted with the aircraft where the gun is pointed is where the aircraft is pointed if ras has taken a gunshot the gun is pointed at me and so is his aircraft ras passes close aboard this has left me somewhat startled and there s a pause before i start to maneuver i roll left and start the pull expecting ras to have done the same which should put him somewhere above my tail pointed away i can t see him and call blind another safety thing if he calls blind also we knock it off and get altitude separation he calls continue i m in big trouble he sees me i m still frantically searching for him looking over my left down shoulder when something catches the corner of my eye i crank around to the right just in time to see ras swooping down on the back side of his vertical circle he s gone for a one circle fight using the vertical and by virtue of being below me and pulling up for the shot he s lead turned me when he got to the top of his loop he was slow and inverted so gravity helped him turn much faster fortunately he s not in guns range yet but he s closing fast i break back right and up trying to force his nose into lag pointed behind me but i m running out of airspeed and he s not i see his nose slide out in front of me and i start to make out the intakes on the side of his jet with my eyesight at the time that was my indication that he was about 2500 away aka guns range with my eyesight now i think he d be in my back seat before i saw intakes i roll the aircraft until the canopy is about 45 degrees below the horizon and plant the stick in my lap i m jinking hard roll the aircraft again push the stick forward again and again and again but ras is still back there he hasn t called any shots but i ain t getting away either i m expecting a knock it off for lesson learned but no i m jinking for about a month and a half until we get to bingo knock it off and head home back in the debrief ras walks in with a couple of beers hands one to me and says juvat there are no safety roe rules of engagement in combat and there s no knock it off then he took a couple of sips of beer as he let me ponder that he then followed with best jinking i ve ever seen i never got a shot let s talk about how you did that i want to learn how i miss him if you d like to read more of his stories and i highly recommend you do he published three books before he passed one in conjunction with robin olds the other two autobiographies about his assignments yes beans more than one in south east asia excellent stories rest in peace warrior ed you deserve it peace out y all joker fuel means keep an eye on your gas this is the last engagement bingo fuel means knock it off rejoin on me and we re headed home enough gas to get home and land with a safe amount of fuel in case something bad happens at the base what s the difference between a fairy tale and a war story a fairy tale starts with once upon a time and a war story starts with so there i was posted by juvat at 12 00 am 12 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels aircraft dogfighting flying older posts home subscribe to posts atom labels monday 239 vignettes 145 a short burst 142 random musings 91 real history 87 to the rhine 69 guest post 67 1941 60 uprising 59 real life 52 the ride of the valkyrie 51 1940 49 d day normandy 49 john blackshoe 49 holidays 45 im ost 42 les cent jours 41 travels 37 fall of berlin vignette 36 1942 35 family 32 flying 32 france 29 la rivière 28 the war 27 north africa 26 travel day 26 revolution 22 vignette 22 i got nothin 20 norway 19 sigh a rerun 19 ukraine 19 grandkids 18 music 18 woodworking 18 christmas 17 mild rant 17 rant 17 memories 16 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