proper target identified, the fire control computer
would present steering cues on the HUD, or heads-up display, a transparent
electronic screen in front of the pilot that allowed the pilot to read flight,
radar, and weapon information without looking down into the cockpit.
McKenzie’s
radar was picking up several air targets at altitudes between five and twenty
thousand feet, but there were not many aircraft flying around at eleven o’clock at night. About two minutes later, at a
range of about forty miles, McKenzie locked on to an aircraft that met the last
reported radar track information perfectly: “SIERRA PETE, Foxtrot Romeo has
radar contact on a bogey at thirty-eight miles, angels nine-point-five, bearing
zero-one- zero.”
“Foxtrot
Romeo, that’s your bogey.”
“Roger.
Foxtrot Romeo is judy, request clearance for the Special-9.”
“Foxtrot Romeo, this is SIERRA PETE,
you are cleared for Special-9 procedures.”
“Foxtrot
Romeo copies,” McKenzie said, the excitement spilling over in her voice.
Vincenti had to smile to himself. This was certainly not McKenzie’s first
intercept, or even her first night intercept, but it was one of her most
important. He remembered his first no-shit real-world night intercept well, a
Chinese airliner suspected of being a spy plane that was “drifting off course”
and trying to fly over the Alameda Naval Base near Oakland . That was over fifteen years ago.
That
was just one of the things Vincenti remembered in what had been, for him, a
pretty good career. He got into flying back in the 1960s, after receiving his
bachelor of arts degree in political science from West Virginia State University in 1967. He’d attended college on a
football scholarship. The typical jock. But unlike a lot of jocks who went on
to illustrious jobs like selling cars and getting flabby, Vincenti was unable
to avoid the draft and ended up in Officer Candidate School, where he received
a commission and attended pilot training in 1968. He flew 113 missions in Vietnam in the F-100 Super Sabre fighter-bomber and
the F-4D Phantom II fighter-bomber from 1969 to 1973, as well as holding
command positions in various tactical units.
Vincenti
went on to the Air Command and Staff College upon returning from Vietnam and joined tactical and training units in New Jersey and Arizona , but was later involuntarily separated from
the active-duty Air Force, after his second divorce. He got a position with the
California Air National Guard in 1978. Except for a brief deployment to Germany in 1986 and 1987, Vincenti had been flying
F- 106s, F-4Ds, and F-16 fighters from the Fresno Air Terminal for seventeen
years.
And
speaking of flying ... his mind immediately returned to the situation at hand.
In this intercept, McKenzie still had to remember her procedures and not get
caught up in the excitement. Vincenti checked a plastic-covered decoder device
strapped to his left leg, sliding a yellow plastic marker to the fifth row of
characters, then keyed his mike button: “SIERRA PETE, Foxtrot Romeo flight,
authenticate echo-echo.”
“SIERRA
PETE authenticates india ,” came the reply. It was the correct reply.
All intercept instructions that might place a fighter within close proximity of
another aircraft in a potentially unsafe manner had to be authenticated,
whether or not weapons were expected to be employed, using the daily
authenticator cards issued to every pilot. Hopefully, this one omission was
going to be the last one for Linda McKenzie tonight, Vincenti thought ruefully.
Well, that’s what wingmen were for—back up the leader at all times.
Unfortunately,
there was one switch McKenzie did forget.
On
a normal intercept, the
would present steering cues on the HUD, or heads-up display, a transparent
electronic screen in front of the pilot that allowed the pilot to read flight,
radar, and weapon information without looking down into the cockpit.
McKenzie’s
radar was picking up several air targets at altitudes between five and twenty
thousand feet, but there were not many aircraft flying around at eleven o’clock at night. About two minutes later, at a
range of about forty miles, McKenzie locked on to an aircraft that met the last
reported radar track information perfectly: “SIERRA PETE, Foxtrot Romeo has
radar contact on a bogey at thirty-eight miles, angels nine-point-five, bearing
zero-one- zero.”
“Foxtrot
Romeo, that’s your bogey.”
“Roger.
Foxtrot Romeo is judy, request clearance for the Special-9.”
“Foxtrot Romeo, this is SIERRA PETE,
you are cleared for Special-9 procedures.”
“Foxtrot
Romeo copies,” McKenzie said, the excitement spilling over in her voice.
Vincenti had to smile to himself. This was certainly not McKenzie’s first
intercept, or even her first night intercept, but it was one of her most
important. He remembered his first no-shit real-world night intercept well, a
Chinese airliner suspected of being a spy plane that was “drifting off course”
and trying to fly over the Alameda Naval Base near Oakland . That was over fifteen years ago.
That
was just one of the things Vincenti remembered in what had been, for him, a
pretty good career. He got into flying back in the 1960s, after receiving his
bachelor of arts degree in political science from West Virginia State University in 1967. He’d attended college on a
football scholarship. The typical jock. But unlike a lot of jocks who went on
to illustrious jobs like selling cars and getting flabby, Vincenti was unable
to avoid the draft and ended up in Officer Candidate School, where he received
a commission and attended pilot training in 1968. He flew 113 missions in Vietnam in the F-100 Super Sabre fighter-bomber and
the F-4D Phantom II fighter-bomber from 1969 to 1973, as well as holding
command positions in various tactical units.
Vincenti
went on to the Air Command and Staff College upon returning from Vietnam and joined tactical and training units in New Jersey and Arizona , but was later involuntarily separated from
the active-duty Air Force, after his second divorce. He got a position with the
California Air National Guard in 1978. Except for a brief deployment to Germany in 1986 and 1987, Vincenti had been flying
F- 106s, F-4Ds, and F-16 fighters from the Fresno Air Terminal for seventeen
years.
And
speaking of flying ... his mind immediately returned to the situation at hand.
In this intercept, McKenzie still had to remember her procedures and not get
caught up in the excitement. Vincenti checked a plastic-covered decoder device
strapped to his left leg, sliding a yellow plastic marker to the fifth row of
characters, then keyed his mike button: “SIERRA PETE, Foxtrot Romeo flight,
authenticate echo-echo.”
“SIERRA
PETE authenticates india ,” came the reply. It was the correct reply.
All intercept instructions that might place a fighter within close proximity of
another aircraft in a potentially unsafe manner had to be authenticated,
whether or not weapons were expected to be employed, using the daily
authenticator cards issued to every pilot. Hopefully, this one omission was
going to be the last one for Linda McKenzie tonight, Vincenti thought ruefully.
Well, that’s what wingmen were for—back up the leader at all times.
Unfortunately,
there was one switch McKenzie did forget.
On
a normal intercept, the
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