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PRESENTED
BY
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By:
Randall Haskin USAF |
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| Aviation
Legend "Gabby" Gabreski Honored |
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| On
31 January, we lost one
of "the greats"
in fighter aviation
– Col Francis
"Gabby"
Gabreski, American ace of
the air wars in both WW2
and Korea. Nothing I can
write here will properly
give this hero the credit
he’s due, so
I’ll let you read up
on him yourself if you
don’t know who he
is. Col Gabreski also
shares a position in the
heritage of the Fighter
Wing that I’m
currently serving in, the
4th Fighter Wing (then
named the 4th
Fighter Interceptor
Wing), where he served as
Wing Vice Commander
during Korea.
Coincidentally, the
squadron he flew with was
the same as mine, too
– the 336th
Fighter Squadron
"Rocketeers." The
Rockets were thus the
lucky unit selected to
perform the missing man
formation flyby for his
funeral at Calverton
National Cemetery,
located on Long Island,
on Wednesday, 6 February
2002.
As luck
would have it, I walked
into my Squadron Monday
morning to see my name on
the schedule for the
flyby as #2 of a 6-ship
formation. The missing
man formation itself
would only consist of the
first four airplanes with
the last two tagging
along as "air
spares" in case
something happened to one
of the primary jets.
In a fighter
squadron, getting
"good deals" is
often a case of being in
the right place at the
right time – I was
deeply honored that I was
in the right place at the
right time to get a
chance to show my
respects to Gabby at his
burial, or above it at
least.
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| Tuesday,
the 12 of us (a 6-ship of
F-15Es is a whole room
full of people!) gathered
to plan out the mission.
Flying by a cemetery in
fingertip formation at a
precise time really
isn’t that demanding
of a mission, and we
don’t ever waste
precious (and expensive!)
flight time, so we were
going to cram as much
training as we possibly
could into the flights. Our
plan was to take off from
Seymour Johnson AFB,
located in eastern North
Carolina, perform the
flyby at Calverton, Long
Island, then land at
Andrews AFB, Maryland for
fuel. After the
gas-and-go stop,
we’d depart to the
west and fly the
low-level military
training route VR-1758
through the mountains of
West Virginia, then
return to Seymour
Johnson. My job was to
plan up a mock GBU-24
low-level-laser-guided
bomb attack that
we’d execute on the
low level.
When I
arrived at the squadron
Wednesday morning, I
found out that for some
reason the formation had
been re-arranged. Instead
of being "Caesar
12", I was now going
to be "Caesar
16", one of the
spare airplanes who would
also be tasked with
taking photos of the
event. I was a little
upset that I wouldn't get
to be one of the four who
actually flew across the
memorial in the
formation, but at least I
was still going to be
participating in the
event.
On the good
side, being in one of the
camera airplanes was
going to mean that
I’d get to test out
my recently purchased
digital camera.
I used be an
avid aviation
photographer, but since I
started flying for the
Air Force, that hobby has
sort of dropped by the
wayside. Many of the
things we do in fighter
aviation would make
stunning photos and
I’ve always wanted
to be able to take photos
of the jets I fly.
It’s USAF policy,
however, to not allow
fighter aircrew to take
cameras into the cockpit
because of the risk of
having an accident. Too
many folks in the past
have succumbed to the
attraction of creating a
"watch this"
type of moment for
cameras to capture, and
airplanes and lives have
been lost in the process.
Because of this I rarely
get to hone my air-to-air
photography skills. In
fact, this flight would
be the first time I would
actually get to take
pictures while airborne
in the Strike Eagle, and
I was certain this
formation flight would
provide many great photo
opportunities.
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| During
our preflight briefing,
we talked in detail about
the formations we’d
fly on the way up and
what our plan was for
looking good during the
flyby of the funeral. We
also pointed out several
points enroute that would
afford good opportunities
for photography of the
4-ship formation. After
the briefing, my WSO
"Gator" and I
talked about how to use
my camera and what kinds
of shots I wanted him to
take. I was going to take
as many photos as
possible, but for some of
the flight I’d be
busy flying formation,
and thus unable to take
pictures, too.
Fortunately
"Gator" is a
highly experienced
veteran with hundreds
hours in the back of F-4s
and is also a FAA
commercial multiengine
pilot. I trusted him to
fly during the portions
of the flight while I was
going to be taking
photos.
After
dressing in our flight
gear, we walked out to
our jets, quickly
preflighted them in the
light rain that was
falling, and stowed all
our equipment in the
cockpits. At the
appointed time, we
simultaneously fired up
our engines and performed
our preflight checks.
Some 20 minutes later,
the six F-15Es taxied out
under a gray Carolina
sky. The weather forecast
for the day showed clear
skies over New York, but
that was several hundred
miles away, so we’d
have to deal with a light
drizzle here at the home
station.
We took off
to the west, and turned
northeast headed for Long
Island. Once airborne,
the plan was to join up
the formation so we could
get some photos of the
4-ship prior to the
flyby.
Unfortunately,
there was a pretty solid
deck starting around
18,000 and going all the
way up to the mid 30s.
For fuel reasons,
we needed to fly at
FL290, so we climbed into
the weather in formation
hoping to break out as
soon as we could.
Spread out
like ducks in a row, the
6-ship was split into
three 2-ship formations
flying in 2 mile trail of
each other. Even
though we were in the
clouds, from the back of
the "train" we
could just make out the
dull gray specks of the 4
jets flying in front of
us. What really made them
stand out, though, was
that they were all
trailing thick white
contrails, looking every
bit like the Thunderbirds
or Blue Angels. It
would have made a
fantastic photo had it
been a blue sky, but the
white cons were tough to
see against the clouds! continue
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