After driving across North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and into Nevada– we finally, finally arrived at Nellis in early December 2016 – what would end up being my final military assignment. 2,400 miles and what’s supposed to be a 35 hour drive; I can tell you this, Tennessee is a long, long state!!!
We signed into Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas with a feeling that this may be the last stop of our military journey. Not knowing what would be next or how long we’d stay but that would become clearer as the first year progressed. I’ve loved the historical aspect of every base that I’ve been so we’ll start there. Except with Nellis, I’m going to stick with two big aspects; Red Flag and the world famous Thunderbirds!
Red Flag is the U.S. Air Force's premier air-to-air combat training exercise. Participants often include both United States and allied nations' combat air forces. The exercise provides aircrews the experience of multiple, intensive air combat sorties in the safety of a training environment. First held in 1975, Red Flag exercises bring together aircrews from the United States Air Force (USAF), United States Navy (USN), United States Marine Corps (USMC), United States Army (USA) and numerous NATO and allied nations' air forces. The origin of Red Flag was the unacceptable performance of U.S. Air Force fighter pilots and weapon systems officers in air-to-air combat during the Vietnam War in comparison to previous wars. Air combat over North Vietnam between 1965 and 1973 led to an overall exchange ratio (ratio of enemy aircraft shot down to the number of own aircraft lost to enemy fighters) of 2.2:1 (for a while in June and July 1972 during Operation Linebacker the ratio was less than 1:1).
An Air Force analysis known as Project Red Baron II showed that a pilot's chances of survival in combat dramatically increased after he had completed ten combat missions. As a result, Red Flag was created in 1975 to offer USAF pilots and weapon systems officers the opportunity to fly ten realistically simulated combat missions in a safe training environment with measurable results. Many U.S. aircrews had also fallen victim to Surface-to-Air missiles during the Vietnam War, and Red Flag exercises provided pilots and weapon systems officer’s experience in this regime as well.
Today, the 414th Combat Training Squadron (414 CTS) is the unit currently tasked with running Red Flag exercises, while the 64th Aggressor Squadron (64 AGRS) also based at Nellis AFB uses F-16 aircraft to emulate the MiG-29 Fulcrum. These aircraft continue to be painted in the various camouflage schemes of potential adversaries. An additional squadron at Nellis, the 65th Aggressor Squadron (65 AGRS), operated F-15 aircraft in various camouflage schemes of potential adversaries to replicate Su-27 Flanker and Su-35 Flanker threats. However, the 65 AGRS was inactivated on September 26th, 2014 due to the Fiscal Year 2015 budget constraints imposed upon the Air Force that zero-lined the squadron's budget.
One major incident that happened while I was stationed at Nellis happened on January 29th, 2018. Right before Red Flag, a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Boeing EA-18G Growler burst into flames and skidded off the runway. A RAAF investigation concluded that one of the electronic warfare aircraft's General Electric F414 turbofan engines experienced an uncontained catastrophic failure. Both crew were relatively unharmed, but it left a mess to clean up at the end of the runway, that’s for sure!
Red Flag exercises were an aspect that bonded me with a previous assignment. While I was stationed at Eielson, we had the same sort of exercises, called Red Flag-Alaska. I truly loved how my experiences in one location often translated to an overall understanding to the mission at a completely different base in a completely different position. While in Alaska, I had started out as a fuels controller, worked in our refueling maintenance section, and worked my way up into a FISC position. Here at Nellis, I started out as the Distribution Section Chief and would find myself as the Fuels Superintendent at this busy, busy base!
The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force known worldwide as The Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third-oldest formal flying aerobatic team in the world, after the French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931 and the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946. The Thunderbirds Squadron tours the United States and much of the world, performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in specially marked aircraft. The squadron's name is taken from the legendary creature that appears in the mythologies of several indigenous North American cultures.
From the end of the runway the four-ship Thunderbird team get ready to begin their takeoff roll with the words "Thunderbirds, let's run em up!" being retransmitted from the team leader's mic through the PA system for the crowd to hear.
Diamond: Historically, as Thunderbirds 1 through 4 lift off, the slot aircraft slips immediately into position behind 1 to create the signature Diamond formation. Thanks to the 2009 upgrade to the Block 52, the Diamond now has more than enough thrust to continue to climb straight up into their first maneuver, the Diamond Loop.
Solos: Thunderbird 5 takes to the air next, performing a clean low altitude aileron roll, followed by 6 who performs a split S, climbing in a near vertical maneuver, rolling over and diving back toward show center and pulling up just above the runway to exit in the opposite direction.
Much of the Thunderbirds' display alternates between maneuvers performed by the diamond, and those performed by the solos. They have a total of eight different formations: The Diamond, Delta, Stinger, Arrowhead, Line-Abreast, Trail, Echelon and the Five Card. The Arrowhead involves maneuvers in tight formation with as little as 18 inches (46 cm) fuselage to canopy separation. They perform formation loops and rolls or transitions from one formation to another. All maneuvers are performed at speeds of 450 to 500 mph.
The opposing solos usually perform their maneuvers just under the speed of sound (500 to 700 mph) and show off the capabilities of their individual aircraft by doing maneuvers such as fast passes, slow passes, fast rolls, slow rolls, and very tight turns. Some of their maneuvers include both solo aircraft at once, such as opposing passes (passing in close proximity to each other) and mirror formations (two aircraft being flown back-to-back in the calypso pass or belly-to-belly). In mirror formations, one Thunderbird must be inverted, and it is always number 5. In fact, the number 5 on this aircraft is painted upside-down, and thus appears right-side-up for much of the routine. There is also an extra amount of humor regarding the inverted performance of Thunderbird 5: the pilots all wear tailored flight suits with their name and jet number embroidered on the left breast. The suit for the pilot of the number 5 airplane has the number sewn upside-down.
Nearing the end the Diamond pulls straight up into the vertical to perform the signature "Bomb Burst," where all four aircraft break off in separate directions while a solo goes straight up through the maneuver and performs aileron rolls until three miles above the ground. At the end of the routine, all six aircraft join in formation, forming the Delta.
One of the Thunderbirds' standing engagements is the annual commencement ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The jets fly over Falcon Stadium at the precise moment the cadets throw their hats into the air at ceremony's end.
The first plane used by the Thunderbirds was the straight-wing F-84G Thunderjet. Because the Thunderjet was a single-seat fighter, a two-seat T-33 Shooting Star served as the narrator's aircraft and was used as the VIP/Press ride aircraft. The T-33 served with the Thunderbirds in this capacity in the 1950s and 1960s. In the spring of 1955, they moved to the swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak aircraft, in which they performed 91 air shows, and received their first assigned support aircraft, a C-119 Flying Boxcar. The Thunderbirds' aircraft were again changed in June 1956, to the F-100C Super Sabre, which gave the team supersonic capability. For a time, if the show's sponsor permitted it, the pilots would create a sonic boom; this ended when the FAA banned supersonic flight over the continental United States. The team switched to the F-105 Thunderchief for the 1964 season, but were forced to re-equip with the F-100D after only six airshows due to a catastrophic structural failure of the No. 2 aircraft during a pitch-up maneuver that resulted in the death of Capt Gene Devlin at Hamilton Air Force Base. The F-100D Super Sabre was retained through the 1968 season. By 1967, the Thunderbirds had flown 1,000 shows. In 1969, the squadron re-equipped with the front-line F-4E Phantom, which it flew until 1973, the only time the Thunderbirds would fly jets similar to those of the Blue Angels as it was the standard fighter for both services in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the 1973 oil crisis, the team flew only six air shows and was grounded for some time. However, in 1974 they switched to the more economical T-38 Talon. Five T-38s used the same amount of fuel needed for one F-4 Phantom. The switch to the T-38 also saw an alteration of the flight routine to exhibit the aircraft's maneuverability in tight turns, and also ended the era of the black tail on the No. 4 slot plane, which would now be regularly cleaned and shined like the others. n 1982, the Thunderbirds suffered a catastrophic loss during pre-season training on 18 January.[1] While practicing the four-plane diamond loop, the formation impacted the ground at high speed, instantly killing all four pilots: Major Norman L. Lowry (commander/leader), Captain Willie Mays, Captain Joseph N. "Pete" Peterson, and Captain Mark Melancon. The cause of the crash was determined by the USAF to be the result of a mechanical problem with the No. 1 aircraft's control stick actuator. This resulted in insufficient back pressure by the formation leader on the T-38 control stick during the loop. Visually cueing off of the lead aircraft during formation maneuvering, the wing and slot pilots disregarded their positions relative to the ground. The team's activities were suspended for six months pending investigation of the crashes and review of the program, then reinstituted using the General Dynamics F-16A Fighting Falcon in 1983 and were upgraded to the F-16C (now produced by Lockheed Martin) in 1992, the aircraft that they still fly to this day! The Thunderbirds have performed at over 4,000 airshows worldwide, accumulating millions of miles in hundreds of different airframes over the course of their more than fifty-four years of service. Flying high-performance fighter jets is inherently dangerous; when flying in extremely close formation, the danger is compounded. In total, twenty-one Thunderbirds pilots have been killed in the team's history. Only three fatal crashes have occurred during air shows.
My time just before arriving and while at Nellis saw an unfortunate string of Thunderbird accidents:
2 June 2016: Major Alex Turner, flying Thunderbird No. 6, crashed in a field near Colorado Springs, Colorado after performing a flyover at the United States Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The F-16 pilot ejected and was unhurt. Investigation revealed that the aircraft's engine was inadvertently shut down at the start of landing procedures when a faulty throttle trigger permitted the throttle to be rotated into an engine cut-off position. In a strange twist later that day, the Thunderbirds' Naval counterparts in the Blue Angels suffered a fatal crash of their own.
23 June 2017: Capt. Erik Gonsalves was injured when, during landing, Thunderbird No. 8 ran off the runway and overturned prior to the Vectren Dayton Air Show. The pilot and a passenger, Technical Sgt. Kenneth Cordova, were trapped in the aircraft for over an hour. Cordova was uninjured. The investigation revealed excessive air speed coupled with landing too far down a wet runway caused the jet to leave the airstrip and flip over. Rain on the canopy windscreen and failure to follow proper braking procedures during the landing contributed to the accident.
4 April 2018: Maj Stephen Del Bagno, slot pilot, was killed when his aircraft, Thunderbird No. 4, crashed over the Nevada Test and Training Range, during a routine aerial demonstration training flight. Del Bagno, along with five other elite Thunderbird pilots, was practicing an aerial maneuver called the High Bomb Burst Rejoin, and flew inverted for about 22 seconds at about 5,500 to 5,700 feet above ground level, where he experienced up to negative two G-forces. He then started a descending half-loop maneuver called the Split-S, reaching a maximum of 8.56 Gs after five seconds. The extreme G-forces caused him to lose consciousness and be absolutely incapacitated for the next five seconds. About a second before hitting the ground he recovered somewhat and started trying to recover his F-16CM, but it was too late. He did not attempt to eject. Del Bagno, whose call sign was “Cajun,” was an experienced F-35 pilot, whose love of flying, enthusiasm and excitement for his first season with the Thunderbirds was apparent to all. In a January video documenting the moment he and other newly minted Thunderbirds received their iconic red flight helmets, Del Bagno called it “a fantastic day.”
If you ever have a chance to visit Las Vegas, a trip to the Thunderbirds museum, though small, is a must! The Air Force maintains a Thunderbirds Museum covering the history of the demonstration team. The museum is located at Nellis Air Force Base and includes a full size F-16 "Gate Guard" on display (in full Thunderbird paint scheme).
To be continued…….
