It was great to meet “Bat” having read about him in your book “Red Eagles.” This interview is a really important oral history covering the Vietnam War and OV-10 operations. It is hard to overstate the feats of airmanship required to accomplish night CAS without NVGs and modern navigation systems in an environment dense with threats from terrain, weather, small arms fire and all this as a single pilot! Where you both discussed being shot at, I thought I’d share a story where I was shot at by KS19 AAA over Iraq for the 1st time. In films, heavy calibre AAA fire is always accompanied by sounds of explosions. In reality (in my experience at least), the black puffs of smoke associated with detonations simple appear! I realised that I had been conditioned by all the war films I’d watched, to expect the sound effects too! I’m sure if the bursts were really close, you’d hear them too but I was lucky that never happened to me! Another great interview, I’m really looking forward to hearing about the MiGs in the next interview. Your question about what it’s like to be stood on the ground at Groom Lake certainly whetted my appetite! As a side bar, the Nellis AFB/Red Flag comm card lists “Dreamland” as the callsign for ATC at Groom Lake in the event of an emergency diversion. 👽👽👽
Great job as always Steve. Bat was the commander of the 65th Aggressor Squadron when I went through the Aggressor checkout at Nellis in the Fall of ‘81. Oddly, I didn’t know it at the time that he had been so intimately involved with our MiGs at both Dreamland and Tonopah until much later. He’s a great man and a legend of that generation of fighter pilots. His story of how he got out of Iran in ‘79 following the fall of the Shah is a must. Cheers! Z
Love his stories along with all your guests, Steve. One point of correction tho, the F-4s Israel got in Nickel Grass were F-4Es flown directly from the factory in St Louis to Israel. Any Phantom involved in the TopGun program in 1973 stayed there. Those were F-4Bs and Js, which the IDFAF never operated.
It amazes me how fixed in its ways the Air Force was, especially compared to the Navy. As an outsider, what were the causes of that? Just the size of the organization, lack of vision of leadership, poor doctrine? It seems it's just a handful of young pilots who even bothered to try and shake it up, or is that because I'm only listening to these once young guys? Bat is a legend, wonderful stories. I'm looking forward to pt 2.
I’m eagerly awaiting P2, I want to hear his E&E story!!
It was great to meet “Bat” having read about him in your book “Red Eagles.” This interview is a really important oral history covering the Vietnam War and OV-10 operations. It is hard to overstate the feats of airmanship required to accomplish night CAS without NVGs and modern navigation systems in an environment dense with threats from terrain, weather, small arms fire and all this as a single pilot!
Where you both discussed being shot at, I thought I’d share a story where I was shot at by KS19 AAA over Iraq for the 1st time. In films, heavy calibre AAA fire is always accompanied by sounds of explosions. In reality (in my experience at least), the black puffs of smoke associated with detonations simple appear! I realised that I had been conditioned by all the war films I’d watched, to expect the sound effects too! I’m sure if the bursts were really close, you’d hear them too but I was lucky that never happened to me!
Another great interview, I’m really looking forward to hearing about the MiGs in the next interview. Your question about what it’s like to be stood on the ground at Groom Lake certainly whetted my appetite! As a side bar, the Nellis AFB/Red Flag comm card lists “Dreamland” as the callsign for ATC at Groom Lake in the event of an emergency diversion. 👽👽👽
Best in depth aviation interviews ever. Thank you for taking the time for this.
Great job as always Steve. Bat was the commander of the 65th Aggressor Squadron when I went through the Aggressor checkout at Nellis in the Fall of ‘81. Oddly, I didn’t know it at the time that he had been so intimately involved with our MiGs at both Dreamland and Tonopah until much later. He’s a great man and a legend of that generation of fighter pilots. His story of how he got out of Iran in ‘79 following the fall of the Shah is a must. Cheers! Z
Great interview. I had the same experience of jungle survival training with the Negredo Filipinos in 1970.
Love his stories along with all your guests, Steve. One point of correction tho, the F-4s Israel got in Nickel Grass were F-4Es flown directly from the factory in St Louis to Israel. Any Phantom involved in the TopGun program in 1973 stayed there. Those were F-4Bs and Js, which the IDFAF never operated.
One of my favorite episodes so far! Bravo!
It amazes me how fixed in its ways the Air Force was, especially compared to the Navy. As an outsider, what were the causes of that? Just the size of the organization, lack of vision of leadership, poor doctrine? It seems it's just a handful of young pilots who even bothered to try and shake it up, or is that because I'm only listening to these once young guys?
Bat is a legend, wonderful stories. I'm looking forward to pt 2.
Great cliffhanger18 there, can't wait for the 2nd episode. Thank you all for your time documenting history.
Brilliant! Thank you both for taking the time to record/publish this episode
Loved this episode. Can’t wait for the next instalment. Bat has clearly seen and done some epic stuff. 👏🏼 👏🏼
Great interview. Thank you
Why would you supply jets to israel who just a few years earlier killed over 30 American sailors