After the end of World War II numerous military installations, having served as essential bases for wartime training activity, were disbanded and left vacant. One such installation was Luke Air Force Base, located west of Phoenix, Arizona. The base was named for a World War I fighter pilot, Frank Luke, who gained fame as a “balloon buster” when he personally destroyed many of the airborne observation posts that had enabled the enemy to possess a bird’s eye view of the battle ground not previously available to any army. Aware of the distinct advantages gained by these Axis sentry stations, their destruction by the Allies was a high priority, one that Frank Luke admirably performed.
In 1949, with the Korean conflict on the horizon, Luke Air Force Base was reactivated and the empty barracks and solid runways in the fair weather environment of Arizona again became a bustle of flying activity. Since then the base has undergone major improvements and has become a long standing strategic Air Force base, one that continues to this day. The southwest corner of Arizona, within easy flight distance from Luke, has been and is currently dedicated to a huge bombing and gunnery training complex. Formerly known as the Gila Bend Gunnery Range, its name has been changed to the Barry Goldwater Gunnery Complex, in honor of Arizona’s most famous native, a long time U. S. Senator and past Presidential candidate.
Following the receipt of pilot wings and an Air Force commission, I received gunnery training at Luke in 1954. After a one year tour in Korea in 1955, I was again stationed at Luke where I served as a flight instructor in jet aircraft for a five and one-half year assignment. This was a superb tour of duty, flying the latest jets in the Air Force inventory and giving instruction in five different phases of gunnery and bombing tactics, as well as three different phases of delivering nuclear weapons. It was a fighter pilot’s choice assignment, lots of flying with challenging mission requirements.
In the spring of 1955 I had been instructing in this environment for just a few months. The mission assignment on May 18 was one of the final steps for one class of students as they concluded their fighter pilot training. On this particular mission our four ship flight, flying the Republic F-84G straight wing jet aircraft, was to fly a high altitude track to the gunnery complex, be intercepted by another four ship flight and engage in a brief mock aerial dog fight prior to proceeding to our assigned ground target on the applied tactics range. On this open desert area of the gunnery range, obsolete tanks and trucks were randomly placed and were targets of opportunity for gunnery strafing and the dropping of practice bombs. In other words, this was as close as one could get to simulating an actual close air support, or wartime interdiction mission.
The formation of four, in the single seat jet fighters, was comprised of an instructor pilot in the lead aircraft, a student as # 2, another instructor as # 3 (me), and another student as the fourth member. Before we actually launched on the mission both the lead and # 2 aircraft had to abort the mission due to mechanical problems. Therefore, I became the flight lead with only one student on my wing, a young pilot with whom I had not flown with previously. We departed Luke, climbed to our assigned altitude, and were intercepted as projected by another flight. A brief engagement in simulated aerial combat followed, and we then proceeded to the applied tactics range for deliverance of our practice bombs and the firing of the 100 rounds of 50 caliber ammunition on targets of opportunity. With no range control officer to observe, as was common on the five defined gunnery/bombing ranges within the complex, we were free to deliver our practice ordnance as we saw fit. As the flight leader I would call out the target – an artillery piece, tank, or truck lying in the sandy, flat, arid desert – and would make a run on that target and expect the student to do the same as he trailed me through the clear blue southwestern Arizona sky.
I delivered four practice 25 pound bombs from various approaches, with the student doing the same. Then the practice was repeated as we made low angle strafing runs on other targets of opportunity, making about six passes each expending the 100 rounds of ammunition. With the training mission thus accomplished I led the flight back to Luke for landing. The normal debriefing of the mission followed in the squadron flight room. As we were concluding this debrief, a flight line crew chief approached and asked the student and me to accompany him out to the aircraft that the student had just flown.
The technical sergeant proceeded to lead us to the right wing tip of the F-84G. The eight ton jet aircraft was equipped with wing tip tanks, with the nose of the fuel tank being a position light that was housed within a heavy, rounded glass cover. This glass cover was broken out and within the cone of the light was a large handful of shredded vegetation. Close examination revealed the vegetation to be the small branches and leaves of a palo verde tree, a growth that was one of the few plants that flourished in the hot, arid desert of the southwest. How they got there was instantaneously obvious! There was trouble right here in River City. As the flight leader, I knew immediately I was in a barrel of trouble, even though it was the student’s aircraft, not mine, that had been subjected to flying at an altitude much too low and in a dangerous manner.
Word of this gross infraction quickly become known to the Squadron Commander and to Wing Operations. The result was the rapid grounding of a young Lieutenant fighter pilot, who had led a formation flight and had allowed a younger student pilot to make passes much lower than that allowed for tactical range delivery and in an unsafe practice. The fact that it was impossible for the flight leader to monitor every move of the trailing aircraft making passes from my six o’clock position was not at all a factor in my responsibility in allowing this gross violation to occur. Bombs had been dropped from a nearly level attitude on this uncontrolled range and that was a no-no. The responsibility was totally mine and not that of the student – in the eyes of military punishment.
At Luke were twin brothers, Charles and Cuthbert Pattillo, who had served a tour with the Air Force Thunderbirds in their early showcase performances in the F-84 aircraft. Both of the identical twins were Majors at the time and Major Charles Pattillo, assigned to Wing Operations, was given the task of evaluating my performance to see if I was worthy of continuing in my fighter pilot instructor status. For three long days I was given a most thorough evaluation where I would brief every possible training mission in detail and then lead Major Pattillo on my wing in simulated instructor / student situations. We flew missions that covered the full spectrum of the training curriculum. After the conclusion of that ordeal, Major Pattillo stated to me that he was fully satisfied as to my capabilities. Following his recommendation to the Wing Commander, I received full reinstatement to instructor pilot status.
A written reprimand was directed to me but did not become part of my permanent record and did not follow my assignments after Luke. Although it did not hinder my career path or follow-on promotions, the incident certainly was ingrained with me as to the military struture, not to mention the seriousness of abiding by sound, safe flight practices. It was ironic though, when I knew of an incident in the same time frame when a Major Bud Watt had buzzed a manned range control tower, on this same gunnery complex, in an F-84G so low as to clip off a radio antenna, nicking the wing in the process. And for this violation Major Watt received only a wink of the eye.
The student who got his thrills among the palo verde trees continued his training unencumbered and went on to other assignments. I lost track of him and have no idea if he ever came as close to putting his life in jeopardy as he had on that sunny, hot day in the arid desert of Arizona.
As for me, the experience of that mission made me a better instructor, with ingrained awareness of the responsibilities that go hand in hand with flying high performance aircraft financed by the taxpayers of the United States. It was not all fun and games, but serious business as part of the military establishment of the leading country of the free world.
Wings Over Cumberland 