Welcome to the fifty-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. We are going to talk about nukes since there is so much about a possible WW III in all the media.  President Ronald Reagan created the world's best nuclear deterrent capability in Strategic Air Command as he poured money into the military after years of neglect. The timeframe from when I showed up at the 509th Air Refueling Squadron in 1985 to 1990 when I left Pease as it was closing was a great time to be a KC-135...

Welcome to the fifty-seventh episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! This episode is an anniversary episode. This past week marked twenty years since the opening of Operation Iraqi Freedom's Shock and Awe air campaign, a term those of us involved never used. To those planning and executing air operations, it was Air Tasking Order Oscar or ATO O. The Combined Air Operations Center Air Refueling Control Team which I led went through six weeks of hell preparing for the opening  A-Day...

Welcome to the fifty-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast!  I really appreciate all of you tuning in and downloading this and previous episodes of the show. One of the great memories of my KC-135 career was flying at low altitude with a receiver behind us. My first introduction to the planning and execution of low-altitude refueling was at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. All of our 909th Air Refueling Squadron tanker crews were certified to do this technique and procedure. This...

Welcome to the fifty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! Thanks for downloading and listening. A three-inch thick manila folder on my desk in my new assignment to the Air Mobility Command Director of Operations or AMC/DO staff ended up being the worst four years of my career and yet the most rewarding looking back on it. This graduate-level curriculum changed the way the US Air Force air refueling community did business... right before 9/11! And nobody wanted us! I was...

Welcome to the fifty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. I've waited to post this one because so much aviation history is happening over the US! Over the last weekend in Joint military operations, US Air Force F-22 Raptors and F-16C Vipers shot down the Chinese Spy Balloon and three additional objects, one over Lake Huron with an interesting description.  This episode contains the audio from the Spy Balloon shoot-down on 4 Feb and the object "decommissioned" on Sunday 12...

Welcome to the fifty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, the second in a series of Strategic Air Command bomber and tanker operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October and November of 1962. Strategic Air Command's Cuban Missile Crisis After Action Report was declassified years ago. I did not find it until researching the chapter of my book called Klaxon! Klaxon! Klaxon! on nuclear operations in the Reagan Cold War. In the days leading up to President John F....

Welcome to the fifty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, this will be one of those extreme aviation moments! My Mom and Dad were very worried when I was just a kid starting school. They watched television a lot a month and a half into my first school year, a guy named Walter Cronkite particularly. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 had begun. Strategic Air Command's Operation during the Cuban Crisis of 1962 was declassified years ago and details the intelligence...

Welcome to episode fifty-one of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! This is an interview I've wanted to do for a long time! Commander Dave "Bio" Baranek as an F-14 Tomcat Radar Intercept Officer or RIO had a great Naval Aviation career. Leaving college with a passion for flying, Bio got into the Tomcat community shortly after the F-14's introduction into the fleet as the Navy's premier air superiority fighter. Bio saw the Tomcat grow from an air superiority fighter to a precision strike...

Welcome to the fiftieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, a new milestone for our show! All of you have heard of an airstrike or raid on something or someone in hiding who popped up in a valley, a downtown building, or a facility along a river. My Air Refueling Control Team planning and executing operations were involved in some of the highest profile attacks we call Time Sensitive Targets or just TSTs. This episode gives listeners a foundation on why and how they happen and a...

Welcome to the fiftieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, a new milestone for our show! All of you have heard of an airstrike or raid on something or someone in hiding who popped up in a valley, a downtown building, or a facility along a river. My Air Refueling Control Team planning and executing operations were involved in some of the highest profile attacks we call Time Sensitive Targets or just TSTs. This episode gives listeners a foundation on why and how they happen and a...

Welcome to Episode 49 of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I've wanted to do this one for a while. My USAF Pilot Training experience was pretty rocky. I almost did not make it through. Fortunately, one really good instructor we called "The Doctor" helped me become an Air Force aviator. The Doctor could fix just about any student's ailments with his incredible teaching skills. To this day, I still remember The Doctor’s Five Rules of Flying and have used them flying KC-135s all over the...

Welcome to Episode 49 of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I've wanted to do this one for a while. My USAF Pilot Training experience was pretty rocky. I almost did not make it through. Fortunately, one really good instructor we called "The Doctor" helped me get through. The Doctor could fix just about any student's ailments with his incredible teaching skills. To this day, I still remember The Doctor’s Five Rules of Flying and have used them flying KC-135s all over the world and in my...

Welcome to episode forty-eight of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! Reading about how the Iraqi Freedom North War was planned and executed in March and April of 2003, I realized there are a lot of mistakes in the narrative out there. As Chief of the Air Refueling Control Team for the 2003 Iraqi Freedom Shock and Awe campaign, I felt it was a great time to tell what the Air Refueling Control Team experts had to overcome to accomplish some incredible feats, one of those being two of the...

Welcome to episode forty-eight of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! Reading about how the Iraqi Freedom North War was planned and executed in March and April of 2003, I realized there are a lot of mistakes in the narrative out there. As Chief of the Air Refueling Control Team for the 2003 Iraqi Freedom Shock and Awe campaign, I felt it was a great time to tell what the Air Refueling Control Team experts had to overcome to accomplish some incredible feats, one of those being two of the...

Welcome to the forty-seventh episode of the Lesson from the Cockpit podcast! This episode continues our conversation with former US Navy Commander Steve Bates and the history of the SH-3 Sea King helicopter. The Navy used the SH-3 for four decades and the Air Force made famous the HH-3 or Jolly Green Giant version, saving hundreds of airmen shot down over North and South Vietnam. The SH-3 also had a unique Cold War role Steve elaborates on! The Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is supported...

Welcome to the forty-seventh episode of the Lesson from the Cockpit podcast! This episode continues our conversation with former US Navy Commander Steve Bates and the history of the SH-3 Sea King helicopter. The Navy used the SH-3 for four decades and the Air Force made famous the HH-3 or Jolly Green Giant version, saving hundreds of airmen shot down over North and South Vietnam. The SH-3 also had a unique Cold War role Steve elaborates on! The Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is supported...

Welcome to the forty-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King was the US Navy's primary rotary-wing aircraft for decades. Steve discusses training and flying the Sea King used for Fleet Logistics bringing beans, bombs, and mail to the fleet and sailors while underway at sea. Steve also tells us about some of the humanitarian operations he was involved with while at the Pentagon... on 9/11! The Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is supported entirely by...

Welcome to the forty-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King was the US Navy's primary rotary-wing aircraft for decades. Steve discusses training and flying the Sea King used for Fleet Logistics bringing beans, bombs, and mail to the fleet and sailors while underway at sea. Steve also tells us about some of the humanitarian operations he was involved with while at the Pentagon... on 9/11! The Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is supported entirely by...

Welcome to the forty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Air Force created a super-secret squadron located in the Nellis Air Force Base Range Complex, The 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron called "The Red Eagles." Rob Zettel is one of the world's subject matter experts on adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures from his experience flying the F-5E Tiger II with the 26th Aggressors in The Philippines and Russian Mig-21 Fishbed and MiG-23 Flogger fighters with the...

Welcome to the forty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Air Force created a super-secret squadron located in the Nellis Air Force Base Range Complex, The 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron called "The Red Eagles." Rob Zettel is one of the world's subject matter experts on adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures from his experience flying the F-5E Tiger II with the 26th Aggressors in The Philippines and Russian Mig-21 Fishbed and MiG-23 Flogger fighters with the...

Welcome to the forty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! We are fast approaching 15,000 downloads! The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress may have the distinction of flying and fighting for 100 years. The military continues adding new equipment and missions to a platform created for the nuclear Cold War of the 1960s. Colonel Chris "Chico" Anderson joins the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast telling us how the B-52 BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fellow in polite company) continues to be one of...

Welcome to the forty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! We are fast approaching 15,000 downloads! The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress may have the distinction of flying and fighting for 100 years. The military continues adding new equipment and missions to a platform created for the nuclear Cold War of the 1960s. Colonel Chris "Chico" Anderson joins the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast telling us how the B-52 BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fellow in polite company) continues to be one of...

Welcome to the forty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I have been asked for several years to tell the story of flying an American Flag for someone who became a very dear friend and my son Jeffrey's fourteen-month battle with cancer. Both my good friend and Jeffrey both succumbed to this terrible cancer disease. My wife and I decided today it was time to tell this story of a military tradition, patriotism and the American Flag, and compassionate service during this dark...

Welcome to the forty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I have been asked for several years to tell the story of flying an American Flag for someone who became a very dear friend and my son Jeffrey's fourteen-month battle with cancer. Both my good friend and Jeffrey both succumbed to this terrible cancer disease. My wife and I decided today it was time to tell this story of a military tradition, patriotism and the American Flag, and compassionate service during this dark...

Welcome to the forty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! How did the concept of air refueling get started and how long has it been around? The answer will surprise you... 1921 with a gas can on a man's back! Experimentation with air refueling methods continued with the flight of the Question Mark in 1929 and the first air refueling company with a patented system created in 1934. The air refueling world owes a lot to the Brits! How we went from prop to jet-engined tankers...