Would you rather be a C-130 Hercules or an F-15 Eagle pilot and why?
‘I was the first USAF pilot to face that direct question about the F-15, though my other options were not limited to a C-130,’ Ron Wagner, former USAF Pilot, recalls on Quora.
‘I was first in my USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) class in October 1974 and we were thinking about our upcoming assignment selections. With the exception of a single year—the year I got my wings—the USAF sent a list of aircraft to each class and then the class chose from that fixed list, whatever came down to them, and it varied quite a bit from class to class. #1 got first choice from the list, on down to the B-52 to Minot that went by default to the bottom slot.
‘However!
‘During this one magical year, the USAF experimented with a system that allowed the #1 graduate to pick any aircraft in the USAF inventory for which they were qualified. (We could not select an SR-71, for example, which required a certain number of hours of flight experience.)
‘In other words, #1 got anything they wanted and then the block that went to the rest of the class was short by one.
F-15 INITIAL CADRE
‘When the F-15 entered USAF service, all of the pilots were experienced fighter pilots who built up what the USAF calls an “initial cadre” before letting slots in the new aircraft go to brand new pilots fresh out of UPT.
‘I got a note to go see the wing commander in his office, where he very proudly informed me that the F-15 had just completed “initial cadre” and that if I selected an F-15, I would be the first to go from UPT directly into it.
‘He was excited. He expected me to be excited.
‘I was honored.
‘And I gave it some serious thought because—well, damn, I question the wings on the chest of any USAF ‘pilot who does not want to FLY an F-15.
‘Any pilot, actually! It’s a hell of an airplane!
‘Flying one would be absolutely fabulous and I loved wringing out everything the T-38 could do and the instructors knew I did. They figured I’d love the F-15. I would have.
‘However, all military flying assignments come with a lifestyle.
‘I had spent a year surrounded by fighter pilots, including a really swaggering, mouthy captain who had been an F-4 back-seater in Vietnam. He had a MiG kill to his credit, which earned him a slot to UPT to move to the front seat. A year listening to him made me sure I did not want the lifestyle.
BAD NEWS FOR MY WING COMMANDER
‘Unfortunately for the hopeful colonel, two “coincidences” had happened to me in the previous couple of months.’
Wagner continues;
‘First, I had spotted a very cool [T-39A Sabreliner] business jet on the Webb Air Force Base ramp one day, painted up for the U.S. Air Force. I raced over to base ops and met the crew. They were NOT wearing the green-bag flight suits, but were sharply dressed in regular uniforms, and wearing Air Force flight jackets. That combination was prohibited!
‘But it turns out that crews at Andrews Air Force Base—here in Washington, D.C.—are authorized to wear the combo, and it looked sharp. Those guys had flown Texas Senator John Tower to my Texas base, and they let me go out to their jet.
‘I about peed myself sitting in the cockpit. I thought, “I want to fly these.”
‘Second, about two weeks later, a guy in the class ahead of me took one of those assignments to Andrews Air Force Base and I thought, “Holy S**t, that’s a good idea.” It turned out, he had gone to see that jet the same day I did and came to the same conclusion.
‘So, at that point, the colonel’s dreams were “toast” before I got to his office.
‘At that point, now knowing I was Numero Uno, I took the cool bizjet to Andrews Air Force Base. The guy who had been the aircraft commander on the jet that inspired me was soon my instructor pilot, checking me out in the same jet. Thank you, Captain Devore.
LIFESTYLE CHOICE
‘I sure would have loved to have flown an F-15, but, damn, did I have fun flying at Andrews! During my flying career I met and flew seven U.S. presidents, three first ladies, and countless ambassadors, generals, admirals, astronauts, Senators, Reps, and many famous heroes. Back in those days the USAF had 93 U.S. bases and I landed at every single one of them. I saw and did cool things!
‘As cool as flying an F-15?
‘In the opinions of a lot of people, no way. ‘But in my opinion, with lifestyle factored in: Hell yes!
MUSEUM PIECES
‘If you’re ever near Dayton, Ohio, stop by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and say “Hi” to an old friend of mine. The museum has a section called the Presidential Gallery because it houses aircraft that carried Presidents of the United States. This one, [T-39A Sabreliner] 62–4478, was nicknamed “Queenie” and is in my logbook.
‘The Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona also wanted one of our jets and they got [T-39A Sabreliner] 62-4449, which is also in my logbook, with another Andrews bird parked on the other side of it.
CAN’T DO THIS IN AN F-15
‘I looked up 4449 in my logbook and remembered I flew it on a memorable mission. Back then, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN was Andrew Young and Carter was POTUS. Mr. Young had a flare for saying things that irked the POTUS. When he spouted out something that Carter had to “correct,” Carter would dispatch the Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, to “straighten him out.”
‘I did that twice!
‘But the first time happened to be in 4449. I remember opening that side door with Cyrus Vance at my left shoulder and peering down at Ambassador Young when Vance, with a smiling smirk, said, “Hello, Andy.”
‘And “Andy” chuckled back as he said, “Hello, Cyrus.”
‘Clearly, it was going to be quite an ass chewing! LOL! NOT!’
Wagner concludes;
‘The point of the mission was for President Carter to save face by having the network TV cameras capture the arrival so that the White House press briefer could say that President Carter sent Cyrus Vance to NYC to straighten out that wild and crazy Andrew Young.
‘They had a nice dinner and I took Secretary Vance home that evening.
‘You don’t get missions like that in F-15s.’
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Get the best aviation news, stories and features from The Aviation Geek Club in our newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.
What are you waiting for? Set your Throttles to Full AB and Join The Aviation Geek Club!
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.
View the Cookie Policy
The Twitter Tweet button and social widgets are services allowing interaction with the Twitter social network provided by Twitter, Inc.
Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.
YouTube is a video content visualisation service provided by Google Ireland Limited. This service allows this Website to incorporate content of this kind on its pages.
This widget is set up in a way that ensures that YouTube will not store information and cookies about Users on this Website unless they play the video.
Personal Data collected: Tracker; Universally unique identifier (UUID); Usage Data.
Place of processing: Ireland – Privacy Policy.
Gravatar is an image visualisation service provided by Automattic Inc. that allows this Website to incorporate content of this kind on its pages.
Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.
Google AdSense is an advertising service provided by Google Ireland Limited. which uses the “Doubleclick” cookie to track the use of this application and the behaviour of the User in relation to the advertisements, products and services offered.
You can disable all the Doubleclick cookies by clicking on: Google Ad Settings.
In order to understand Google’s use of data, please read Google’s partner policy.
Personal information collected: Tracker; Usage Data.
Place of processing: Ireland – Privacy Policy – Opt Out.
The Facebook Like button and social widgets are used to interact with the Facebook social network and are provided by Facebook Ireland Ltd.
Personal data that are processed: Tracker; Usage Data.
Place of processing: Ireland – Privacy Policy.
Google Fonts is a service used to display font styles operated by Google Ireland Limited and serves to integrate such content into its pages.
Personal Information processed: Usage Data; Tracker
Place of processing: Ireland – Privacy Policy.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited (“Google”). Google uses the Personal Data collected to track and examine the use of this Application, compile reports on its activities and share them with other services developed by Google.
Google may use your Personal Data to contextualize and personalize ads in its advertising network.
This Google Analytics integration anonymizes your IP address. The anonymization works by shortening the IP address of the Users within the borders of the member states of the European Union or other countries that are members of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases, the IP address will be sent to Google’s servers and shortened within the United States.
Personal Data collected: Tracker; Usage Data.
Place of processing: Ireland – Privacy Policy – Opt Out.
