In the world of the fighter pilot, a single radar contact is often all it takes to start the flow of adrenaline. The uncertainty of the contact, the possibility that it could be a hostile, all of these are things that set any fighter pilots heart racing. And they are even more so effective with the naval aviator. The naval aviator strives to protect his home, the not so humble aircraft carrier. A hundred thousand ton hunk of steal that functions as a floating city and airport. This is the naval aviator's main source of consternation, as he is driven to protect it at all costs.
* * *
*18:20 May 11, 2007*
*CVN-76 USS Ronald Reagan*
Fighter pilot Benjamin Michaels, callsign "Taurus", was in the hotseat, twenty thousand feet in the air. His radar intercept officer, Kenny Torro "Hawkeye", sat only a few feet behind him in the cramped cockpit of one of the most advanced aircraft to ever operate off of a carrier, the Grumman F-14D SuperTomcat. Michaels was in the hotseat because of a contact that Torro had picked up on the advanced APG-96 radar array mounted in the Tomcats nose. It had been a blip on the screen, but it was enough.
Once he had gotten a confirmation on the contact from his fellow F-14, piloted by Antic Kenson with Tony Forto as his RIO, he'd radioed back to the carrier, CVN-65, also known as the Ronald Reagan, and called it in. After a few moments of radio silence, they had been vectored out to meet the bogey.
Michaels' hands sweated with the anticipation of finally getting to tango with a potentially hostile aircraft. Michaels was inexperienced, at least when compared to his wingman, Kenson.
"Hey, Mustang," Michaels called over, using Kenson's callsign. "You think this is finally it?"
"Honestly, I doubt it," replied Kenson. "We've been vectored out like this several times, and it always amounts to an airliner."
"Oh come on," laughed Ben. "Where's your sense of adventure?"
There was no reply. Kenson was trying to concentrate.
Within a few minutes of their vector, they caught a visual sight of the bogey in question. Something about it immediately gave Michaels pause. It was too small to be a civilian airliner.
With a snap move, his F-14 rolled inverted and dived, Kenson right on his wing. They dropped a few thousand feet and leveled off, shadowing the contact from below.
* * *
*18:20 May 11, 2007*
*CVN-76 USS Ronald Reagan*
Fighter pilot Benjamin Michaels, callsign "Taurus", was in the hotseat, twenty thousand feet in the air. His radar intercept officer, Kenny Torro "Hawkeye", sat only a few feet behind him in the cramped cockpit of one of the most advanced aircraft to ever operate off of a carrier, the Grumman F-14D SuperTomcat. Michaels was in the hotseat because of a contact that Torro had picked up on the advanced APG-96 radar array mounted in the Tomcats nose. It had been a blip on the screen, but it was enough.
Once he had gotten a confirmation on the contact from his fellow F-14, piloted by Antic Kenson with Tony Forto as his RIO, he'd radioed back to the carrier, CVN-65, also known as the Ronald Reagan, and called it in. After a few moments of radio silence, they had been vectored out to meet the bogey.
Michaels' hands sweated with the anticipation of finally getting to tango with a potentially hostile aircraft. Michaels was inexperienced, at least when compared to his wingman, Kenson.
"Hey, Mustang," Michaels called over, using Kenson's callsign. "You think this is finally it?"
"Honestly, I doubt it," replied Kenson. "We've been vectored out like this several times, and it always amounts to an airliner."
"Oh come on," laughed Ben. "Where's your sense of adventure?"
There was no reply. Kenson was trying to concentrate.
Within a few minutes of their vector, they caught a visual sight of the bogey in question. Something about it immediately gave Michaels pause. It was too small to be a civilian airliner.
With a snap move, his F-14 rolled inverted and dived, Kenson right on his wing. They dropped a few thousand feet and leveled off, shadowing the contact from below.
When Russian forces plan attacks on the cities of Los Angeles, Seattle, and Sacramento, two of the U.S. Navy's finest pilots are commissioned to thwart their plans.
Captains Jonathon and Patrick Gies are brothers in the United States Navy. Under the instruction of Top Gun instructer Eric Bradshaw, they learn what it takes to be a true master of the skies.
If they can defeat the numerically superior forces of Mother Russia, they could do anything. But can they do it?
Read the chapters of Skies of Thunder as they are posted to find out!
~ScarAlpha
Captains Jonathon and Patrick Gies are brothers in the United States Navy. Under the instruction of Top Gun instructer Eric Bradshaw, they learn what it takes to be a true master of the skies.
If they can defeat the numerically superior forces of Mother Russia, they could do anything. But can they do it?
Read the chapters of Skies of Thunder as they are posted to find out!
~ScarAlpha