Afterburners
Authors: William Robert Stanek
Afterburners
AIR WAR #1
THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF THE COMBAT FLYERS
INCLUDES A SPECIAL FOREWORD
BY THE AUTHOR
William Robert Stanek
RP MEDIA
REAGENT PRESS
Afterburners
AIR WAR #1
This Edition Copyright © 2015 William Robert Stanek.
Original release © 2006 William Robert Stanek
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. Printed in the United States of America.
RP Media
Cover design & illustration by RP Media
Cover photo licensed from ThinkStock
Stanek, William Robert.
Afterburners: Air War #1. The Incredible True Story of the Combat Flyers / William Robert Stanek.
p.cm.
1. Persian Gulf War, 1991—Personal narratives, American.
2. United States. United States Air Force.
3. Stanek, William Robert. Title.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: WILLIAM ROBERT STANEK
EVENING, MONDAY, 21 JANUARY 1991
William Robert Stanek
The author proudly served in the Persian Gulf War as a combat crewmember on an EC-130H, an Electronic Warfare aircraft. During the war he flew numerous combat missions and logged over two hundred combat flight hours. Additionally, he has nearly 1000 hours of EC-130H flight time.
In his military career, he has always been at the top of his class—a two-time distinguished graduate, honor graduate, and unit technician of the year. His civilian education includes a B. S. in Computer Science, magna cum laude, and a Master of Science Information Systems with distinction. His distinguished accomplishments during the Gulf War earned him nine medals, including our nation’s highest flying honor, the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross.
His last station while in the Air Force was at the 324th Intelligence Squadron, Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii. His initial training in the intelligence field was as a Russian linguist. His language background also includes Japanese, Korean, German and Spanish. As a writer, he has always preferred book-length fiction and non-fiction. One of his essays on military life won a writing contest, earning him a cash award and the George Washington Honor medal from the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge.
His experiences in the Persian Gulf War changed his life and helped drive his successful career as a writer and entrepreneur. To date, he has written and had published over 150 books. His books are sold all over the world and have been translated into many languages.
Times and dates are included to provide a sense of chronology and are not absolutes. The notes in my journal had times referenced in Greenwich Mean Time (Zulu), which were converted to local times dependent on location.
The events depicted in the story are taken from real accounts, my personal journal, and various other unclassified sources. Names have been changed to protect the privacy rights of those involved. Some aspects of the story have been dramatized to provide a more complete view of the air war.
Callsign
Aircraft type
Role
Gas Station
KC
Refueler.
Gypsy
AWACS
Airborne warning and control.
Paladin
F-15C Eagle
Air support. CAP. MiG Sweep.
Phantom
RC-135
Reconnaissance.
Shadow
EC-130
EW/Communications jammer.
Nickname
Aircraft type
Role
Buff
B-52
Heavy bomber.
Eagle
F-15C
Air superiority fighter/interceptor.
Falcon
F-16
Air-to-air, air-to-ground fighter.
Raven
EF-111
EW, primary radar jammer, attack.
Strike Eagle
F-15E
Deep interdiction; carries payload.
Thunderbolt
A-10
Ground attack aircraft.
Weasel
F-4G
EW radar jammer, attack, reconnaissance.
Note
: A suffix indicates the aircraft’s number as part of a group. Paladin-1 is the leader (Paladin Leader). Paladin-2 is his wingman. Paladin-3 is the next fighter. Paladin-4 is Paladin-3’s wingman.
Normal crew load is 13 (this can vary)
Front Crew
Nickname
Full Name
AC
Aircraft Commander; the pilot
Co
Copilot
Eng
Engineer
Nav
Navigator
AMT
Air Maintenance Technician
Mission Crew
Nickname
Full Name
MCC
Mission Crew Commander
MCS
(Pos. 5)
Mission Crew Supervisor
Positions
1, 2, 3, 4
Junior operators/ operators
Positions 6, 7
Senior operators
Channel
Description
Flight Crew Hot
For emergencies. When pulled, it activates the headset microphone without having to key it. Also called Ship’s Hot.
Listen
For listening to Flight Crew Hot comms.
PA
The ship’s loudspeaker; only the front-end can talk on PA.
Private A
The mission crew commander’s channel, used to pass targeted signals to the MCC.
Private B
The mission crew’s channel, and for comms to the mission crew supervisor.
Select
Patch directly to other positions, like a dial-in telephone switching bank for general chatter.
Ship’s Interphone
Cockpit comms and comms to the front-end.
May, 2015
My accomplishments during my 11-year military career earned me 29 commendations. When I left the military, I was one of the most highly decorated in the command.
My commander and supervisor loved it when I put on my dress blues and participated in the various parades and celebrations on base, especially Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and the 4th of July. I met a few presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and a few generals, including Colin Powell and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, that way. And let me tell you, it was truly great to have presidents and generals shake my hand and meant it.
With what’s happening in the world right now, it’s a good time to look back and reflect. I served my country in foreign lands and during several tours of duty in combat zones, including two combat tours in Iraq. During the tour of duty I write about in this book, I flew on 32 combat missions from the opening days of the war to its end. In that time, there was never a day I didn’t look death in the face. Never a day I didn’t face AAA, SAMs and more as we flew our missions.
Because of that service, I will always know that when the darkest of hours arrives I will not hesitate. When asked, I answered. When called, I went. When death stared up from the void, I did not fear. I gave because it was my duty and because I felt it was the right thing to do.
I write about some of my experiences in this book, which was featured in a full-page review in the Journal of Electronic Defense and on NPR. Though a memoir, the book is largely a tribute to the men and woman I served with.
As you read, I hope the book opens a window for you as big as the original experiences did for me. After combat, the world never seemed quite the same. The return to normalcy was a strange experience, never quite accomplished. I don’t, in fact, think I ever slowed down or ever quite touched the earth after those experiences. For it was afterward that everything in this world changed—that everything in this world became so clear. And afterward that I set my sights on the future and never looked back.
Terrible experiences can change a person for better or worse. I’d like to think the terrible experiences recounted herein changed me for the better and opened my eyes to the wider world. As you read my story and that of those I served with, remember that I wrote this book as I lived it, when I was a much younger man than I am today.
Summer in south-central Germany was calm and warm but not hot. Nevada, two weeks ago at the Green Flag exercise, had been hot. I powered down the windows, headed slowly down the kilometer-long stretch of road to the opposite side of the base. It was my first day back after a long operational exercise stateside. I was exhausted after the previous day’s 18-hour flight, but exhaustion was the norm for flyers and combat crew.
Mustard fields separating the administration and flight line sides of the sleepy air base were in full yellow-green bloom. I stared out across the fields for a moment as I came to a solitary-looking stop sign. The stop sign, nearly a duplicate of the ones back in the U.S.A., was almost an oddity in this part of Europe. Most German road crossings sported yield signs—Germans didn’t want to fuss with having to come to a complete stop when it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
To me it seemed everything in Germany was about speed. The Autobahn had no speed limits in most places. The BMW 728i I drove could purr along comfortably at 200 kilometers per hour. But this wasn’t the Autobahn and I came to a halt from a moderate forty-klicks.
A narrow two-lane road spread out before me. If I turned right and followed the road, I’d end up in a country village. Quaint and picturesque, the village was like a snapshot out of another time, a photo from an old postcard. Left would take me down Snake Hill, a treacherous stretch of road with many twists and turns. Snake Hill in winter had claimed more than a few lives, but this was not winter; and I only turned left so I could lean right and enter the flight-line side of the air base through the back gate.
A security police officer checked my identification card and waved me through. It was July the 25th. More than a thousand miles away, U.S. Ambassador Glaspie was visiting Iraq. Iraqi troops had been amassing on the Kuwait-Iraq border all month. Relations between the two countries were falling apart and the U.S. Ambassador was in Baghdad at Saddam Hussein’s request. The official word given to Saddam Hussein that day helped direct history—a history that probably would have played on with or without the discussions though no one will ever know for sure.