Robi Robinson
Robi is a Computer Systems Engineer with a major defense
contractor (that shall remain nameless). He is heavily involved
with many aspects of the AFMSS program, a mission planning system
for aircrews. Until a few years ago, he was a civilian contractor
assigned to Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB working on
the same project and on the MSS II, the forerunner of AFMSS. He
is also the primary author of the AFMSS Hintbook.
I started my Air Force career at Laughlin AFB in the UPT class
of 81-05, "The Right Stuff". In a class woefully short
of fighter slots (SAC was taking with a vengence), I was one of
the first batch of UPT grads to receive an assignment directly to
the pilot seat of an F-111. Until around that time, UPT grads had
to upgrade from the PWSO (Pilot Weapon System Officer) seat. I
was assigned to the 389th TFTS at Mountain Home for training and
then moved next door to the 390th TFS, six months before it was
to become the 390 ECS with the arrival of the new EF-111A Raven
(AKA Spark Vark). Too young and inexperienced to move to the
Raven (thank God), I was moved to the 391st TFS where I
languished as an Operational Vark
Driver in an extremely conservative Training
Squadron. I was constantly digging into the books and coming up
with new ways to employ the Vark and frequently in trouble with
the DO for pushing the old A model to the edge of its envelope
both on the range and in the pattern. I even dug into the Dash 34
and learned how to program up the simulator to fire ancient
AIM-9Bs from the trapeze in the weapons bay (the sign of a
frustrated air to air jock). As an idiot "butter bar" I
came up with a hair brained scheme for a certification test that
was to be later known as the direct pop (To my horror, much later
in my career, I would have to actually fly and instruct them in
the Strike Eagle).
As the junior
kid in the squadron, I got all the "choice" night time
sorties and ended up logging more night time than day VFR time.
When the chance came to try for an assignment out of the Vark, I
jumped at it. I ended up with a shot at becoming an instructor at
Fighter Lead In, a place where they taught new kids, fresh out of
pilot training how to fly like fighter pilots. Before I left,
however, a small group of reps from McDonnell Douglas stopped by
the squadron to give a briefing on a new fighter that they hoped
would replace the venerable F-111. To me, it was wasn’t even
worth thinking about.
In 1984, with fresh captain’s bars on my shoulders, we
moved to New Mexico only to be told by my new flight commander
there to not buy a house yet ‘cause "you might not be
here long." It seems that three F-111 drivers had recently
flunked out of the instructor course, simply unable to fly Air to
Air. The Air Force was considering not allowing F-111 drivers to
even attempt the course. I walked in to the scheduling shop to
see my name on the board with the statement "No Fly
UFN". Days later, sweating bullets the whole time, I was
back on the schedule. I later learned that the Wing Commander
made a call to my old DO back at Mountain Home to advise him that
I would be re-assigned. To my surprise, despite my reputation as
a "hot dog", and having been personally chewed out by
the man, the DO came through and convinced the commander to give
me a chance. I had little trouble with flying the air to air, and
even excelled. I did have trouble when it came to managing the
flight as an instructor in the air to air environment, but after
a few rough rides the light bulb suddenly "clicked" on
and I successfully completed the course and was assigned to the
433rd Satan’s Angels. The assignment ended up being great
fun. Teaching Tactical Formation, Basic Air to Air Fighter
Maneuvers and Surface Attack (low levels, bombing and strafing)
and debriefing students in smoke filled briefing rooms over
pitchers of cold beer. All in the daylight. It was at Holloman
that I got my first real exposure to F-15's when we would often
get a chance to fight them 2v2 during Dissimilar Air Combat
Tactics rides. When "allowed" to survive to the merge
(sometimes skill, sometimes luck, sometimes ROE), I would often
prevail in the sky blue, small, practically invisible AT-38. In
early 1987, a message was sent out from HQ TAC, seeking
candidates for the initial cadre of instructors for the new Air
to Ground Version of the Eagle, the F-15E. I applied and months
later miraculously was accepted. In 1988, I packed up my family
once again and made the day long trip to scorching Arizona.
At Luke, the only F-15E squadron was the 461st Jesters, and
there were only two F-15E’s on the ramp and a long waiting
list of future instructors to start flying it. Early problems
with the CFTs, the large fuel & weapon packs that attach to
the sides of the jet) caused further delays. To keep those of us
who were delayed happy (and reasonably proficient), a checkout in
the F-15A courtesy of the 426th, was provided. I got my first
Eagle ride in the Light Grey and found it to be very much like
the ’38, but a hell of a lot bigger and a hell of a lot more
powerful. I and breezed through the air to air sorties and as a
result, got to perform my first air refueling in four years,
solo. Then came the night intercept ride in a "tub".
Holy shit! First night ride in four years, no moon, four-ship,
thunderstorms, and doing something I had never even seen before.
Cluedo. I felt like the IP had a
long pole and was constantly jabbing me in the
shoulder from behind, prompting me to do this, then that! Well,
everyone deserves one freebie, and that ride was mine. Months
later, after only three hours of "draft" academics, I
was finally flying the mud-hen. The 59th guy to fly the F-15E and
the most junior ranking pilot. During the IP course, attempting
to master Defensive BFM, I managed to reverse on my squadron
commander by being the first pilot to depart the F-15E. No sweat,
recovered in three turns, and less than three thousand feet doing
just what the Dash-1 says to do and ended up with the squadron
Commander in my gunsight! Never heard the yaw rate beeper, but
there it was on the HUD video tape! We flew one more engagement
and went home. A couple days later, after reading up on
departures, I discovered that we should have stopped the sortie
after the departure and we were supposed to write it up. Oops! I
always wonder why the CC didn’t do just that. About a year
later, a team from MCAIR showed up and briefed everybody on a
departure in which the Instructor Crew ejected. According to
MCAIR, that was the first departure of an F-15E. I wasn’t
about to tell them in front of my new CC that they were wrong! As
an IP in the Strike Eagle, the main job was beating up on
students in air to air and winning quarters on the bombing range.
My primary additional duty was Flight Safety. I was not only
responsible for Flight Safety in the squadron, I had started up
the safety shops in all three of the F-15E squadrons on the base,
the 461st, the 550th Silver Eagles, and the 555th Triplle Nickel.
In addition, I was named the resident "wire head"
because I had introduced the F-15E community to computerized
mission planning using FPLAN on the PC and the MSS IIA. During
this period, I made
several trips
to Eglin AFB, to give input to the design of CFPS, the next
generation of PC flight planning software. It was there that I
made some contacts that would later prove valuable. Whenever we
deployed TDY, it was my responsibility to see that we had
appropriate computer support for the mission planning tasks at
the deployed location. A few choice TDYs were had, traveling to
Miramar to battle the Tom Kitties, Volk field in Wisconsin to
battle everybody in the Guard, and MCAS El Toro, to battle with
the Hornets. I’ll never forget our arrival "show"
at El Toro. We arrived with quite a bit of extra gas and the
pattern was empty on a Sunday afternoon. All four of us started
doing full afterburner closed patterns. Four F-15E’s doing a
6+G pullup a hundred and fifty feet off the deck at the end of
the runway. The interstate crosses the extended departure end of
the runway, and we stopped traffic on it. Car’s and trucks
pulled over and folks got out to watch our impromptu airshow. No
matter where we went, our hosts were always impressed with our
airplane and our proficiency (and not just in the pattern).
Then Iraq invaded Kuwait. Desert Shield started up and only
two or three of our IPs were called on for special duties in
theater. I got called upon to investigate the crash of an F-15E
near Thumrait, Oman. The Strike Eagles of the 4th Wing at Seymour
Johnson were only operational a very short time when they got the
call to deploy. I was told many horror stories about the
deployment. Everything from trouble refueling on the long trip
over to Oman, to not getting permission to land, to sleeping
under the wings with gas masks on the first few nights. While
there, during some free time, I did manage to upgrade some of
their flight planning software and checked out some of the game
plans. I ended up over there for only two weeks before returning
Stateside to complete the mishap investigation. When the shooting
started, I was home watching the action unfold on CNN with the
rest of the country. I cheered out loud when film showing my
buds, many of my former students, taxiing out and taking off to
go to war on the first couple of nights. The whole squadron was
saddened to learn that "Teak" and "Balls",
two students that had passed through our squadron, did not return
from that first night.
We toasted them
with the traditional "weed" in the squadron bar, wished
our brothers in arms good luck, and at the same time cursed them
for getting the opportunity to fight when we were stuck back in
the school house. All in all, with the exception of all the
publicity about the wobbly goblin, it was the F-15E and the
F-111F that clearly were the workhorses of Desert Storm. It was
the Strike Eagle that took out the enemy airfields on the first
night, it was a strike eagle that got the first in history, air
to air kill using a laser guided bomb, it was the Strike Eagle
(and the warthog’s) who were the primary scud hunters, and
it was the Strike Eagle that was responsible for the
"Highway of Death".
Shortly after the "Great War", the Air Force
announced plans to downsize, and offered special financial
incentive packages to bail out. I was getting tired of the
relentless Phoenix heat, and tired of always instructing. We were
cranking out more and more students and having less and less
opportunities to maintain proficiency. I yearned for an
operational tour in Alaska. I was told it was
the school house for the
foreseeable future. Having always been stateside, and always
flying, for 14 years, I began to wonder what the last 6 would be
like; unaccompanied remote? Staff Tour? Korea? Dwindling Bonuses?
Wasn’t it strange that our student load was so heavy, yet
they wanted us to leave? When our Clinton was elected, it was the
last straw. I knew that staying in the military with this kind of
president in charge would not be fun. I took the money and ran.
Whatever was to happen in my AF Career, it was sure to be hard on
my wife and kids. As it turns out, I punched just before they
closed the door for F-15E aircrews to bail out. I had a couple
interviews with the airlines set up, but did not relish the
thought of worrying about spilling the passenger’s coffee
after being so used to the Rock ‘n Roll. As chance would
have it, some of the folks I had met at Eglin were visiting to
upgrade our MSS II and had learned that I was getting out. They
immediately asked me to apply for a job at Hanscom AFB working on
computerized mission planning systems. I did. Weeks later I had
an offer that I could not refuse and made plans for the very
scary transition to civilian life. I had my last F-15E flight in
Novermber 1992. I’ll never forget taxiing back after
landing, staring through the HUD and realizing that I might very
well never see this picture again. It was hard to let go.
My life as a
civilian? Well that’s another story. To be continued …
.