I have a couple but I`ll start with the first one I witnessed. This was back a good 8-10 years ago traveling south on hwy 75 through Melissa which is just north of McKinney. It was dark, but there was a very bright moon that night. I was coming over the top of one of the hills and between the two hills and about the same altitude as I was at was one of those planes with the big radar dome on top of it. Right behind it with all lights out were 7-9 Cobra`s, or apache helicopters.
I have no idea where they came from, or what they were doing, but it was pretty cool to see such a rare site.

As a retired Air Force pilot, I think a fair answer would be yes.

yeah, a little closer than i wanted to be

Black helicopters follow me around but that's okay, the foil lining in my hat keeps them from controlling my brain.

Yes

Did you ever see or feel any Arc Light type strikes?

drove to a wedding reception near possum kingdom lake one day... out in the middle of nowhere in some hills... we got buzzed by two C-130's doing low altitude maneuvers.. it was cool as heck, but I had to clean the poop outta my drawers as they came from behind us..... never heard them until they were right on top of us... we woulda been toast.. LOL!

heck we use to swim in some of the craters

Yep. It's cool.

I`m not talking about the hail damage on the back of LSS` legs.

I used to hunt in Strawn and they used to buzz us all the time. Scared the carp out of me every time.

I've also heard it's very interesting to have air support at night from an AC130 gunship.

The sweetest sound in the world.

When you fish on the Red River out of Bossier, you see the A-10s and the B-52s all the time! The A-10 will be flying REEEEEAAAAAALLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY low and close to the river! The B-52s, not so much!

It's a cool site to see!

Another cool thing to see, if you ever get the chance, is to go onto Ft. Hood and see the M1 Abrams Tanks and the Apache / Cobra helicopters lined up for what seems miles!

It's a pretty awesome display of power to see 'em all lined up like that! Makes you wonder who would ever mess with us!

-alton

yes

Yes. I was intimately familiar with the F-106 for 8 years. Now, just memories and museum displays. Here is a video of an F-106 from the ANG in NJ.

puff puff DUCK!


My Spooky Gunship Aircraft and Crew flying a combat mission around Danang Viet Nam 1967

.....PUFF the Magic Dragon Call sign; SPOOKY . . . with 200,000 candle power flares to light up the night and 3 mini-guns each able to spit out 6,000 rounds per minute (every 4th one a red tracer) is it any wonder that captured Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army documents referred to the "Dragon's" reputation, containing orders specifically to "not attack the Dragon because it would only infuriate the monster."

F-16's often buzzed the campus at A&M, no matter how many times you heard it, you still wet your pants just a little when then do it.

got to fly in the backseat of an f4 in 73, went all over the med in about 4 hrs.

As a Viet Nam vet I saw enough to know that under no circustance would I like to be on the receiving end of anything the Cobras, Fighter Jet/Bombers, or B-52 strikes had to offer. Also saw a couple of C-130 gun ship attacks at night. What a show!

I was fishing a small pond at Cabela's in N. Fort Worth, when I don't know what it was, but they were practicing outta alliance I believe. But one did what looked like a 180 in mid air, hit the boosters and off it went. Was louder than all he77.

Also watching the blue angels practice for the air show at alliance is pretty cool to watch too. They fly right over the house. I was driving down the road towards the airport one year and they buzzed right past me. Scared the outta me...

i probably wiuldn't be here if it wasn't for ole spooky

spooky at night was awesome to see. (from a distance)

I've seen lots of military aircraft flying maneuvers all over this state. One of the coolest was two FA-18's over my deer lease in San Saba Co. One was orbiting and the other would come to almost a complete stop in mid-air, tail down, nose up and barely moving forward. He would then push it over into a dive and come back around and orbit his buddy, who would be doing the same stall maneuver.

We had Cobras buzzing us quite often and even had them land in one of my food plots west of the house. Again, some type of training mission.

I've had two f-16's come roaring down Smith St. lower than my office on the 65th floor, for a Veterans Day Parade. This was right after 9-11 and it scared the chit out of me. They've never done that since.

I see lots of Blackhawks and Cobras flying east/west down I-10 in Houston, been buzzed by slightly higher than treetop A10's at Murval and on and on.

But no, I have never seen a military aircraft in action (combat) except on TV and documentaries.

We "shot down" a Jap Zero over Lake Georgetown a few years back.

We used to pick shrooms from the cow pastures at Camp Claiborne in the early mornings from Kisatchie National Forest as the A-10's made their morning bombing run practices.

Oh yeah! many times.

I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ('92-'94). Every Tuesday, the A-4 squadron ran bombing practice. Their flight path paralleled the street in front of my housing unit (1/4-mile away). They flew past, low, loud and fast, pulled back on the stick as they crossed the bay, then nose-dived the bombing range, dropping 500 lb bombs.

I used to love Tuesdays!

A day or two before my wedding in 2008, we went over from Destin to Pensacola, and toured the Naval Air Museum, we watched the Blue Angels practice.

I was running an OPFOR crew for some CSAR training last summer at Ft. Polk. PJs, CCTs and SERE were being inserted by HH-60 Pave Hawks and air support was provided by A-10s. We (OPFOR) had a radio tuned into the A-10/HH-60 radio Freq so we would know when we had been taken out by the A-10s. Trust, me, we really didn't need to know by radio. We were buzzed by the A-10s all the time. I was sitting in my truck right off the road near a tree line, an A-10 popped over the tree line on my right and was nose down on me, he was close enough to the deck I think I could see him grinning at me. I'm glad they were running dry on the 30mm gun!!!

The next day we did it all again, but we were on Toledo Bend down by the dam and we were in boats. The PJs were training on water extractions and the A-10s were all over us. The downed pilot was calling in every boat in the water. There were some skiers that wouldn't be alive if those planes would have been hot.

In my 18 year career, that's by far the best training I've been apart of and I can't wait til May to do it again!!!

I watched two F-16s intercept an idiot in a Cessna 172 that had entered the restricted air space around Bushes Crawford ranch when he was at the ranch. It was interesting watching the jets trying to fly slow enough to get the fools attention. One of the jets finally flew in front of the Cessna and dropped a string of flares off his nose.

The fool kept flying towards the ranch and I saw 2 moe flare drops before they got out of sight. They did not shoot him down obviously. I saw that they finally got him turned around. He flew back by heading out. No doubt he waa greeted by the guys in a black Crown Victoria when he landed.

I worked for a company that made radars for the airforce. Got to do range testing on White Sands. When we were done for the day the pilot flew right off to the side of us about 400 MPH, not very high off the ground. We could see the pilot wave at us.

They were also doing bomb drop testing off to the side of us a mile or so away.

The group I worked with designed the radar antenna system on the bottom of the Stealth Bomber. I just missed working on that project.

I saw a SR-71 doing a high altitude fly by but didn't realize it.

Yes, C-130's come over my house several times a month.....very low altitude. Doesn't really bother me, but my cows go absolutely nuts. Just waiting for the day they run one through the fence.

Don't know what airbases they come from but we have dogfights almost daily over Mills county. Some happen at night but most are in daylight hours. Although they get loud at times when they hit the afterburner and turn straight up. Nothing much cooler than watching two and occasionally three fighters go at it on a clear day.

Seen a B-52 flying down low just above a row of hills before you get to Marathon. The hills run more or less NNE to SSW. I guess he was heading toward Abilene.

Rode in a P3 Orion on a real live anti-sub patrol when we were in the Med as part as a cross familiarzation program on electronic countermeasures/surveillance.

Rode in a Blackhawk about a dozen or so times in Customs.

Got some real good periscope photos of S-2 ASW aircraft taking off from the Forrestal, looking for us, when we were within about 2500 yards of them. Took two pics together to get the whole aircraft carrier in. That's how close we were. Copies of those pics were sent to the CO of the Forrestal.

Came close to having a Huey helicopter come right through the roof of our hooch.

Listened in the middle of the night as shells from a USN ship came straight over us.

I was in more danger from Americans than I was the enemy.

I was on a deer lease north of Childress. I was the 1st to arrive around noon on Friday. To kill time I was putting along the main road on a 4-wheeler just above idle. A C-141 flew 50 yards behind me about 100' of the deck. I never heard him coming. I'm surprised he didn't crash from laughing when I jumped a foot off the 4-wheeler. I swear I could have hit him with a football.

I'll probably get cancer from the missile lock.

i gotta admit a couple times i was more scared of our guys than the vc

WTH? I'm too fat to have hail damage.

Yup. Kuwait 1991.

To this day, my favorite aircraft is the A-10.

You guys have some cool stories.


My other story happened just a few months ago. Traveling west on I-10 in Arizona about 10-11 pm. Out of the corner of my eye I saw some odd lights to the south of me over the mountains. It looked like a huge fire fight between seven planes. I have no idea what they were but they were in a ball going all over the place, and from time to time one would shoot out a line of flares. I got some of it on video on my phone, but it didn`t turn out very well since it was dark.

Growing up within an hour of SAFB I've seen my share of wild planes doing wild things. Between them weaving in and out of the Wichita Mtns, to being in boats on the area lakes and having them buzz over your head low enough you can feel the wind after they pass. Pretty Cool. I don't know which ones they are think C130's about every day of the Summer will be flying over some lake doing craaazy banks where you'd think the plane was fixing to snap. Used to see them about every other Wednesday over Lake Nocona, looking like they were about to land in the water.

Nothin like watching a cobra, puff, or snoopy fire those mini guns , or the infantry's best friend, a.B-52 pulling off an arc light strike.

Knew the Capt. of the USS Kitty Hawk when I was a kid. He took me out a couple of times and I got to watch carrier ops from the bridge as well as the deck. Also practice M-gun straffing and bombing runs.

F-18, A-10, Cobra, doing strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rode in C-130, CH-46, CH-53, CH-47.

Seen numerous C-17's and a C-5.

it always amazed me when after an air strike on a tree line or bunkers that it would get quiet for awhile and then the ak fire would slowly pick up again. i never understood how them little bastages could live through that kind of hell

It made you wonder if they knew of the strike long before the fast movers arrived , didnt it?

I'd like to see a dog fight, but, you probably wouldn't see much from the ground.

Several thousand hours on the bridge of a helicopter carrier during flight ops. We also flew Harriers. Those things are LOUD!, especially when your bunk is 3 feet below the flight deck. CH-53s are pretty noisy too.

Sometimes we would do lifeguard duty for a real carrier from a few hundred yards behind and get a front row seat to the amazing choreography that goes on when FA-18s are taking off and landing on a carrier.

As a kid, used to watch F8's, A4-D's, and F-4's touch-n-go all day at North Island when we were stationed in Coronado.

My father was a Naval Flight Instructor there around the same time my uncle was flying A-4's over in Vietnam, only to be shot down by a SAM, thereafter a POW for 6 years.

We took many a carrier tour when they were in port in San Diego.

Great memories!

Being a former guy on the ground with a rifle the A-10 has always had a warm place in my heart.


The plane was designed to give this little gun a home

As a matter of fact, I've witnessed quite a few in action over the years

Find us a place to hook up to and we'll change the rotation of the earth :), my first plane I had "Vulgar display of power" painted on the hell hole. When we'd slide left off the deck and pour the power to it, the yellow shirts and bridge could read it lol.

A lot of these are my old unit, others are filler my buddy Arthur found online when he was putting this together back 8 years ago or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdVAbftWZhM&feature=youtu.be

I watched a show on the A-10 a couple of days ago. Thaat`s one bad mother. I think they said it would fire 70 rounds per second. Could take a ton of hits and keep coming back for more.

Had a guy who was the official water provider and had gotten a Dear John letter from his wife saying she was pregnant with another man's child drive his deuce and a half truck at 2:00 AM through whatever the [censored] compound we were living in.

We never saw him again and he was a good man.

That's what I'm talking about... CCT and PJ gettin some love!!! Prior to busting my knee, I was in the pipeline for CCT training, that was 16 years ago, and I still wish my knee. Would have held out. I still get to hear stories from my ROMAD buddies.

Saw the same thing happen while I was at the muffler shop in Whitney. Just a single guy in a tiny Cessna but those 2 fighters were something else. The metal building was shaking and we all walked out to see that fighter almost ina stall to go slow enough and cut in front of him(looked like it from our vantage point). They were low, low, low and, to me, it looked like the afterburners were churning to keep it from just falling out of the sky. Looked like something in a comic book, butt draggin/nose up, loeder than heck! The guy finally got the message and landed at the strip in the state park. Don't know what happened to him.

Did 157 combat missions in the rear end of an EC-47 in Vietnam. Got to watch a lot of airstrikes & bombing run from 500 to 8000 feet up. Fun job to say the least. If you want to know what an EC-47 is just check out www.ec47.com

My favorite part is the pilot apologizing for not keeping it on the runway.

Being a crew chief on a CH-46 I can say yes. Most memorable one, seeing an A-10 light up some Serbian tanks in Kosovo. Also had the pleasure of spy rigging one time. Talk about an adrenaline rush

I was an F-4 Crew Chief in the early to mid 80's.In Korea 1982 Got to ride in the back seat of an F-4E once as an award.. Pilots were close friends of mine and they made a concerted effort to make sure I puked. Took me to breakfast, loaded me up, then straight to the hooch. They formed a gauntlet and stuffed puke bags in every pocket of my flight suit. Then once we got up in the air, "Mom" which was the nickname for the guy who was basically ranking officer, said, "Mike, take the stick for me." I was not ready.. This thing threw me almost out of my seat. Thankfully I was belted in. I was all over the place. He took back control then said, take it back.. I did, and he said "now push it all the way to the right, the to the left". Funny, how watching those things from the ground it looks so effortless. He took control and then started pullin "G's". This is where I was most surprised. That "G" suit, will scare the carp out of ya.. Not a gradual inflation.. It was like someone was all of a sudden in the cockpit with me and had put the tightest bearhug on me ever. Shortly after that all I did was puke. And puke, and puke... Then we landed. HAHAHA!! One of the most fun things I ever did.

After 20 years in the Military I have witnessed a lot of Military aircraft in action. Never in combat, but in training...

When I was a LCpl I was the S-3's driver, he was the training officer for an Artillery Battalion. A lot of our training was in support of the ground troops but we also did a lot of joint training with the air wing side of the house. He always liked to go up to a vantage point where he could see the impact areas. He is quite a site to see 3 or more artillery battery's pound a target and then watch the aircraft come in and light it up or drop 500lbr's on the target. Makes for a heck of a night show.

After I picked up SSgt I became a Artillery Operations Chief, I was the Fire Direction Chief for an Artillery Battery. One of our training standards was to able to shoot White Phospourous (WP) marking rounds for aircraft. I hated doing it because it was a timing exercise, you would have basically 7 minutes from the time you got the Call for Fire until the round had to be on the deck. 30 seconds later the pilot would be coming over the mark and dropping his ordnance, you dang sure didn't want to be late with that artillery round. When we would do this at 29 Palms CA we could see our impacts and the plane flying over and dropping their bombs on our marks. It was a sight to see.

Mistakes do happen though, we were in Kuwait in 95 doing a training exercise, and we screwed up and dropped a WP round about 2k BEHIND the forward line of troops. (NO one was hurt) I talked to the FO a couple of days after that and he said he wasn't so scared about the WP round he was scared about the pilot that was supposed to come in a drop on that marking round, luckily they were able to call him off.

Slodsm, those 53's were some powerful birds.... It is something to see 4 or 5 of them with M198 howitzers and a load of Ammo flying through the sky. You remember me telling you about the one that dropped a howitzer in 29 Palms barrell first into the ground though....

I guess that is enough stories for now.

I spent some time on a carrier doing air qualifications, spent more time on a cruiser during west pac's . Most awsome thing i ever saw was coming out of the gulf we got into a multi national fire strike on a small island. they rained down on the island with f-14, f-18, corsaiers, b-52, russian bears, and one battleship with its 16 in guns. the battleship was lined up a half mile or less behind us when she let off a 10 round volley. The concussion from the rounds being fired would make you heart skip a few beats even from that far away. The russian bear asked if it could try to jamm our radars and spent an hour trying, we never noticed a thing from my station. A b-52 converted into a jammer tried unsucessfully also.

Coming back from our deployment in the Persian Gulf the USS Carl Vinson put on an "airshow" for the rest of our battle group. Got to see every aircraft on the Vinson in action. Awesome sight to see as they would drop smoke into the ocean and then have all the different fighters and bombers make attack runs on the smoke. Absolutely amazing the firepower those aircraft can deliver.

Got to watch a full gabriel display at Pope/Ft. Bragg back in 79.

my moms second husband flew the A-10 in Vietnam for the NAVY, then went on to fly the A4F for the NAVY Blue Angels in 1976-1979. He was/is a major perfectionist, but now (being older) I totally understand why.. and why he was so hard on me... I missed my calling to go train at Annapolis(with his letter of recommendation) fresh out of high school because I was a rebellious STUPID punk! I regret that decision every day! I would have loved to have been trained to be a pilot, if I had gotten to that point.

Back in the 70's I was dove hunting in one of our fields near Jacksboro and had a F-111 see me I guess and made a banking turn and come back super low and full after burner. made a track star out of this fat boy

Was? Sorry I couldn`t resist.

laugh it up, Mr DWI

Man, I wish I got a ride in the F106's I worked on, but you needed to have an altitude card from a checkout in the altitude chamber and I didn't have one. I made Airman of the month for my Squadron once, and got a ride in a T-33 and that was a blast. Same thing that you said, the pilot said "ok, you got it" but warned me beforehand to only use slight finger pressure. It was very responsive and more stable than I imagined. Still it was fun, but a ride in an F4 had to be awesome (except for the puke).

I can still out fish you and kick your [censored] with one hand behind my back.

You gonna go cry to that "other" forum now???????



biatch

An A 10 flew low over head on Ray Roberts and dipped
his wings for me I could see his face, that was kool !