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Is this a typo? I had no idea the F-111 could carry that payload. Pretty fucking amazing.

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I posted a pic earlier but here are a few more.
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Apache_flyby_JPG-3100030.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/M1A1s_on_the_roll_JPG-3100031.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/fresh_haircut_JPG-3100033.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Highway_of_Death_2_JPG-3100035.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Highway_of_Death_1_JPG-3100038.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/my_2_buds_JPG-3100040.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/camels_from_nowhere_JPG-3100041.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/camel_owner_JPG-3100045.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/R_R_by_the_fire_pit_JPG-3100046.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/my_AK-47_JPG-3100053.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Platoon_Pic_jpg-3100055.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Captured_artillery_2_JPG-3100059.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/shower_facility_JPG-3100061.JPG

I had taken a lot of pictures but back then you turned the film into the PX and waited about a month.  When my pictures came back, they said the film had been exposed and these were all they could recover.  There were some much more graphic ones and I wonder if they simply didn't want any unsavory images getting out.

Here's a story.  After the war ended and before we traveled south into kuwait, we were still required to go out and set up an air defense perimeter daily.   In the morning each chapparral in our platoon would head out into the desert in different directions.  we'd go several miles out and set up.  As best as we could see, we were in the middle of nowhere.  There was just flat sand as far as you could see in all directions.

One day I had to take a crap so I walked off to get away from my squad, something we all had done.  When I was maybe 100 yards away I noticed something odd.  A line in the sand.  I walked towards it and as I approached it I could see that it was a hole, dug into the sandstone.  It was the entrance to an underground tunnel system. What the Iraqis had done was cut paths in the sandstone, covered them with steel corrugated pipe cut in half lengthwise and then threw sand on top to hide it.  I was standing at the opening to the system.

Well they had put a piece of burlap over the entry so you couldn't see in.  Being an idiot I had to see inside, so I knelt down next to the hole and used my m16 barrel to lift the burlap away from the entrance.  I saw something just inside but couldn't make it out.  So I moved a bit closer and got more of the barrel behind the burlap and lifted.

Holy shit!  It was an RPG pointing seemingly directly at me.  I fell back on my ass, nearly shitting myself and ran back to my squad and told them about it.  

Our gunner, a sergeant, went to check it out and determined it was a booby trap.  The RPG had a wire going from its trigger to the burlap.  If someone had jumped down into the hole and threw the burlap aside, the RPG would have fired directly into the unsuspecting victim.  I simply hadn't moved the burlap enough to trigger it since I approached it from the side.

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I was working Army ROTC in Southern California during DS/DS.  One of my best friends, MAJ Thomas Zeugner, had left our ROTC detachment to Fort Leonard Wood to command an EOD unit.  They ended up getting deployed for Desert Shield.  I got to see him a couple of days before they shipped out.  Got a couple of letters from him while he was over there and could see his change of attitude about the whole thing.  I was on leave in southern AZ when the ground war kicked off and I was glued to the news.  I called a friend back in Southern California to get directions to come over and visit her and her husband.  She told me she had some bad news.  Tom was KIA the day after the ceasefire.  I remember I felt like I was punched in the gut by Tyson, and then I cried for two days.  

Never got all the details of his death until about 3 years ago when I talked to the Sergeant who was his driver that day.  They were headed to an airfield to take a look at some ordnance that was found.  They were given wrong directions and ended up in a hostile Iraqi village and were fired upon.  Tom was killed before the driver could get turned around and out of harm's way.  I named my son Thomas in his memory.  I still miss him to this day.  He was one of the funniest guys I had ever met in my life, and he got me more interested in firearms and taught me how to reload.

This is my DS/DS story.  RIP Tom...I salute you again.

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No that is not a typo.  If I remember correctly we called it the slant 8 load.  8 Mark 82s on the pivoting pylon stations 3, 4, 5 and 6 for a total of 32 bombs for 16,000# of weight.

Empty weight of an F-111E was in the neighborhood of 40,000#.  Add 30,000# of fuel and then 16,000# for the weapons that gives you a gross weight in the neighborhood of 86,000#.  You had 14,000# to spare to max gross of 100,000#.  Plenty of room to add the weight of the ALQ-131 jamming pods that were attached to a hard point in the aft section of the plane between the engine bays.

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https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005245_jpg-3102381.JPG

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005246_jpg-3102382.JPG

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005247_jpg-3102383.JPG

Turkey

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005248_jpg-3102384.JPG

Welcome home committee

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Was your aircraft equipped with ordinance also or exclusively electronic countermeasures?

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Revisiting the first story, it’s not just a failure on the weapons controllers on the AWACS, but they were probably fed bad info by the surveillance team on the AWACS.  It sounds like the surveillance team did not follow the ID matrix correctly (how they “label” every aircraft that they can pick up on radar, which is then viewable by everyone on the AWACS that has a scope) and for whatever reason had YOU coded as the bogey then bandit.  I assume you had all the correct squawks per the ATO, and that you “checked in” with AWACS as well.

But the weapons team on the AWACS should have had situational awareness to know you were there as well.  They are supposed to be keeping track of all friendly air assets (their location, time on station/fuel remaining, weapons/munitions available, etc).

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I posted a pic earlier but here are a few more.
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Apache_flyby_JPG-3100030.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/M1A1s_on_the_roll_JPG-3100031.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/fresh_haircut_JPG-3100033.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Highway_of_Death_2_JPG-3100035.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Highway_of_Death_1_JPG-3100038.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/my_2_buds_JPG-3100040.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/camels_from_nowhere_JPG-3100041.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/camel_owner_JPG-3100045.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/R_R_by_the_fire_pit_JPG-3100046.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/my_AK-47_JPG-3100053.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Platoon_Pic_jpg-3100055.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/Captured_artillery_2_JPG-3100059.JPG
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/shower_facility_JPG-3100061.JPG

I had taken a lot of pictures but back then you turned the film into the PX and waited about a month.  When my pictures came back, they said the film had been exposed and these were all they could recover.  There were some much more graphic ones and I wonder if they simply didn't want any unsavory images getting out.

Here's a story.  After the war ended and before we traveled south into kuwait, we were still required to go out and set up an air defense perimeter daily.   In the morning each chapparral in our platoon would head out into the desert in different directions.  we'd go several miles out and set up.  As best as we could see, we were in the middle of nowhere.  There was just flat sand as far as you could see in all directions.

One day I had to take a crap so I walked off to get away from my squad, something we all had done.  When I was maybe 100 yards away I noticed something odd.  A line in the sand.  I walked towards it and as I approached it I could see that it was a hole, dug into the sandstone.  It was the entrance to an underground tunnel system. What the Iraqis had done was cut paths in the sandstone, covered them with steel corrugated pipe cut in half lengthwise and then threw sand on top to hide it.  I was standing at the opening to the system.

Well they had put a piece of burlap over the entry so you couldn't see in.  Being an idiot I had to see inside, so I knelt down next to the hole and used my m16 barrel to lift the burlap away from the entrance.  I saw something just inside but couldn't make it out.  So I moved a bit closer and got more of the barrel behind the burlap and lifted.

Holy shit!  It was an RPG pointing seemingly directly at me.  I fell back on my ass, nearly shitting myself and ran back to my squad and told them about it.  

Our gunner, a sergeant, went to check it out and determined it was a booby trap.  The RPG had a wire going from its trigger to the burlap.  If someone had jumped down into the hole and threw the burlap aside, the RPG would have fired directly into the unsuspecting victim.  I simply hadn't moved the burlap enough to trigger it since I approached it from the side.

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I listened to a podcast with Tyler Jay Satterfield( the EAS Song guy) and he brought up an interesting point. He said that as Marines all we ever looks for is a CAR. That he is more impressed by the NDR because you volunteered during active conflict. And the CAR really just means you were doing your job and defended yourself. It was part of a larger narrative and story but I found it interesting.

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I've never seen a bomb rack that holds eight.
Here is an F-111 with 48 MK-82's! I wonder how much runway he used to get airborne.
I kinda doubt they ever flew with such a load.

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/80691/f-111_png-3103027.JPG

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Here are some of the propaganda leaflets we dropped.

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005262_jpg-3100105.JPG

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005263_jpg-3100106.JPG

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005264_jpg-3100107.JPG

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/180018/1000005265_jpg-3100108.JPG

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I have a few of the bomb leaflets and the Iraqi Dinars that had the text on the reverse side.  They blew into our area a day or so after being dropped.

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I remember being around F-4's and F-16's, since my uncle was a crew chief on them, and I had no idea how big a F-111 was until I actually saw one up close and personal on display when I was at McClellan for the CAP National Flight Academy in 97.  At that time, in my mind, fighter designated aircraft = small.  The F-111 is huge, granted it's only 10 feet longer than the F-4, but it dwarfs a F-16.


I know cool story bro.

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I was the driver of a chapparal. This picture was taken by Janes Defense and I have the magazine it was printed in.  That's me driving the POS.

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304989/s-l1200_jpg-3097990.JPG

I was in the first armoured division and we were assigned to provide air defense for the MRLS guys.  Because we were air defense we stayed well off of the flanks of the convoy of vehicles.

Every M1 and Bradley we came across wanted to blow us to smithereens.  I was told by many a tanker that they requested permission to engage us but somebody out there was smart enough to properly identify us as friendly each time.  

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I got those from the F-16 guys that were dropping them during the day over Iraq.

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I can neither confirm nor deny this series of events...the contents of the first leaflet bombs were not divulged, but the F-16 load crews quickly discovered a few leaflets sticking out from the seams, since the canisters were designed to split in half and the seams were not sealed. It is my understanding the leaflets were removed and saved as souvenirs. When word spread, the removal of leaflets became much more prolific on new bombs, to the point the bombs were partially disassembled, handfulls of leaflets removed, bombs reassembled, and loaded on the jets. This is what I heard happened.

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I fucked a French nurse in a mine field.

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I fucked a French nurse in a mine field.

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fact that we were not using war time jamming capabilities or power levels and we weren't even directing our jamming at them and their were getting interference onto their side lobes.

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Okay, here's a war story. After the war (We were the last Marine ground combat unit to leave Kuwait) we were headed down the highway back to SA. As we approached the border I began to see 55 gallon drums with signs that said "Amnesty Barrel" and warning that returning with prohibited war trophies such as grenades and stuff would result in severe punishment. I stopped my track and told everyone about the barrels and asked them to be damned certain about items they had, that I wasn't taking any heat for them over dumb shit. As we approached Camp 15, there were several barrels and big sign with a FINAL WARNING, that this was it. Anything past this point was a UCMJ offense. I again stopped my track and talked to everyone. I jumped down from weapon station and looked into the barrels. Inside one of the barrels was an entire human arm, all the way up to the shoulder.
I went back to my track just shaking my head. Who in the fuck brought an entire human arm all the way back to camp 15? What were they going to do with it? I never solved any of it. Now I just laugh and tell the story from time to time.

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It was comical how the amnesty area at Camp 15 grew overnight. It started as a smallish area with a 55 gallon drum with some engineer tape around it. Soon there were vehicles and wheeled cannons parked in it. It just kept getting bigger. We would walk by it going to grab a shawarma.

One of our contributions was a Mk19 grenade launcher mounted on a tripod that was picked up along the way. It was found just lying in the sand and got toted around in the back of a Humvee while we did our thing. It was eventually claimed.

We also deposited a small Iraqi trailer full of AKM's and other contraband that our 1st Lt and platoon sergeant gathered up.

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Jim is the real MVP! Thank you, sir!

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/133626/Screenshot_20240122_202511_jpg-3103889.JPG

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/133626/Screenshot_20240122_202522_jpg-3103890.JPG

I'm torn between opening them and leaving them mint in box.

Maybe I got that Saddam rookie card! ????

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They did.  I actually tried to chew one of those sticks of "gum" that came in my DS cards.  What a mistake.

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The C5 I was on stopped in Diego Garcia on the way back to Oki from Saudi.  We had like 12 hours of libbo.

It’s hazy but I definitely remember drinking with some B52 crews and Brits.    

I remember some strikes on the obstacle belt before our attack and pretty sure it was Buffs as the ground shook for a few minutes of constant explosions.

Think I have a psyops leaflet with a B52 on it somewhere around here too.  

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I have one story that was told to me by my college buddy.  I did not serve so I'd probably mess up the lingo.  I'll just paraphrase instead.  I think he was a Sergeant, but I could be wrong. . . it's been a while.

"We were doing a patrol thru a town that had the shit blown out of it by an airstrike a few days before.  We saw a donkey that was on it's feet but clearly near death from injuries so I told one of my guy's to shoot it to put it out of it's misery.  You know what that dumbass did?  He shot that donkey twice, in the ass!  After I told him to shoot it in the head the donkey dropped dead.  I asked him why the fuck would you shoot it in the ass and he said "because I didn't know where to shoot it to kill it."  Can you believe that shit!?"

All I got.