Falcon 4 BMS - Debrief: Sortie 2904

As day one of the war comes to an end, fatigue creeps upon crews and pilots. I hated being the one making the first mistake.

Last mission of the day for me was an interdiction on enemy forces near P'anmum. 

The flight plan. At waypoint 3, enemy forces have been under air attack for a while. Our mission is to continue interdicting them. Time on target is 1915.

Our loadout: laser-guided bombs and a targeting pod.

Taking off from the Kunsan airbase. Shadows have grown long and the evening sky is on fire.

The view from the cockpit as we approach waypoint #2. The sun is sinking on the horizon. Note our alternate airstrip in the mid background.

Still some 60+ miles from the target area, we switch to air to ground master mode and ready weapons for the attack. Note how I chose the continuously computed release point (CCRP, on the right multi function display). Everything looks ready. Nothing worse than lining up for an attack and realizing that the master arm switch is off.

The amount of targets in our assigned area is sparse, as judged by the targeting pod (right). The enemy position shown in the targeting pod is our first choice for an attack.

After a quick descent (21,000 ft to 9,000 ft) we are closing in for the attack.

The "shallow" dive that I planed took to me down to 4,000 ft (!). The target has been hit, note the smoke and fire in the right multifunction display.

If you open this screenshot, you will notice a small fire in the ground (that's the aftermath of my bombing) and some tiny speckles of small arms enemy fire.

A couple of passes after my initial bomb run revealed no additional targets. So I start to scan the nearby area for targets. An airstrip catches my attention and I drop 2 laser guided bombs into it (note the explosions in the ground).

I also dropped two bombs onto vehicles close to this ongoing battle (multiple explosions/fire on the ground). 

Winchester! The darkness is by now complete as I RTB. The lights in the background are from Seoul. The night vision goggles are a must for low and medium altitude flying.

A few seconds before touchdown at Kunsan.

Always good to be back ...

A couple of  enemy AAAs, trucks and a rocket launcher. That's the good news. The bad news: I was court martialled for my bombing of a friendly airbase. Fortunately, the airbase was deserted (too close to the FEBA) and I didn't kill or hurt anybody. The court martial found me not guilty but the incident will go into my record.

A gaffe of epic proportions that could have been avoided with a more careful cross checking with the JSTARS or even the map. I am hoping to make up for this mistake on day 2.

Cheers,