Lessons From The Cockpit
101 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsThe Lessons from the Cockpit Show sits down with standout pilots, dedicated aircrew, skilled maintainers, and passionate aviation buffs from different parts of the world. Our focus is on the lessons drawn from their diverse experiences in military, commercial, and general aviation.
You're tuning into firsthand accounts, raw and unfiltered, many stories have never been spoken beyond the confines of a cockpit or a debrief room. For our guests this isn’t just about sharing; it’s a chance to truly be heard, find healing lessons, gain perspective and closure to the sometimes extreme and extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.
It's all about the takeaways - the critical thinking nuggets that can shape how we tackle any challenge we face in life. So, buckle up, grab an adult beverage of your choice, and join me as we embark on another episode of the Lessons From The Cockpit Show.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Port City Air Fixed Base Operations with Jamie McCarthy
April 11, 2024 03:02 - 50 minutes - 69 MBWelcome to the seventy-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! This one was done on location so get ready for some cool background jet noise! My wife and I recently were guests of Port City Air, a Fixed Base Operations or FBO at my first base of assignment Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Port City Air has an incredible reputation among military fliers! I walked the ramp with Port City Air's Director of Flight Operations Jamie McCarthy while recording our conv...
Busting SAMs by Iron Hand with Captain Bo Smith
March 28, 2024 03:24 - 53 minutes - 73.1 MBWelcome to the seventy-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, KC-135 pilot, and author of the book Tanker Pilot. In the second episode with Navy Captain Bo Smith he explains Iron Hand missions, the methods and weapons the US Navy used to destroy Surface to Air Missile or SAM sites defending North Vietnam. Bo and his VA-82 Marauders A-7C Corsair II pilots developed tactics with the A-7C's improved avionics during...
Flying the A-4 and A-7 with Navy Captain Bo Smith
March 17, 2024 04:25 - 1 hour - 97.8 MBWelcome to the seventy-seventh episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show with your host retired Lt Col Mark Hasara, KC-135 pilot and Air Force Weapons School graduate. I was turned on to a great memoir website by my good friend Scott Brown. Navy Captain Bo Smith is responsible for helping create the Navy’s IRON HAND Surface to Air Missile or SAM suppression procedures during the Vietnam War. Bo started his Naval Aviation career with two Vietnam tours in the Douglas A-4B and A-4C Skyhawk...
Lessons Learned with TC Cappelletti
February 23, 2024 05:58 - 1 hour - 149 MBWelcome to the seventy-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara. My circle of friends has expanded because of my book Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit. One of those great friends has vast experience in almost every Boeing airliner... 727, 737, 757, 767, and the Lockheed L-1011 I found out during this show. My good buddy TC Cappelletti is also one of the most knowledgeable military historians I know because he's a voracious reader of history. And m...
Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea
January 20, 2024 02:10 - 1 hour - 111 MBWelcome to another episode, the seventy-fifth, of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been aviation. The situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adan has everyone's attention. It's the continuation of the Proxy War between western powers and the Ayatollahs of Iran and their influence with the Houthi Rebels in Yemen, attacking shipping in one of the largest and wealthiest waterways on the planet. America and our allies have been he...
Guns, MIGs, SAMs, and a Push
December 15, 2023 05:59 - 48 minutes - 67.1 MBWelcome to the seventy-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot, author, and entrepreneur! We laid to rest another American veteran this week involved in one of the greatest air strikes of Air Force histroy. He left his mark on aviation because of his incredible courage in the face of overwhelming enemy odds, innovative technique to save two commrades, and airmanship in pulling off a feat which almost got him court martialed. Twen...
Mole Crickets and Poobah’s Party: Electronic Warfare
December 03, 2023 04:50 - 1 hour - 134 MBWelcome to the seventy-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! I am your host Mark Hasara, former KC-135 pilot and air war planner. The US Air Force is replacing the EC-130H Compass Call with the Gulfstream G550 EA-37B, missioinized to perform the same electronic warfare missions and functions. This episode describes what some of those functions are and gives historical examples from air operations how electronic warfare dominated the battlefield... Israeli Air Force Operat...
Airlift Tanker Association 2023 Report
November 18, 2023 05:08 - 1 hour - 105 MBWelcome to the seventy-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, former KC-135 pilot and aviation geek! My wife Valerie and I attended Air Mobility Command's Airlift Tanker Association 2023 Symposium at the Gaylord Texan resort in Grapevine Texas. The A/TA Convention aero and cyberspace Industry Exposition was fantastic and I wanted to mention a few things I experienced while walking the Industry Floor... like the Remote Vision System 2.0 now being ret...
Flying C-17 Globemaster IIIs with Lee Hunt
October 12, 2023 22:20 - 1 hour - 160 MBWelcome to the seventy first episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit Podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot and 24 plus year veteran of the US Air Force. The C-17 is arguably one of the world's best heavy lift aircraft. Lee Hunt flew The Moose as the C-17 is nicknamed during major theater air campaigns and humanitarian missions. Lee tells listeners about his experiences flying the first end of runway cargo drop to planning missions to the Pegasus Runway in Antarctica. One...
Stop or Start a War… Flexible Deterrent Options (FDOs)
September 19, 2023 22:45 - 1 hour - 105 MBWelcome to the seventieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. This one is going to be a little different. For a long time I've contemplated doing TWO podcasts; the current Lessons from the Cockpit on aviation and another called On the Nation's DIME, looking at current events around the world analysed using The DIME. DIME is an acronymn for Diplomatic, Informational, Military and Economic... the elements of national power our government uses to analyse how powerful or weak a ...
Tailhook 23 Report
September 01, 2023 18:47 - 1 hour - 113 MBWelcome to the sixty-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, former US Air Force KC-135 pilot and author of the book Tanker Pilot, now on the Air Mobility Command Leadership Library reading list of General Mike Minihan! This past weekend I attended the Tailhook Association's 2023 convention at the Nugget Resort in Sparks, Nevada as a guest of Admiral Bill Gortney. I was asked to be part of the Operation Iraqi Freedom panel on Friday afternoon discu...
Flying Phantoms with Iranian Air Force Colonel Fred Izadseta
August 22, 2023 20:22 - 1 hour - 94.9 MBWelcome to the sixty-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast with your host, retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and KC-135 pilot Mark Hasara. Ever since hearing and reading this story, I wanted to have this incredible Iranian Air Force fighter pilot on the show! Colonel Fred Izadseta has commanded at all levels; from Squadron to Wing Commander. He's flown some of the most iconic fighters in the world... F-86 Sabers with the Iranian Precision Demonstration Team Golden ...
Shock and Awe Tanker Shortfalls
August 13, 2023 05:59 - 1 hour - 157 MBWelcome back to the Lessons from the Cockpit and the sixty-seventh episode of the podcast! In preparation for attending the Tailhook 2023 symposium, I felt this was a good time to do an episode on the air refueling shortfalls during the Shock and Awe air campaign in March through April 2003. In my book Tanker Pilot, the chapter Six Weeks in Hell speaks to the issues the Air Refueling Control Team overcame to make the 1003 Victor war plan executable. This is a more in-depth discussion on r...
Sluggo's Current Reading List
August 01, 2023 04:47 - 49 minutes - 68 MBWelcome to the sixty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I received word this week my book Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit is now on the four-star commander of Air Mobility Command General Mike Minihan's "Leadership Library" reading list under the heading We Are the Maneuver. I'm grateful and humbled General Minihan thinks enough of my book to be included on his first published list. In February of last year, I gave my listeners a reading list of great books in...
Battle Management with Colonel Mark "Boner" Waite
July 15, 2023 03:29 - 1 hour - 136 MBWelcome to the sixty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I am your host Mark Hasara, Air Force vet and KC-135 pilot. Colonel Mark Waite took a very interesting route to fill one of the most critical positions in the Air Force as Airborne Battle Manager, surveilling the air over a battlefield and directing fighters and bombers to targets. Boner was a Senior Director in the E-3 AWACS on the opening night of Desert Storm. He's a graduate of the US Air Force's Weapons Schoo...
Centennial of Air Refueling
July 08, 2023 22:00 - 48 minutes - 66 MBWelcome to the sixty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot and veteran of four wars. On Tuesday 27 June 2023, the Air Force celebrated a 100-year anniversary. On 27 June 1923 was an event making aviation history! For the first time, fuel was transferred from one DeHavilland DH-4B Biplane to another DH-4B Biplane flown by Captain Lowell Smith and 1Lt John Richter over Rockwell Field on North Island near San Diego California. 1...
The Nerve Center of Air Mobility
June 18, 2023 00:28 - 1 hour - 127 MBWelcome to the sixty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit Podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, a retired KC-135 pilot of the United States Air Force. After five fantastic years and the greatest flying assignment of my career at Kadena Air Base on the island of Okinawa Japan, it was time for an assignment change of station or PCS. I took a Headquarters assignment to a location all of us in the Young Tiger Tanker Squadron laughed at because they had absolute control over all air mobi...
Desert Storm Tanker Lessons Learned
May 26, 2023 19:27 - 1 hour - 96.9 MBWelcome to the sixty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast and I'm your host Mark Hasara, a former Air Force KC-135 pilot, flying all over the world passing gas! Recently I had a conversation with a colleague on how far the Air Force tanker community had come since Deseet Stomr and the old Strategic Air Command days of the Single Integrated Operations Plan, the nuclear war plan. I felt the tanker community during Desert Storm was not prepared for high-density, high-ops-tem...
DoD Budget and Retiring Aircraft
May 10, 2023 02:34 - 1 hour - 86.8 MBWelcome to the sixty-first episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Defense Department Budget is out and there are a number of aircraft coming into the inventory and a lot going to the Boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB Arizona. Platforms that I refueled from my KC-135 are going to be gone soon, and I voice my concerns about some of the aircraft being cut out of the inventory. My biggest concern is the health of the tanker fleet of course. There are some new aircraft on the horizon...
Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations
April 26, 2023 04:35 - 58 minutes - 80.8 MBWelcome to the sixtieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I've been reluctant to discuss current events but felt this was a good topic since the US Military has accomplished four Non-Combatant Evacuations or NEOs from four US Embassies in the last three years; Afghanistan, Ukraine, Belarus, and as of last week Khartoum Sudan. Instructing at the Joint Forces Staff College I taught US and International students Humanitarian Operations and we did an exercise on NEOs. This epis...
Pentagon Papers 2.0
April 22, 2023 03:21 - 58 minutes - 80.2 MBWelcome to the fifty-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired Air Force KC-135 pilot and airplane nerd! I've been asked numerous times what my thoughts are on the leaked classified documents from the Department of Defense and Pentagon. I'm still scratching my head about how a 21-year-old Airman had access to these documents, particularly CIA Ops Center Reports. The documents were very recent looking at the dates and shed some very interestin...
Ronald Reagan Era SAC Operations 1985 - 1990
April 07, 2023 03:04 - 1 hour - 119 MBWelcome to the fifty-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. We are going to talk about nukes since there is so much about a possible WW III in all the media. President Ronald Reagan created the world's best nuclear deterrent capability in Strategic Air Command as he poured money into the military after years of neglect. The timeframe from when I showed up at the 509th Air Refueling Squadron in 1985 to 1990 when I left Pease as it was closing was a great time to be a KC-13...
Shock and Awe at 20 Years
March 25, 2023 21:44 - 1 hour - 151 MBWelcome to the fifty-seventh episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! This episode is an anniversary episode. This past week marked twenty years since the opening of Operation Iraqi Freedom's Shock and Awe air campaign, a term those of us involved never used. To those planning and executing air operations, it was Air Tasking Order Oscar or ATO O. The Combined Air Operations Center Air Refueling Control Team which I led went through six weeks of hell preparing for the opening A-Day...
Low Altitude Air Refueling Operations
March 11, 2023 07:19 - 1 hour - 108 MBWelcome to the fifty-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I really appreciate all of you tuning in and downloading this and previous episodes of the show. One of the great memories of my KC-135 career was flying at low altitude with a receiver behind us. My first introduction to the planning and execution of low-altitude refueling was at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. All of our 909th Air Refueling Squadron tanker crews were certified to do this technique and procedure. Thi...
The World's only Air Refueling Graduate School
March 01, 2023 03:03 - 1 hour - 101 MBWelcome to the fifty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! Thanks for downloading and listening. A three-inch thick manila folder on my desk in my new assignment to the Air Mobility Command Director of Operations or AMC/DO staff ended up being the worst four years of my career and yet the most rewarding looking back on it. This graduate-level curriculum changed the way the US Air Force air refueling community did business... right before 9/11! And nobody wanted us! I was s...
Busting the Chinese Spy Balloon
February 15, 2023 03:25 - 1 hour - 115 MBWelcome to the fifty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. I've waited to post this one because so much aviation history is happening over the US! Over the last weekend in Joint military operations, US Air Force F-22 Raptors and F-16C Vipers shot down the Chinese Spy Balloon and three additional objects, one over Lake Huron with an interesting description. This episode contains the audio from the Spy Balloon shoot-down on 4 Feb and the object "decommissioned" on Sunday 1...
Strategic Air Command Operations in the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
February 01, 2023 04:39 - 1 hour - 95.7 MBWelcome to the fifty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, the second in a series of Strategic Air Command bomber and tanker operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October and November of 1962. Strategic Air Command's Cuban Missile Crisis After Action Report was declassified years ago. I did not find it until researching the chapter of my book called Klaxon! Klaxon! Klaxon! on nuclear operations in the Reagan Cold War. In the days leading up to President John F. Ken...
Intelligence Ops during the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
January 21, 2023 04:12 - 1 hour - 115 MBWelcome to the fifty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, this will be one of those extreme aviation moments! My Mom and Dad were very worried when I was just a kid starting school. They watched television a lot a month and a half into my first school year, a guy named Walter Cronkite particularly. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 had begun. Strategic Air Command's Operation during the Cuban Crisis of 1962 was declassified years ago and details the intelligence c...
TOPGUN and Tomcat Days with Navy Commander Dave "Bio" Baranek
January 13, 2023 05:24 - 1 hour - 111 MBWelcome to episode fifty-one of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! This is an interview I've wanted to do for a long time! Commander Dave "Bio" Baranek as an F-14 Tomcat Radar Intercept Officer or RIO had a great Naval Aviation career. Leaving college with a passion for flying, Bio got into the Tomcat community shortly after the F-14's introduction into the fleet as the Navy's premier air superiority fighter. Bio saw the Tomcat grow from an air superiority fighter to a precision strik...
The Kill Chain and Time Sensitive Targets
December 20, 2022 08:44 - 1 hour - 119 MBWelcome to the fiftieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, a new milestone for our show! All of you have heard of an airstrike or raid on something or someone in hiding who popped up in a valley, a downtown building, or a facility along a river. My Air Refueling Control Team planning and executing operations were involved in some of the highest profile attacks we call Time Sensitive Targets or just TSTs. This episode gives listeners a foundation on why and how they happen and...
The Doctor's Five Rules of Flying
December 09, 2022 04:45 - 52 minutes - 72.7 MBWelcome to Episode 49 of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I've wanted to do this one for a while. My USAF Pilot Training experience was pretty rocky. I almost did not make it through. Fortunately, one really good instructor we called "The Doctor" helped me get through. The Doctor could fix just about any student's ailments with his incredible teaching skills. To this day, I still remember The Doctor’s Five Rules of Flying and have used them flying KC-135s all over the world and in my ...
Refueling the Iraqi Freedom North War 2003
November 22, 2022 01:51 - 1 hour - 98.1 MBWelcome to episode forty-eight of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! Reading about how the Iraqi Freedom North War was planned and executed in March and April of 2003, I realized there are a lot of mistakes in the narrative out there. As Chief of the Air Refueling Control Team for the 2003 Iraqi Freedom Shock and Awe campaign, I felt it was a great time to tell what the Air Refueling Control Team experts had to overcome to accomplish some incredible feats, one of those being two of the long...
Refueling the Northern Iraq 2003 Air War
November 22, 2022 01:25 - 1 hour - 98.1 MBWelcome to episode forty-eight of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! Reading about how the Iraqi Freedom North War was planned and executed in March and April of 2003, I realized there are a lot of mistakes in the narrative out there. As Chief of the Air Refueling Control Team for the 2003 Iraqi Freedom Shock and Awe campaign, I felt it was a great time to tell what the Air Refueling Control Team experts had to overcome to accomplish some incredible feats, one of those being two of the lon...
SH-3 Sea King History with Commander Steve Bates
November 11, 2022 03:23 - 53 minutes - 73.2 MBWelcome to the forty-seventh episode of the Lesson from the Cockpit podcast! This episode continues our conversation with former US Navy Commander Steve Bates and the history of the SH-3 Sea King helicopter. The Navy used the SH-3 for four decades and the Air Force made famous the HH-3 or Jolly Green Giant version, saving hundreds of airmen shot down over North and South Vietnam. The SH-3 also had a unique Cold War role Steve elaborates on! The Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is support...
SH-3 Sea King Operations with Commander Steve Bates
November 03, 2022 01:53 - 1 hour - 113 MBWelcome to the forty-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King was the US Navy's primary rotary-wing aircraft for decades. Steve discusses training and flying the Sea King used for Fleet Logistics bringing beans, bombs, and mail to the fleet and sailors while underway at sea. Steve also tells us about some of the humanitarian operations he was involved with while at the Pentagon... on 9/11! The Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is supported entirely...
American MiG Pilot with Rob Zettel
October 19, 2022 20:58 - 1 hour - 107 MBWelcome to the forty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Air Force created a super-secret squadron located in the Nellis Air Force Base Range Complex, The 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron called "The Red Eagles." Rob Zettel is one of the world's subject matter experts on adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures from his experience flying the F-5E Tiger II with the 26th Aggressors in The Philippines and Russian Mig-21 Fishbed and MiG-23 Flogger fighters with t...
B-52 Bomber Missions with Colonel Chris "Chico" Anderson
October 13, 2022 00:08 - 58 minutes - 80.2 MBWelcome to the forty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! We are fast approaching 15,000 downloads! The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress may have the distinction of flying and fighting for 100 years. The military continues adding new equipment and missions to a platform created for the nuclear Cold War of the 1960s. Colonel Chris "Chico" Anderson joins the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast telling us how the B-52 BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fellow in polite company) continues to be one ...
"The Battle Flag" and my son Jeffrey
October 05, 2022 04:30 - 1 hour - 86.8 MBWelcome to the forty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I have been asked for several years to tell the story of flying an American Flag for someone who became a very dear friend and my son Jeffrey's fourteen-month battle with cancer. Both my good friend and Jeffrey both succumbed to this terrible cancer disease. My wife and I decided today it was time to tell this story of a military tradition, patriotism and the American Flag, and compassionate service during this dar...
The History of Air Refueling
September 27, 2022 06:16 - 1 hour - 125 MBWelcome to the forty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! How did the concept of air refueling get started and how long has it been around? The answer will surprise you... 1921 with a gas can on a man's back! Experimentation with air refueling methods continued with the flight of the Question Mark in 1929 and the first air refueling company with a patented system created in 1934. The air refueling world owes a lot to the Brits! How we went from prop to jet-engined tankers...
The History of Air Refueling
September 27, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour - 125 MBWelcome to the forty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! How did the concept of air refueling get started and how long has it been around? The answer will surprise you... 1921 and a gas can on a man's back! Experimentation with air refueling methods continued with the flight of the Question Mark in 1929 and the first air refueling company with a patented system created in 1934. The air refueling world owes a lot to the Brits! How we went from prop to jet-engined tankers...
Flying Broncos, Smurfs, and Eagles with Jeff Fellmeth
September 21, 2022 01:51 - 1 hour - 147 MBWelcome to the forty-first episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. Jeff Fellmeth, callsign Flounder, was my Boss at Kadena while assigned to 18 Wing Plans. We were busy. Flounder tells his exploits and lessons learned from flying the OV-10 Bronco over Europe to being one of the few people I know to fly the F-15C and F-15E versions of the mighty Eagle fighter. Jeff and I had the great fortune of working for some of the best leaders in the Air Force while stationed at Kadena, withou...
Flying Broncos, Smurfs and Eagles with Jeff Fellmeth
September 21, 2022 01:39 - 1 hour - 147 MBWelcome to the forty-first episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. Jeff Fellmeth, callsign Flounder, was my Boss at Kadena while assigned to 18 Wing Plans. We were busy. Flounder tells his exploits and lessons learned from flying the OV-10 Bronco over Europe to being one of the few people I know to fly the F-15C and F-15E versions of the mighty Eagle fighter. Jeff and I had the great fortune of working for some of the best leaders in the Air Force while stationed at Kadena, witho...
Leadership Lessons with Command Chief Master Sergeant Dave Nordel
September 06, 2022 02:39 - 1 hour - 132 MBWelcome to the fortieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! Chief Master Sergeant Dave Nordel had the distinction of being the Senior Non-Commissioned Officer for Air Refueling Wings, Numbered Air Forces, and deployed locations overseas. Chief Dave shares his stories of leadership and lessons learned, many written in his International Best Selling book Giving Back: Life and Leadership from the Farm to the Combat Zone and Beyond. One chilling story in this episode... Dave de...
Leading at Sea with Navy Captain Royce Williams
September 02, 2022 16:52 - 1 hour - 104 MBWelcome to the thirty-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! A week after my first interview with Navy Captain Royce Williams he called me to say "I've thought of more things to talk about!" So this is part two of Captain Royce Williams discussing what it takes to keep the Navy refueled and rearmed at sea. He commanded a Carrier Air Wing during the Vietnam War and the USS El Dorado Command ship as its Captain in the 1960s and Royce tells us what it's like to lead while "Haz...
Top Secret Mission with Navy Captain Royce Williams
August 25, 2022 00:57 - 1 hour - 98.9 MBWelcome to the thirty-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! Military men and women are often sworn to secrecy. Captain Royce Williams was told never to tell anyone about his November 1952. Most air engagements last less than 60 seconds. Royce fought for 35 minutes with seven RUSSSIAN MiG-15 fighter jets over North Korea. He shot down four of the MiG-15s, landing on the USS Oriskany in a snow storm with 263 holes in his F9F Panther fighter jet. Fifty years later a Russi...
Secret Missions with Navy Captain Royce Williams
August 25, 2022 00:54 - 1 hour - 98.9 MBWelcome to the thirty-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! Military men and women are often sworn to secrecy. Captain Royce Williams was told never to tell anyone about his November 1952. Most air engagements last less than 60 seconds. Royce fought for 35 minutes with seven RUSSSIAN MiG-15 fighter jets over North Korea. He shot down four of the MiG-15s, landing on the USS Oriskany in a snow storm with 263 holes in his F9F Panther fighter jet. Fifty years later a Russian ...
Phantoms and Strike Eagles with Colonel James "Spanky" Dennis
August 19, 2022 17:38 - 1 hour - 144 MBWelcome to episode thirty-seven of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast, part seven of Operation Anaconda and the Battle of Roberts Ridge! Retired Air Force Colonel James "Spanky" Dennis began his flying career as a Weapons System Operator in the F-4E Phantom II. The first WSO to command a Seymour Johnson F-15E Strike Eagle squadron, he'd been the leader of the 335th Fighter Squadron on 9/11, flying defensive missions over Washington DC and New York City. Colonel Dennis had to care for and...
Leave No One Behind with MH-47 pilot CWO Greg Calvert
August 12, 2022 17:35 - 1 hour - 116 MBWelcome to the sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit series on Operation Anaconda and the Battle of Roberts Ridge. Chief Warrant Officer Greg Calvert's MH-47 helicopter crew lifted off as RAZOR 1 with a Quick Reaction Force of Army Rangers in the back. His landing zone was the top of Takur Ghar mountain in an attempt to save Roberts and SEAL Team MAKO 30. RAZOR 1's crew did not know the extent of what was happening atop the mountain flaring for landing. Greg shares his story and l...
Leave No One Behind with 160th SOAR pilot Al Mack
August 09, 2022 04:42 - 1 hour - 127 MBWelcome to the thirty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! In the fifth part of our series on the Battle of Roberts Ridge we talk with Warrant Officer Al Mack, the pilot of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment MH-47 Chinook callsign RAZOR 3 delivering SEAL Team MAKO 30 to the top of Takur Ghar mountain at 3:30 am Monday morning 4 March 2002. His Chinook comes under heavy fire from enemy forces and SEAL Neil Roberts falls off the back ramp, which begins the desper...
Leave No One Behind (5) with 160th SOAR pilot Al Mack
August 09, 2022 04:42 - 1 hour - 129 MBWelcome to the thirty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! In the fifth part of our series on the Battle of Roberts Ridge we talk with Warrant Officer Al Mack, the pilot of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment MH-47 Chinook callsign RAZOR 3 delivering SEAL Team MAKO 30 to the top of Takur Ghar mountain at 3:30 am Monday morning 4 March 2002. His Chinook comes under heavy fire from enemy forces and SEAL Neil Roberts falls off the back ramp, which begins the desper...