Having flown the F-16 for almost 4 years now, there are fewer and fewer instances where I think after landing, "Wow, that was an amazing / cool flight!" Not that the flights are any less interesting than they were as a young wingman, but at this point I've done many great things in the F-16. For instance, air-to-air refueling, dropping 2000lb bombs, or flying low and fast isn't as "cool" as it was the first time I did them. This is the case with many things in life...
Well, this past Wednesday I flew a low level route with my 4-ship through the Denali Mountain Range after which I had to say, "Wow, that one of the coolest things I've done in the F-16!" After dropping our bombs and shooting the 20mm gun on the range just north of Mt. McKinley, we flew a low level through the mountains along many glaciers through the range. The guys in the squadron refer this low level as the "Low Level of Justice," which translates..."the coolest low level you'll ever fly!" Flying 500ft above the glaciers at 500mph with mountain peaks a few thousand feet above the jet on either side is why it such a cool place to fly. This is the #1 low level of all those I have flown in the past 4 years. The pictures I posted from the internet will hopefully give you a small glimpse into what the scenery looked like.
Today is our last day in Alaska, and we're going to do some sight seeing. We hope to see some salmon running up one of the local rivers nearby...the end to an enjoyable 5 weeks in the far north!
Lana and I have had the weekends to do some traveling together and see some of the local sites while in Alaska. During the week, Lana and some of the other wives had a chance to do some traveling too. Since North Pole is just up the road, why not visit Santa's House and pass a "hello" to Rudolph right? The first weekend after Lana arrived, we did just that...where it's Christmas 365 days a year.
During the next week, Lana and the ladies made one big trip towards Mt. McKinley in Denali National Park. Like I mentioned before, the park is closed so sadly they weren't able to get close enough to see the snow covered Mt. McKinley itself. It was an enjoyable trip for her nonetheless. The following weekend we spent a night at the Chena Hot Springs about 45 min from Fairbanks. The hot spring is in the middle of nowhere, and the actual road leading to it dead ends at the resort. It was relaxing to soak in the natural hot water while the outside air was about 30 F. 
The last weekend, we took a trip south to the town Delta Junction which is a small town where two large rivers join together. The Alaskan Salmon run during the summer months, with certain species later into the fall, so we caught the end of the run and saw thousands of salmon making their way up the river to spawn (see video below). It's pretty amazing when you realize the fish have traveled hundreds of miles. After taking some pictures, we drove further south towards the Alaskan Mountain Range...very nice and scenic! To see many of the sites people think of in Alaska, Lana and I will have to take a cruise or fly back to Anchorage some other time. But, as long as we see a bunch of snow this next week, it'll seem a little more like we're in Alaska!
More Pictures:
Video:
Alasksan Salmon Run
This past Friday wrapped up our two weeks of Red Flag Alaska here at Eielson AFB. Each large formation exercise (LFE) consisted of multiple "blue" (friendly) and "red" (hostile) forces, with two each day. A typcial blue force consisted of 16 F-16s (air-to-ground, air-to-air, and SEAD), 12 F-15Cs (air-to-air), 8 A-10s (air-to-ground), 4 KC-135 tankers (air refueling), 2 B-52s (air-to-ground), an AWACS (command and control) and sometimes a C-17 (cargo drop) or helicopter (personnel recovery). The red forces consisted of between 10-14 F-16s, from the 18th Aggressors Squadron. Aggressors are full time Air Force pilots who train solely to provide blue forces in a Red Flag event with professional threat replication...or in other words, simulate aircraft the US could potentially fight against in future wars. The Aggressor aircraft are painted with a cool paint scheme of either black/grey/white or blue/light blue/white.
In a majority of the LFEs I flew in, I lead a 4-ship to the tanker, ingressed to the target area low at 500ft and 500kts through the Alaskan mountains, dropped my bombs and then egressed low as well. There isn't much better in the F-16! In couple of them, we ingressed medium altitude and then picked up an air-to-air role after expending our ordinance on the target. We would rejoin with the tanker north of the Yukon River, get our 4000lbs or so of fuel, proceed to our holding point and then push towards our targets just to the north or Mt. McKinley...about 250 miles. Flying in low to the target area has advantages and disadvantages, but overall it kept us below the air threat (the Aggressors) and make it difficult for the surface-to-air missile (SAM) site radars to track us through the mountainous terrain. The Alaskan flying airspace is some of the best in the world, and the scenery is great as well. I really enjoyed leading some of the new wingmen in their first Red Flag experience...I can still remember mine back in the summer of 2006 as young pilot (click here for that post).
It's been 4 weeks since we flew into Alaska with 1 more to go. This next week we'll continue to make use of the great airspace and bombing ranges before flying back to Korea next Saturday. Lana and I have enjoyed our time here in the far north parts of America, even though we haven't seen as much as we had wanted to. Denali National Park is closed for the winter and Anchorage is an 8 hour drive. But, we can now say we've been here and it will be a good memory for us. Until next time...More Pictures:Eielson AFB, Alaska
This past Friday, Lana and I found out our next assignment will take us to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina in the city of Sumter to continue flying the F-16...block 50 this time around! Shaw if part of Air Combat Command (ACC) with a base designator on the tail of SW. God has continued to bless me at work and I'm thankful to have another flying assignment. The Air Force F-16 community is quickly drawing down to make way for the new F-35, so getting a third F-16 flying assignment is rare. We'll arrive in SC sometime around the March / April time frame and we're looking forward to being back together permanently again after my year in Korea. It'll be where our first child is born (Lana is about 8 weeks now) and a location easier for my US family to visit. Lufthansa also flies direct from Charlotte to Munich, so the location will work well to get to Germany easily.
In all my previous F-16 flying assignments, I have flown the block 40 F-16 which primarily focuses on precision strike (dropping laser and GPS guided bombs) and close air support (CAS) for the Army. Shaw flies the block 50 F-16 which primarily focuses on suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), targeting enemy radar sites, but can also do the block 40 missions. It'll be good for me to learn this mission in addition to what I have learned up to this point in the block 40. Initially I won't be an instructor in the SEAD mission, but that will come with time as I learn.
Lana and I are still here in Alaska, and will be traveling back to Korea in a couple weeks. The time in Korea has seemed long at times, but at others to go very quickly. I'll update the blog with a more specific timeline of when we'll be moving as soon as I get that info. Until then, fly safe and check six!
Late last week, the 35th Fighter Squadron flew 12 F-16s across the north Pacific Ocean to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska for a TDY until late October. I was #3 of the first 6-ship which flew an 8.3 hour sortie with 9 air-to-air refuelings along the way. We departed Kunsan at 0200 on a Friday and landed around 1700 on Thursday evening in Alaska...strange to cross the international dateline and "go back" 24 hours in time (for the non-military folk, that's 2:00 AM and 5:00 PM). Our route of flight took us east across Japan, northeast across the Pacific, along the Aleutian Islands, and then on towards Fairbanks. Eielson AFB is located about 20 miles southeast of Fairbanks. Thankfully the weather along our route of flight was nice the entire way allowing for smooth tanking. I was able to use my mp3 player, read a bit and eat some food along the way to keep awake and from getting too bored in the small cockpit. As we flew in from the west towards the base, we had a nice view of Mt. McKinley which is part of Denali National Park. Other than the mountains, it was wide spread forest as far as the eye could see...perfect for flying low in the F-16.
The day after landing, we headed to the base dining facility for lunch where I ran into my cousin Cameron who was just finishing up his outprocessing from the KC-135 tanker unit at Eielson. The last I had heard he moved to Spokane, WA a month prior so it was a cool surprise to see him. Before he left, we were able to grab dinner one night and shoot some trap/skeet here at the base range over the weekend.
Our first week of flying is half way done and I've flown 3 times already. Monday's flight was a local area orientation (LAO) flight to get used to and see the layout of the local flying area. It involved a very nice low level (500ft / 500kts) out to the east of the base and then down to the southwest towards Mt. McKinley...the weather didn't allow us to fly too close to the range, but nonetheless it was an enjoyable flight. Yesterday's flight was more of the same from the previous day. Today, I led a 4-ship to a nearby bombing range to drop 2xMK-82 AIR inert bombs (inert just means they don't go "boom" on impact). The first flights of the day we cancelled due to snow and bad weather but we were able to takeoff later in the day and drop our bombs. The landscape in the course of a day has turned from yellow / brown with the leaves towards the end of their colorful season to white. The temps aren't too cold here yet, but are expected to drop quite a bit over the course of our time here. 
In the beginning of October we'll be starting our Red Flag Alaska training for 2 weeks just like I did back in 2006 at Nellis AFB, Nevada. After Red Flag we'll have another week filled with dropping more bombs, so lots to look forward too. Lana will be here late next week, so it'll be great to have her here with me. I'll update more as our time goes along...
Well, this past Wednesday I flew a low level route with my 4-ship through the Denali Mountain Range after which I had to say, "Wow, that one of the coolest things I've done in the F-16!" After dropping our bombs and shooting the 20mm gun on the range just north of Mt. McKinley, we flew a low level through the mountains along many glaciers through the range. The guys in the squadron refer this low level as the "Low Level of Justice," which translates..."the coolest low level you'll ever fly!" Flying 500ft above the glaciers at 500mph with mountain peaks a few thousand feet above the jet on either side is why it such a cool place to fly. This is the #1 low level of all those I have flown in the past 4 years. The pictures I posted from the internet will hopefully give you a small glimpse into what the scenery looked like.
Today is our last day in Alaska, and we're going to do some sight seeing. We hope to see some salmon running up one of the local rivers nearby...the end to an enjoyable 5 weeks in the far north! 
