This is the conclusion of the extraordinary speech delivered to young cadets at the threshold of their training:
Father John was our squadron chaplain. The first day of desert storm, as we headed out to the airplanes after we walked out into the black I told you about, I got to my jet and standing right in front of the nose of the jet is father John. At first I thought he was a crew chief so I got close enough to see who he was.
Next slide Fred.
One of the most important things about combat is sound. Anybody who's been there will tell you that things you hear are the things you remember the longest. Now I want to tell you about two things I heard that I'll never forget. The first one was during one of our missions up north in the Baghdad area, a pilot and an F-16 from another unit who was part of the strike package we were in was hit by a surface to air missile. And over the strike common frequency, because one of his radios, electrosystems was damaged he could only talk on the radio with the strike frequency...and he couldn't change off that frequency for some reason, we listened to he and his flight lead talk about his airplane falling apart as he tried to make it to the border so rescue could get to him.
And he'd come on every now and then and talk about the oil pressure was dropping, and vibrations were increasing, and his flight lead would encourage him to stick with him, we can get there, we can get there. This went on for about 14 to 15 minutes. Until finally he said, "oil pressure just went to zero." And then, "my engine quit!" And then, "that's all I got. I'm outta here."
Now we couldn't see him. I'm not exactly sure where they were. But there wasn't another sound on that radio for another 14 or 15 minutes. And then there was a kind of pregnant pause, and then the last call we heard was "tell my wife I love her." I'll never forget those 14 minutes.
The other thing I heard was when the ground war actually started and an F-16 pilot by the name of Billy Andrews, some of you may have heard or seen or met, cause he won the Air Force Cross for his actions that day, was shot down in the middle of the retreating republican guard, and I mean right in the middle of them.
A call went out from AWACS, "is there anybody around who had the ordinance and the fuel who could get to where he was located in case we needed him for SARCAP." And a lot of people responded but the first one that I really paid attention to was the voice of an army Chinook helicopter pilot, who came on the radio and said, "look, I've got this much gas, here's my location, I can be here in that many minutes, give me his coordinates ... I can pick him up."
Now everybody knew where the republican guard was and everybody knew he was right in the middle of them. And you gotta remember a Chinook is about the size of a double decker London bus with props on it. And it doesn't have guns on it. And I don't know how you feel about women in the military, but I guarantee you I would follow her into combat. And I'll never forget her voice.
Last two things I'm going to mention: This is the highway of death. You guys have seen it, pictures before.
Next slide please Fred.
This road leads north out of Basra, it's a retreat route of the republican guard and they got cut off, right about where the black smoke went over the Euphrates river valley and everywhere from there south it looked like this. Not a new picture...I'll tell you what's significant about it. I killed people here. Me. This combat is an intensely personal thing, folks. I think I mentioned that. I've killed people before during this war, but this time I saw 'em. I saw the vehicles moving before the bombs hit. I saw people getting out and running and then I aimed at 'em with CBU. And dropped hundreds of bomblets on their head to make sure they wouldn't get away.
War is a horrible, horrible, horrible thing. There is nothing good about it. But it is sometimes necessary. And so somebody better be good at it. I am. Trapper Carpenter is. Corkie Vonkessel is. I guarantee General Oelstrom is. He didn't get to be a 3 star general and do the things he's done by not being good at this business. You better be.
Next slide. One more slide please Fred.
And I won't forget this. Next slide. Before I got back to the US, as I was flying in Tom Rackley's squadron on the way to east coast of the United States, we checked in on the first US air traffic control site that we had talked to the entire route and Col Rackley checked in with something along the lines of a, it was Boston control: "this is widow flight, 24 F-16s coming home." And the air traffic controller responded "welcome home, widow." And then at regular intervals for the next 5 or 10 minutes, every airliner on that frequency checked in and said something. "Welcome back." "Good job." "Great to have you home." "God bless you." Whatever.
About 10 minutes after that I got my first glimpse of the US coastline ... it was the coast of Massachusetts. And I sat in my cockpit and I sang America the Beautiful to myself...I'll never forget how bad it sounded. (Laughter). Or how proud I was when it was over.
Take a look at this flag, folks...those white stripes indicate the integrity that you represent here at the Air Force Academy and that you better carry with you into our Air Force. Those stars are the courage of all the people who have gone before you and that belong to you now. And that red is for Mike Chinberg and for the millions more like him who died serving their country. And in the not too distant future, one of you is going to be standing up here talking about your experiences in combat to the classes of 2015, or 16, or 17. And you're going to be talking about USAFA class of 2000 (balls!), 2001 (fired up!), 2002, and 2003. This is who you are. And this is what you face in the United States Air Force.
If you're not ready for it, let me know and I'll help you find another career field. You are damn good. You need to get better. All these people I just talked about are counting on it.
Slide off Fred.
Okay. That's who I remember from Desert Storm. No technical marvels, no big precision weapons. Just people, and feelings, and sounds.
And I promise you that's what you're going to remember. And your chance is coming sooner than you might like. I guarantee you.
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Thought for the Day: (meant to be ironic, of course!)
"If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future."
(Churchill, Speech in the House of Commons, 1940)