Kosovo MiG Kill
	The following is an e-mail that was received concerning the shoot-down of Mig-29's over Serbia/Kosovo in March of this year. Apparently this e-mail was sent by the flight Lead to his friends. Names have been altered in the interest of privacy and security. The notes/comments at the top seem to be from others in the C-of-C. Ed. This is an account of the shoot down of two migs on March 26th. It is written by a pilot, and from his notes it sounds like he was in an F-15C. Note also that he is going from one combat area (Irag to Yug) to the next without any time off. It also sounds like the maintenance is being pushed to the limits, and he is not very complimentary of the AWACS. A "SIERRA HOTEL" STORY FROM THE SOURCE. MAKES YOU WONDER, THOUGH, WHAT THEIR R.O.E. IS/WAS AS APPARENTLY THEY WERE NEVER CLEARED HOT BY THE CONTROLLERS.....'533. Bros, Well, I'm finally back in England after being TDY since the end of January, at least for two weeks anyway. Got sent direct to Cervia AB, Italy, from Operation Northern Watch in Turkey after being at the Incirlik AB for over 7 weeks ("Luv the 'Lik" no 'mo ! ). My house and yard is a total mess! There doesn't seem to be an end in sight in the Kosovo situation, but the war is over for me for a while. Some of you probably already heard through the grapevine about what happened to "Boxer" and I. Here's the proverbial "Rest of the Story." Boxer and I were tasked as Bosnia-Herzgovinia DCA on 26 Mar, vul time from 1500Z to 1900Z. We were established on CAP over Tuzla for about an hour after initial refueling. At 1602Z, while eastbound approaching the Bosnia/Yugoslavia border, I got a radar contact 37 nm to the east, 6k', beaming south at over 600kts. Of course AWACS had no clue and did not have any inkling of someone was flying on the other side of border (although he was real good at calling out every single friendly WEST of us!). I called out the contact and Boxer was locked same. Without an ID and not tactically sound to cross the border at the time, I elected to pump our formation in a right hand turn through south and called "PUSH IT UP, BURNER, TAPES ON!" (We were initially flying .85M, 28K' and rolled out heading west/southwest.) At that time I didn't think anything much would happen. I figured the contact would probably continue south or turn east and remain well on the east side of the border. Click to continue		Nevertheless, I called the flight lead of the south CAP over Sarajevo and gave him a craniums up on the posit of contact, altitude, and the heading. This entire time AWACS still had no radar contact, even after I called it out on the radio. Man, running away with the contact at our six o'clock with AWACS not having any clue was NOT comfortable! Boxer and I continued west for a total of 60 sec (about 10 nm) before I directed the formation to turn back hot, again turning through south in an attempt to get some cut-off. Boxer was on the north side of the formation (left side as we rolled out heading east). We both got contact BRAA 070 for 37 nm, 23k', target now heading west (hot towards us). AWACS finally woke up and starting seeing the same thing. Now, I'm starting to think SHIT IS GONNA HAPPEN (evident with the increase of about two octaves in my voice!) F15 Multi-Command Manual It was fairly obvious this guys originated from FRY, and there were no OCA missions at the time. Checked AAI for friendly.. squawk: nobody home! We still needed to get clearance from AWACS to engage, so I requested (codeword) and got no reply from the controller (pretty sure he had no 'freakin clue what that codeword meant!) About this time both Boxer and I got good ID on the target in our own cockpit and with threat hot towards us inside 30 nm decided to blow off the AWACS/clearance to engage restriction and go for it! Target was now inside 30 nm and I directed Boxer to target the single group. I broke lock and went back to search in 40 nm scope and 120 sweep. The target check-turn towards northwest (about 14L aspect) and descend to high teens. Boxer and I checked about 30 deg left to northeast for cutoff. This check-turn slung me aft in the formation so I stroke it up to full AB to get more line abreast. I called "COMBAT 1, ARM HOT" and saw Boxer's wing tanks come off with bright flames under the wing. Pretty impressive! Go to Page Two
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