Ron Milligan had just taken off with a group of fighter pilots to cross
the ocean, go over land and get to the Middle East. Hours before the flight,
Milligan had been deployed to join the forces fighting in the Gulf War.
It was the longest plane ride he had even been on -- a total of 16 hours.
"Previously none of us had ever been in a single-seat fighter for longer than
eight or nine hours," says Milligan. "We had our food in there, we went to
the bathroom in there, everything.
"We took off and flew through the twilight. As time passed, we saw the
sunset all around us, and then flew through a sunrise. And just as we were
getting to the base, the sun was just about to set again."
Milligan had a lot going through his mind as he passed over the open water.
"I remember getting called up and realizing at that moment that I was really
going to fight in a foreign country," he says. "There were a lot of unknowns
at the time. For the first time, I felt the serious side of this job."
His mind was full of questions. "The biggest thing was knowing there was
a possibility that I would never come back. I wondered whether I was really
ready to willingly risk my life," he says. "People would be shooting at me
and I would be shooting back and hoping to win."
Fighter pilot Capt. Frank Deker agrees that flying isn't the hardest part
of the job. The toughest part of the job is the tactics you'll have to use
as a pilot to complete a mission with success.
In addition to learning how to fly a plane, a fighter pilot is highly trained
in military operations -- giving support for a ground attack and in air defense
roles. In fact, flying operations have become secondary to knowing how to
launch a successful mission.
"Modern fighters incorporate a significant amount of flight automation,"
says Deker. "The mental challenge is no longer flying the aircraft, but employing
the correct tactics for the mission. For the most part, flying is relatively
easy. It's the tactical mission that's a challenge."
When Milligan got to the Persian Gulf, he was asked to play a supporting
role in Operation Desert Storm. "It was the biggest disappointment of my life,"
he says. Even though Milligan was shocked when he was first called up to go
to war, he was prepared.
"I trained for years and years and years," he says. "My friends were going
in and flying missions and I was left behind."
It may be easier to say in retrospect that he wished he had gone into combat.
"It's true that I never had to face any moral decisions," he says.
Instead of being on the field, Milligan was deployed to Spain for two weeks
and was given the task of ferrying spare planes back and forth to the Gulf.
It wasn't because he was a poor pilot. "They just weren't prepared to train
any more pilots for this operation," he says.
Milligan waited, and then his opportunity came. Desert Shield, a second
operation, was going in to aid ground troops. In a war, ground area as well
as airspace must be won. It was the fighter pilots' job to bomb enemy ground
troops that were threatening American troops.
"One day we were called to scramble up," says Milligan. This is when fighter
pilots who are on alert must go up and take out enemy planes and troops. Milligan's
heart was racing. They were roaring towards the end of the runway when the
officials came over the radio to tell the crew it was only a military exercise.
"It was the cruelest joke," says Milligan, who saw his opportunity to participate
in the war vanish. "It was the closest I ever came to combat."
After the war, Milligan spent another year serving in the air force before
deciding to retire. He felt that without combat experience, he wouldn't be
able to advance in the force. But he wasn't ready to give up his dream of
flying fighter planes.
"Back in seventh grade, an air force recruiter came to our school and showed
me a picture of a SR-71," says Milligan.
"It's a weird looking plane. It's long and skinny with two big engines,"
he explains. "It became my dream. I wanted to know how something like that
could fly."
From that day, Milligan set his goal to become a fighter pilot. He read
up on planes and built model airplanes throughout his school years. When it
came time, he signed up to become a fighter pilot with the air force.
Now out of the military, he continues to fly fighter planes with a civilian
organization that hires retired fighter pilots. "[It's] like a fantasy place
for people who want to try and fly or are 'wannabe' fighter pilots," says
Denise Jennings at the office. "We aren't part of air force training."
Many of Milligan's fellow instructors are also retired fighter pilots.
However, none of them is a woman. "Women, although some now are fighter pilots,
are relatively new," says Jennings. "They certainly haven't retired from the
military yet."
Milligan enjoys showing others what fighter pilots do for a living. "It's
the best to take people out and show them the pinnacle of flying. Here, we
go out and show them through a modern-day warfare scenario."
Many people are surprised when they get in the air. "They've all seen Top
Gun. That movie does a good job of showing what's it's like in the bar, but
not such a good job of showing what it's like in the air," says Milligan.
"People think we flip and turn like a roller-coaster. When they're up there,
they realize that it's a lot of hard work," he says.
Hard work or not, Milligan says he'll continue to fly planes for years
to come. "There's nothing else like being in the air," he says.