Even during this trying crisis of war, this pilot remembers what means most to him, his family, and if he can just squeeze a few hours in with them, it would mean a lot to him. These guys are going out daily to fight a war, and I can only imagine that their families are sitting at home, praying for their safe return. Looks like the scheduler is going to work it out for him.

Well, on with the MIG story. When I mentioned to the pilot that I wanted to talk about his experience when he witnessed the MIG being shot down, his face just lit up. The only words he could think of were "Just awesome…I couldn’t believe it…I was actually seeing this". But he finally suppressed his excitement, and began to tell his story:

It’s 24 March 1999, at 2300 hrs, we were flying towards Kosovo, I could hear the radio of the communication of the Dutch F16 trying to get the declaration of a contact north of Pristina. As it was declared hostile by AWACS, you could hear him saying on the radio that he was firing a missile. I was about 100 miles away from where the shot was fired. That Dutch F16 called ‘time-out’ on his missile and with my NVGs (night vision goggles), I could see the explosion of the jet in the air. I kept watching as I saw a small streaming fireball headed towards the ground, and upon impact, a large, what appeared to be a mile long fireball smeared on the ground, and I said into my tape that ‘I can’t believe I just saw that’..It was so incredible that I could see it from so far away….the fact that I could see it was one thing…but to see it at all, during the first night of war, on the way to a target was just incredible. Lots of people spend their whole career and never witness or take part in an event like this. I’ve been on active duty 5 years, flying the F16 for 3 years, and this is my first time in real combat. It was weird to see somebody get shot down; it was just crazy to witness; it was just incredible. Being a part of a big team is another aspect. That Dutch F16 was protecting us as we were going on a bombing mission when he shot down that MIG. We could have done it ourselves, but it’s just being a part of a "Big Team" that’s so awesome. It is an honorable and gratifying experience.