Chopper (256-320))

Summary:

Stealth Fighter Down in Serbia:

The thing that happened during this story was an F-117 stealth fighter jet was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, in 1999. This was the first stealth fighter to be ever sot down. This was very bad for the Air force. Never before has a stealth aircraft got into the hands of enemy forces. This was especially bad for the Air Force, because this aircraft cost a lot of money, and it was super secret to the Air Force. No one knew anything about it until now. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. I'm VEGA 31, on the way down" were the words of the pilot. After parachuting down, he was very vulnerable. He had the oldest survival radio in his inventory, but the newest and most advanced fighter jet. He was also in enemy territory. This meant SOMEONE had to go and get him, or at least attempt to.

The pilots name is withheld, at his request. His callsign is VEGA 31, so that is what we will call him. When he was parachuting down, he decided that he would break the rules of his SERE(survival, evade, resistance, and escape) method they had thought him in survival school. He used his mediocre radio to call for help. The radio signal would get farther while he was still in the air. Not only did he have a mediocre radio, he had a parachute that was brightly colored, white and orange. When he landed the first thing he did was go and find a safe place to hide. The first person he had got in contact was a KC-10 Tanker refueling a F-16 over Bosnia. Then, he contacted a rescue team. Two Pavelows and one Pavehawk were called in. it took 7 hours to get him. They were in a 1 mile radius of the downed pilot for about 3 hours, but because of the darkness it made it impossible to see him. Finally, when he lit a road flare, they caw him, and got him outta there.

Quote:

"We pulled off my rescue with a walkie-talkie, a road flare, and a $100 GPS: out success was a testimony to the human spirit-- and a wake-up call" (Dorr 287)

Reaction:

My reaction to this story was very frantic. This try kept me suspended. I could literally not put the book down, because I just had to know if the Pilot was rescued or not. What was amazing was how he got to survive. I was sure that he would be captured, but because of his intelligence and knowledge, he wans't.