Page 31 - Never Fly Solo

4| NEVER FLY SOLO
So picture me in the cockpit of an F-16 at twenty-five
thousand feet, in the middle of a pitch-black sky, with a hel-
met and mask strapped to my face and barely enough room
to shrug my shoulders. Some people call it claustrophobia. I
call it a waking nightmare.
I know, fighter pilots are supposed to be steely-nerved
superheroes with no fear, the confidence of a lion, and some
very cool shades. Tom Cruise in real life, right? The thing is,
that Top Gun stuff is mostly nonsense. Life isn’t Hollywood,
and neither is real combat. In a real fighter squadron, there
are no mavericks and nobody cares who’s good at volleyball.
Up there, when the missiles are coming at you, the only things
that count are your skills and ability to work as a team to get
the job done—to make it happen. You don’t even think for a
second of flying solo.
In my time as an instructor pilot and an F-16 fighter pilot,
I had severe anxiety, fear, and self-doubt flowing through my
veins, and enough to spare—perhaps more than any other
fighter pilot before me. No, I wasn’t Tom Cruise or Val Kilmer,
yet I flew sixty-five combat missions in enemy territory bris-
tling with surface-to-air missiles, antiaircraft fire, and other
deadly threats. It was an intense, monstrously difficult task
that constantly pushed me to my limits and tested my com-
mitment, but I did it. And I was never alone. I had help the
entire way. And that, along with a few other key tools I’ll be
sharing in this book, is what made my success—and my very
survival—possible.
I learned to push through my darkest secret fears, not
only to earn my wings but also to live up to my duties and
responsibilities as an Air Force officer—to protect and defend
my country and my wingmen. My wingmen were there for the
same reasons. And this is the embodiment of a team: people