Whiskey Hotel

Chapter One: Nuggets

" Hey, Lieutenant Jays! Are we flying today?" I yelled over the roar of the engines of a near by F-18. He slowly turned back at me with his flight helmet in his arm-pit. I froze instantly, realizing how obnoxious it was of me to yell in the middle of a taxi lane. He then turned back around and signaled me to follow behind. I just got transferred from Tinker and it was just all I could do to keep from exploding with excitement. I swiftly followed behind him until we reached  hanger bay 01. Fixing his flight suit, he looked at me with a smile and a hushed tone. " You know its hard to hear over a 3 ton aircraft with a engine capable of reaching MOCH 3 right?" I stood there, knowing how embarrassing that was to actually do. " Sorry sir, won't happen again." He then chuckled under his breath. "Don't call me "Sir", nugget. Just call me Jay. I'll be your flight lead for this exercise, so you better be watching my six." He then turned to look at his aircraft, a beautiful and custom F-4 Phantom II. The Rose and Joker was his distinguishing symbols with the call sign " Whiskey Hotel" on the tail. " You Tinker boys sure are special aren't ya?" I just looked over to him and smiled. " A Phantom who's late for AA, Jay", I say jokingly. He soon starts to chuckle a little more. " What's your name, kid?". Inexperienced with sharing details of myself, I mutter " Hopkins." " What was that? Hopkins or Stockings?" I sigh and say my name a bit more clearly. " Hopkins!" At this point he was getting into the cockpit so I had to say it with some effort. " Ah, my cousins name is Hopkins! He's from Tinker too!" He surprised me with that remark.

     
            Control Tower was our only command here. Other than the  AWACs that are over seas, we had no one watching us while we flew. I watched Lieutenant Jays pull out of his hanger and taxi out to 13R. I ran and went to the nugget's hanger and climbed into my F-18. By then, Jays was already in the air. I was excited and went through my last before flight sortie as quick as I could. Soon enough I was on the runway. I checked my flaps, thrusts, radio, and view. "CT, CT, This is Corpural Mike Hopkins, Call sign November, how copy?" " Roger Dodger November you are clear for take off on runway 13R" The Flight Crew gave the final okay and signaled for take-off. I hit my thrusters and pulled down on my joystick. Taking off was quite easy for me. Now landing will be a different story. Any who I was in the air, soon to catch up with Jays.

             Two other nuggets decided to join the exercise so they followed close. " Radio Check, Whiskey Hotel to Foxtrot, How copy?" This was the nugget to my right, guess we were working on squadron formations today. " Roger that Whiskey Hotel, Foxtrot here." Foxtrot, well William was his real name, was one of the left over nuggets from General Tucson's group. We never really saw eye-to-eye on things. "Whiskey Hotel to Omega Zulu, How copy?" " Roger Whiskey, OZ here!" Omega was a girl out from New York. Said she lived on Manhattan Island and always dreamed about becoming and aviator. She never really told us her real name. Tries to keep it secret but who would honestly do that in the Air Force? " Whiskey Hotel to November, How Copy?" "Roger Dodger, November here." I sounded so nervous since this was my first inflight exercise other than 3 months in a Flight Sim in Tinker. "Alright nuggets, I'll be your flight lead for the duration of this flight. Any questions will be directed  and answered by me. Understand?" "Yes Sir!", we all said simultaneously. We soon got into the standard Four Flight Formation, which is flight lead in front, two to his right and one on his left wing. I drew the short straw today so I was lefty.

                 We flew about 10 miles away from JFK International when we heard our intercoms from Control Tower come in. " We have missile impacts on Tulsa International, Detroit Air Port, and Adams AFB! We need all available aircraft to return immediately. Enemy Squadrons on Radar!" We instantly turned back at full power heading back to base, flying over Tinker. " Those Commies grew some balls didn't they to attack us here!?" " Foxtrot! Com Silence, that's an order!" We had two squadrons follow us back. Bulldog and Iroquois. Both were from Tinker. They noticed my flight symbol and radioed in "Hey Cherry! Nice seeing you up here!" I just stayed quiet until we were just flying over main base. "This is Control Tower, Two Russian MIG Formations inbound!" "This is Jays, Roger. Hold Fire or Drop the payload?" "Control Tower here, Hold your fire until further notice Lieutenant." I knew he was getting a little steamy in his cockpit. Control Tower likes to push his buttons but this wasn't the time. "This is the United States Air Force, Turn around or prepare to be shot down!" As soon this was said, my wing got hit by a stray bullet. The metallic sound had woken me up to which I started to see the real picture. We were at the brink of war between the world's super powers, and I was part of the front line. I saw the two MIG squadrons far from where I was. They were closing in fast at about 640 knots. I was afraid, scared, and full of adrenaline. They broke formation and at last moment. We opened fire and shot every single MIG down. The bailers were caught as the first POWs.

         The sweat from the heat of the moment fogged up my visor. I took a deep breath and got back into formation. Jays came on the radio on a private channel to me. " You alright? You just shot down your first." "I don't know how to feel. I didn't even know I was shooting in the first place." "You'll get used to it, it's not enjoyable for everyone's first time." At that point I knew he was meant to be in the sky. Our flight lead was a wonder in the air. Of course, I might have shot one but he's our main ace.

            We made our way down and landed on the runways. For what we done, Control was gonna get on our asses. Hell, even the entire Supreme Court might lock us away for what we done. Causing a war. I wasn't thinking about it then. All I cared about was that I'm safe and there's a bed with
my name on it. As soon as we reached the barracks, I jumped into my cot and that was it.