Flying the F-111 in Desert Storm | Colonel Rob Kyrouac (Part 1)
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- čas přidán 14. 01. 2023
- Former USAF pilot, Rob Kyrouac, shares his time flying the Vark in Desert Storm.
Enjoy
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I was a photographer at Amberly
I got to photograph a WW1 pilot watching a dump and burn
He had a tear in his eye, I stopped taking photos and asked if he was OK
He simply quietly said "It's the first time I've seen a plane with flames coming out the back of it intentionally"
I put my hand on his arm and we stood there for a while and let the others watch the show.
Lest we forget
Intense
I love the F-111. It never got the credit it deserved and was kind of unfairly bashed when it was actually a very good platform.The A-10 got most of the credit in Desert storm for being a tank killer but the F-111 actually killed more
The F-111 was arguably the most successful plane in the entire war in terms of its performance (maybe F-117). The problem was it was older and maintenance intensive and so it got the axe. One could also argue it wasn't sexy fighter and that those sorts of things still matter (to some degree) in Air Force decisions.
It was a great plane, but expensive to maintain. The worst part with giving up on it was the loss of the EF capability. Aardvark will forever hold a place in my heart.
@@ilaril The EF disappeared because the Navy said their EA-6B could perform the same mission, at a cheaper cost. It couldn't fly mach, all the transmitter pods were external to the aircraft, and the generator to power the pod was wind driven, and it couldn't fly as far on internal fuel, the the Pentagon bought the Navy's story, and boneyarded the EF.
That could be said of any aircraft. The F-111 wasn't worth the money and neither is the A-10.
@@Impedancenetwork What price freedom? Our country would have been overrun years ago if we didn't have these aircraft to defend ourselves.
Hey KY, good to see this video. I flew with KY at Cannon after Desert Storm, I was his wingman as I watched him eject with Pud over Melrose Range.
Nobber...hope all is well! Beetle
As an ex F-111 guy myself (and based at RAF Lakenheath from Dec '82 - Nov '84), this interview was a real treat. Rob's enthusiasm and storytelling is excellent - and his ego is nicely in check. He'd be a great guy to have a coffee or beer with. Thanks for this interview, @Aircrewinterview.
Cheers mate
hi Matt I was a crew chief FB 111 Plattsburgh N.Y the 111 was a butt kicker
Hi John@@johngrimkowski598 - Did you ever come across an FB-111 navigator called Luke Lu? Great guy.
Col. Kyrouac: "I just realized I've been talking for 30 mins straight"
"That's what our viewers want!"
Viewer: Yes we do, this is a great video!
Cheers!
I've said it before, this channel is criminally underrated. Where is the hundreds of thousands of subs this deserves?
Cheers!
He sounds like a true Hero, humble, brave, just doing my job ma’m. Thank you for your Service 🇺🇸
I was in corrosion control with the 509th FMS at Pease AFB from 1985 to 1987. FB111 is still one of my favorite aircraft. Although I spent way too much time sitting in the intake sanding off white paint to change over to the dark paint scheme.
I was at Pease AFB CES '71 to '73. I loved watching the FB 111's taking off with twin AB's lite up.
I’ve literally flown all my life. Now retired airline pilot.
I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed flying with pilots who flew combat in Vietnam, and every war since then. The stories… on our overnights, or at cruise altitude were just amazing IF I COULD GET THEM to open up.
So many of these men and their stories have been lost! I’m very thankful your capturing many of these men’s lives for all the world to see.
my Best Friend growing up, his dad was n F-111 Maint Chief at lakenheath in the 80s! god i love that plane!
I was in Red section at the Heath, 82-85
The attack variant of the T-37, the A-37 Dragonfly, is one of my favorites. We flew them before transitioning to the A-10s in the Michigan Air National Guard.
Neat. I saw A-37’s at air show in Battle Creek circa 1980.
Red Devils!
I lived near Lakenheath through the 80's and early 90's and remember watching the F-111's from close up. A very impressive aircraft and one I miss seeing.
According to USAF records, Beyond its 500,000 flight hour mark, the F-111 had the lowest accident rate, lowest major accident rate, and LOWEST FATALITY rate of any fighter built since the 1950's (ref. Wings Mag., April 1992). The EF-111 Raven, Along with the F-4G were the best SEAD aircraft developed todate (and both were ahead of their time) better the F-117, and the F-111F killed more tanks that the A-10 in Desert Storm. Take that to the cleaners, you F-111 critics!
I'm in Australia. I fly radio controlled models at a club in Canberra (Australia's version of Washington DC). One of our members flew the F-111 or Ardvark or Bush Pig as it is called here. These days he builds the most beautiful scale models. His Tiger Moth is brilliant. More recently he has built a scale model of an early English Raceing plane. It has short wings and a large fuse and is not the easiest to fly but he greases it in every time he flies it. Mike in Oz
What an awesome interview. I would love to speak with Rob live at some point. The runway bomb he was referring to was the French durandal. We trained loading them at Lakenheath on the F-111F. Thankfully for both the aircrews, and loaders we never used them. I was stationed at RAFL twice, 1978-1980, and then again 1989-1993. Needless to say I deployed to Taif, SA for Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I rode with the head weapons loading director, he was a piece of work! Sorry Z! You want to talk munitions delivered by the F111F during the conflict, I’m one of a few that knows. I salute Colonel Rob Kyrouac!
I was with the EF-111, very solid, long running platform. Terrain following capability and radar SAM jamming ability to alter wing format for low and high-speed flight, could double as both fighter and bomber...this was the Cadillac of military air machinery.
Hoping #2 has more commentary about combat operations. I love the F-111 and can’t read/hear enough about it
I was an avionic tech on the F-111F, D and FB-111A. 3rd class out of Tech scool with 5 in each class. Worked on a plane that had 6 hours on it. Remeber the F-111 always had restrictions at Red Flag... or there would be no contest! Whispering Death
Tech School at Lowry?
I love it when they are allowed to speak freely.
With some podcasts I think “I know you flew the F-14” (which makes you a badass imo). That having been said, stfu , let them tell their story. Stop interrupting to conflate personal anecdotes. Let them flow with their stream of consciousness and relive the moment.
F-111 made up just over 11% of the task force but destroyed 70% of the hard targets. Unmatched weapon system.
This is so great I worked on the f-111 at Canon 79 -83 nice flyin pig all good thanks guys
Paul
Very interesting stories, and good to hear fun was a factor in the Gulf War… And my gawd, the F-111 is such a friggin’ sexy beast!
This was a fun interview! Thanks
Small world, I grew up less than 5 miles east of Reese AFB and was taking flying lessons in Levelland, Tx while the colonel was at Reese.
Excellent work. I've met one of the last carrier Tomcat CO's and an airforce F-16 pilot and they all had wonderful stories that made you laugh and gasp at the same time. Please keep up the content.
I was in Air Force ROTC IN 1987 and got to fly the T-38 simulator at ReeseAFB for about an hour. The T-38 sim was interesting. It had a massive topographical map with all the mountains, roads, major lights, towers and river beds…. To bring this imaging into the cockpit there was a camera system that moved across the map and projected that into the front of the canopy. If I remember correct the visuals were always moonlit nights.
Long story, ended up in the Navy.
Great guy thanks for putting this out.
Fantastic interview! Love this guy and his personality!
Another awesome video. I could listen to this guy all day.
Excellent video. Informative and funny. Thank you.
Nice, now I am looking for part 2...
Thanks for sharing. Thanks for your service and thanks for the sacrifices your family endured.
I grew up in the area and was close to the Texico VOR, so we had the F111 out of Cannon fly over all the time.
As a teenager I used to watch upper heyford 20th TFW F-111E’s running along the beach at Mablethorpe on there way to Donna nook
Love the war stories. Semper Fi
He was great. I really enjoyed that interview.
Love your interviews
Cheers
Awesome stuff!
What a very nice interview. Interesting and funny.
Can you imagine an F-111 brought up to modern standards… Fly by wire, composites, all the kit of an F-35 sensors, avionics etc… all they would need to do is slightly modify access panels, canopy, air intake to that of stealthy design and cost the aircraft with the latest low observable paint…… you’d have a platform that would be ver relevant in the pacific region
Awesome interview...👍
KY, I was there at the same time as you in the 493 TFS. Love your interviews they bring back some deeply embedded memories. Wish you’d have just said the “SLIF”: our widely shared accurate and colorfully charged call sign for our beloved wing commander at the time. He was a real beauty. Every squadron in the 48th pulled together as one during Desert Storm. The 48th TFW left the theater with one of the most impressive records for any unit during wartime. Wear that proudly and never forget Art and TC. Gods’ speed, happy to see you got through the ejection at Canon in one piece.
Dan DiCesare
493TFS/48 TFW
FEB 1988 - APRIL 1993
KY , great presentation! 😎
Oh yeah! I remember those days at RAF Lakenheath. To this day my heart rate will go up if I hear the Lone Ranger Theme. It was our Call to Battle.
Great Interview KY and Mike.
Cheers Mike.
Col Rob we both arrived at the Heath in June 1989. I was an enlisted Msgt aircraft expeditor in the 494th (Red Section). We also housed the Wing King's jet in our TVsThere was a T-37 IP that I got to know fairly well while we were both assigned at Laughlin prior to either of us going to the Heath. I ran into him the first week I was in processing into the same squadron as him. I met Mike Buno Bodner because his first wife and mine worked together at a jewelry store in Del Rio. After the war I ran into him as he was out processing from the Heath. He had orders to do a year at the Pentagon, and he wasn't happy about it. It meant that he couldn't fly for about a year. One of his buddies was another IP from Laughlin, Pat Corriigan. Pat and I had matching green Corvettes. That was strange because enlisted guys typically didn't have Corvettes back then. That's how he and I got to be friends. Pat ended up being the opposing solo for a couple of years in the Thunderbirds, when they switched over to the F-16s, after the T-38 diamond crash in NV. I think he did his last year as the lead solo. Because of the diamond crash, the F-16 team stayed past the normal 2 year tour with the T-Birds. They had to build a pilot pool to take over for that first F-16 team.
There is 1 thing good that I can say about Col Lennon at the Heath. He did grab up all of the strike camera footage, had audio/visual produce about a 2 hour film showing a lot of the targets that our guys had taken out. Col Rob, if you were at the formal arrival party of the first F-15 Strike Eagle, when he chalked nose up against the then current Wing King F-111 jet at that arrival party. I'm the guy that set all that up, and I marshaled the F-15 into place. And how about those underground Tab Vs at Taif??How about the DCM on top of one of those underground Tab Vs, when the security Forces for him with a married Ssgt that worked in the MOC?
I was a bomb loader with Rob in Taif with the 494th (Red tails). My crew loaded 352,500 lbs of live munitions during that short war. 12 hour shifts, loading all damn night. By far, the most numerous weapon we loaded was the GBU-12, which were meant for the tank plinking. Our wing of around 60+ aircraft destroyed a total of 920 tanks, which was 1/4 of Saddam's tank force. War sucks, but the experience to be doing it "for real" was some of the best satisfaction I've ever had. Unless you're in battle, it's practice, practice, practice, and you burn out fast. But when the trailers from the bomb dump show up at the aircraft, and there's those pretty little yellow stripes around the nose of the bombs, it gets exciting. All your training kicks in, and you perform flawlessly, as a team. It was so awesome. Glad I was there. I may have bumped into Mr. Kyrouac there, but I don't remember.
I used to crew as an avionics Tech who also trained some Pilots how to do things with the F-111 that I had developed. I stayed up on everything I could about our aircraft capabilities and the capabilities of other countries, and I always kind of watched as to what they were capable of doing against F-111 attacks. I know that you would said that they expected 35% losses, but I have no idea why they would have thought that. Especially with the fact that the only time I even know of an F-111 actually being shot down was when the radar people on multiple called Libya and said it look like some aircraft we're headed towards Libya causing Libya to then fire everything they had into the air and they hit one of them. Even by the Gulf War, I don't know of anything, even if you knew they were on their way if there was anything that any country could do to stop f111 from completing their mission without possibly causing minimum damage to a flight of them. If I remember right, many of the F-111 are still bought bald and can be put back into service. It's capabilities even today. We were dropping bombs in Mountain Home within ten feet of a Target within 10 seconds of when you wanted to hit, and that was before we put the pave tack in and that was only good for getting it within 30 to 50 ft.
phony bs...
In Tech School at Lowry?
KY...great interview!..beetle
THIS GUY IZ FUN TO LISTEN TO...
Re lighting up the aircraft
I was in an Iroquois, photographing the runway lights at night ( some stupid officers idea )
The lights were pretty dim for that kind of photography so we called the tower and asked if they could turn the lights up a bit
There was an ominous laugh over the radio and they turned the lights to 100% Something even the ATC guys had never done !
Our pilots were swearing, we could have read a newspaper from the light and we were about 5km from the runway threshold
No need to use our torches to adjust the exposure !!!! everything was as bright as day!
Over the radio came a very surprised "Buckshot 4, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON ?"
Buckshot was the F111 #1 squadron callsign and he was cruising about 50km away just racking up some night flying hours.
The whole job was a fun clusterfuck, the photos didn't show what was important because of a total lack of planning and communications.
Winter in an open chopper at 1,000 ft is never fun without heated gear and with cameras that need to be used with bare hands
but it was a fun experience, the duty officer had heaps of calls from the local town asking what happened as well :-)
Wish I had his skills as a story teller. What a legend.
Those were the days at Lakenheath!! I was on the initial team on Aug 90
I may be imagining this but it seems to me that when US servicemen serve in the UK, they develop our sense of humour. Anyway, thanks Col KY, good stuff.
I have 24 years in the US Army and was married through our my military career and I honestly can say the wife of a soldier or husband of a soldier is the hardest job in the military especially if that soldier is deployed and had children
Col, I hear your phobia. I was stationed at RAF Alconbury from 83 to 87 and the ring of a British telephone chilled my blood. It was never good news.
As a Grunt watched this for 30 days at ground level. Looked like traffic lights all over the place in the sky.
I was at Mildenhall and a recall rooster didn’t happen when you lost one aircraft.
I found the wing box in Supply yard one night
Was at Lakenheath from 1987 to 1989. 494th weapons
Ok…. I would have guessed AC-DC….. but Big Balls??? I kind of had in mind “Shoot to thrill” or TNT…. Must be a had to be there thing lol :)
I wonder if we ever crossed paths at Reese or if you flew by me while helping my folks round up cattle or sheep, we had a lot 25000 acres in the mountains near PIO vortac.
What genius put the crews together so you could say 'ready with the KY' ?
My Aunt's like 7th Husband was in Northrup, late 70's on the F5 sale project. Lots of Stories. Yes, Saudi is like Kansas, but they chop parts off and only the Highest Class get alcohol.
Friend in the 90's told me about getting Shanghied by Air Police one morning. His Job was Avionics Tech F111B. Everyone ordered to Pack 3 day in a Meeting, and an Air Police/Security Officer followed them back to their bunks, then escorted them to a supply cage after dumping their bags in a truck.
Carrying the M16, they were not allowed to talk to anyone.
At the Cage they submitted their ID, 2 Avionics boxes were handed to them and sealed manila envelope later proved to be orders.
I believe he said all in the group were marched in a line with their two boxes, in a uniform ridged form on to a C141 I believe.
They landed at an Air Base which they were not able to identify. They were immediately marched out of the ship at a flight line under Arms, nobody was allowed anywhere near them, and they pulled 2 boxes from the ships, set them aside, inserted the 2 boxes they brought, and then were marched to the Cage and checked in the Removed boxes.
At that point they were brought to barracks and held under Arms sequestered for almost 2 days. When that was up, all but one guy was ordered to the Cage to reverse the process, and they removed the boxes under Arms, one ship not seen, and marched back on to the C, and returned to the US Base, under Arms, to the Cage, Checked the Boxes in, and stepped out and retrieved their 3 days bags that accompanied them. The gun carriers were nowhere to be seen again.
That was the F111B Tripoli Raid. I Suspect that the Boxes were the Video Recorders and the Mission Target Programs for each Ship. Every bit of that would need to return to Air Force Command as well as the Equipment Contractors for analysis.
Later in his reading the Paper, he learned he had been at Lakenheath, and he confirmed the target. Everyone was controlled, because anybody could have given an indication that a mission was underway. He of course learned that one of the Ships did not return from that Raid, confirming why things did not happen on the final day.
That level of Flight Path and Mission Control over the Ships, one has to wonder who in Avionics programmed the bombing of the Facade of the French Embassy. Sam Kinison joked about it on Saturday Night Live saying. "Sorry France, we would have had better aim, IF WE HAD MORE SLEEEP!!! HAHAHAHAHAH!"
What did that even say?
I have no clue, but there was no F-111B, except pre-production models in the late 60s, and were canceled by the Navy.
There were no Bs in service.
F-111Fs bombed Libya.
@@patrickflohe7427 MY failed nomenclature. F/B111, as opposed to Raven ECM Ship.
Sorry that the back story on the Avionic Switch out for the Tripoli Mission escaped you. I thought it was an interesting story, but perhaps too disjointed from my memory.
@@miguellogistics984 The F/B-111-A was a bomber/AGM69A SRAM carrier that stood nuclear alert only. The F-111's that attacked Libya were F-111-F's that flew from the UK.
… crew chief on this “Aardvark” in Desert Storm/Shield 🇺🇸🗽
I drove a mule on our farm in West Virginia, how many pilots did that.
My Brother In Law was in the USAF, ive driven through the land of skunks!
The recall roster for wife’s are very common during the 50’s and 60’s.
It was done by the wife’s and yes the one or two missing was the place to go too.
This to comfort those wife’s that where un certain of their man.
Nice interview.. well done and super informative.
Thanks for sharing
I think you mean wives.
Great interview!
The T-37, the absolutely loudest high pitch engine plane ever.
How did you find time while filming 8 is enough?
My aunt was married to a F111 pilot out of Cannon.
I am going to guess that the Col, knew Gale.
Cannon AFB at Clovis NM home of Doc Stewart and his 49 thieves the welcom sign comeing into town from the East 72/76 flight line 68 -156 my bird
7:50 Danger zone!
Call sign Cochise or Ravage ?
Hello
WYOMING is listening.
I wonder how good the F-111D would have been if they could’ve worked those constant problems out
The D model had a more advanced avionics suite which was a constant problem. I was a flight line foreman at McClellan AFB back in the 70's. The D model gave us a lot of problems. I don't know if they ever got the bugs worked out. However, I do believe they never put this model out for real combat missions.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve read that when the bombing/navigation system DID work on the Delta there was nothing in the world even close to duplicating its capabilities. Fascinating airplane.
you go to war with what you got. We couldn't keep this bird in the air...
Jeezo, Rob's wing commander sounded like a flake. (Far different from our wing CO a few years earlier.)
I was there at the same time that Rob was. The Wing CO was a pice of work, and I'm being very nice. I still remember his name and what he looked like. Not fun memories. We got there in June 1989, just like he did. We were on 12/7s from June to either the first or second week of Dec. We passed the Tac Eval right before Christmas. We went back to 12/7s on Dec 28th. I know that because that's my birthday. What a wonderful present that was. We went back on the 12/7s because we had a NUKE Eval in Feb 1990. On Aug 2nd 1990, we deploying to Zaragoza Spain, for a 6 week WTD. Oh yeah, that was the day that Tarik Azziz was on CNN International saying "We haven't invaded Kuwait"! The minute we landed at Zaragoza we were on high alert status. The first week we flew our normal bombing range sorties. Then things started getting bit strange. The 3rd week we torn down our parts forward supply point, palletized it 3 times, then put everything back on the shelves again. The 4th time it stayed on the pallets, and Friday's sorties were canceled. The Chief put together a party for Sat evening. Nobody knew what was going on, but everybody's TVs in the dorms were on CNN. One of my guys went into his room to grab some more beer. While he was in there he heard the news anchor say that the wing that bombed Libya had just deployed to Saudi. Yeah that was jets that were still at the Heath. We returned the next day to the Heath, and started doing prep work to deploy more jets/people. The Wing King supposedly used MWR funds to purchase a new Jeep Cherokee and had it shipped to Saudi. Gen Horner saw it being offloaded from an aircraft and became "intrigued". Here he was driving a 1972 Ford Galaxie staff car that had been in storage for a minute. He commandeered that Jeep on the spot, and sent his Ford to our WC. I never heard what was said to our Col, but I'm sure that it was cordial. After Dessert Storm, our Wing King got orders to Stuttgart. They don't have any aircraft there!! We thought that might have been his punishment for the Jeep incident. I guess not, as after about a year, he PCS'd to Luke, put on a star, and became the first Wing Commander of the AF's first Composite Wing. Sometimes life just ain't fair..
Why was his callsign KY?
His last name is Kyrouac. And the KY part is easy and KY is a lube. I worked for KY for almost two years after he retired. Amazing guy….and he is literally like this every day.
I think the interviewer said less than 10 words total.
I’m surprised they didn’t use AILA on the foggy return. I guess there was no hurry to land.
PS. Now that I think about it the F-111D AILA approach midair in 1980 could have been the reason??
All this talk and no mention of fear of migs, and no combat happened.
FAIP. Rob must love the Dos Gringos song.
Don't say the word "Swing-Wing" cos it sounds like "Ding-a-ling"
(Whoops Apocalypse)
5-600ft per second, that would actually be a crash...
True, fatal every time. 😂 He definitely meant per minute.
You really need to get some new questions! Or at least mix them up so each interview has a different feel! ‘ soo wan did ya gat interested in aviation’ is getting a bit old… 🙈
Try 10 percent true channel. He does some great interviews.
Has to be a reasonable question to ask a pilot 🤷♂️.
He came off like Captain Caveman. Then I noticed he's a Colonel. That makes sense. He's just dumb enough to make Colonel.
you think a general is smarter? ha ha ha
The biggest Air Force boondoggle before the F35!
Finally assigned to "bomber" - the fate all "fighters" that flop.
Hit the most targets out of any plane in the war
It was never a fighter.
Never was a fighter. It was designed to fly very low and fast to sneak under the Soviet's radar then drop bombs. There was also EF-111 that jammed radar. Maybe you're referring to the Navy's version of the Grumman F-111B that was worthless.
It was originally designated an attack aircraft, but McNamara mis-identified it as a fighter, and it stuck.
@@chesterdroors1605 There is a major test that the Navy does for all of the aircraft slated for Navy duty. It consists of lifting the aircraft around 20 feet or so off the ground and dropping it to simulate a hard landing on a carrier. The proposed F-111B had a heavy duty landing gear and even with this landing gear, the aircraft failed this test, This heavy duty landing gear wound up on the FB-111 and the F-111C (the Aussie model).