COMMIT COMMIT!
December 21st, 1998 – a brisk winter day in Saudi Arabia. I was stationed on my first combat deployment, flying missions enforcing the Iraqi southern no-fly zone.
I was scheduled to take off on only the fourth combat sortie of my career, inexperienced and quite nervous. It was a mission I’ll never forget.
I was flying that day with my flight lead Lt Col “Hos” Hyatt, the commander of the 79th Fighter Squadron Tigers. Our “2 ship” of F-16’s were charged with “sanitizing” the airspace of any enemy aircraft that might be crossing the restricted area. It could have been a routine patrol – or not.
Suddenly, our radios blared with an urgent call from the radar ground controller, “Viper flight, you’ve got a MIG-23 150 miles off your nose headed south…hostile, hostile!”
This meant the MIG had crossed the no fly zone and was headed towards us and the fuel tankers we were in charge of protecting. A split second later, my headset erupted with a call from Hos.
“Viper flight, COMMIT, COMMIT!”
Almost unconsciously, I pushed up my throttle to afterburner and started to climb as I struggled to stay in perfect formation with Hos. There was no turning back. We were going after that MIG.
With those two words, “Commit, Commit,” my destiny was set in motion that day. No time to think – there was simply time to react. I was trained for that moment and my instantaneous choice was really quite clear: it was time to “commit.”
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