Fighter pilot balanced tactics, safety, effectiveness
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123033957
by Ellery Wallwork
Air Force History Office
12/5/2006 -- WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- I'd hate to see an epitaph on a
fighter pilot's tombstone that says, "I told you I needed training"...
How do you train for the most dangerous game in the world by being as
safe as possible? When you don't let a guy train because it's dangerous,
you're saying, "Go fight those lions with your bare hands in that arena,
because we can't teach you to learn how to use a spear. If we do, you
might cut your finger while you're learning." And that's just about the
same as murder. -- Lt. Col. Lloyd "Boots" Boothby, April 17, 1931, to
Nov. 26, 2006
That quote may seem a little extreme, but Colonel Boothby was referring
to the Air Force's urgent need to improve fighter tactics training,
balanced against safety, but not at the expense of effectiveness.
Colonel Boothby, who passed away Nov. 26, was an experienced combat
pilot and an academic instructor in the 57th Fighter Weapons Wing in the
early 1970s. He looked at the Air Force's declining kill ratio from
Korea to Vietnam which was 2.4 to 1 in Vietnam compared to 8 to 1 in the
Korean War. He led the effort to fix it. This involved several key
steps, starting with a thorough analysis of the engagements over
Vietnam.
Colonel Boothby led a series of studies at the Tactical Fighter Weapons
Center, which were part of Project Red Baron, examining each of the
war's air-to-air battles. While the subsequent reports noted many
accomplishments and even more lessons learned, they highlighted several
significant trends. The colonel's team discovered that pilots of
multi-role fighters tended to have such a diverse range of missions that
they seldom had a chance to master air combat tactics. They also noted
pilots who were shot down rarely saw the enemy aircraft or even knew
they were being engaged.
Additionally, few U.S. pilots, before flying into combat, had any
experience against the equipment, tactics, or capabilities of the
enemy's smaller, highly maneuverable fighters.
In short, the Red Baron Reports called for "realistic training [that]
can only be gained through study of, and actual engagements with,
possessed enemy aircraft or realistic substitutes."
Based on this report and Colonel Boothby's persuasiveness to get himself
and Capt. Roger Wells access to an intelligence organization's
restricted collection of Soviet equipment, training manuals, and
technical data, they developed the dissimilar air combat training, or
DACT, program to meet the Tactical Air Command's initiative of
"Readiness through Realism."
Under the DACT program, Air Force officials had some T-38s painted with
Soviet-style paint schemes and flew them based on adopted Soviet
tactics.
Because of his combat experience, academic instructor background, and
involvement in Project Red Baron and in developing the DACT program,
Colonel Boothby served as the first aggressor squadron's commander when
the 64th Fighter Weapons Squadron activated Oct. 15, 1972.
As an instructor, Colonel Boothby proved himself an effective teacher
who relished the attention of his captive audience. Ever-animated and
quick with a joke or "fighter" story to make a point, he told the pilots
he was instructing what they needed to know to succeed. These qualities
ensured his students' attention remained spellbound and eager.
One former student recalled one of the colonel's more popular attention
steps. In typical fighter pilot stance, using his hands to represent a
dogfight, he would spray lighter fluid from his mouth across his right
hand (palming a lighter at the time) and literally flame the left hand
and wristwatch bogie. He generally walked away with a few singed hairs
on his hand, but his students received a magnificent visual
demonstration of the seriousness of air combat.
Such object lessons ensured this charismatic instructor's students
learned and retained the knowledge they might need to save their lives
one day.
Upon learning of Colonel Boothby's death recently, Air Force Chief of
Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley noted:
"He...had an impact on how we do business and how we think about this
air combat work. Folks out there like [Colonel Richard] Moody Suter and
Boots Boothby have left a true legacy. I know one Texas public
school-educated, land grant college graduate, F-15 weapons officer,
Fighter Weapons Instructor Course instructor, and ex-57th Wing commander
who has certainly benefited from folks like this."