Lessons From The Cockpit
šļø Episode ā Lessons from the Cockpit Welcome to another mission-ready episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! Iām your host Lt. Col. Mark Hasara, retired Air Force KC-135 pilot, Weapons School graduate, and aviation fanatic for over 60 years. Strap in for this oneābecause weāre bringing serious airpower experience to the table. Joining me today is one of the smartest Air Force officers Iāve ever worked withāLt. Col. Joe āTAZZā Katuzeinski. He and I go way back to our Weapons and Tactics days at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa in the '90s. Since then, TAZZ has led combat...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
šļø Episode 112 ā How Do You Know When to Stop the Fight? Welcome back to another airpower-packed episode of Lessons from the Cockpit! Iām your host Lt. Col. Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 Weapons Officer and Joint Specialty Officer. For 60 years, Iāve lived and breathed aviation. Today we are going to talk about a very tough aspect of planning for war! Hereās the question Iāve been getting all week: āMark, how do you know when itās time to stop shooting?ā How does a war end? Who decides when the mission is complete? And what happens if we stop too lateāor too soon? This...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
šļø Episode 111 ā Operation Rising Lion: Israelās Knockout Blow to Iran! Strap in for the 111th episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! Iām Mark Hasara, retired Air Force KC-135 pilot, Weapons School graduate, and the guy whoās been obsessed with aviation for over 60 years. This episode dives into one of the most aggressive and precise modern air campaigns weāve seen in decadesāOperation Rising Lion. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) just delivered a massive punch to Iranās military command, nuclear program scientists, religious leaders, and ballistic missile...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
šļø Episode 110 ā The Drone Swarm Wake-Up Call: Is the US and our Allies Ready? Welcome to the 110th episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! Iām Mark Hasara, former Air Force KC-135 pilot, Weapons School graduate, and author of Tanker Pilot. For 60 years, aviation has been my worldāfrom flying gas station in the sky to mission planning at the highest levels of command. This episode is a battle cry. š„ Ukraine Just Changed the Air Warfare Game Over the weekend, Ukraine launched one of the boldest moves weāve ever seen in modern air warfare: a long-range drone swarm strike...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
šļø EPISODE 109 ā From MiG-21 to A-10 Hawg: The Incredible Journey of Lt Col Joszph āBoaratā Jonas Welcome back to Lessons from the Cockpit, the show that brings you stories and lessons learned from aviators who've been there, done that, and brought the jet home. Iām Mark HasaraāKC-135 instructor pilot, Air Force Weapons School grad, author of Tanker Pilot, and your host for Episode 109. This oneās going to hit you right between the afterburners. āļø From Opposing Forces to Brothers-in-Arms My guest is Cliff Wilson, an Air Force C-141 Starlifter driver and UPT instructor in...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
šļø EPISODE #108 ā The Tanker Worldās in Trouble: ARSAG, Anaconda, and Global Tensions on the Nationās DIME Strap in and listen up, warriors. Welcome to Episode 108 of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show. Iām Lt Col Mark Hasara, USAF (Ret.)āKC-135 pilot, Weapons School grad, Joint Specialty Officer, and your host for this mission. I just got back from Air Refueling Systems Advisory Group or ARSAG 2025 at Planet Hollywood in Vegasāa gathering of the best and sharpest minds in global air refueling planning and operations. Senior leaders from the USAF, Royal Air Force, and RAAF, and...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
šļø Episode 107 ā Hercules to Hawgs: Flying at Both Ends of the Fight with Col. Derek āWoodyā Oaks. Welcome aboard the 107th sortie of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show Iām Lt Col Mark Hasara, USAF (Ret.), KC-135 Weapons Officer and your pilot for todayās mission. Iāve flown jets, built war plans, and stayed hopelessly addicted to aviation for over 60 years. This week? You're in for one hell of a ride. After two attempts, we finally locked in this high-value target: Col. Derek āWoodyā Oaks, a pilot who flew both ends of the Air Force spectrumāfrom hauling cargo in the...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to Episode 104 of Lessons from the Cockpit! Iām Mark Hasara, former KC-135 pilot, author of Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit, and a lifelong aviation fanatic. For over 60 years, aviation has been my passion, and this show brings you stories from the cockpit, the mission planning room, and beyond. This week, I sit down with Mike Ethridge, a longtime friend and fellow Air Force aviator. We met as cadets at BYUās ROTC Detachment 855, and he went on to fly the KC-10A Extender, KC-135s and every Boeing airframe Delta Airlines has flown around the world. Whatās in This...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
EPISODE #105 ā Marine Airpower, the Battle of Ramadi, and Flying the Beast: The F-35 and MV-22 Strap in and arm hot, folksāthis oneās a burner. Welcome to Episode 105 of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! Iām your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot, author of Tanker Pilot, and a lifelong aviation nut with over 60 years of airpower obsession. This week, I sit down with Colonel Byron āShrekā Sullivan, a retired United States Marine Corps airpower warrior. And trust meāthis is the kind of episode that makes your hair stand up. "Shrek" is a Marineās Marineācombat leader,...
info_outlineLessons From The Cockpit
š§ Episode 106 ā Rewriting the Rules of Marine Airpower Welcome back to Lessons from the Cockpit! Iām your host, retired Air Force Lt Col Mark āSluggoā HasaraāKC-135 pilot, Joint Specialty Officer, and full-throttle aviation fanatic for over 60 years. In this episode, we finish a powerful two-part dive into Marine Corps aviation weapons, tactics, techniques, and procedures with my good friend Colonel Byron āShrekā Sullivan. Shrek is a combat-proven pilot with time in both the F/A-18 Hornet and the F-35 Lightning II. And about halfway through the episode, weāre joined by the...
info_outlineIn this episode, we discuss red underwear, one of the greatest victories and defeats in modern air warfare, and how a Commander's Conference kept this Navy Captain from being incinerated. Our hero in this episode is Imperial Japanese Navy Captain Mitsuo Fuchida.
Commander Mitsuo Fuchida was an expert tactician and planner, leading many Japanese Navy attacks throughout the Pacific. Flying as an observer in a Nakajima B5N2 Kate attack plane, Commander Fuchida directed the attack of Pearl Harbor. He was almost killed during the battle of Midway and Colonel Paul Tibbets's atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. A chance meeting on a Tokyo street corner leads to Captain Fuchida's conversion to Christianity, his mentor being a former enemy and part of the first US attack on the Japanese homeland, the Doolittle Raid.
A link to why Japan attacked the US:
Link to a good overview of the Pearl Harbor raid: https://youtu.be/f6cz9gtMTeI
Three-part documentary on the Japanese attack on Midway:
Part One: https://youtu.be/Bd8_vO5zrjo
Part Two: https://youtu.be/BXjydKPcX60
Part Three: https://youtu.be/WHO6xrSF7Sw
Commander Fuchida's detailed debriefing map of the Pearl Harbor attack: https://i.redd.it/yrrd3gujhm621.jpg
Mitsuo Fuchida's appearance on the Merv Griffin Show in September 1965, at the 35:40 mark:
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/501213/s01-e01-episode-1
The Nakajima B5N2 Kate Commander Fuchida was flying in as an observer of the Pearl Harbor Raid can be found on Wall Pilot's website at:
https://wallpilot.com/product/imperial-japanese-navy-nakajima-b5n2-kate/
Listen and share this and past episodes of Lessons from the Cockpit show at www.markhasara.com
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show.