Leave No One Behind with MH-47 pilot CWO Greg Calvert
Release Date: 08/12/2022
Stop or Start a War… Flexible Deterrent Options (FDOs)
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the seventieth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. This one is going to be a little different. For a long time I've contemplated doing TWO podcasts; the current Lessons from the Cockpit on aviation and another called On the Nation's DIME, looking at current events around the world analysed using The DIME. DIME is an acronymn for Diplomatic, Informational, Military and Economic... the elements of national power our government uses to analyse how powerful or weak a nation state or organization is absed on those four elements. Our government also uses the DIME as a...
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Tailhook 23 Report
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, former US Air Force KC-135 pilot and author of the book Tanker Pilot, now on the Air Mobility Command Leadership Library reading list of General Mike Minihan! This past weekend I attended the Tailhook Association's 2023 convention at the Nugget Resort in Sparks, Nevada as a guest of Admiral Bill Gortney. I was asked to be part of the Operation Iraqi Freedom panel on Friday afternoon discussing the air refueling plan for the Shock and Awe campaign. This podcast episode discusses events and...
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Flying Phantoms with Iranian Air Force Colonel Fred Izadseta
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast with your host, retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and KC-135 pilot Mark Hasara. Ever since hearing and reading this story, I wanted to have this incredible Iranian Air Force fighter pilot on the show! has commanded at all levels; from Squadron to Wing Commander. He's flown some of the most iconic fighters in the world... F-86 Sabers with the Iranian Precision Demonstration Team Golden Crown to commanding an Air Wing, and teaching in their pilot pipeline. What will strike you most about his lessons learned...
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Shock and Awe Tanker Shortfalls
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome back to the Lessons from the Cockpit and the sixty-seventh episode of the podcast! In preparation for attending the Tailhook 2023 symposium, I felt this was a good time to do an episode on the air refueling shortfalls during the Shock and Awe air campaign in March through April 2003. In my book Tanker Pilot, the chapter Six Weeks in Hell speaks to the issues the Air Refueling Control Team overcame to make the 1003 Victor war plan executable. This is a more in-depth discussion on refueling shortfalls compared to what was accomplished in Desert Storm based on the Gulf War Airpower...
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Sluggo's Current Reading List
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I received word this week my book Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit is now on the four-star commander of Air Mobility Command General Mike Minihan's "Leadership Library" reading list under the heading We Are the Maneuver. I'm grateful and humbled General Minihan thinks enough of my book to be included on his first published list. In February of last year, I gave my listeners a reading list of great books in the episode called "Book of the Month Club". This episode updates my reading list based on some of the...
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Battle Management with Colonel Mark "Boner" Waite
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I am your host Mark Hasara, Air Force vet and KC-135 pilot. Colonel Mark Waite took a very interesting route to fill one of the most critical positions in the Air Force as Airborne Battle Manager, surveilling the air over a battlefield and directing fighters and bombers to targets. Boner was a Senior Director in the E-3 AWACS on the opening night of Desert Storm. He's a graduate of the US Air Force's Weapons School and later an instructor in the Command and Control division. Some of his most interesting lessons...
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Centennial of Air Refueling
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot and veteran of four wars. On Tuesday 27 June 2023, the Air Force celebrated a 100-year anniversary. On 27 June 1923 was an event making aviation history! For the first time, fuel was transferred from one DeHavilland DH-4B Biplane to another DH-4B Biplane flown by Captain Lowell Smith and 1Lt John Richter over Rockwell Field on North Island near San Diego California. 1Lt Virgil Hine and 1Lt Frank Siefert flew the DH-4B tanker which John Richter had reconfigured with a...
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The Nerve Center of Air Mobility
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit Podcast! I'm your host Mark Hasara, a retired KC-135 pilot of the United States Air Force. After five fantastic years and the greatest flying assignment of my career at Kadena Air Base on the island of Okinawa Japan, it was time for an assignment change of station or PCS. I took a Headquarters assignment to a location all of us in the Young Tiger Tanker Squadron laughed at because they had absolute control over all air mobility operations around the world except us at the 909th! This assignment became one of those tremendous...
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Desert Storm Tanker Lessons Learned
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast and I'm your host Mark Hasara, a former Air Force KC-135 pilot, flying all over the world passing gas! Recently I had a conversation with a colleague on how far the Air Force tanker community had come since Deseet Stomr and the old Strategic Air Command days of the Single Integrated Operations Plan, the nuclear war plan. I felt the tanker community during Desert Storm was not prepared for high-density, high-ops-tempo air refueling operations because it wasn't our primary focus. This episode lays out what I feel are the...
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DoD Budget and Retiring Aircraft
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the sixty-first episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast! The Defense Department Budget is out and there are a number of aircraft coming into the inventory and a lot going to the Boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB Arizona. Platforms that I refueled from my KC-135 are going to be gone soon, and I voice my concerns about some of the aircraft being cut out of the inventory. My biggest concern is the health of the tanker fleet of course. There are some new aircraft on the horizon also and some of them are cosmic! This episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast is supported...
info_outlineWelcome to the sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit series on Operation Anaconda and the Battle of Roberts Ridge.
Chief Warrant Officer Greg Calvert's MH-47 helicopter crew lifted off as RAZOR 1 with a Quick Reaction Force of Army Rangers in the back. His landing zone was the top of Takur Ghar mountain in an attempt to save Roberts and SEAL Team MAKO 30. RAZOR 1's crew did not know the extent of what was happening atop the mountain flaring for landing. Greg shares his story and lessons learned from his involvement in the Battle of Roberts Ridge.
This video shows the battle raging around RAZOR 1 from the CIA Predator overhead.
NBC Dateline did a documentary on the Battle of Roberts Ridge with Greg Calvert which can be seen here at the 39:45 mark.
This is the longer video telling the story of the Battle of Roberts Ridge and TSgt John Chapman.
Here is an interview with Captain Nate Self, leader of the Army Ranger Quick Reaction Force riding in Greg's helo RAZOR 1.
Lessons from the Cockpit is financially supported by Wall Pilot, aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. These are very detailed graphics of aircraft printed on vinyl you can peel off and stick to any flat surface.
Thanks for downloading and listening to this episode! Please share this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast with friends and family, available at markhasara.com