Episode #104: Black Jets and Gucci Birds with Retired Lt Col Mike Ethridge
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to Episode 104 of Lessons from the Cockpit! I’m 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 BYU’s 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. What’s in This...
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Episode #105: Lessons from Marine Corps Aviation with Colonel Byron “Shrek” Sullivan
Lessons From The Cockpit
EPISODE #105 – Marine Airpower, the Battle of Ramadi, and Flying the Beast: The F-35 and MV-22 Strap in and arm hot, folks—this one’s a burner. Welcome to Episode 105 of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I’m 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 “Shrek” Sullivan, a retired United States Marine Corps airpower warrior. And trust me—this is the kind of episode that makes your hair stand up. "Shrek" is a Marine’s Marine—combat leader,...
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Episode #106: Lessons from Marine Corps Aviation with Shrek Sullivan and Glibby Gillette
Lessons From The Cockpit
🎧 Episode 106 – Rewriting the Rules of Marine Airpower Welcome back to Lessons from the Cockpit! I’m your host, retired Air Force Lt Col Mark “Sluggo” Hasara—KC-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 “Shrek” 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, we’re joined by the...
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Episode #95: AMC Command Chief Jamie Newman: Security Policeman and Ranger!
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the ninety-fifth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! I am your host Mark Hasara, former KC-135 pilot and Airplane Nerd! I’m really excited to bring this episode to you! Air Mobility Command's Command Chief Master Sergeant Jamie Newman and I met at the Airlift Tanker Association convention in Dallas earlier this year. Coming up through the Air Force Security Police ranks, Command Chief Newman was not only selected to become an elite Air Force Phoenix Raven, but go through the Army’s grueling Ranger School returning later as an instructor at Fort Benning! Command Chief...
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Episode #94 Painting Legacies with Aviation Artist Wade Meyers
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the Lessons from the Cockpit Show and episode number ninety-four! I’m your host retired Air Force KC-135 pilot Lieutenant Colonel Mark Hasara and my passion is everything aviation! This episode is unique! I’ve known this incredible artist for years through LinkedIn and Facebook and thought it would be cool to have him explain how he accomplishes his craft. He is a fellow aviation artist but in a league and class by himself. Aviation artist Wade Meyers tells us his story of how he fell in love with airplanes but later in life made a career change and now draws and paints aviation...
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Episode #92 Lessons from the Hercules with Colonel Scooter Golden
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to Episode #92 of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I’m your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot and Weapons Officer. I met Colonel Barrett “Scooter” Golden recently at the 2024 Airlift Tanker Association convention in Dallas. Scooter is a long time C-130 pilot and also a graduate of the C-130 Weapons School. During an off station trainer Scooter and his crew were told by the Special Tactics Team on the ground his aircraft did not come off the Red Devil Assault Strip intact. An iPhone photo texted to him from his wingman confirmed his situation not covered in the Pilot Manual...
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Episode #82: Lessons from the Hawg with Colonel Donk Strasburger
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome the eighty-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, aviation and conflict history expert. Colonel Ray “Donk” Strasburger began his flying career as a Navigator in the B-52, qualifying for a pilot slot when his initial eye test was determined to be wrong! Donk and his wingman were awarded Silver Stars for destroying major elements of the Special Republican Guard Hammurabi Division assaulting Task Force 2-69th Armor at the Muthanna Bridge, called Objective Monty, during the sand storm sweeping through Baghdad on 6 April 2003. The ground...
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Lessons with MiG Killer John Markle
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome folks to the eighty-third episode of the lessons from the cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force and former KC-135 pilot. Captain John Markle was an F-4 Phantom II pilot in the famous 550th Tactical Fighter Squadron in the spring and summer of 1972, some of the most intense periods of the air campaign over North Vietnam. The LINEBACKER ONE campaign began on 10 May 1972, and John was flying in the famous OYSTER flight, shooting down a MiG-21 Fishbed that day. John also tells us about his shoot-down and Recovery on another...
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Lessons with Highest Scoring MiG Ace Chuck DeBellevue
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to all my listeners out there to the 81st episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast I am your host Mark Hasara and I'm a veteran of four Wars, an initial Cadre member of the kc-135 weapons school, and curriculum director at National Defense University's Joint Combined Warfighter School One of the great experiences of hosting this show and being a member of the Red River Valley Association is being in contact with these Vietnam heroes. Today we are talking to one of my childhood heroes! Air Force Colonel Chuck DeBellevue was the highest scoring Ace of the Vietnam War, destroying...
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Fixed Base Operations with Jamie McCarthy
Lessons From The Cockpit
Welcome to the 80th episode… eight zero… of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been all things aviation. This is episode two with the Flight Operations Director Jamie McCarthy of Port City Air on what used to be Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In this episode he's going to talk about FBO planning and execution lessons learned when you have everything from big airplanes like a C-5M Galaxy to Executive Jets like Gulfstream G550 needing services at Port City Air. Every once in a while things don't go the way...
info_outlineWelcome 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 Survey written after the Desert Storm air campaign ended.
The Lessons from the Cockpit show is supported and financed by the book Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit, found in all four formats on Amazon; hardback, softback (black and white photos!), Kindle, and Audible. The Kindle and Audible versions have thirty-two pictures in an extra file when you download the book.
Detailed aircraft profiles of Operation Iraqi Freedom aircraft are available from Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. These profiles are printed on vinyl in four, six, and eight-foot-long graphics you can stick to any flat surface.
The KC-10 Extender is called the "Gucci Bird" because of its versatility to refuel Boom or Drogue receivers. The KC-10 is also air refuelable... you can fill it back up. Most of the fighters deploying to the Middle East traveled there behind a KC-10.
The KC-135 Stratotanker has been the air refueling workhorse around the world. I was based at Kadena Air Base for five great years, the best flying job I had during my Air Force career.
The F-15C Eagle was deployed to the Middle East for Operation Iraqi Freedom, but they had a boring war as no Iraqi Air Force fighters flew offensive or defensive combat air patrols. All F-15Cs were sent home about halfway through the war because we needed the gas!
F-15E Strike Eagles were tasked with a range of missions from Close Air Support to Strike Coordination and Reconnaissance (SCAR) missions destroying the Iraqi Republican Guard.
Thanks for downloading and listening to this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast. This and additional episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit podcast can be downloaded from my website at markhasara.com.
Next week's episode will be with a former Iranian Air Force Colonel who planned and flew one of the longest strike missions during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.