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Airlift Tanker Association 2023 Report

Lessons From The Cockpit

Release Date: 11/18/2023

Episode #82: Lessons from the Hawg with Colonel Donk Strasburger show art 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 show art 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 Oyester 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 show art 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 show art 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...

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Port City Air Fixed Base Operations with Jamie McCarthy show art Port City Air Fixed Base Operations with Jamie McCarthy

Lessons From The Cockpit

Welcome to the seventy-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! This one was done on location so get ready for some cool background jet noise! My wife and I recently were guests of Port City Air, a Fixed Base Operations or FBO at my first base of assignment Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Port City Air has an incredible reputation among military fliers! I walked the ramp with Port City Air's Director of Flight Operations Jamie McCarthy while recording our conversation. We had a blast discussing what an FBO does, watching props, jets, and helos coming in and going...

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Busting SAMs by Iron Hand with Captain Bo Smith show art Busting SAMs by Iron Hand with Captain Bo Smith

Lessons From The Cockpit

Welcome to the seventy-eighth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, KC-135 pilot, and author of the book Tanker Pilot. In the second episode with Navy Captain Bo Smith he explains Iron Hand missions, the methods and weapons the US Navy used to destroy Surface to Air Missile or SAM sites defending North Vietnam. Bo and his VA-82 Marauders A-7C Corsair II pilots developed tactics with the A-7C's improved avionics during the LINEBACKER I and LINEBACKER II air campaigns at the close of the Vietnam War. Leaving the Marauders...

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Flying the A-4 and A-7 with Navy Captain Bo Smith show art Flying the A-4 and A-7 with Navy Captain Bo Smith

Lessons From The Cockpit

Welcome to the seventy-seventh episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show with your host retired Lt Col Mark Hasara, KC-135 pilot and Air Force Weapons School graduate. I was turned on to a great memoir website by my good friend Scott Brown. Navy Captain Bo Smith is responsible for helping create the Navy’s IRON HAND Surface to Air Missile or SAM suppression procedures during the Vietnam War. Bo started his Naval Aviation career with two Vietnam tours in the Douglas A-4B and A-4C Skyhawk with Attack Squadron VA-15 Valions. His third tour during the 1972 LINEBACKER I and LINEBACKER II...

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Lessons Learned with TC Cappelletti show art Lessons Learned with TC Cappelletti

Lessons From The Cockpit

Welcome to the seventy-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara. My circle of friends has expanded because of my book Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit. One of those great friends has vast experience in almost every Boeing airliner... 727, 737, 757, 767, and the Lockheed L-1011 I found out during this show. My good buddy TC Cappelletti is also one of the most knowledgeable military historians I know because he's a voracious reader of history. And most of the books in his library are signed by the folks in those books. TC shares several lessons learned...

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Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea show art Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea

Lessons From The Cockpit

Welcome to another episode, the seventy-fifth, of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been aviation. The situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adan has everyone's attention. It's the continuation of the Proxy War between western powers and the Ayatollahs of Iran and their influence with the Houthi Rebels in Yemen, attacking shipping in one of the largest and wealthiest waterways on the planet. America and our allies have been here before, sometimes with tragic results. The USS Cole was nearly sunk in the Yemeni harbor of Adan after...

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Guns, MIGs, SAMs, and a Push show art Guns, MIGs, SAMs, and a Push

Lessons From The Cockpit

Welcome to the seventy-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot, author, and entrepreneur! We laid to rest another American veteran this week involved in one of the greatest air strikes of Air Force histroy. He left his mark on aviation because of his incredible courage in the face of overwhelming enemy odds, innovative technique to save two commrades, and airmanship in pulling off a feat which almost got him court martialed. Twenty-two years later an evaluation board awarded him the Silver Star for his efforts to save lives. On this...

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Welcome to the seventy-second episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, former KC-135 pilot and aviation geek!

My wife Valerie and I attended Air Mobility Command's Airlift Tanker Association 2023 Symposium at the Gaylord Texan resort in Grapevine Texas. The A/TA Convention aero and cyberspace Industry Exposition was fantastic and I wanted to mention a few things I experienced while walking the Industry Floor... like the Remote Vision System 2.0 now being retrofitted in the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tanker. General Mike Minihan, commander of Air Moility Command gavve an incredile speech on the status of the Mobility Air Forces or MAF. Did you know airlifters now have the capaility to become strike aircraft with new palletized weapons systems?

The Lessons from the Cockpit show is supported by the ook Tanker Pilot, now on Genneral Mike Minihan's Leadership Library reading list. Tanker Pilot gives you a behind the scenes look at the planning and execution of air refueling operations during four wars and numerous other global evvents. Thirty-two pictures taken are included, taken during the events descibed in the book.

Our show is also supported by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. There are 138 Ready-to-Print extremely detailed and exhaustively researched aircraft profiles of famous aircraft from World War II to modern fifth generation fighters and bombers. Wall Pilot creates custom aircraft profile drawings of your favorite aircraft with your name, tail number, flying unit, and weapons load in four, six, and eight foot long vinyl prints you can peel off and stick on any flat purpose.

One of the aircraft profiles auctioned off for the A/TA Scholarship fund was this 60th Air Mobility Wing KC-10A Extender from Travis Air Force Base. Aircrews, maintainers, and loaders signed a copy of this print for auction which was sold to a collector of custom aviation art.

The other aircraft profile auctioned off for the A/TA Scholarship fund was the 437th Airlift Wing C-17A Globemaster III named "Spirit of the Candy Bomber" in memorial of Colonel Gail Halvorsen, the Berlin Candy Bomber who passed away at the age of 101 last year. General Mike Minihan attended the memorial service for Colonel Halvorsen last summer to rename C-17A tail 87-7178 "Spirit of the Candy Bomber".

General Mike Minihan was the previous commander of the 19th Airlift Wing located at Little Rock Air Force Base Arkansas. This C-130J is assigned to the Air Force Reserve Component based at Little Rock AFB.

The best assignement of my Air Force career was flying with the 909th Air Refueling Squadron out of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa Japan. The 909th flew both KC-135A and -135R Models while I was assigned to the unit for five years in 1990 through 1995.

Attending Tailhook 23 this past August I brought this F-14D Tomcat print of BANDWAGON 101, the VF-31 Squadron Skipper Commander Paul Haas personal jet he flew during Operation Iraqi Freedom's Shock and Awe air campaign.

My very good friend Captain Steve "Moose" Laukaitis was the Deputy Carrier Air Wing Commander of CAG Eight during the Shock and Awe air campaign and this was the VFA-87 War Party F-18C+ Hornet in his Air Wing on USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Thanks for downloading and listening to this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show, found on my webbsite at www.markhasara.com