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...
info_outline Episode #94 Painting Legacies with Aviation Artist Wade MeyersLessons 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...
info_outline Episode #92 Lessons from the Hercules with Colonel Scooter GoldenLessons 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...
info_outline Episode #82: Lessons from the Hawg with Colonel Donk StrasburgerLessons 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...
info_outline Lessons with MiG Killer John MarkleLessons 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...
info_outline Lessons with Highest Scoring MiG Ace Chuck DeBellevueLessons 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...
info_outline Fixed Base Operations with Jamie McCarthyLessons 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_outline Port City Air Fixed Base Operations with Jamie McCarthyLessons 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...
info_outline Busting SAMs by Iron Hand with Captain Bo SmithLessons 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...
info_outline Flying the A-4 and A-7 with Navy Captain Bo SmithLessons 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...
info_outlineWelcome 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 mission.
This episode of the Lessoons from the Cockpit Show is financially supported by www.wallpilot.com, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. You can choose from the 154 Ready-to-Print aircraft profiles of your favorite airplanes, which are printed and vinyl in four, six, and eight foot lengths you can peel off and stick on any flat surface. We have learned these graphics are also water proof! Wall Pillot also does Custom Aviation profiles. If you have a favorite airplane you want to put your name on, from a favorite unit, with a cool weapons load, then fill out the custom form and we can draw it up for you. These are highly detailed and exhaustively researched profiles of aircraft, so detailed you can read the stenciling on the weapons!
This F-4D Phantom II was the jet everyone wanted to fly in the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron. It had the best engines which made this jet faster, but most importantly had the COMBAT TREE Identification Friend or Foe system in its radar. Aircrews flying this jet had a greater advantage over North Vietnamese Air Force pilots because COMBAT TREE could identify enemy aircraft 30 to 40 miles away.
This F-4E Phantom II was part of the famous 388th Tactical Fighter Wing stationed at Korat Royal Thai Air Base in Thailand. This F-4E is armed for a Surface-to-Air Missile or SAM Hunter-Killer mission, carrying electronic countermeasure pods and CBU-52 cluster bombs used to destroy the SAM Site SA-2 launchers.
The Republic F-105G Wild Weasel was used in the most intense mission of an air campaign, hunting SAM sites across North Vietnam, an extremely dangerous mission. The electronics in the F-105G showed where the SAM radras were operating from and the crews would fire a Shrike or Standard ARM anti-radiation missile at the site. F-4s armed with cluster bombs would then come in and destroy the launchers. This F-105G had three MiG kills during the Vietnam air campaign, one when the pilot ejected its bomb rack which the MiG chasing it ran into and destroyed it!
Thanks for downloading this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! This and previous shows can be found on my YouTube Channel at @markhasara or on the Lessoons from the Cockpit Show YouTube channel. We will be back in two weeks with another episode. I will be on the road next week for the Tanker Weapons School’s 25th anniversary.