Although he has seen much sacrifice and courage from other fighter pilots during his years in the Air Force, the extraordinary people he remembers are not just the pilots, but the whole team supporting from the ground as well as the entire USAF Air and Space Force. Captain John Stratton has gone on from Red Flag to serve three combat tours over Afghanistan and Iraq. He begins to think that being a hero is not quite as simple as he once believed. In the flying exercises, John realizes there are other pilots who aren't just out to prove themselves - they are helping him - watching his back, taking personal risks to cover his mistakes. There are people who practice rushing into a flaming mockup of a crashed aircraft so if there is a real accident they will be ready to save the pilot. There are people who rise at four-thirty each morning to scour the runways for tiny pebbles that can get sucked into engines and kill pilots. There are people who work all night rebuilding engines and re-installing them into his aircraft so he can keep flying and training.
He also begins to notice team members who were absent from his childhood vision of heroism. He is amazed at how complex, confusing and dangerous the exercises are. We follow our young pilot as he makes his way through this extraordinary event held in the desert of Nevada. The object is to make the exercises as real and challenging as possible - to take the pilots, ground crews, mechanics, rescue personnel, etc., to the limits of what they can handle. Red Flag is the final tune-up training for pilots and their crews before being sent into actual combat. His grandfather was a hero and he intended to follow in his footsteps.Īt Red Flag, the international training exercise for the air forces of allied countries, hundreds of pilots meet for the most challenging flying of their careers.
As far as John was concerned, his grandfather had won the war all by himself in his beautiful blue Corsair. It wasn't a tough decision - his grandfather was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses and 11 air medals as a fighter pilot in the Second World War.
He was eight years old when he decided to become a pilot. Documentary hosted by Michael Hanrahan and published byĬaptain John 'Otter' Stratton is a young American fighter pilot who flies the F-15 Eagle, arguably the most potent and successful fighter plane ever built.