David Burke

that out.

So you'll have more than one person in that case, but you have a relatively small crew in a relatively small aircraft flying for literally over 24 hours, five or six air refuels to get there.

Sometimes five or six air refuels to get home.

That is a mind blowing experience that no other country in the world can create that capability other than us in that aircraft.

Yeah, obviously, I think the most dramatic and the most challenging one we've seen so far is the friendly fire incident where we lost three F-15s.

And there's video of those aircraft plummeting to the ground.

And anytime you lose an aircraft in combat, that is a dramatic, it is a significant event.

first i think it's amazing and we're very thankful and i thank god that all six air crew walked away from that and they're okay um but when you have an incident a friendly fire incident i think that is sometimes unfortunately the best uh revelation of just how complex and how demanding air combat can be uh and how very very small errors can lead to huge catastrophic events

when you're talking about aircraft and losing three of 15s was really an unfortunate thing.

Again, I'm really glad they're all okay, but that was a really, really tough thing to see because I know how often those blue on blue incidents, the potential for that is very high.

We avoid them, but not always.

Yeah.

And I say this, you know, kind of a double-edged sword.

On one sense, it's really good.

We have unbelievably good training to prepare aircrew for the advent of having to leave an aircraft, having to eject out of an aircraft.

And that training is excellent.

The other side of that is obviously it's something we don't ever want to have to do.

But my estimate would be is when the incident happened and all three of those aircraft were hit and the aircraft were no longer flyable, their training kicked in.

They did exactly what they were supposed to do.

The video is dramatic, not just them parachuting out of the aircraft, but them interacting on the ground with the local Kuwaiti populace.