Wooden Bullets is what F-100 pilots at Tuy Hoa called the battle damage they brought home from the treetops. Ike is back on So There I Was for a re-attack, and he starts in the jungle canopy. Actually, the wing wrote off those leaves and twigs as combat damage. Then the wing commander announced that the next pilot through the trees would be fired.
Naturally, one pilot went next, and he really went through them. He lost his slats, two feet of each wingtip and half of each stabilizer. Even so, he spiked it down at 230 knots and saved the jet. Consequently, they fired him. Later, the next tree-trimmer radioed “I’m hit,” went feet wet and jumped out. Lesson learned.
From Wooden Bullets to Victor Alert
Next, Ike heads to England, where F-100 instrument flying meant 170 knots through a milk bottle. In addition, nuclear alert came with a .38 and an eye patch. The patch covered one eye in case a detonation took the other. Later, he explains why watching his F-111 crews launch on the Libya raid was harder than flying combat himself. Of those 48 crew members, only three had flown combat.
Phantoms, Pan Am and One Very Close Dornier
Also, Ike once towed a dart target for a whole F-4 mission with the gear down. Birds had interrupted his takeoff. Then he joined Pan Am. Finally, on his first leg flying a 727, a Dornier commuter lined up ahead of him mid-roll. He rotated early, dragged the tail and cleared it by feet. In fact, the company made the damaged reverser housing into a coffee table.
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