| ABC News Reporter Embeds on Fighter Mission
In a story aired on May 26, Martha Radditz, veteran ABC News correspondent, said she recently did what no reporter before her has done: fly in an Air Force fighter on an actual combat mission. In fact, she spent 5.5 hours in the back seat of an F-15E during the course of two sorties over Afghanistan with Strike Eagles operating out of Bagram Airfield.
She chronicled her experience on Nightline, including an armed overwatch mission supporting hundreds of French ground troops. The segment showed the skill of the F-15E aircrews in working with a French combat controller to neutralize insurgents while avoiding damage to a nearby school. "In this war, making sure you kill the enemy and no one else, can take far more discipline and, yes, even courage, as we would soon find out," Radditz said in her opening dialogue.
Sandy Schlitt, Vice Chairman of Aerospace Education, stated “It is important for the general public to see the amount of effort involved in every fighter mission and the caution taken to avoid civilian casualties. The public thinks this is easy because our warriors do it so well, when, in fact it is not easy at all. Further, movies like Top Gun tend to portray fighter pilots as wild hot shots with a complete lack of professionalism. This is not true in our Air Force as the link and story so indicate.”
View the ABC News Report
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