2024 Air, Space & Cyber: 50 Years of the F-16

The “50 Years of the F-16” panel at AFA’s 2024 Air, Space & Cyber Conference featured Brig. Gen. Tad Clark, commander of the 31st Fighter Wing; Gen. Gary North, USAF (Ret.), vice president for customer requirements at Lockheed Martin; and Col. Dean Stickell, USAF (Ret.), former commander of the 16th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron and 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing. The panel, held on September 17, was moderated by Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon, USAF (Ret.), former director of operations at Headquarters Air Combat Command. Watch the video below:

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon, USAF (Ret.), Former Director of Operations, Headquarters Air Combat Command:

Today, we’re honored to have three men who have flown and commanded operational F-16 units spanning the F-1650-year history. Slide down please, if you will, passing the baton across generations of fighter pilots. I’m Charlie Lyon, a nonresident fellow with the Mitchell Institute. I’ll be your moderator for today’s session.

Joining me on stage nearest to me are retired Colonel Dean Stickell, who first flew the F-16, some 50 years ago, was the first person to surpass 1,000 hours in the F-16, the first Operations Officer of TACs, first operational squadron of the 16th Tactical Fighter training squadron. Later their commander then served as vice wing and Wing Commander of the 4/32 Tactical Fighter Wing masawa Air Base, Japan.

Next to him in the middle is Brigadier General Tad “TC” Clark, who first flew the F-16 in this century and has commanded while flying the F-16 at the squadron and wing levels currently at the 31st fighter wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy.

And to my furthest left General, retired, Gary North, who I believe is the first Air Force pilot who went from pilot training, where his first aircraft was the F-16 and exceeded throughout his Air Force career to The rank of four star general as an F-16 pilot, the first to do so, General North commanded the F-16 at Squadron group, wing air component and Major Command levels. Gentlemen, welcome to the stage today.

You so let’s begin with the first question. I’m going to put some slides up on occasion. And you know, might be a little bit of a Rorschach test where I say, what do you think of what you see this slide? Maybe not. But we’re going to start with Colonel Stickell. If I could have the next slide, I got it. Okay. So where were you in your career progression, Dean, when you found out about flying the F-16, it was the Y of 16 in your in your case, you know, what was that selection process like, and what was your action in news that you as a tactical air command, operational pilot, had been selected to fly this prototype aircraft.

Col. Dean Stickell, USAF (Ret.), Former Commander, 16th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron and 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing:

I was home on leave. Is that coming through? I was home on leave, and my ops officer gave me a call and said, hey, Dino, you need to call TAC. They’re looking at you for the lightweight Fighter program. And so, I said, like, what’s a lightweight Fighter program? He said, they don’t have a clue. You need to call TAC. So, I gave TAC a call, and they explained that this lightweight Fighter program was going to be an 18-month feasibility study of two lightweight prototypes that were incorporating the latest technologies and to be designated the Y of 16 and y of 17, and I’d be one of three TAC pilots that we would be involved in that valuation. So obviously, I figured I was dreaming it at that point. So, I said to I said to him, I said, how does a guy, an average guy like Dean Stickell, get selected for a once in a lifetime program like this? And he said, It’s easy. It’s a lightweight airplane. We needed a lightweight pilot. So no, he actually didn’t say that. I guess when you put in the computer a weapon school, graduate engineering degree, so much fighter time, it only kicks out six or eight names, and then the personnel folks can look at that and delete a couple of guys, and so there it is. You wind up being at the right place, the right time.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Well, you’re, you’re very humble. That’s the most I’ve ever heard you say about yourself in a full hour, much less than a couple minutes. Colonel sticker, we are truly honored to have you here. You’re, you’re very humble, man, and you were very picked from a very highly selective group of people to be able to do this. Now I’d like to stick with you for a little bit, since you were an early flyer, and I’m going to go ahead and advance really, to the second question for you. You flew the f1-100 combat tested in Vietnam. Also flew it at Lake and Heath. You’re a graduate of the F-104 fighter weapons school, so you had a lot of single engine time. We hadn’t flown to General Dynamics fighter aircraft before.

You were at Edwards. What was that first flight like in the F-16? What was that day like? How about describing that experience to the crowd?

Col. Dean Stickell, USAF (Ret.), Former Commander:

Well, any first flight in a jet is a real thrill, but the first flight in a one-of-a-kind, brand-new prototype added, coupled with an engine problem, it makes for a very exciting ride. So, I got to fly the airplane about a month after a Philo Stryker flew the airplane’s first. Flight. So, all those flights were test flights, obviously early in the phase. And so, on a test flight, you wind up briefing and flying a test card. And my card called for military power takeoff, followed by a gear down climb to 15,000 feet. So, when I got to 15,000 feet and raised the gear and leveled off, the airplane really accelerated. So, I brought the throttle to idle, and then when I RE Advanced the throttle, I felt no additional thrust, and none of the engine gages moved. So, two things were really burned, or really burned in my memory. I can remember distinctly looking down at my left hand and thinking, Am I really moving this throttle? And yeah, I really was. And so fortunately, I was in a position. Well, first I guess I ought to say is that most of us have been in these situations where it requires your full attention required, and so we normally give 100% of our attention to that and then press on. So the second thing that went through my head was, this is really going to be the pits if I roll this airplane up in front of my wife and daughter on our first flight, we put our wife in a vehicle with one of the other pilots so she could watch the takeoff and landing, and so there she was and listen to the flight on the on the radio. So anyway, at 15,000 feet, I was fortunate that I could make it back to the runway and land. And after I landed, there was enough thrust in idle that I could tax it back to where I started. It was just another test flight, only 10 minutes in duration, but that flight did put a question to bed that apparently the folks at the SPO the system program office in Wright Patterson, there was a question going around is, how are these pilots, especially the non-test pilots, going to handle this stick that’s a side stick, but also in the prototype, didn’t move. And so, I was able to honestly say, and I demonstrated, that you adapted to that side stick immediately. So, it was an exciting ride, but it was also had a positive result.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Well, keep in mind, without flight simulators at the time, to be able to look at that environment, I guess that single engine time, single seats time that you had had previously in the f1-100 and F-104 you’ve probably seen a few simulated flame mount landings before came in handy. If I could have my next slide, please, well before we move on to the and there, there we are talking before we move on to the other pilots about some of their early experiences. I just wanted to mention that we move rapidly 1975 into the full-scale development phase with the F-16, with the aircraft rollout shown here. That took place and first flight occurring in 1976 by October 1977 the office of Secretary of Defense had approved full scale production of more than 700 aircraft. Meanwhile, some of our European partner nations, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, and notably Iran, were on board to poach to purchase F-16 to replace their aging fleets. All this done in a very short amount of time, and then quickly, there was a transition to operations that began from after full scale production was approved, with F-16 beginning to arrive at Hill Air Force Base, and it’s part of tactical air Command’s first wing in January 1979 Colonel sticker will come back to you in a minute to talk about that. You see a few of the people who were the instrumental at the beginning there. At the time, Colonel Troy Tolbert was the Wing Commander, and then Lieutenant Colonel at the time, Larry Bosey was the initial squadron commander. Couple near do wells, lieutenants their Lance Unjum and Larry Wells, who were in the first B course of lieutenants initially. But I’d like to move on to talking now about general north. So we see on this slide and see the F-4 we see the T-37 these are the airplanes that that our next two panelists had been flying before they got to the F-16, but general north, you know, you were in pilot training when you were selected to fly the F-16, but before that, you’d entered as a navigator candidate. You progressed from being a basic nav into becoming an electronic warfare officer a bear, affectionately known as a bear in the backseat electronic warfare officer in a backseat of F-4 Wild Weasel. And then you’re selected to go to pilot training. What did it feel like for you to be a young officer, going from being selected to being a basic navigator through becoming an EWO to. Now finding out that you’re going to go, go into pilot training and you’re there, and you’re obviously doing well, and you find out that you’re going to get an F-16 right out of pilot training. What was that like?

Gen. Gary North, USAF (Ret.), Vice President for Customer Requirements, Lockheed Martin:

Well, thanks general Lyon and for the audience, before we talk about this. So general Lyon is a world famous, acclaimed F-16 pilot as well, and he and I were at Shaw Air Force Base early on the F-16. If you’ve never seen a centrifuge spinning around, I would ask you to go to YouTube and Google General Lyon, or Captain Lyon at the time, demonstrating looking backwards at 9g and acting like he’s going to walk in a park. So that’s the capability airplane. But to your question, I started out as a back seater in the F-4 and knew I had been selected for pilot training after my first year was at Kunsan Air Base with the Wolfpack. And my first thought after selection was, Dear God, please don’t let somebody in the front seat kill me before I get to go to pilot training. Through pilot training with as a young captain. In fact, I was pinned on Captain the day I started pilot training, and we had, obviously, a group of young lieutenants, primarily coming out of the academy, great instructors at Reese Air Force Base, and you learn a lot about flying, but you learn a lot about maintenance, and you learn a lot about people. And frankly, this is all about people in our business, 50 years of great men and women who maintain work, fly and support the F-16, it was fantastic. But for my first opportunity, when I got selected my first flight at Hill Air Force Base in 1981 was not like yours, Colonel Stickell, although I pulled out onto the runway and you know, you’re excited because it’s your first flight, there’s an instructor in the back seat, and I’m pretty excited. I had flown in the F-4, so I knew a little bit about flying, but the first flight in the F-16 is it’s amazing. Any flight in the F-16 was amazing, but city number one, called the tower of Siberia number one. And then I smelled smoke and fumes in the cockpit. And I go, this is going to be a real bummer, because we’re going to have to abort. So, I told the IP in the back. I said, hey, sir, we’re going to have to abort. Go to 100% I smell smoke and fumes, and I got ready to, you know, call tower and tell him we’re going to shut down out there. He goes, relax. It’s just me. I’m having a smoke before we take off.

So, after that, you know, the flight was amazing, and every flight in the airplane has always been amazing, and all of us miss it tremendously, much like many of the other aviators that are out here, and we’ll tell some stories about them in a minute. Thanks, Charlotte.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Well, thanks general north, for General Clark. General Clark, you were a first assignment instructor pilot. And for those who don’t understand what that means is, you go through pilot training, if you graduate in the top half the class, you become fighter attack constants qualified at that time and then a lot of those people get selected to stay to be instructor pilots. So, when they then, some three years later, after they’ve been instructor pilots, come up for assignment again. Now they’re competing against the top of the top of the class that they had gone through pilot training with again. So arguably the toughest selection pool to try to get a fighter out of you must have had a been very nervous coming into that that particular assignment drop, maybe even more so than your pilot training selection, you know, drop that you got. What was that like for you when you found out as a as an instructor pilot flying the T-37 that you were going to get to go fly the F-16?

Brig. Gen. Tad Clark, Commander, 31st Fighter Wing:

Yes, so first off, thank you for this opportunity. Super honored and humbled to share the stage with these distinguished gentlemen. And before we get started, I just I know we’re in suits and class A’s and blazers, and we’re in the Gaylord auditorium here, but in my mind, the lights are dim. We’ve got some brown water or some cokes and water. Lights are dim. Sleeves are rolled up, and we’re about to hear some great fighter pilot stories. So really excited for this opportunity. Yes, I was a FAPE first versus Simon instructor pilot Shepherd flying the mighty T-37 and when I found out I was selected for the F-16, clearly, very, very excited.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Great. Thanks. Well, I think I’ll just, I think I’ll just stick with you, General Clark, and just move on to the first flight. So you’ve flown the T-37 I have to tell you when I when I put that picture together, and I’d look T-37 I got a little lump in my throat, and that’s of regurgitation, I might add, of my wish I did a few times in the T-37 And I’ll admit, I’m not proud of it, but it happened. But you know, what a big step up in technology from the T-37 in the flying the F-16. What was it like? I mean, we’re talking about going to this fly by wire aircraft, the electric jet, heavy reliance on electronic flight control components, versus these older aircraft, which were designed with safety in mind and were very conventional. Was it like to go out the first time? So, climb up that ladder and pour your body into that cockpit. What was your first flight like? I mean, how did it go? To go as you thought it would, how easy it was for you to adapt to the design.

Brig. Gen. Tad Clark:

Well, when you say step up, literally to get in the tweet, who, for those that haven’t flown it, it is literally one step, and you’re in the aircraft. So to walk up to an aircraft with a ladder, and then as you climb up, for those that have had the opportunity to fly this amazing aircraft, to get strapped in, the jet, get locked and loaded in the in the seat, the rail, waste level, visibility unrestricted for aft, left, right, you’re sitting on the front end of an engine that has 30,000 pounds of thrust. And that first takeoff was something else. And interestingly enough, my very first flight solo, my IP and wingman was an upperclassman in my Cadet Squadron at the Air Force Academy. Craig Hollis, a lot of you may know him, and that was a really special time to just light the wick, get out to the airspace and start maneuvering for the first time. And it was beyond comprehension. It was phenomenal.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Great. Thanks. And next slide please. And this just shows what the aircraft looked like when General North flew in his initial checkout and the squadrons he was with, and then at Luke Air Force Base, when General Clark flew squad, she flew us so that anybody from these bases or these squadrons are here to shout out you all for those aircraft and those bases. Well, now like to catch us up a little bit on the evolution of the of the lightweight fighter. You know, started out as a low-cost complement to the F-15, really, for the air-to-air arena, and it changed dramatically as we got into the 1990s it became the coming of age for the F- 16 fleet. It progressed from this day, VFR, lightweight fighter, the day night, all weather, precision navigation platform. It began with, with Operation Desert Storm, our US response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion in Kuwait, this US led coalition of an outstanding air campaign, which crushed enemy defenses in the field of forces and with high degeneration rates. This was a big deal in the 80s, led by tackle air Command’s push, where they said, readiness is our profession, and they flew these sorties day and night afterwards, in the transition to peacetime with humanitarian operations in northern Iraq, F-16 and other fighter aircraft provided armed Overwatch to the internally displaced Kurdish people driven into the mountains. Shortly thereafter, F-16 became a persistent presence in maintaining the peace through combat air patrols in the northern and southern fly zones for Northern watch and Southern Watch. Next in 1990 3f, 16 supported the United Nations mandate and no fly zone in the former republic of Yugoslavia’s chaos and atrocities erupted below NATO, aircraft provided on call support to UN ground forces and civilian enclave established safe zones. A few years later, the Republic of Serbia initiated atrocities against ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo and NATO and our nation went to war without the army. Remember that? we conducted Operation Allied Force with F-16 providing suppression of enemy air defenses, defensive counter air and presided precision guided munition attacks day and night. So, as I mentioned, the F-16 is now a multi role fighter, from conventional Air to Air and Air to service, employment to nuclear weapons. Employment. Slide down, please. All in all, it’s a single engine, single seat fighter aircraft, the jack of all trades, the master of none. I’m sorry, take the slide down, please. Master of None. So, as I looked each of you on the panel, how do you do you do it? What was your initial operational experience like learning to employ this multi role fighter? We’ll start with you, Colonel Stickell, but again, you’re unique. We have to step back in time a little bit. We’re going back to 1979 you had stayed with the F-16 from the inception the lightweight Fighter program through full scale development at Edwards. You’d been with the test community. Then jump back over the over the fence to Tactical Air Command to help stand up this initial operational F-16 wing in 1979 What was that like? What was the focus in 1979 of bringing the F-16 into the inventory?

Col. Dean Stickell, USAF (Ret.), Former Commander:

Well, we flew the prototype against the MiG, 21 the MiG 23 the F-4 the F-5 and the 106 and the prototype totally dominated all those older airplanes, which is what you would expect. Technology paid big dividends. So then, when we, when I went off the hill in the first squadron, we were training Squadron and the first class of non-fighter pilots that we put for through the program, we had eight lieutenants right from pilot training, and eight captains that had been their first assignment had been instructor pilots in their training command when we got to the Arab and ground air to ground phase after three rides, each of those guys had three rides in the air to ground phase. They were qualified in all air to ground events except trees. And to put that in perspective, when I got out of pilot training and went to the F-100s, when we went through the air to ground phase, and I’m guessing it was probably a dozen rides. Nobody in our class was qualified in all the events. So again, technology really paid big dividends when you could take a pilot that had no fighter experience, put him in the F-16, and right from the start, he’s able to drop accurate ordinance off the airplane.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Thank you. If I got my slide up, please. One thing I’d like to point out about this time also, while Colonel Stickell was at Hill in 1981 there was a worldwide bombing competition at lossy mouth. A lot of people don’t know about this bombing competition, but you see in the lower right-hand corner that the F-16 took from Hill Air Force Base took first place in this they got nearly a perfect score. They had an 88 to zero air to air kill ratio. This was a contested fly low altitude, going against simulated Sam’s triple A and Air to Air threats, and go in and strike a runway with targets. And one of the reasons you haven’t heard about this, this competition had gone on for a number of years, but this is the last time this competition was held. This was sponsored by the Royal Air Force. There were aircraft from across the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, but the F-16 won this competition so convincingly that the competition was retired for life. You guys remember this? Lost your mouth? Yeah, it’s amazing. Next, moving on to general north, and if you would talk a moment, general North is, here’s your colors from your first operational experience at Shaw Air Force Base in the 19th Tactical Fighter Squadron. You take the slide down, please. But if you would just take us a little bit to segue from your you went straight from Hill Air Force Base in the training squadron to Shaw Air Force Base. But in this time the 1981, 1982, 1983, we hear the term risk thrown around an awful lot. I’ve even heard it thrown around a lot in this conference. What did risk mean to you when you strapped this airplane on to you and your colleagues and the people who are in the squadrons around you flying the F-16 during this time frame?

Gen. Gary North, USAF (Ret.):

Well, in the early days of any platform, you’re learning a lot about it. And I’ll back up just a little bit. When I was going through RTU at Hill, we lost several airplanes, total of six at the time I was there, we lost three extremely capable pilots. We never stopped flying. We learned from it. We moved on. These were at Hill. Were block ones, block fives, one or two, a couple, block 10 versions, and then when you get to Shaw Air Force Base, this is 82 to 86 for my time frame, the first time through there, we’re learning a lot of blocks 10s, block fifteens, doing a lot of tremendous work. And red flag supporting the 15 weapons school and learning a lot about the capability the airplane. This is all pre-GPS, so you’re talking about how to do fixes by or flying something, or using the radar to make a fix, and working with lots of different people. And there’s a lot of very senior people out in the audience who were involved in a lot of this, but that risk and the training and the prep took us through the early preparation in the Reagan years, which drove us to Desert Storm where the F-16 was predominant in the number of sorties flown, the tonnage dropped, in A large regard, gravity was, in effect, the bombs did hit the ground, but in that environment, the men and women who flew it and maintained the F-16 did a tremendous amount. I would also like to call that, as I said earlier, pilots don’t do this by themselves. You’ve got to have tremendous maintainers support. Of the back shop, and I’m going to call out one person. So chief Murray, would you stand up? So, Chief Master Sergeant, Murray, all of you know is the Chief Master Sergeant Air Force. But when he was a master sergeant at a moody with the A 10 unit, he ran the ramp at kkmc in Saudi Arabia, where we drove more sorties of a 10 and the F-16 through there to put iron on Saddam’s forces on the ground. And Chief, I’ll never forget you as a guy running the ramp and running our Air Force as a Chief Master Sergeant years later. So, thank you.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Wow. It goes it goes way back. We haven’t talked much yet about Kunsan, and we’ve got a number of former wolves here in the in the in the in the crowd today. And so, we’d be remiss to not talk about that, but we get an opportunity to talk about it here. General Clark, your first operational experience was at Kunsan in the 30th in the 35th fighter squadron. Was your first, but not your last. Simon at the Coon, right? And but what was it like? This is, after the turn of the century. What was the mission for the pantines at the time? And what was it like for you as a young pilot, learning the mission, set in, adapting to the F-16, then.

Brig. Gen. Tad Clark:

Yes, sir. So, getting to Kunsan at that time, the squadrons the 80th and the 35th were flying different variants. The juvats the 80th were flying the block 30 with equipped with saddle flying VMC, King Kong, air to air. And us pantons were relegated to flying pretty much predominantly at night. This was pre link 16, pre helmet mounted queuing system. No such thing as a sniper pod. We had the old school lightning pods, and we also had a lantern pod, low altitude navigation training, infrared for night pods. And this was right about the time we were transitioning from low altitude to medium altitude tactics. And again, like I said, flying at night. So, it was a steep learning curve. It puts you through a night systems course at Luke for a couple weeks, get a couple sorties, put the mvgs on, and off you go. And it was pretty remarkable, flying that much night, and feeling at that time quite proficient over the Yellow Sea training every day with night ops.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Well, I might add my thanks to you and the other wolfs that are here in the crowd today that we certainly learned as time went on in the years that the fight tonight attitude that was taken at both Kunsan and Osan at those two bases and those Viper fleets sustained many of us in tactical air command and Air Combat Command of being able to keep that mindset of readiness and being ready to go to fight throughout the out the world, although, although the peninsula didn’t get hot, thankfully, during any of your times there, you kept all our all our crews, both air and ground crews, ready to go. So, we’re thankful for that. May have my next slide please.

Brig. Gen. Tad Clark:

I would like to say my wolf was General Rand, so that’s pretty cool.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

So, moving into the 21st century, as we saw in the 1990s at the end of the Cold War, piece did not break out. The F-16 was called on by combat commanders, combat commanders in the Middle East and Europe numerous times. 21st Century is needed. The F-16 capabilities just as much as before, an initial aftermath of the despicable attacks on our nation on 911 F-16 took to the skies to provide a security cover during uncertain times. Operation noble eagle, the protection of our homeland, continues to this day. We took the fight directly to our attackers in Afghanistan, as F-16 were part of Operation Enduring Freedom, providing direct support to our heroic soldiers, Marines and special operating forces on the ground, largely through direction from our battlefield Airmen, our Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, day and night, through good weather and bad F-16 were there. The same can be said for the F-16 in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve as a counter terrorist fight expanded from Iraq through Syria and across the Levant ongoing in some of these areas to this day, all of these operations involve partnerships. The F-16, as I said, was born as a multinational program, our UN our European partners that we mentioned, they committed very early to procuring the winner of the lightweight Fighter program, the F-16. As I said, many people weren’t aware, but Iran submitted a purchase order, and after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ended the deal, and the aircraft were sold to the Israeli Air Force, which they put to good use in short order. But speaking of partners, dozens of nations have chosen the F-16 for their air forces. I’d like to hear from each of you about the partnership that you’ve had in the opportunities and the relationships it has opened between the US and the French General Clark, I’d like to start with you. Currently commanding the 31st fighter wing, the only F-16, the only fighter wing south the house. You’re a NATO Southern Region been unstable for decades, nearly as long as the Cold War has been over. I’d like you to talk a little bit how the F-16 integrates into NATO, but before you do that, I understand you had an interesting weekend. Anything of note that occurred this week, and you’d like to share with the audience.

Brig. Gen. Tad Clark:

Yes, sir. And I’m going to keep this real brief, because I want to hear the stories of the gentleman in my right and left. But again, F-16, European theater alive and well, Slovakia just got their block 70s. Two of two of them, Bulgarian Air Force is getting their block 70s in March. And I had an opportunity to fly the president of Bulgaria on Friday, four days ago, in an F-16 block 40. They’re in Bulgaria as they are getting excited to receive their F-16 and the president of Bulgaria as a former MIG 29 pilot, and he had a great time. So that was a very special opportunity. And hats off to my entire team, air crew, flight equipment, maintainers, my flight surgeon, and everybody behind the scenes that made that
happen.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Next slide, please. happen. Next slide, please.

Looking at the slide. General North serve both in uniform and in your current capacity with the defense industry. You’ve seen the F-16 integrate with partners across the globe. You’ve commanded them, you’ve dealt with them in so many capacities. What is it about the F-16 that’s made this such a popular choice for nations around the world?

Gen. Gary North, USAF (Ret.):

Well, it’s the technology and it’s the capability in Harry Hillier, who designed the F-16 in the early 70s. It was designed on the back of a napkin, really, between an Air Force Major named John Boyd and Harry Hill. You’re sitting at a club, and they’re talking about, how do we get away from F fours, 10510 fours, all of that, and get into an airplane that is lightweight, fly by wire does pretty amazing things. And so that environment from that first discussion of how to get somewhere, better, faster, with more technology to stay ahead of the adversary, really has grown and continued. 4600 F-16 have been built Truth in Lending. I work for Lockheed Martin. If you can’t, if you can’t fly the airplane anymore. You work for people who are doing it and maintaining it. And I can’t be prouder of the men and women of the air forces of the world and the US Navy who flies the airplane and continues to demonstrate the capability of it. A block 70 that is being produced right now is a $12,000 airplane. So what will that do? That means you’re going to fly an airplane for literally, the next 60 years. The airframe, Harry Hillier once said, When asked, Could you make this airframe any better? And he goes, if I could, I would have and so the basic platform design of the airplane is as good as it can get. It’s what you put inside it. That’s the technology. But it’s also the humans that are involved. And frankly, it’s the training of all the like-minded nations which we have grown up to work together, better understand, better train and then have the policy releases that allow the capabilities of equipment, such that when we all go into either deterrence operations or if we have to combat operations, everybody knows what everybody else is doing, and that Technology in all of you know what it is, is absolutely phenomenal, and it’s just going to get better over the years. So, it really is a when you think about the F-16, what it was 50 years ago, let’s not think about the past. Let’s think about the next 50 years and what we can all make it together, because the last person who is ever going to fly the F-16 hasn’t even been born yet.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Thanks, general north. Well, said, If I could have the next slide, I’d like to ask each of our panelists to talk about maybe the most memorable moment of their flying or committing an F-16 unit. But how could I possibly get off this stage today without asking General North to give a short version of his MiG kill, the first, first MiG kill from a US Air Force F-16 ever by Captain, I’m sorry, Lieutenant Colonel Gary North.

Gen. Gary North, USAF (Ret.):

If you want the short version, I hit the pickle button. The missile came off and it hit the enemy. You know the there were many others who have shot down airplanes in the F-16 before. So, the US Air Force was not the first. This was a Southern Watch event. So after. The first Gulf War was over. Saddam was gassing the Shia in the south, the Kurds in the north. The United Nations set up a no-fly zone. Lots of us have done no fly zone rotations over the years and deployed to support that. It was a Sunday morning. We had just deployed. We’d been there about a week, replaced a sister Squadron, and Saddam Hussein was doing everything he could to kill an American fighter pilot and embarrass the United States President George Bush, the first was getting ready to go out of office. President Clinton was coming in, and so they were doing their darndest to try to influence, you know, the United States in the interim of a change between presidencies, and we were patrolling in the in the area, and they were running MiGs, both MIG 20 threes and MiG 20 fives across the border. And even a slow guy like me can figure out after a couple times what they’re trying to do in coordination with rivet joint AWACS in the command-and-control facilities in the Combined Air ops center. We got in a position where we had clearance to fire Roe was met, and I shot an Amram missile, and it worked. It was a good day for us, bad day for them. And subsequent to that, we ended up doing some other bombing to clean up some things that Saddam had rebuilt. And it was, it’s good day to be an American and American fighter pilot. Thanks.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

I find some real symmetry in life, in that you a former navigator or on that day flying a D model, a two-seater, but you were in the front seat. I mean, I say that all sincerity, there’s a real, real symmetry and irony about that.

Gen. Gary North, USAF (Ret.):

Charlie, I’ve never understood you.

I will say this, why a D model? A D model is a two seat F-16. Everybody knows that we had deployed with one over to allow the Saudi military. They were in discussion about what airplane to buy, either an F-15 or F-16. It just so happened that that airplane was in the line that day, and as a flight lead, an instructor, you go, if I’m going to have a D model in the sortie, the leader is going to take it because it has less gas than the others. And I had a four ship, and both of our wingmen, number two and number four, were brand new lieutenants, and so that’s how I ended up in the D model.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Awesome, awesome story. Well, I’d like to shift to you, General Clark. Next slide, please. Do you General Clark? What do you recall is your most memorable or one of your memorable things you’d like to share with crowd?

Brig. Gen. Tad Clark:

Well, clearly flying combat missions in support of Operation. Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan was a highlight. But for the sake of being sharing a unique story, on the Thunderbirds, we were the first team to perform a European tour after 911 seven countries to include Ireland, which was a first and also on that team, I had the pleasure of flying with major Nicole Malikowski, callsign Fifi, first female demo pilot ever, and she was remarkable, and that was a really special time to be on the team at that time.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Great. Thanks. And Colonel Stickell?

Col. Dean Stickell, USAF (Ret.), Former Commander:

Obviously, it’s hard to beat my first flight, but since the lightweight Fighter program and the lightweight fighter joint testing was really unique, if I could just real quickly add a little bit about that. The team was made up of the pilots were two contractor test pilots, three Air Force systems, clan test pilots. The senior pilot flew the Pro two flew both prototypes in equal amount of time. You had a primary test pilot on the 16, primary on the 17. And then Tactical Air Command had three pilots. Again, the senior pilot flew both prototypes in equal amount of time. I was primary on the 16 and Joe Bill Jordan, primary on the 17, somewhere in before the program got going, the decision was made that we were a joint test team, and we what would all participate equally. And so that meant that I was flying the same test sorties as Bob Ettinger, a test pilot was, and yet Bob was couldn’t have been more supportive to me, and couldn’t have been a better friend. And it was just incredible. In fact, all the guys at Edwards never once did I feel any animosity towards me, and the entire time I was there, yet it would have been, you know, they’d have been justified to do that. We were three TAC pilots. Had not been through the test pilot school. We rolled in there, and right away, started flying. And test sorties in the brand new prototype airplanes. And there were test pilots at Edwards that hadn’t flown a new prototype airplane. So anyway, it was a wonderful experience that they would accept us the way they did. And you know, I can’t give them enough credit for doing that.

Panel Moderator: Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon:

Thanks. I move to our final question. And I think General North, you’ve addressed a little bit of this. I wanted to ask about the future of the aircraft. I think you’ve addressed this some about the just the bones of the aircraft, how good it is, how well it’s been designed, and how much is available to do in the future, as well as what it’s done in the past. And I think we get from you, Colonel Stickell, about this, this element of what a team can do when they work together, coming together from these different disciplines, when they have a real, a real firm grasp of what they’re trying to accomplish, and putting egos aside to get it done. But I’d like to ask you, General Clark, maybe you can round it out for us. When you look at the past and you look at the future, what do you what do you see as probably the most important thing for the future of the F-16?

Gen. Gary North, USAF (Ret.):

As General North said, the F-16 is part of the future fighter force. It has a part to play fourth, fifth generation integration is a thing we own. The source code on the F-16 from Ogden Logistics Center, which allows us to use it for a lot of test opportunities with machine learning, artificial intelligence. It has still a lot of firsts in combat, to include dropping the first jams in combat, often F-16, even last year. But I will tell you this right now, we have the best damn air force in the world, and it’s the men and women that support and maintain that platform that deserve all the credit, because our jets at Aviano were the tail numbers are made back in 86 at 87, 88, 89 that’s 35, 38-year-old jets. We have young men and women that are maintaining those aircraft, keeping them in the air, combat ready. And I couldn’t be prouder of them, and just I wanted to say that, because our maintainers deserve all the credit.

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