Allan Hagelthorn:  

Life My Kids Being a dad and a grandpa at the same time tends to create conflicts...you can't spoil your own kids...you have to live with them...but spoiling the grand kids is alright...except the kids at home wonder why they can't get away with the same thing... Currently I am consulting with the Boeing Company on the 787 Dreamliner. Great fun with a lot of travel overseas. We spend the weekends on our ranch in Northern Idaho, our own piece of paradis. In my spare time I am working on my Doctorate. In high school all I ever wanted to do was to fly jets. I fulfilled that dream in the Air Force where I was a B-52 Aircraft Commander (pilot), a NATO Fighter Training Instructor Pilot, Combat Pilot in Desert Storm and a Flight Test Pilot. Many people have asked to see what happened during Desert Storm so i have posted the narrative in the military section. Military I recommend Captain Allan G. Hagelthorn, B-52G Instructor Pilot for the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and extraordinary achievement as B-52G Aircraft Commander during combat operations in support of Operation DESERT STORM on the night of 20 January 1991. His crew was flying their first combat sortie. Their two-ship formation of B-52Gs was part of a six-ship strike package targeted against a radio transmitting facility just north of Baghdad. Their mission objective was to shutdown the transmitter for 72 hours. During this sortie they were faced with high concentrations of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) and multiple guided missile launch sites. To defend against these ground threats, they had to rely on their own equipment. They were unsupported by normally mission-dedicated suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) aircraft. But their equipment wasn't all working. Their tail warning receiver and one jamming transmitter were inoperative. The flight into the target area was seven and a half hours long. Captain Hagelthorn performed two difficult, maximum gross weight air refuelings on this long flight into Iraq. As they approached the target area from the west, AAA fire lit up the sky. Surface-to-air missile (SAM) radars engaged their aircraft, but no missile fired. During the bomb run, the B-52's equipment alerted the electronic warfare officer (EW) to the presence of multiple SAMs and airborne radar interceptors. The EW, without the aid of his tail warning receiver, needed one more hand to handle all t...Expand for more