dfc

The boys delve into 2022's Decadent Perversity, the sophomore album from a band with one of the most vulgar names we've featured on the show.

LTC (Ret.) Dan “Two Dogs” Hampton was a career fighter pilot who flew F-16s in multiple wars from the first Gulf War to Kosovo to Operation Iraqi Freedom over a 20 year career. He’s a fighter pilot to the core who earned four DFCs and eight Air Medals with Valor across 151 combat missions and is a graduate of the USAF Fighter Weapons School and Navy’s Top Gun.

Dan’s experience hunting SAMs and flying 500 knots below 300’ give a surreal perspective of life inside the cockpit. He describes his experience from a young, unafraid 25 year old LT flying in Iraq in 1991 when he first “saw the elephant” to the mature flight lead putting his own life on the line decades later, again in Iraq but against a more advanced enemy.

He easily balances the near death adrenaline rushes that come at Mach speed with the light-hearted post-flight activities we all expect in the elite fighter pilot community.

Since retiring from service, Dan has written a bestselling memoir (Viper Pilot) and multiple novels and other non-fiction books, including national bestsellers Lords of the Sky and The Mercenary. His most recent book, Operation Vengeance, came out in late 2020.

A frequent guest analyst on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC discussing foreign affairs, military, aviation, and intelligence issues, he has published in Aviation History, the Journal of Electronic Defense, Air Force Magazine, Vietnam magazine, and Airpower magazine, and written several classified tactical works for the USAF Weapons Review.

You can find Dan on Facebook and his books here.

0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Dan’s bio.
2:14 - Aviation inspiration? Why become a fighter pilot?
3:36 - Why the Air Force and not the Marines like your father and grandfather?
4:53 - “It never crossed my mind to fail.”
6:04 - ‘Seeing the Elephant.’ A reference to seeing combat for the first time.
7:41 - Air Force Instructor Pilots and the ‘FAR Line’ (Fighter, Attack, Reconnaissance).
9:54 - First combat experience in the first Gulf War.
11:28 - Stationed in Turkey for the Gulf War.
12:52 - The F-16 role as a SAM hunter (SA-8, SA-6, by Srđan Popović).
19:54 - Post-first combat flight and antics that take place at an O Club.
24:56 - Description of an incredible post-9/11 mission in Iraq.
35:31 - Call Sign “Two Dogs.” This one is not PG-rated.
37:41 - Dan’s good luck charm/talisman that he carried on his missions is PRICELESS.
41:04 - Would you do it again?
42:12 - If you could fly any aircraft, what would it be? The Chance Vought F4U Corsair.

This is the Combat Story of JT Snow, a long time and quintessential AH-64 Apache gun pilot. 

JT is a Chief Warrant Officer 4 (Retired) who flew over 5,000 flight hours, including 2,000 hours in combat across four deployments: two to Iraq and two to Afghanistan. 

From the cockpit, he supported conventional and U.S. and coalition special operations forces during intense engagements, often pioneering new tactics and technologies to lethal effect.

He finished his career as a Task Force (Battalion) Standardizations Pilot (SP) during two year-long combat deployments, where he was the Task Force's senior Pilot responsible for the standardization and execution of combat operations for all assigned to the Task Force, which included OH58D, CH47F, UH60L and AH64D aircraft. 

JT's children followed in his footsteps, including fighting from inside the cockpit as the next generation of aviator.
Show Notes:

3:13 - Flight school and wanted guns and got Cobras and then went into A Model Apaches the very next day.
4:16 - Why JT chose gun ships?
6:43 - Gun choice between JT and Mark Beechum.
11:17 - What was the Apache mission from the beginning?
18:28 - When JT felt he was a part of the brotherhood.
26:05 - A description of what garrison life life is like in a flight unit.
28:23 - JT’s experience on 9/11 and the fear of missing the war.
32:28 - Stanley Pebsworth and Not a Good Day to Die.
33:13 - How officers (commissioned and warrant) homestead in Aviation units.
34:07 - JT describes his deployment cycles: Iraq Oct 2003.
36:56 - JT describes being the BN SP when the unit received MTADS and advanced FLIR.
38:38 - Aviation as an inherently dangerous job. When did JT first realize that.
41:44 - JT being three steps ahead. How did you develop your ability to get ahead of the aircraft.
44:03 - By the 3rd deployment, JT was at the top of his game.
47:03 - Description of JT’s first flight in combat. Took place in Samara as JT was the Company SP.
55:35 - JT describes what’s going on in his mind after his first engagement.
56:47 - What was the toughest deployment and engagement.
58:37 - JT describes his experience in the cockpit during the worst engagement of his career.
59:43 - JT and co-pilot Adam Marik discussing what to do in the cockpit.
61:13 - “Adam, are you okay getting in between where the bad guys are and the Chinooks...”
1:01:58 - “Only time I’ve ever been scared in the cockpit.”
1:04:06 - Ground forces took an RPG to the face.
1:06:20 - F-15 popping flares without coordination at 700’.
1:09:39 - Recollection of a vehicle hit by an IED and what happened.
1:10:21 - The second deployment for JT to Afghanistan was with the Australian SAS doing a lot of deliberate operations.
1:16:52 - Any gear I had to have with me. Two good luck charms: a half broken Budweiser bottle opener; the other was a St. Michael card given to him by a Chaplain that JT’s son took to Mosul. JT also carried a folded American flag on all four deployments that his son took with him.
1:18:24 - The next chapter of JT’s life where JT steps out of the cockpit and then his son goes to the same war zone that JT fought in.
1:24 - Conversations between JT and his son before he deployed to get him prepared.
1:24:38 - Would you do it all again?
1:26:34 - JT critiquing himself over a mission in which JT and I responded to our base being under attack.
1:27:49 - Near mid-air collision. He almost lost me for a minute.

Eric Brethen is a former US Army Chief Warrant Officer and OH-6 “Cayuse” aka “Loach” reconnaissance and AH-1 “Cobra” attack helicopter pilot.

At just 19 years old, Eric found himself flying missions out of Cu Chi, just northwest of Saigon, in hunter killer teams in scenes reminiscent of Apocalypse Now. During his 19 months in Vietnam from 1969-1970, Eric flew 3,600 hours and was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Bronze Stars, Air Medals with Valor, Army Commendation Medals with Valor, and the South Vietnamese Gallantry Cross.

4:10 - The Army recruiter asks, ‘Have you ever thought of being a pilot?
5:35 - Ending up in 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry (3/4 Cav) flying to Vietnam in first class with Field Grades landing in Ben Oui.
8:13 - Getting picked up by the nephew of then SecDef Melvin Laird.
9:40 - Hunter Killer teams (Loach and Cobra). 
12:24 - ‘Nobody volunteers for the Loach.’ 
14:33 - Watching a tail boom skid down the runway in front of the aircraft.
16:35 - The reality of an autorotation (video of MD-500 auto today).
24:50 - First flight outside the wire with a Pig (Loach) and a Snake (Cobra). 
30:59 - Based in Cu Chi and farmed out to support missions in Ta Ninh and Katoom (1st Air Cav).
34:04 - Shooting a control tower with a mini-gun. Eric’s crew chief and close friend Kenneth Taylor had the idea to mount a mini-gun on the OH-6 for the first time.
40:34 - First combat engagement at Boi Loi Woods near Godaha village.
46:46 - How to steal a helicopter (twice) for a night out to the President Hotel.
50:06 - Fighting Cobras at night lining up on a ground strobe light.
56:15 - Only time being afraid.
1:01:28 - Being shot down a couple times with a real autorotation.
1:04:58 - Picked up a Cobra crew (sitting on the skids) that was shot down.
1:09:25 - Close up view to a Cao Dai temple (example).
1:17:04 - Transition from OH-6 to AH-1 and a testament to control touch.
1:20:49 - The decision to get out.
1:23:57 - Always carried a St. Christopher’s medal (the protector of travelers). Got one blessed by the Pope at one point.