I didn't think that Germany lost any Tornado's and cannot find them in my records on the war, can you give any indication as to dates so I can update them? Indeed I didn't think that Germany took part in the war at all so can you supply any information as to how they arrived in the battle zone it would be of interest.

Who said anything about Germany losing Tornados???

They replaced the scared to death fighter pilot AWAC's moved off station, dropped all of their bombs, expended all their ammunition, and showed back up 45 minutes later ready to play some more.

The tornado pilots were brave men who were willing to fight.

Umm, I am a pilot and make my living in aviation. ;)

I have an issue with people who use terms they don't understand because they think it makes them look smarter.

http://www.terma.com/media/90377/ter...e_may_2008.pdf

They pushed the throttle forward and went where AWACS told them. I was not the TACP, or in this case, CCT but just the guy that says, "drop bombs right there". That is an air force guy whose job it is to control the aircraft. Since there were less than 30 of us, you could say I was co-located in the kill zone with the TACP.

I admit I thought you were, looking at the previous postings which together read


Ahh not really. Most of them I have seen are pissing their pants on the ground when we get to em.

I did that for much of the first gulf war air campaign. They might be something in a plane but out of it, they were not impressive.


That is by no means a blanket statement. I have also seen some very good guys up the air.

A couple of A10 pilots, some USMC F-18's, USN F-14's, and a couple of BundesLuftwaffe Tornado pilots stand out in my mind. They earned a seat at the table.

Clearly I read it wrong but the second part of my question is still something I am confused about. Its my understanding that Germany didn't take part in the air war over Iraq, so where did they come from? German pilots attached to the RAF were withdrawn before deployment at the request of the German authorities so it wasn't the RAF.

That was not in Iraq, it was Afghanistan with the tornados.

The first gulf war we did CSAR out of turkey until the ground war started.

But they only sent recce Tornados to Afghanistan.

It was one of the big gripes that Germany wouldn't put its pilots at risk, the pilots themselves were up for it, but the powers that be wouldn't let them attack anything.

So do I and I know exactly what 'walt' means.

Well at least they weren't so gung-ho that they dropped bombs on friendlies.

They are allowed to defend themselves and other forces. They cannot engage in offensive operations.

They didn't carry bombs or other GA weapons, it was banned so you must admit its an interesting question.