Hellfire's over Irbil: Leadership necessary in flight, on ground

COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- In the past two months there has been an interesting debate online regarding the Air Force and Navy’s different leadership styles.

Maj. Mike Benitez, an F-15E Strike Eagle Weapons System Officer, recently wrote an article in defense of the Air Force’s leadership style.

In his article, Benitez states the Air Force does an outstanding job of demonstrating leadership every day, but the problem is that these leadership opportunities are often exercised in the air or behind closed doors of a vault, out of sight of the public eye. The vast majority of the public will never get a chance to witness an Air Force sortie firsthand, so it is difficult for them to truly understand what it means to lead aircraft into combat.

As an F-15E pilot who deployed in combat in 2014 to Iraq and Syria, I had the opportunity to practice this type of leadership firsthand. Flying in combat for the first time, each sortie was a constant test in leadership decisions that resulted in life and death decisions for people on the ground, which could then result in policy changes around the world.

On one particular mission in the summer of 2014, I was flying as the wingman in our two-ship of F-15Es when our formation was tasked to provide over watch for the city of Irbil in northern Iraq. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria forces had steadily been advancing on the city, putting the civilians in that town in danger.

As we watched overhead, our formation began to receive radio communications that ISIS armored vehicles were pushing into the town. I still clearly remember the moment when our flight was given the “Cleared Hot” call, granting my flight lead authority to release his weapons and protect the innocent civilians below.

It was at this moment when years of training came to fruition, and soon we began hearing additional communications that one of the unmanned aerial vehicles below us was having a malfunction with its targeting pod. The UAV had spotted an ISIS armored truck, but as it attempted to target the vehicle it realized its targeting pod had malfunctioned.

The Joint Terminal Attack Controller who was coordinating the strikes quickly asked our flight if we would be able to ‘Buddy Lase’ the UAV’s Hellfire missile towards the target. Our squadron had practiced Buddy Lase procedures often with other Strike Eagles in preparation for our deployment, but doing this for real with a live hellfire from another aircraft is a very rare occurrence. The inexperienced WSO flying in my flight lead’s aircraft could have balked at this request, but instead he quickly agreed to attempt the difficult maneuver, coordinated with the UAV pilot for laser codes and de-confliction contracts, and then expertly guided the Hellfire to shack the armored vehicle.

That action is exactly the type of leadership demonstrated every day behind the scenes in our Air Force, yet something that is rarely broadcast to the public. At Columbus Air Force Base, leadership is demonstrated not only in the air but on the ground, from the Defenders who protect our base and make split-second decisions on who to allow in and out of the gate, to the Airman and civilians in RAPCON who safely de-conflict the busy skies over our airfield. Air Force leadership is continually practiced and perfected, and it is for this reason why our Air Force remains the greatest in the world.