Aviation Specials - July 2018

Below: With

canopies

cranked open in

obligatory style,

a section of

‘Saints’ taxis out

at Fallon.

Left: LT

Gottschalk

acknowledges

the camera as he

taxies out.

Right top to

bottom: F-5 pilot

‘iPod’ walks to

his jet, carrying

his personal

parachute.

The sign that

awaits visitors

to VFC-13.

The rack of

helmets and

g-suits at

VFC-13.

Fallon Division Level. That includes the

entire Carrier Air Wing and it’s when they

bring all the assets together.’

NAWDC’s Strike department leads Air

Wing Fallon with support from VFC-13

on the adversary side. However, the

‘Saints’ lead the ‘Red Air’ side of SFARP.

‘The east and west Coast Weapons

Schools run a specific SFARP syllabus,’

explains LT Brad ‘Stuffer’ Holeski. ‘Their

job is to train and evaluate the

squadrons, as well as co-ordinate with

us for the ‘Red Air’. VFC-13 specifically

runs the bandit side of things, so they

come to us to discuss new tactics and

evaluation elements that need to be

tested. VFC-13 acts as the overall ‘Red

Air’ flight lead and debriefing agency

— we handle all the threat

presentations. It means we co-ordinate

the specific mission and then develop

those presentations, the tactics and the

training, essentially working around the

desired learning objectives. The

Weapons School guys lean on us so they

can focus on the evaluation side. SFARP

actually starts relatively benign, but as

the two-to-three weeks progress things

become far more advanced in terms of

the opposition that they will face.’

That opposition is likely to be up to a

dozen bandits on the final SFARP

mission and possibly up to 20 on the Air

Wing Fallon side. For the larger events,

the squadron calls upon its sister units

from the Navy Reserve adversary

community — specifically VFC-12

‘Fighting Omars’ from NAS Oceana and

VFA-204 ‘River Rattlers’ from NAS JRB

New Orleans.

A ‘Saint’ life

‘On a day-to-day basis we have around

10 to 12 active-duty and Full Time

Support [FTS] pilots here, plus part-time

reservists,’ explains LT Gottschalk. Many

of the reserve pilots split their time

between airline flying and time at Fallon

on the F-5 and they tend to be very

experienced, many being TOPGUN

graduates. The part-time pilots have to

US NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018

(^60) UNIT REPORT
58-65 VFC-13 C.indd 60 01/06/2018 11:49