Published: 1 March 06
Air & Space Power Journal - Spring 2006

Sierra Hotel: Flying Air Force Fighters in the Decade after Vietnam by C. R. Anderegg. Air Force History and Museums Program (https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/publications.htm), 200 McChord Street, Box 94, Bolling AFB, Washington, DC 20332-1111, 2001, 228 pages (softcover). Free download at https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/SierraHotel.pdf.

With the enthusiasm and credibility of a fighter pilot who actually rolled down the chute in Southeast Asia, C. R. “Lucky” Anderegg provides a “sierra hotel” account of how a small corps of dedicated fighter pilots capitalized on their combat experience and a vision of what should have occurred in Vietnam to sow the seeds of transformation that took root in the Tactical Air Force (TAF) during the decade that followed. Detailing significant advances in combat capability that sprang forth from fertile minds cultivated in the crucible of combat, Anderegg argues that the creation of the Aggressors and Red Flag marked the Fighter Mafia’s crowning achievements since both served to ensure that the fruit of their many innovations fell upon Allied fighter crews in the following decades.

Anderegg begins his work by examining the performance of Air Force fighter pilots in Vietnam’s “school of hard knocks.” Flying fighters designed for a nuclear confrontation with the Warsaw Pact, fighter crews went to Southeast Asia with inadequate training for the machines they flew and the conventional air war they faced. Highlighting numerous contributing factors, Anderegg astutely points to poor instructional methodology as the principal reason new fighter pilots arrived in-theater largely unprepared. Institutionalized by an entrenched fighter culture, training entailed upgrading pilots to learn by watching and copying the “old heads” rather than teaching them a logical method for tactical problem solving. These difficulties notwithstanding, the pragmatic fighter force of Vietnam did find better ways to get the job done by war’s end.

With that setting, Anderegg demonstrates how the fighter force experienced a grassroots transformation in the post-Vietnam years. As the old guard of senior veterans retired, a new corps emerged in its place comprised of less experienced yet more highly educated officers. Additionally, a changing of the guard occurred at the USAF Fighter Weapons School (FWS), long recognized as the temple of fighter-tactics training. Led by one operations officer and his cadre of instructors, the movement shed the old way in favor of a new building-block approach whereby the final objective of combat capability drove every aspect of training. The FWS codified this new methodology and disseminated it to the TAF along with several other innovations in two watershed issues of its Fighter Weapons Review, and the march was on.

In the chapter “Let’s Get Serious about Dive Toss,” Anderegg metaphorically explains how the change in fighter culture pushed a bottom-up review of everything in the Air Force. As FWS instructors attempted to shift F-4E tactics away from manual dive-bombing towards more survivable and accurate dive toss using computed system deliveries, one FWS instructor wrote his famous “Dear Boss” letter to the commander of Tactical Air Command, highlighting root causes of a fighter-pilot exodus to the airlines. While the FWS cadre worked overtime to convert an entrenched fighter force to adopt a better tactic, one outspoken fighter pilot provided honest feedback to the top brass to do the same on a much grander scale. Of course, the rest is history, and so is the Dear Boss letter, which Anderegg thoughtfully includes as an appendix.

With a shift in fighter culture, the TAF rapidly revolutionized its training over the next several years. Anderegg meticulously documents how the Fighter Mafia created dissimilar adversaries with the Aggressors and established a realistic training exercise in Red Flag. By forcing young, inexperienced crews to “fight” against the simulated Red horde in an exercise they could survive and then debrief and learn real lessons, Red Flag allowed fighter crews to complete their first 10 combat missions effectively—and capability skyrocketed. Learning accelerated as gun-camera film and air-combat-maneuvering instrumentation became a standard part of every mission and debrief. Finally, the expansion of ranges, incorporation of an Integrated Air Defense System, and inclusion of real-time feedback transformed Red Flag into the most realistic aerial combat training in the world, bested only by the real thing.

In the end, Anderegg details some of the innovative technologies, tactics, and training that pushed TAF lethality to the cutting edge, including laser-guided bombs, Maverick missiles, and the weapons-system evaluation program for air-to-air missiles. Never forgetting that fighter pilots drove the change, Anderegg provides his unique inside look at the individuals who underwrote the transformation. Finally, he concludes with an insightful examination of the development of three fighter aircraft—the F-15, A-10, and F-16. Born of combat, these great aircraft provided their pilots with the last measure of confidence necessary to become the world’s premier fighter force.

Although Anderegg’s initial discussion of the technical problems faced by fighter crews in Vietnam and his later explanation of the innovations to overcome them may burden the reader with excessive detail, they credibly prove both the requirement for and the success of the resulting transformation. More importantly, Anderegg’s thorough analysis offers the reader a context for understanding why and how pragmatic fighter pilots stayed in the game to face the challenges of their day and bring about real change.

A must-read, Sierra Hotel presents today’s Airmen with a shining example of how officers seemingly immobilized by the inertia of military bureaucracy can make a difference. The challenges of our time may be unique, but they are not so different that we cannot learn from the transformation of the decade following Vietnam, which instigated a revolution that produced the Air Force with which we are now entrusted. On another note, perhaps our current Air Force leaders can reread the Dear Boss letter written by one of their contemporaries. Many of the grievances it addresses have returned, and perhaps the only reason we haven’t seen a similar exodus of fighter crews to the airlines has more to do with their dedication to the nation in a time of war than with the probability of a future Air Force better than the present one. If that is the case, then as one member of the Fighter Mafia admonished an earlier generation, maybe we all need to “get serious about dive toss.”

Lt Col Eddie “K-9” Kostelnik, USAF
Naval Postgraduate School, California

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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