Shadow Flight

Cangemi got into a turning fight with the leader of the second section, then noticed a MiG slipping behind him for the kill. The marine aviator unloaded his Hornet, throwing the number two bandit off a split second, then snatched the stick back. The F/A-18 slashed between the Foxbats as Cangemi searched frantically for his wing-man.

"Chuck," Cangemi groaned, feeling the effects of grayout as he saw Belivue twisting through the sky, "break hard starboard, now!"

Cangemi watched as his wingman wrapped the Hornet into a gut-wrenching, vapor-producing right turn. A second later, Cangemi heard a rasping sound in his headset, indicating that the selected AIM-9 Sidewinder missile was tracking the infrared signature of the lead MiG.

"Fox Two!" Cangemi said as he pulled the trigger.

The heat-seeking missile rocketed straight at the Foxbat, colliding with the right tailpipe of the twin-engine fighter. The impact blew off the entire aft section of the aircraft in a black pulsing explosion.

The MiG's nose yawed to the right, then tucked under, sending the fighter tumbling out of control through the sky. Cangemi glimpsed the canopy separate from the crippled aircraft, but he never saw the pilot eject. Cangemi whipped the stick to the right to avoid debris, then pulled into the vertical. He rolled the Hornet slowly, scanning the hazy sky.

"Chuck," Cangemi radioed, hanging in his straps as he pulled the F/A-18 through the horizon, "check your six-you've got a gomer settin' up."

"Goin' for knots," Bellvue replied as he forced the Hornet into an 8-g "Bat Turn," followed by a zero-g unload. The fighter accelerated downward, then snapped straight up when Bellvue sighted two of the Foxbats attempting to turn inside his leader.

"Vince!" Bellvue shouted. "Break left now! Fox Two!"

Bellvue waited a second, then fired two of his Sidewinder missiles in a head-on pass at the two MiGs. The advanced air-to-air weapons, three seconds apart, slammed into the first Foxbat. The doomed fighter emerged from the orange fireball trailing debris, smoke, and blazing jet fuel.

The second MiG popped up instantly to miss the colossal explosion and raining debris. The pilot caught the upper edge of the black cloud, disintegrating his right engine with foreign object damage. The MiG, turning tight, unloaded and raced for Cuban airspace.

"Reverse, Chuck!" Cangemi ordered, working the remaining MiG into a vertical scissors. "Set him up — I'm going to disengage. Call it!"

"Stay on him a couple of seconds," Bellvue responded, rechecking heat while he rolled into a firing position. He searched the sky quickly for other bandits, then heard his AIM-9 missiles track the MiG-25. "Turn him loose!"

Cangemi snatched the stick back violently, then rolled the agile Hornet 180 degrees and unloaded the g forces. Going supersonic, Cangemi snapped into the vertical again and watched both of Bellvue's missiles miss the Foxbat. He stared, transfixed, as both heat-seeking missiles tracked straight at the blazing sun low on the horizon.

"Shit!" Bellvue said, selecting his 20mm M-61 cannon. "I'm guns!"

"Wrap him up," Cangemi shouted, watching Bellvue close inside the tight-turning MiG.

Suddenly the Foxbat snapped out of the punishing turn, allowing the Hornet pilot to fall into trail — a perfect firing solution.

Cangemi's mind sounded a warning a split second before the Soviet missile erupted from under the MiG's tail. "Break, break!" Cangemi radioed as he watched the Hornet explode into a million flaming pieces. His eyes witnessed the carnage, but it took his brain a second to record the blazing image.

"Chuck!" Cangemi shouted, flashing by the black puff, "get out! Eject! Eject!"

Three seconds passed as Cangemi looked frantically for the Foxbat. He spotted the MiG turning tight and diving toward the water. "Sonuvabitch!" Cangemi swore to himself, realizing that his wingman was part of the smoking wreckage falling toward the ocean.

The MiG had disengaged and was running for home. Cangemi eased the Hornet's nose slightly in front of the Foxbat, selected another missile, waited for it to lock on, then squeezed the trigger gently.

"Fox Two!" Cangemi radioed as he watched the missile undulate toward the bastard who had killed his friend. "Go… go… be there…"

The heat-seeking weapon missed the MiG's twin exhausts, hitting the left wing root. The wing separated from the fuselage, sending the Foxbat spinning out of control. Cangemi watched the MiG pilot eject as he heard a Mayday call from one of the F-14 pilots. Stunned and absorbed in the drama, Cangemi made an age-old mistake. He allowed his F/A-18 to fly through the debris of his kill.

SAN JULIAN

Seven armed guards surrounded the partially dismantled Stealth bomber. All activity had ceased in the hangar while everyone involved in the secret operation was interrogated by the KGB director.