Now I'm clearly aware this is not normal and it's like gone.

Sloppy's gone.

And so I pulled a handle, nothing happens.

And like, I'm still sitting here.

I'm like, all right, well, that is bad.

Welcome to the merge.

I am your host, Vincent Ayle.

This week, we examined the events of June 13th, 2008, a day in which Anthony Roy, call sign sloppy, was scheduled to fly an F5 Tiger for his squadron, VFC 13, as an aggressor for the Airwain Fallon training sortie being administered by NSOC, or the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center.

Unbeknownst to sloppy that morning, at brief time he would find he would be flying VFC 13's

only two-seat F5 and in the backseat would be a young Naval Academy midshipman who had never before

flown in a naval aircraft, let alone a tactical jet.

Now, I should point out that VFC 13, like VFA 15 and most other naval squadrons,

might fly dozens of sorters a day, five or six days a week, every week for a month, all year long.

The fact that most of these sortersies are uneventful is a testament to the professionalism of the men and

women who fly these aircraft and those who maintain them. The planes must be in tip-top shape

and rules and procedures are in place and followed to minimize the chance of a mishap.

In the event, the worse happens, which occasionally does, fighters are equipped with ejection

seats, which are simply rocket-propelled seats that quickly and violently extract a pilot

from a stricken aircraft when necessary. But the pilot has to initiate ejection manually

by pulling the handle. An ejection is rare. In over 3,800 flying hours in the Navy, I never had to

eject. In fact, most of my friends did not either, but some did. And it was always a life-changing

event due to the traumatic events. Squadrons may go months, sometimes years without an ejection.

...