JESUS LOVES YOU!

Saturday, April 26, 2008
4:05:00 PM PDT

“Vega thirty-one is going down!” the pilot of the F117A stealth-fighter jet, Tail Number 806, shouted as the Nighthawk spun out of control. The pilot was experiencing “enormous” negative G-forces as he struggled inside his 45 million-dollar aircraft to get his hands down on the handgrips which controlled his ejection seat. The intense G-forces were so powerful the pilot later said, “God took my hands and pulled”. Referring to the handles of his ejection seat, “The one fragment of this whole event I can’t remember is pulling the handles.”

 

Although the public would not learn until 2007 the true identity of the actual pilot who was shot down over enemy airspace on 27 March 1999 by a Russian made SA-3 Neva Surface-to-Air Missile. The SAM exploded very close, enough so to cause considerable damage to F117A 82-806. Vegas-31, the call sign of the pilot, managed to eject and once on the ground less than 10 miles from the wreckage of his Nighthawk aircraft continued trying to survive. “Thank God no one actually saw me come down.” He later said, as he had ejected under the cover of darkness.

 

Hunkered down, the Bandit, as stealth pilots were called, waited for the combat search and rescue teams to lift him out of harms way. He hid in a shallow culvert near his landing site, a fresh-plowed field. Deep inside Serbian territory, with enemy forces searching for him, Vega-31 relied on his faith and prayers with God. He embraced an American flag which he had with him, tucked inside his flight suit, given to him by a friend as he strapped in for his mission. With barking dogs, passing headlights and roars of enemy trucks moving up and down the nearby roadway, the enemy in search for the downed stealth pilot, Vega-31 hung on to his faith. It would take more than six hours before the Pararescue team would locate the “Bandit Down” and lift him to safety. During the events of combat flight and the aftermath of being shot down, Vega-31 struggled with more than one life-threatening feat, in the air and on the ground deep inside enemy territory.

 

Back in the states, I was visiting my stepfather, a 26-year combat soldier with the U.S. Army. We sat on the couch in his living room watching the breaking news coverage of the Serbian downing the American warplane, the first stealth fighter ever lost in combat.

The pilot was still on the ground, not yet rescued, but confirmed alive. The world news media showed maps of the location of the downed wreckage and the pilot’s approximate location from transponder signals and radio contact. Security leaks were made, or so it seemed.

 

Hearing and seeing what we saw on the news, my stepfather and I instantly looked at each other in dismay.

 

“Oh, my God!” I sighed.

 

“What are they nuts?” My stepfather shouted, “Those idiots!”

 

“What’s the matter with them?” I added, shaking my head in disbelief and in horror.

 

“We need to pray for that boy!” My stepfather exclaimed.

 

No other words were needed between us to express the outrage and alarm we both had as the news media virtually pinpointed Vega-31’s exact location. With the news media being accustom to bringing war coverage into Americans’ living room since Nam, this was a startling thing to witness on TV. The combat pilot hadn’t even been rescued yet, and the media was exposing him to additional danger for the sake of sensational news.

 

The Serbs were hunting for the pilot of F117A #806, Lt. Col. Dale Zelko USAF, “Vega-31”. The Kosovo War was another living room drama brought to you in living color by the news media. While a U.S. military man struggled with his survival the media reserved no common sense in safeguarding his life. Or so it seems.

 

As disturbing as it was, the probable capture of Lt. Col. Zelko was fortunately intervened with by the daring rescue mission undertaken behind enemy lines by U.S. Special Operations Forces. Thank God!

 

Some may say that the Serbian forces already knew where Lt. Col. Zelko was during his ordeal after being shot down, so the news media’s coverage of the event was irrelevant. That question could only be answered with another question. What is a life worth? And who should gamble on the price of that life?  The Serbs in fact, did not yet know of Vega-31’s exact location, yet they could have learned it from world news coverage. They could have learned he was still alive and waiting to be rescued. The leak during this single event makes one scratch their head.

 

Inaccurate news coverage followed the scene of the F117A 82-806 wreckage when filmed coverage of the painted cockpit canopy revealed the name “Capt. Ken ‘Wiz’ Dwelle” Captain Dwelle was not the pilot at the time the warplane was shot down. In fact, he was stateside at his home when Vega-31 was shot down.

 

Media exposure with news footage of civilians around the wreckage, women and children dancing on the wing, prevented the proper destruction of the downed aircraft by bombing in order to prevent the technology from falling into enemy hands. Thus, compromising 25-year U.S. top secret stealth technology which soon fell into the hands of the Russians with parts being sent to Moscow.

 

F117A 82-806 was the only stealth fighter ever lost in combat. Of the 59 Lockheed-built stealth fighters seven were lost to crashes. Tail No. 785 was lost 20 April 1982 during takeoff from the runway at Groom Lake installation (Area 51) near the Nevada Test Site, a few miles outside of Las Vegas. The test pilot escaped serious injury, and the cause of the crash was due to equipment which controls the plane having been mistakenly reversed.

Tail No. 792 went down 11 July 1986 near Bakersfield, California killing the pilot.

Tail No. 815 crashed 14 October 1987 at Nellis Air Force Range, NV killing the pilot.

Tail No. 801 went down 4 August 1992 in NM, pilot ejected safely after losing control.

Tail No. 822 crashed 10 May 1995 in NM, the pilot was killed.

Tail No. 793 was lost 14 September 1997 during an air show in Md., Pilot ejected safely.

Tail No. 806 was lost 27 March 1999 in combat over Yugoslavia as mentioned above.

 

Of the three pilots killed in the crashes of 792, 815 and 822 pilot fatigue and disorientation were blamed on the crashes.

 

Eighteen years ago, the F117A Nighthawk stealth fighter made its public debut at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. The warplane was recently retired with all but a couple going into mothball storage with the exception of the pair used for public display.

 

The F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will take the place of the Nighthawk F-117A to continue air superiority for the United States Military. 

 

The F117A stealth fighter jet was an amazing piece of firepower in its time and proved to be a valuable asset to the U.S. military.

 

The cost of each F117A was $45 million dollars. That doesn’t include the cost of bombs or fuel to fly the aircraft, maintenance or anything else. $45 million each just to build them.

 

Over the years, I have watched these incredible aircraft, the F117A, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 along with many other warplanes, including the stealth bombers fly in the skies over Las Vegas. I’d watch in awe, amazed at the skill of the pilots as they made their way to and from Nellis Air Force Range. Like Guardian Angles from the skies, Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, is home to some of the most fearsome firepower in the world. During the 911 no-fly order when McCarran International Airport was at an eerie standstill, the Las Vegas skies void of normal civilian air traffic, these war birds ferociously patrolled the Las Vegas skies with squadron formations and air activity second to none.

 

I believe in a strong military to protect our nation and others around the globe from the hostile forces of totalitarian regimes. Yet that price tag of war and defense is something tremendous. If only we could have peace in the world, imagine the human good we could achieve with the money we now spend on our war machine. The lives which could be spared from the evil faces of war are worth much more than that money.

 

It seems that Russia and the United States are the two nations which most often become tangled in opposition. Rather directly or indirectly our two great nations are almost always involved, always on opposite sides, either supplying war machines and supplies or intelligence. The ironic thing is that the Russian people and the American people have a lot in common, both nations having strong Christian devotions. The Soviet Union’s communist regime suppressed the Russian citizens’ Christian practices, causing it to remain underground. After the fall of the communist regime, it came back to surface and their faith could be displayed out in the open. The Russian people are not very much unlike us. Remove the governments and Russian and American citizens would get along very well together.

 

The Russian and American governments need to strive toward working toward full peace. The cost of war is expensive, both in human lives and in the war machines. Rather that war is on the homeland soil or in someone else’s backyard; the price of war is surmountable and truly imprudent.

 

Two nations with a population that overwhelmingly believe in Jesus Christ need to come together and strive for world peace. And that’s something the media ought to focus on rather than merely exposing the world poker players’ cards during time of agony. The war game is not something in which one side is a winner and the other a loser. It is a game where both sides are losers.

 

We the people of both nations, Russia and the United States need to do what we can in order to make such an idea a reality. The “new media”, which is what we are all experiencing with the new, true free press, of being able to communicate with citizens of the world, right here in our journals and blogs is one way we can make it happen.

 

We need to open our communication lines with our brothers and sisters of a distant land. We are all God’s children and if there is to be profound peace between our nations then it is likely to come from the people, not our governments.

 

Thank you for joining me. God Bless You.

And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Saturday, 26 April 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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