Lets talk the supposedly Kuwait F-15 friendly fire incident. I think it was a rogue pilot

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I've read other former pilots say the same thing. One plane accidental shoot down is plausible but not three at the same time.

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Yeah, there’s definitely something off with this and I had the same thoughts.

If I were to bet, the investigation will determine the American pilots are somehow at fault to avoid any embarrassment for the Kuwaitis.

Have a hard time believing 3 pilots just let one jet fly up and mow them all down, given modern countermeasures.

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Have a hard time believing 3 pilots just let one jet fly up and mow them all down, given modern countermeasures.

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They thought he was a friendly right up until he fired, then only had a split second to react. Vids showed he was in visual range, that leaves very little time to do anything. Plus he was firing our missiles, which are both harder to evade/jam and we're likely not even equipped to jam them.

I suspect the Kuwaitis will quietly execute him unless he's a member of the royal family.

Yes I've seen that. A key point is that the senior several people including the senior RIO did not question when the first missile didn't go. Tension was high because there were intel reports that a stolen or remarked us made jet could be used as a kamikaze type attack on a US asset in the area. I knew the pilot prior to my Navy days - when he was at Tulane we dated girls that were friends. He was the son of an Admiral (who also had a blue on blue kill in Vietnam). People that were privy to ALL of the coms from preflight to post op all say that young pilot got a raw deal - somebody above his paygrade should have been reprimanded. He was kind of a dick but heck so was I

I was right behind the island and saw the whole thing - all I heard was "BIRD IN THE WATER" I assumed it was an unfriendly jet and when I saw the phantom crew get escorted off the helo I remember thinking "damn that's pretty slick that they are even wearing USAF flight suits "

It was about 10mins later that I learned it was indeed a USAF bird. Ships news the next day had it USN 1 USAF 0. The other irony is we didn't see many Bears for the rest of the cruise... Phantom floated for about 3-5 minutes before sinking completely.