[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 141 (Thursday, October 3, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1918-E1919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO THE 119TH FIGHTER GROUP

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. EARL POMEROY

                            of north dakota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 3, 1996

  Mr. POMEROY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the 119th Fighter 
Group of the Air National Guard based in Fargo, ND. The 119th, more 
commonly known as the ``Happy Hooligans,'' was featured in today's 
edition of the USA Today as they prepare to defend their title as 
champion of the William Tell air-to-air combat competition. I have 
submitted a copy of the article that will appear in the Record 
following my remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to take the time to read 
this story about the truly remarkable people of the 119th. Two years 
ago, the Hooligans sent a team to Tyndall AFB, FL, to compete in the 
most prestigious air-to-air event in the entire Air Force--the William 
Tell competition. The Hooligans were pitted against the cream of the 
crop, the ``top guns'' from the Active Duty Air Force. What's more, the 
Hooligans were flying relatively aged F-16's but competed against units 
flying the more advanced F-15. Much to the surprise and considerable 
dismay of the Air Force's young fighter jocks, the Hooligans 
outperformed the entire field and took home the William Tell trophy.
  In 2 weeks, the Hooligans will return to Florida to defend their 
title. I am confident that they will once again distinguish themselves 
and make North Dakota proud. Last year, I had the opportunity to fly 
with the Happy Hooligans in an F-16 piloted by Lt. Colonel Maury Borud, 
so I can personally attest to their top-shelf performance. I would also 
note that today Colonel Borud will make the last flight of his 
distinguished 28-year career.
  Mr. Speaker, on an issue of special interest to Congress, I ask my 
colleagues to remember the championship quality of the Happy Hooligans 
if the Pentagon once again advances plans to reduce the fighter force 
structure in the Air National Guard. Such plans are short-sighted and 
ill-advised, especially given the unparalleled performance of the 
Hooligans and other ANG fighter units. Cutting the Hooligans would be 
like benching Michael Jordan, a foolish mistake by any measure.
  Congratulatios to the Happy Hooligans. You never cease to make North 
Dakota proud.

                   [From the USA Today, Oct. 3, 1996]

               Old-Time Pilots Show `Top Guns' Who's Hot

       Fargo, N.D.--The scene around the air base of the 119th 
     Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard here would never be 
     confused with the set of Top Gun. It is no hotbed of 20-
     something fighter jocks tooling around on motorcycles and 
     doing shooters at the local bar after work.
       Here you see balding middle-agers with chiseled faces. 
     People whose ``other jobs'' are at the insurance office, on 
     the farm or flying for FedEx. They are members of local 
     churches, officers in local civic organizations, habitues of 
     the nearby public golf courses.
       Yet, when you strap one of these senior fliers into the 
     cockpit of an F-16 Fighting Faclon, the younger boys get out 
     of the way because these are the best air-to-air combat 
     fighters in the world. They are the Godfathers of air 
     superiority--and right now, they are in the final ``spin up'' 
     to defend that title.
       Two years ago, in October 1994, Fargo's ``Happy Hooligans'' 
     as they are called, flew down to Tyndall Air Force base in 
     Florida to duke it out in the Super Bowl of dogfights--the 
     biennial William Tell competition. What they accomplished 
     there may rank as one of the greatest upset victories since 
     Joe Namath took his Jets to Florida in 1969.
       The Fargo team had the oldest pilots and the oldest 
     aircraft in the competition. Their F-16s were slower and 
     their radar range shorter than that of the F-15s flown by the 
     Air Force regulars from around the world. The Air Force had a 
     vast pool of planes, maintenance crews and sharp young pilots 
     on their teams.
       The Fargo group was so sparse, they had Guard part-timers, 
     classic ``weekend warriors,'' flying some of their jets.
       And, as if to emphasize their underdog status, Fargo's lead 
     pilot was a diminutive lieutenant colonel nicknamed ``Pee 
     Wee.''


                            a family affair

       The William Tell is a grueling weeklong competition 
     conducted by the Air Force that combines air-to-air combat 
     games, weapons loading drills and target shooting.
       Imagine a typical scenario.
       You are strapped in the cockpit of an F-16 racing at nearly 
     twice the speed of sound, defending a chunk of air space that 
     extends from 0 to 50,000 feet high, 50 miles deep, 30 miles 
     wide.
       Five jets come screaming into that space--four 
     ``hostiles,'' one ``friendly.'' Your radar is jammed, you are 
     being fed conflicting and erroneous communications, the 
     horizon is lurching skyward to your right.
       Your mission: destroy the hostiles and let the friendly 
     pass. You have five minutes.
       ``Your concentration level is so high,'' says Maj. Bob 
     Becklund, who will lead Fargo's

[[Page E1919]]

     team as they defend their title Oct. 21. ``Everything is 
     happening so quickly that it just starts feeling like slow 
     motion.''
       When a pilot jerks his plane skyward, as he may do several 
     times in a competition like this one, the blood actually 
     drains from the head and concentration can be affected. 
     Still, the pilot must react instantaneously.
       At that point, says Robert ``Pee Wee'' Edlund, ``you are 
     not really flying the plane, it is just something strapped to 
     your back'' as you go through the maneuvers.
       In situations like this, the Fargo pilots use the F-16 to 
     their advantage.
       ``You can visually spot an F-15 maybe 10 miles out,'' says 
     Becklund. ``In the F-16, if I've got the nose pointed at you, 
     and I'm jamming your radar, you aren't going to pick me up 
     visually until I'm maybe 3 miles out.''
       At Mach 1.6, three miles out is as good as in your back 
     pocket. If both planes are moving at about the same speed, 
     the F-16 is on you in less than 7 seconds.
       ``It is physically and emotionally very demanding,'' says 
     Edlund. ``When it's over you are emotionally drained, but 
     euphoric.''
       In 1994, when the Fargo team won, ``people were surprised 
     and upset--shocked,'' says Edlund, who is prevented by the 
     rules from competing again but is serving as a kind of coach 
     for the team. ``Believe me, there are some big egos out 
     there. I know those F-15 crews went home embarrassed.'' 
     Particularly because Air Force crews flying F-15s had won the 
     previous two competitions.
       The Fargo team also won the Hughes Trophy that year, an 
     award given to the best air combat unit in the Air Force. 
     They were the only F-16 unit ever to win it.
       How did a group of such precision fighters spring up in the 
     unlikely location of North Dakota?
       ``It is a family kind of thing,'' says Maj. Marshall 
     Kjelvik, one of the pilots who will fly in the William Tell. 
     We are a family-oriented organization, with deep roots in the 
     community.''
       Indeed, Kjelvik's father worked in maintenance at the Fargo 
     air base and introduced him to jet fighters as a child. 
     ``After that, I always wanted to fly,'' he says.
       ``It means a lot to represent your hometown, where my 
     family and my father are from,'' says Kjelvik.
       Familial connections run through the base like electrical 
     wiring, Kjelvik's sister works in the maintenance 
     division. Becklund's father, retired Brig. Gen. Thornton 
     Becklund, was a former base commander.
       First Lt. Brad Derrig is an alternate pilot who will travel 
     to Tyndall. His father also flew for the guard and his 
     brother, Tom, is the flight surgeon. ``That's one of the 
     unique things,'' he says about Fargo. ``There are a lot of 
     brothers, sister and family members working together.''


                         pride in safety record

       But surely, there must be some Tom Cruse wannabes in the 
     bunch.
       ``There is a fine line between being a cocky fighter pilot, 
     and being a good pilot. If you are really good, you realize 
     you don't have to be cocky,'' says base commander Col. Mike 
     Haugen, who at 50 still flies the F-16. ``When you are 23, 
     you tjhink there is no end to life and you are always going 
     to be here. But this is a serious business.''
       First Lt. Jon Wutzke, 31, is on the Tell team. He joined 
     the Air Force straight out of high school and joined the 
     Fargo Air National Guard when he has going to college at 
     North Dakota State University.
       ``The age difference was a shock for me,'' he recalls. 
     ``Back then we were flying F-4s and I worked in the shop. 
     Some of those guys have been working on those same engines 
     since the 1950s! So the corporate memory here goes way 
     back.''
       And continues. The Fargo team would not be as good in the 
     air without the skills of the crews on the ground.
       ``As proud as I am of our performance at William Tell,'' 
     says Haugen, ``it is our safety record and our ground crews 
     that make it possible. We haven't lost an aircraft in over 
     100,000 hours of flight time, over 25 years of flying'' he 
     says.
       ``Frankly, we should have lost three of those aircraft by 
     now,'' says Haugen of the F-16s on the runway.
       ``That's what the statistics say.''
       Those statistics do not trouble the men who fly these F-
     16s, however.
       ``It's like I tell my wife,'' says Edlund, ``the only 
     dangerous part about being a jet fighter pilot is driving to 
     the air base. We have some of the oldest jets in the world, 
     F-16 wise, but the way they are maintained by our crews, they 
     are like brand new.''


                           experience counts

       When it came William Tell contest time, the Hooligans had 
     rebuilt, retuned and customized their F-16s like hotrods in 
     the shop.
       As a result, when those old planes went to Tyndall, they 
     were ready to do things that were not even possible when they 
     were brand new.
       There also is a distinction among the fliers.
       ``They are young,'' says Edlund of the regular Air Force 
     units. ``We are experienced. The younger guys might pull more 
     Gs (maximum speed maneuvers) and have quicker reactions, but 
     we've got more flight time. There is no substitute for having 
     been there.''
       Edlund, 39, has been there. He spent 11 years in the Air 
     Force, then joined the Guard full-time six years ago. It is 
     not an easy way to make a living.
       An F-16 can fly at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. It is 
     capable of making a 9G turn or climb. In a 9G turn, the 
     gravitational pull on the body is 9 times that of gravity. 
     The force of such a turn is so great that if you happen to be 
     looking over your left shoulder at an approaching plane or 
     missile, and you throw your jet into a steep 9G turn to the 
     right, the force can break your neck.
       Even if you do everything right, you can return from a 
     routine flight bruised up and exhausted.
       In a 9G turn all the organs of the body will be pulled two 
     inches out of their normal alignments. The liver shifts, the 
     heart moves, connective tissue strains. Pilots training for 
     William Tell will often fly twice daily.
       ``I pulled a neck muscle once in a 9G turn and it was bad. 
     I couldn't fly for a month,'' says Edlund. ``Finally I went 
     to the flight surgeon and he cleared me. He said, `Pee Wee, 
     you're good to go. You can Fly, no problem.' But then he took 
     me aside and said he wanted to show me something. He pulled 
     out my X-rays and there were these white spots, calcium 
     deposits and stuff, all up and down my neck and back.
       ``He said, `Pee Wee, this is what a 60-year-old man's back 
     looks like. Nobody knows what the long-term affects of flying 
     a jet aircraft like the F-16 will be, but the body was just 
     not designed to take all these Gs.'
       ``I said, `That's great, doc, but can I get that in 
     writing?' '' He laughs.
       ``I mean, this the best job there is. Where else can you 
     get to fly a multi-million dollar aircraft that is the best 
     in the world? I wouldn't trade it for all of Bill Gate's 
     money or Michael Jordan's fame,'' he says.
       Edlund is nearing the end of his career as a jet pilot. His 
     hair is gray, he's working in an industry that is constantly 
     downsizing. He has a wife, two kids, a dog and a cat, a house 
     in the suburbs and a Little League team he has taken to the 
     state championships. He is no longer much of a Hooligan, but 
     still good to go.
       ``I'll probably have to hang it up in five years or so, 
     maybe when I have 5,000 hours. That would be a pretty good 
     career for a fighter pilot. Then, I'll just push paper. Be a 
     ground-pounder for the team.''