NATO—North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NBA—brevity term for the half of Kosovo east of 22 degrees east longitude
NCA—national command authorities, generally the president or secretary of defense
NFL—brevity term for the half of Kosovo west of 22 degrees east longitude
NM—nautical miles
NVG—night vision goggles
OAF—Operation Allied Force
OPCON—operational control
ORI—operational readiness inspection
OSC—on-scene commander for SAR operations outlaw brevity term for an aircraft that meets the enemy point of origin criteria
Pave Penny—a laser-spot recognition system that displays in the A-10 cockpit where a laser, from an external source, is designating
PERSCO—Personnel Accountability Team
pipper—center point of a gun/bomb sight
PLS—Personnel Locator System is the standard combat search-and-rescue system for the US military and NATO
POL—petroleum, oil, and lubricants
POW—prisoner of war
RAF—Royal Air Force
revets—brevity term for revetments
ROE—rule(s) of engagement
RTB—return to base
RTU—replacement training unit
RWR—radar warning receiver
SACEUR—supreme allied commander Europe
SAM—surface-to-air missile
SAN—naval SAM system
Sandy—call sign for fighters that control and support SAR operations
SAR—search and rescue
SEAD—suppression of enemy air defenses
secondary—additional explosion(s) caused by an initial explosion
shack—direct hit on a target
SHAPE—Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
sky hooked—conserve fuel by optimizing speed and altitude for maximum range
SOS—Special Operations Squadron
spades—brevity term indicates an aircraft is not squawking the right IFF transponder code
SPINS—special instructions
splash—weapons impact and explosion
Stan/Eval—standardization and evaluation
steer-point—preplanned geographical reference points (e.g., steer-point alpha)
stepped—to depart the squadron for the aircraft at the prebriefed “step time,” a critical milestone in the sequence of getting a flight airborne on time
stepped-on—a simultaneous transmissions between two people, with neither hearing the other’s transmission strikers attack aircraft who employ weapons under the control of an AFAC
talk-on—a FAC’s description of the target and target area to assist an attacking aircraft to positively identify the target
taskings—missions fragged on the ATO
top three—designated senior squadron leadership, which includes the commander, ops officer, and another experienced person
triple-A—antiaircraft artillery
UAV—unmanned aerial vehicle (e.g., Predator, Laser Predator, and Hunter)
UCK—Ushtria Clirimtare E Kosoves (Albanian) and Kosovo Liberation Army ([KLA] English)
UHF—radio transmitting on ultra high frequencies and commonly referred to as “uniform”
UK—United Kingdom
UN—United Nations
undercast—a deck of clouds whose tops are below an aircraft’s altitude
unsecure—nonencrypted radio
USAFE—United States Air Forces in Europe
UTM—Universal Transverse Mercator, a map grid system
VHF-AM—radio transmitting over very high frequencies using amplitude modulation and commonly referred to as “victor”
VID—visual identification
vis—brevity term for visibility
VJ—Serb army
VMEZ—Serb army (VJ) and Serb Interior Ministry police (MUP) engagement zone
vul—scheduled periods of time when the KEZ was vulnerable to AFACs looking for and striking targets
VVI—vertical velocity indicator
Willy Pete—slang phonetic expression for 2.75-inch white-phosphorous rockets
WP—white phosphorous
Zulu—the time at the prime meridian that is used for military planning and is also known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Greenwich mean time (GMT)
INDEX
2S1 self-propelled artillery, 112–13
20th Special Operations Squadron (SOS), 10
21st Special Operations Squadron (SOS), 10
23d Fighter Group (FG), 26, 92, 139
31st Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW), 16, 20, 25–26, 29, 68–69, 71, 311
31st Expeditionary Operations Group (EOG), 20, 26, 67
36th Stormo, Italian fighter wing, 78
40th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron (EABS), 75
40th Expeditionary Logistics Squadron (ELS), 19, 75
40th Expeditionary Operations Group (EOG), 15, 19–21, 39, 67, 71–76, 85, 100, 106, 139, 182, 242, 247
40th Expeditionary Support Squadron (ESS), 19
52d Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW), 15, 20–21, 71, 76, 83, 85, 134
52d Fighter Wing (FW), 16, 35, 39, 70, 80, 139
74th Fighter Squadron (FS), “Flying Tigers,” 11, 15, 18–21, 27, 39, 72–76, 89, 91, 96–98, 270, 273, 287, 296, 312
75th Fighter Squadron (FS), 15, 58, 97
81st Fighter Squadron (FS), “Panthers,”10, 15–16, 18, 20, 23, 26, 28, 40, 54–59, 64, 66, 68, 70–71, 73, 75, 86, 91–92, 96, 109, 126, 131, 203, 232, 244, 247, 264–67, 271, 287, 300, 311–13
103d Fighter Squadron (FS), 15, 19
104th Expeditionary Operations Group (EOG), “Killer Bees,” 15, 19–21, 313
131st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron (EFS), 11, 15, 20–21
172d Fighter Squadron (FS), 15, 19
190th Fighter Squadron (FS), 15, 19
492d Fighter Squadron (FS), 26
494th Fighter Squadron (FS), 26
510th Fighter Squadron (FS),
“Buzzards,” 16, 23, 29, 56, 67–68
555th Fighter Squadron (FS), 26
603d Air Control Squadron (ACS), 68
606th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron (EACS), 256
Adriatic Sea, 8, 23, 38, 57, 60, 68, 82, 99, 177, 180, 187–88, 194, 202, 251, 253, 273, 288, 292, 294, 312
advanced echelon (ADVON), 89
A-1E (Korean War–era fighter/Vietnam-era FAC), “Skyraider” and “Sandy,” 1, 312
A-10/OA-10 (fighter) “Thunderbolt II,” “Warthog,” and “Hog” armament, 1, 11–15, 41, 46, 58, 62, 94–95, 287
beddown, 67–80, 86–96, 99–103, 292
combat action, 36, 46, 54, 57–59, 62, 85, 112, 115–16, 124–30, 155–57, 166–69, 197–207, 214–30, 237–40, 245–48, 280–83, 288–90, 299–300
combat damage, 116–21, 261–63
defensive reaction and survivability, 53–54, 63–65, 106–7, 110–11, 116–21, 124–30, 240–43, 274–77, 283–86
design and limitations, 1, 46, 209
double-engine failure, 249–58