Battle of Robert's Ridge During Operation ANACONDA | Chris “Spliff” Russell (PART 2) 

Great part 2. What a gentleman Spliff is. I'd love to hear more from him.

Thank you for Part 2! I was the GD Project Engineer for the F-15E ammunition handling system out of Burlington, Vermont. During an internal presentation to management about the gun system, I cited the Roberts Ridge event. Management’s jaws dropped when I told them of the “We can smell the pine!” radio call from the ground forces. I don’t think they really appreciated what that weapon was capable of. Thank you for service and insight into the F-15E. Funny that you should mention the range fire incident - during the Strike Eagle development program, our aircrew, flying the prototype F-15E, was waiting to get on the firing range in Wisconsin for some BDU-33 drops based on radar data. A flight of Illinois Air Guard F-4’s we’re practicing the dive toss delivery method and one had an unscorable miss… which also lit the range on fire! The range crew extinguished it quickly and we were able to continue our mission. Great memories.

So awesome listening to pilots that are so humble and at the same time so proud of what they did to support and take care of the troops on the ground. Also, so great to hear a pilot give credit to the maintenance crews, ground crews, support personnel and trainers that make his job possible.

It's wonderful to hear someone who has every right to be bombastic about his achievements, instead be modest and level headed. A feature of the Strike Eagle community?

Try to get him back for another interview. Sounds like he has tons of interesting stories!

Loved the story of how he got his call sign

Very cool and understated, great stories

Thank you both for your time , good stuff.

Great interview!

Great interview. Many thanks.

I started in the F-4E and ended in the F-15E. The Strike Eagle was everything the Rhino wanted to be.

Received the MEDAL OF HONOUR; TWICE John Chapman’s a GOD Check out the story if you’ve not seen it.

I wonder what Spliff smoked during his time off.... Just kidding... listening to these guys is just amazing. the stories are just awesome and gripping...