F-15E in the Balkans, Parts 1 & 2 [FULL] 

What a remarkably funny guy Starbaby is! Just a natural storyteller. Could listen all day.

That was fun! Starbaby knows how to tell a tale! Just subscribed. Can't wait for more. I was in the 401st TFW at Torrejon AB from 1982 to 1986. The deployments to Aviano, Incirlik, Sardinia, & RAF Waddington were highlights of that four year tour, capped by a Viper ride dropping concrete MK84s on the Bardenas range. Outbound, we tangled with some Vipers from Ramstein that were deployed to Zaragosa.

Loved the Italy stories. In the early 90s, for the first Balkins stuff, I (young enlisted guy) was lucky to go TDY to Vicenza and worked at the CAOC where myself and a British guy disseminated classified messages. Even the enlisted food was great. Most vivid memory was on night shift, a colonel comes in and askes me to wait in THE "room" so she could to run to the bathroom. She said if anyone radios in, push "that button" and tell them to stand by. For about 4 mins this 3 striper was in charge of the air mission! I also went to the same places in Verona, hung out on the Army post, etc.

This was a fantastic interview! I grabbed a beer, put this one up on the big tv screen and just enjoyed every chapter. Perfect host, awesome guest.

Such epic anecdotes. It’s wonderful to hear them firsthand rather than just reading about them.

Catching up with all the Starbaby content. Awesome stuff. My most anticipated thing this year is the F15E. My second most anticipated thing is watching yourself and Starbaby multicrew it!

Glad to see the number of subscribers going up. Terrific interviews!

Always a blast... wonderful, cheers Steve and Starbaby

Brilliant interview. Loved it and very informative.

Great videos for people who are interested in military aviation. Thank you. (Star Baby rules!)

Gotta love Oingo Boingo

Thanks boys, I've watched this all the way through twice now. Loved it both times.

Love the banter. Awesome podcast, glad you're growing.

Can’t tell tell ya how much I look forward to these

Single Malt on the desk..... Glass loaded..... This will be good!

Looking forward to this one! Thanks Steve and Starbaby!

Awesome video! Thank you.

Congrats on 10K

Absolutely fantastic as always. Thanks Steve and Starbaby!

Playing Fastpitch Softball for the USAF out of Lakenheath was the equivalent of his airshow experience 3 to 4 times a year.... best memories EVER.

Eagerly awaiting the next instalment like any good addict! 😂 brilliant as always.

Airport "Obrva" is actually the military airport Ladjevci, near city of Kraljevo, which today is also the civilian airport "Morava" (LYKV). That command bunker and the infrastructure that were hit were emptied a month before the attack. The runway was damaged. Certainly, immediately before the attack, only non-usable weapons and equipment were left at the Airport. Military planes were able to use the main road near the airport as secondary runway which was not damaged at all. The second target is the "Prijanovici" fuel depot near the small town of Pozega. The problem with fuel was because the Yugoslav Army had too much fuel that it had nowhere to transfer for later use. About 30% of the fuel remained in the storage tanks. Except for the aforementioned reason, the pilots and observation equipment cannot recognize whether 30% or 100% of the fuel exploded after the hit, because the explosion is huge anyway. So that target also cost NATO more than it caused damage to the Serbian Army. The ammunition factory is "Sloboda" in the town of Cacak. It was attacked several times and many rockets were shot down by the Air Defense, which were deployed on the surrounding hills. As I have already stated, all military equipment was removed from military locations to a safe location a month before the attack, so that only demolished buildings and an empty warehouse remained. Later, the repeater on Mount Ovcar, which was used to broadcast state and local television, was bombed. The antenna was destroyed, but as far as I remember, there was no major interruption of the TV broadcast. In essence, all military facilities were emptied on time, and only old, unusable equipment remained in them. Also, this same broken technique was deployed in the meadows and hills without any camouflage in order to be bait for NATO.

I love the cheems in starbay's background

Oh yeaht this is gonna be a good one

1:26:24 This is some stuff I would think only happens in DCS public lobby

wonderful!

another great show thanks

I fear Starbaby is getting better at this the more you have him back on!

This guy is funny as hell

Great podcast.

Minute 20 unlassified footage compilation was great!

Amazing story teller and memory. I can’t remember what I did last week :)

TQM ! QAF ! Quality Air Force ! WOOOOOOO ! (OMG, what a horrible time).

Well,i find it interesting listening partitionaly,i was trying to find a part where pilot Pietrucha maybe talk about some of his pilot colleges hit train on bridge in valley of Grdelicawhen 13 civil people died in that mission(atack).Still,its weird watching how pilot Pietrucha speaks about it in possitive manner,puting akcent on beef sandwiches and Italian food in 4 star hotel between missions…I was 9 years old and i remember fear and anxiety…and happines because we were not going in school in that period,we had more time to play foorball on street,offcourse only till siren for air danger alarms.Nothing personal for crew,no bad blood but we can not forget that.Greetings from Serbia.

Cool and funny stories. this is what a great content should be like. thanks Steve , Starbaby and all of SMEs.

Hell yeah!

Star baby has got to be my favorite. As a scale modeler I appreciate getting close to a jet I’m building . Castle air museum is a wealth of opportunities for this purpose as I am building 3 RC-121 Warning stars

I was an Avionics Test Engineer at Robins AFB starting back in the early 80's. I wrote the Automated Repair Software on the ALR-56A, C RWR High Band Tuner for the F15A, C, E. Like most engineers, we are just cogs in the wheel. I retired in 2019 and the Test Software Package had been rewritten since the 90's for newer test platforms... but was basically the same test strategy I designed in the early 80's and 90's. To you F15E drivers that flew in harm's way... Did the system 56C deliver better than the 56A that I cut my teeth on as a Test Engineer. I worked 36 years in EW on the F15 and the F16 mainly RWR systems. Like I said we never really were in contact with the drivers unless we were knee deep in QDR.

Awesome video oingo boingo

Combat Proud…that was a Doc Foglesong thing to make bases pretty. I was a crew chief in the 494th from 92-95 and again 98-2000, probably launched you out a few times. Mine was 91-0605.

14:55: “How resistant is the airplane I fly to nuclear shockwaves and EM pulse resulting from weapon deployment?” “You don’t need to know.”😂

Great music! Oingo Boingo?

I couldn't fly a flag yet love these interviews.

More please.

What's better than Starbaby stories? MORE Starbaby stories! ;) It's always a fascinating evening listening to you gentlemen.

HUD Cheems in the background clued me in that this would be good.

I love the doge cheems in the hud in the eagle !😂🙂🙃

Thank you, I really enjoyed this, great interview.

I didn’t know Rich Evans was a WSO

Come on, Starbaby, let's do "Elusive Victory" over Vassal for either a milestone or for a charitable cause! (I'd also be willing to do "World at War", if there's a Vassal module for it!)

I love the culinary diary.

Starbaby Never Disappoints and if he ever has I don't remember it! Lol Should have been a General dammit 😁 When does pt 2/4 drop? 😉

Was a crew chief in the 494th 97-99 great times

Damn Starbaby, idk what the hell that music was, but some AC/DC or Mötley Crüe would have done that video way more justice.

Great interview. Will we get to see those clips that Starbaby talks about towards the end ?

There's one thing I won't ask Starbaby. And that's 'for his mixtape'.

What type of weapon are the ones where we see from the bombs perspective? Like at 21:24

For own reference 01:19:30

Starbaby is such a legend

Bucket of raw fish, aka pickeld herring ? Yum.

Random fact: Ontario has 250,000 lakes. About 20% of the world's fresh water. Sorry Finland :) Yes, I am full of other useless facts if you need them! Great interview and amazing footage. Thanks!

Love ❤️ it

Audio is out of sync from 1:22:41 looks like more than a minute offset for the rest of the interview. Great interview though

We're having some technical difficulties with RU-vid, in that the system took a 17 second clip that was supposed to be deleted and made it the whole clip. Stand by...

So far my favorite part has been "schwanze dance"

The US-only ATO! Rumour has it that one night Porsche flight tagged on to the US-only ATO in the north only to have the US-only ATO cancelled - the entire ATO was scrubbed. Porsche flight fell through the cracks because they were on the NATO ATO and didn't get the word. Porsche lead was a ground abort and through a series of judgement errors the wingman was cleared single-ship (!!!). In Vicenza the big board showed one solitary F-15E attacking from the north without another asset within hundreds of miles. Charge!! Rumour has it Gen Short lost his mind. All rumour of course, but WAY more than 10% true.

I was munitions expediter, Zulu Loop supporting 555th, 494th and 492nd Fighter Squadrons during Allied Force. It was 12+ hour roller coaster ride from 2400 to 1200 humping AMMO for the Falcons and Eagles. Great time and the Strike Eagle is one bad ass weapons platform. Rudy AMMO 1981-2007

The “Q” word! I instinctively yelled out “that’s a $ buck!” and no one had any idea of what I was talking about.

Missing the full video now?! 😢

The NSI environment at the Heath SUCKED......... ADD to that the non-stop deployments......Northern and Southern Watch. 113 Combat sorties flown right out Lakenheath.

Starscream transformers 1986

Starbaby is a national treasure.

Starbaby For President!!!!

So that is why we couldn't shot down any of the Eagles in '99 - they were blessed.

HIgh speed cheerleader....xD

"Ive' never forgiven the stealth guys for BS'ing me before the war", this is what makes Starbaby such a grat guest, he'll call anyone out when he has to. My ancestry's Jugoslav too, all my father's side of the family had to leave Jugoslavija & became refugee's in Canada, Australia and one distant cousin in Illinois, USA. Mother's side's Serbian, they're all stil there. I live in Ukraine. The doom just follws my family line everywhere. heh :( You can't make this s**t up....