F-4G Wild Weasel in Desert Storm: Spike Benyshek 

"Tuna" Fisher here (fourth from the left, front row, kneeling in the squadron photo from 1991, part of the PEF and attached to the 81st for the war). I have some corrections/additions/embellishments to add to some of the stories Spike told about flying out of Turkey in 1994 for Provide Comfort (protecting the Kurds in northern Iraq). Being crewed with Spike for this deployment was highly entertaining. We both have a fairly similar sense of humor, so we had about as much fun as you can have drilling holes in the sky waiting for something to happen (and it never did during that deployment). First, our MiG story. We both liked the idea of being the first F-4 to shoot down a MiG since the Yom Kippur War, and the first American F-4 since Vietnam to do so. There was no AWACS supporting us that day if I remember right, and we were weapons free, meaning that if the MiG went north of the 36th Parallel in violation of the no-fly zone, then we could shoot him. We fully intended to do that. We were fangs out, ready to do so. I had identified him as a MiG-21 based upon the radar he was using (our detection system was fantastic), and we tracked him, ready to shoot as he flew north towards us. In my memory, he turned a mere mile short of the line, and flew west, parallel to the line, before turning south. Damn! We can't shoot him! He then turns eastbound, then north, then descends, slowing down. We continue to track him, and he continues north, speeds up, and climbs. We get excited again, ready to shoot, when he repeats his turn to the west and then south. As we watch this repeat, we realized this poor gomer wasn't trying to mess with us. He was in a practice pattern for his airbase, just doing low approaches. But if he had screwed up and flown one more mile to the north.....! As for using the speed brake wells to drop stuff, we dropped more than just sea dye markers. We also took pork patties from our MREs and stuffed them in the speed brake wells. We would drop down from high altitude over northern Iraq, boom the Iraqis (we were later told to stop doing this by our "bosses"), and then approach the Iraqi army troops doing their early morning calisthenics in formation. We came from behind, at about 600 knots and at 100 feet above the ground, and fanned open the speed brakes, ejecting the pork patties into the turbulent mass of air and "atomizing" them into pork dust over the troops below us. We felt we were somehow dissing them/defiling them based upon their beliefs. Of course, they had no idea, but just surprising them at 600 knots and 100 feet was enough to scare the crap out of them and make them scatter. Loads of fun. One more related story. We grew bored of sea dye markers and pork patties and wanted to do something more outrageous. We had noticed a concrete windowless building below us during several missions and deduced that this was the sector operations center (SOC) for the local Iraq air defense district. What a great target! But booming them wasn't enough. The thick concrete walls would dull the sound of our jet passing overhead. What to do? We decided to take some D-cell batteries and load them into the speed brake well, and then perform a low angle bomb pass on the SOC, dropping the batteries. But it didn't work. The batteries got stuck on some ridges in the speed brake well. So, this was my moment of brilliant inspiration. I suggested we use some oranges and grapefruit from the chow hall. Insert a battery, wrap it in duct tape, and place in the speed brake well. By doing this, the fruit would roll out freely, and once it hit the airstream it would "vaporize", leaving the battery to continue the trajectory and impact the SOC. It worked like a champ. Imagine being inside a concrete block building when about 10 D-cell batteries going 500 knots hit the side of the building. I imagine it was quite noisy. I doubt if they penetrated far into the concrete, but still........ BTW, most of the upside-down flying was done by me and Spike, not our wingman. For some reason Spike loved to hang in the straps. I was not so fond of it. Many more stories, not enough time to type them all out.

This is hands down the best interview I have seen since I came home from desert storm. I was a wild weasel crew chief at George Air Force Base. This brings back so many memories that I can’t count them. What an honor to have served with these men. It was always humorous to me that after that Spang jet crashed from fuel starvation, and they took the wings off, put it on a flatbed trailer, and some local rear ended the truck that was carrying this plane back to base it, I took photos of the airplane sitting there in a pile, but I never pilfered through it. It was just a relic of the war in which we kicked ass.

During Desert Storm I was a KC10 Boom Operator, and we often supported the Weasel Ops. One mission we took off from our base at Jeddah and met the F4Gs around Kuwait, and flew up the Saudi border with them. If they picked up a radar, they would tell us "Orbit here" and off they would go into the night (it was about 2am). They would come back with some of their HARMs gone, and we would continue up the border until they told us to orbit and wait for them. They ended up shooting almost all their missiles that night, then we drug them back to around Kuwait, keeping them topped off. What a great aircraft.

Hands down, THE best military aviation content on YT.

I'm active duty WO in the Hellenic Air Force with 28 years of service , my dad was a pilot , I've spent my whole life in the aprons , I've listened to countless air stories (also lived some myself) but this IS GOLD !!! Fabulous Phantom !!!!

Spike, I don’t think we flew together but I was at the 563d at George 86-89 and 561st at Nellis from 92-95 but was mostly flying at the 422 with Toomey and Dowden. The guys from Spang mentioned you a lot as they filtered into Nellis, especially Ned. Great memories. I was on an exchange tour 90-92 with the USN flying Prowlers off of the USS Kennedy during Desert Storm. I missed being a weasel for the war but ended up with 1000 hours as an EWO. My daughter went through Columbus when you were still there, because she mentioned there was “this legendary Weasel pilot instructing in 38s named Benyshek” (she was on the heavy track for KC10 reserve slot at Travis, now flies C-17 at McChord and A320 for Delta). You bring to life the chaos of our existence despite all of the incredible training we had. PS, I knew Star Baby really well when he got to Nellis. Great guy. Be well! Hoops.

I was a weapons loader at George AFB, CA from 1976-1980 and 1982-1991. I have 15 yrs working on the F4C/E/G.

I was a weapons loader on F-4Gs from 1990 to 1996. Started at Spandahlem and finished up with the Weasels at Nellis. I did deploy to Shaikh Isa. After the war had settled down, I remember one late night at the little “gym” we had there. Myself and another airman had a brief but enjoyable conversation with Spike that evening. That was just prior to the move to Dahran. Glad to see you are doing well sir! Thanks for the great interview!

Great stories/memories; thank you for taking the time to share them.

Having been a HARM shooter WSO myself with the German ECR´s from Lechfeld, I really enjoy to listen to your WEASEL related podcasts. Brings back many memories!

Spike was one of my instructors in UPT… one of the best! FILO!

Back again...and delighted to say so! Brilliant interview~! Better screen presentation than the OV-10 bit, I can see his pointer!! Sooo cool! Spike, you should be a public speaker if you're not already! Man, I love these stories! I've shared this string of stories with ALOT of my pals! Keep up the good work! God Bless!!

I expected a good interview from a Weasel but this is just absolutely superb. One of the most enjoyable videos on the channel.

Great memories Spike, thanks for this! I didn't realize we got to Spang at the same time. I think this was the best assignment (outside of being JSTARs crew) in my career. Definitely some of the best people and best experiences ever.

I spent 4 years working with the Wild Weasels both at George AFB and the gunnery range about 60 north of George, Cuddeback air-to-ground gunnery range. This was from 1975-79. For the first three years they were flying the F-105G and then in 78 started converting to the F-4G.... so there was a bit of an overlap period. By 79 the Thuds had been transferred to the Air Force Reserves.... somewhere in Georgia as I recall. So by then the F-4G were the only Weasel unit at George. Working at the Cuddeback range was something I really enjoyed, especially because it was so small and the aircraft were extremely low and close to us. Very small group of people worked there most of whom either took a Huey that flew back and forth from George once in the morning and back to pick everyone up in the evening. There was an even smaller group of people who lived at the tiny facility at Cuddeback out in the middle of the Mojave Desert totalling about 6-8 people. Great assignment.

One night during Desert Storm, I'm CICO in my warship. Listening to the net a strike package begins to check in the radio. All of the sudden the strike lead said ".....any beers up?", and in reply quickly said "COORS41 flight up!". The whole CIC busted up laughing!

Great interview! Good to see Spike again after all these years, we went to F-4E RTU together at George AFB.

Wow so nice to see this! Great story and photographs. Brings back good memories, seems just like yesterday working AMMO for all those F-4's. Thanks for posting. Paul "Rudy" Perron USAF AMMO 1981-2007 561st Deployed AMMO

Awesome episode. Definitely need to hear more from Spike on ANY subject!!

I have an awesome photograph of an aircrew standing in front of their Ww F 4, At Mildenhall airshow 1981.

Man this brings back a flood of memories. I arrived at Shake Easy in early September as an augmentee to the 35th TFW. Was in transportation. We had to build the enlisted tent city to the north of the chow halls. It was MRE'S for the first month until they got the chow halls up and running. There was no South Loop until November when it was finally built. The main ramp was packed with aircraft. The Air Force had F-4G's, the Marines had A-6's from Cherry Point, F/A-18's from El Toro, and AV-8B's from Yuma. The Harriers left in early October. Watched the Patriot launch right over our heads, stood there in awe, then realized holy shit, Scud attack! Got our gas mask and chem suit on in record time. Went out and seen the bomb crater the next day, couldn't believe how big the crater was. Between Christmas and New Years was when the additional Fry's from Spang, and the RF-4's from Bergstrom and Nevada Air National Guard came in. We sent a tractor/trailer up to KKMC and loaded up the wreckage and brought it back to Isa. Was an incredible seven months of my life.

Great interview and amazing candor for Lt. Col. Benyshek. Also happy to hear the ALQ-131 EW pod did it's job and kept he and WSO safe with that SA-2 launch

The Weasley’s are my favorite have photo albums from air show 70 thru the 2000 and have an F-105G at McClellan AFB 1979

Spike rocks! Thank you for this experience!😊

Enjoyable tales. Was after my time at Spang in the G (left in 82) but supported the Weasels from Eglin (SEAD flight) until the very end. As Spike says, best flying ever! ET

Great interview ! And the calssign "Lola" 😂. Cheeky, Spike !

Great interview! Thank you! 👏👏👏

Excellent interview, Spike!

Always great to see F-4 content. Just finished the "Tug" Wilson episodes, awesome stuff.

Another magnificent episode with alot of details and stories, hopefully he'll be back for more.

OV-10 Bronco and F-4 Phantom, my favorite USAF planes. Awesome stories!

I love a good slide show. Thanks!

Great interview, I enjoyed it a lot...

Great episode, Spike was great.

Spike! Another great session. It’s been a hoot watching your videos and hearing your stories. Cheers, Jason 🍻

Thanks so much! 1:49:36 of the best entertainment ever!

Yeah so. I know you like the faster planes but I am obtusely fascinated by the bronco. And that 😊platform type seems to be seeing a renaissance. So I reckon another interview on that subject would be welcome if spike is willing!

I was in tents (not intense) at the base. Nice to see some old stuff. CNN asked about the base before it was common knowledge. I came with the RF-4C's but worked all of them in shop.

Anxiously waiting for this one, time to dig in!

Urgent Fury was Grenada in 1983; Just Cause was Panama in 1989

The content of this channel NEVER disappoints! So, so good.

Loved the interview!

Great friggin interview. Beer and popcorn.

Great interview!

The Cunard Countess, the cruise ship for R&R, looked different from the fancy ship in the TV show because they were different ships. The Love Boat was not a Cunard ship but a P&O Line ship. Most of the scenes of The Love Boat were filmed onboard the Pacific Princess. I enjoyed the great number of photos used in this video. Excellent.

Spike and LA are both friends of mine Great Videos

I am 6'3 and sat in a pit of the F4 and I felt like a jolly green giant... it was so small and uncomfortable... then I went and sat in a Viper pit and it was like sitting on my recliner at home.. it was so comfortable..

Hope you're doing well. Don't take too long of a youtube break, there's lots of people who really enjoy your videos. I admire the cap badge and that dark blue wine bottle is something special looking

Amazing interview! Nothing but respect for these flight crews of the weasel. I was lucky enough to work on the F-4G sim program for the AF from 82-96 (George, Spangdahlem, and Clark). Getting ARN-101 into the trainer was a highlight (as well as going from the 38->47 and all the various updates). I was able to finally fix the visual/sim interface so the tanker didn't jump all over the place when trying to refuel. Best job I ever had. I remember that it wasn't very often that a 'sim' sortie made it back without taking a sam/aaa hit (hard slap on the side of the trainer, kick the flight controls under the cockpit, then start taking an engine out). So glad that wasn't the typical case in the real world. Awesome jet and crews, could listen to these stories all day. Keep up the good work!

This interview is brilliant many thanks for sharing gents thoroughly absorbing Your channel Steve is sensational

I was stationed at George AFB back in 84 to 85 as a Fuels Specialist so I guaranteed I refueled your F-4 back then. Loved being stationed at George back then. Some of my buddy’s later deployed during the Gulf War. 7:08

Great interview Lola!

Love the pics and the stories. I would really like to hear more about the OV-10. It was my dad’s favorite aircraft in Vietnam (marine recon) and they were still flying them when I was stationed next to New River in 1993.

Great stuff...some of the years best, “a must see” for aviation fans and those in the know about all things Weasel...”You gotta be shitting me..!”

This Is amazing

Wow what memories....I was assigned to the P-3's there with ya......

Good stuff!! I was with 2/325 82nd Airborne over there…. 11b1p.

I remember well those Wild Weasels (SJ AFB) at Nellis in 1983. I took some photos

I was with the AF security forces at Shaikh Isa (Shakey's) arrived XMas day 1990. I regularly visit two F-4s now in The National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. They have an F-4G Wild Weasle and an RF-4 Recce. Short drive for me to go out there. I was on a mobile security patrol on the flight line, the night the war started.

Awesome video… very true on all details, including that Scud attack. Had it not been for the Patriot missile it would have hit us. Big crater. You could tell where the Scud went and what direction the camels took off running 😂. A day or so after that attack, I spoke the Army Patriot missile operators and I asked about the whole incident. They told me, they were on “Death Star mode”, automatic fire. When the Scud came into their sector, it automatically shot two missiles; that caught the missile crew by surprise - they were on a smoke break and “all of a sudden the battery fired”. . As the missiles took off, supersonic, they broke the sound barrier; that was the first “explosion”. Then they came into contact with the Scud, that was the next series of explosions. I think I went to the site the next day or so with SSgt. White my cameraman: 33d Combat Comm Sqdn, Tinker AFB. I was a USAF Capt, and we provided communications for the 35th TFW…

top level content

L,O,L A Lola….. It’s a keeper

I worked on the radar (F-4E and G had the same APQ-120) and remember Pat Pence telling me he locked up a MiG during the war but was told to knock it off and let an F-15 take care of it, but the MiG was gone by the time the F-15 got there. Regarding the potential encounter of an incoming MiG-29 and trying to blast it with a HARM, the pilot did have the auto acq function (nosewheel steering button) to lock up a fighter that popped up in front of the jet and hit it with an AIM-7.

Great interview. One of your best yet. Almost as good as Paco 😅

I was there with GAFB.

The Fact is the Phantoms problems in Vietnam wasn’t due to it couldn’t manuver.. But that the Phantoms had to engage in Gunfights with missiles that failed 90% of the time with pilots who wasn’t trained to Dogfight Due to the BVR ONLY Doctrine of that day. However when you had WWII pilots who knew how to Dogfight they would became ACEs in the phantoms, and when had Dan Pedersen the founder of Top Gun and the other trained Top Gun phantom pilots who was able to change the ratio from a 2:1 to 24:1 with the phantoms during the end of the Vietnam war ( which you never hear about) combined with the outstanding job of the Wild Weasels , I would say you would be hard pressed to find a greater all around Fighter than the F4 Phantom !

YGBSM. 121.5 or 243? Worked with a 2nd seater once. Cool guy.

Try to get Spike and Starbaby on the same podcast. Also hire some riot control people...

16:02 thank you for that too funny

the mission was IRON HAND when the A8 did this in Vietnam

22:48. Totally missed the reference due to audio. (Still gets to me).

Hes a great interviewer.

Legend says Stroke 3 still defending somewhere out there

I may have misheard, but Operation Just Cause was invasion of Panama. Operation Urgent Fury was Grenada. I may got them messed up, but forgive my obnoxious comment.

James "Dibbs" Dibble says hi to Spike and anyone else in the F4G community from that era! I'll bet a few of you know each other. Dibbs is my big brother.

The F-4, flew like a bus with 2 great engines!

OMG. The picture on Spikes wall. I had that as a poster from a jet magazine when I was a kid in the 90s and am since the looking for it. Any Ideas, where to find it? Thx :)

Gee Bruce (Spike!), I didn't realize that you could grow a mustache!

Worked on the Eand G models at George and E models at Osan

Assuming it’s fit for general public release now, I’d really love to hear the cockpit tapes mentioned 47:00 in. It would make for a wonderful comparison with the wild weasel recordings on Wikipedia from Vietnam.

Ah, there was just as many criminals back then, sir. You just didn't know it.

41:30 😂😂😂😂. I got that euphemism

Bob also has another meaning.

You need to talk to my golfing buddy Fred Olmsted! Shot down two Mig’s during the Vietnam War.

Looks like Steve needs a Kinks concert t-shirt 😆.

I agree we were ALL scared but it only got worse when they set the oil wells on fire and NOT many Airforce Planes came up with us being Navy (another story about that)

Did you ever work with the A-6's hunting SAM's?

The Iraqis would not be able to hear UHF communication (RT 1168) due to its unique styled 'encryption' methodology

Great presentation! Does he know what happened to Maj. Lamb-Lambo?

Lola FTW

@13:00 Grenada was Urgent Fury. Just Cause was Panama. Jus sayin

ASU - USA

Bob is my mom

Lost respect when he made that dumb Biden comment, at least our current president knows Putin isn't our friend. This guy should too.

2 minutes in and your guest’s comments turned me off to what just may be a potential great video. Keep your personal ideologies to yourself on a informative video.

JP233, Durandal?

LOLOLOL - Says astronauts were his heroes..... Including the ones that staged the moon landings