Colonel Hockensmith is the pilot of this F-16. It was taken by an Air Force photographer during Operation Bright Star, a joint training operation with the Egyptian Air Force, when he was at Hill AFB in Utah in 1981. He is my brother-in-law.

Rolland,
Thank you very much! I have a colorized WWII picture of a C-47 Skytrain flying over the same piece of ground. I never had to do a Bright Star, thank God.

I really appreciate the picture, and will provide attribution whenever I share it.
I never get tired of seeing F-16 pictures. Flying them was definitely the high point of my life.

Thank you, very much.

I don't know if it was "bright star", but I did a week long training det with the Egyptians in 1995. Roughest runway I've ever experienced, full of lumpy, poorly filled potholes. It would beat the crap out of you and the airplane on the take off roll, it was a huge relief hitting rotation speed and finally being able to get away to smooth air.

Other than that it was a fun det. Kind of wild west... I will never forget my favorite ATC clearance: I was requesting an opposite direction high-speed low flyby with a pop-up hard turn and 270 to reenter for the break. (to motivate the ground support troops) I tried to keep it very simple, but the tower controller was having a hard time understanding. Finally a supervisor with better English came on the radio and said: "(callsign), do whatever you want." Talk about a license to rage!

And now back to your normally scheduled gunsmithing topics...

If only a tower had said that to me JUST ONCE in my inglorious career. I always liked the E-6.