The Real Story of Slate 46: The F-14 Tomcat Shot Down in Desert Storm

Early morning on January 20th, 1991, fighter pilot Lieutenant Devin Boots Jones and his Rio Lieutenant Larry Ratslade launched in a VF103 F-14A plus Tomcat off of the USS Saratoga located in the Red Sea. This was their first combat mission of the war. They were assigned what was called an HVUAP, high value unit combat air patrol.

 They were escorting an EA6B prowler on a strike against Al-Assad air base in Iraq just north of Baghdad. So Boots and Rats ATO call sign was Slate 46. So on day four of the war, the coalition had already lost 13 airplanes. At the outset of Desert Storm, the Iraqis had a formidable integrated air defense which included AAA medium-range SAMs like the Roland, a French system, and longrange SAMs like the SA2, as well as an air force that presented a significant air-to-air threat.

 So Boots and Rat knew this wasn’t going to be any walk in the park. So they transit the several hundred miles to the target. And as the Prowler shoots its high-speed anti-radiation missile harm, Slate 46 maintains a combat air patrol station nearby. So there’s a cloud deck at 20,000 ft, which means that the Tomcat crew cannot see the ground.

 This is a problem when you’re in a high threat SAM environment. And in fact, they get indications of an SA2 launch. But because of that cloud deck, by the time they spot the missile, there’s not enough time to react. Boots attempts a lastditch maneuver as he spots the plume. And when the missile explodes, it puts the Tomcat into a flat spin.

 A few rotations into the flat spin, Boots realizes that he’s not going to be able to recover the airplane. So he calls for ejection. Both crew get good shoots and they drift apart. In fact, the last time either of them see each other is as they enter the cloud deck. So during the descent, the Rio rat pulled out his survival radio and made a transmission which was acknowledged by the Awax.

 The pilot Boots was not wearing gloves and he was afraid that if he attempted to pull his radio out because he couldn’t really feel his hands, he’d drop it. So, he did not make any transmissions during his descent. So, of note in terms of survival radios, Rad had a PRC 1112, which was an upgraded version of the survival radio that had GPS capability and better homing features than the previous radio which Boots was carrying, which was the PRC90.

 So, the Tomcat crew both land safely in the desert. They’re pretty far apart, so they don’t see each other. Also, they can’t communicate on their survival radios. Now, the Prowler they were escorting makes a Mayday call, but misidentifies the downed aircraft as one of the A6s that was in the strike package and not a Tomcat.

 So, that misid causes some confusion between the Awax and the JRCC, the Joint Rescue Command Center. And as word continues to come in, they think two airplanes have been shot down, an A6 and a Tomcat, when in fact the A6 that was damaged, diverted to Saudi Arabia and landed safely. So the JRCC tasks Socks, Special Operations Command Central with the rescue.

 Socks headquarters located at RR very close to the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. And they start to do mission planning. So the song commander basically has three assets at his disposal. He has Navy HH60s, Air Force MH60s and Air Force MH53s, the Pavel. So early on in 1991, the MH53 was the most advanced helicopter of those three.

Actually had GPS, which was kind of a new thing. In fact, no other aircraft, fixed wing or rotary wing, had GPS besides the MH53. And that comes into play during the rescue because they believed that two Navy aircraft had gone down. The Navy assets, the HH60s wanted the mission and the squadron was HCS45. But the weather at RR was terrible.

 They were basically fogged in 000. So the only airplane they could fly safely in those conditions was the MH53. So the CO there gave the missions to two MH53s. So they started their mission planning. The two Pavlo pilots were Air Force Captain Mike Kingsley and Captain Tom Tras. Now, as they’re quickly doing their planning for this mission, because time is of the essence, they get word that in fact only one airplane has been shot down.

 It’s an F-14 that the A6 diverted to Saudi Arabia. So, Mike Kingsley goes back on alert status while Tom Tras gets his crew ready to launch. So, as Tras and his crew are planning, they get word that communications have been established with the pilot Boots. And so they have a general location of where he is.

 Also, that area is deemed as not high threat. So, in terms of the timeline, Slate 46 was shot down about 6:20 a.m. local time. And Tras takes off in the Pavel about 8:05 local time. Based on the transit time and his air speed, which is maxed out at about 140 knots, they guess he’ll be to the survivor about 09:30 a.m. local time. So moccasin 05 launches in a very heavy fog and starts to transit to where they believe Boots is.

 As they cross the border, they inadvertently fly over an Iraqi outpost. And subsequent to that, they get warnings that Iraqi SAM sites and AAA sites have started to become active. So they’re on even higher alert as they make their way across the desert. So, the crew of moccasin 05 knew that Rat the Rio had the PRC 1112 and they were banking on that they’d be able to find him easier than they would boots.

 But unfortunately, Rat’s radio was not working once he got on the ground. Plus, they were flying at extremely low altitude to avoid the surface air missile threat and that reduced the effective range of the survival radios. So, as moccasin 05 is in transit, the JRCC starts to build other elements of the rescue package. specifically Air Force A10s that were based at King Fod Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

 So, Air Force Captain Paul Johnson and First Lieutenant Randy Gooff were supposed to launch earlier that day out of King Fa Air Base and fly to King Khaled Military City to man the alert and their ATO call sign was Sandy 57 and 58. However, they were delayed getting airborne because there was bad fog there as well as there had been at RR.

 So, as the fog burned off, as soon as they launched out of King Fod, the Awax directed them towards where they thought Boo was. Shortly after that, Moccasin05 gets word from the Awax that Iraqi mages have taken off and were headed towards them. So as these bandits get closer, Tras hovers in a wadi, which is a ravine in the desert, in an attempt to hide from these makes.

 The Awax gives them the call. The bandits are passing directly overhead. As they also vector F-15s against them, and as a result of that, the bandits do not loiter. They flee before they can get sight of the helicopter. So with that crisis averted, moccasin 05 continues to where they believe boots to be. Next thing the Awax says is that four Iraqi helicopters have taken off and they’re headed towards moccasin 05.

 And then they hear on the emergency frequency a broken English voice saying, “This is rescue. American pilot. This is rescue. Come up voice.” So unlike the MiGs, Tras is not concerned about enemy helicopters. He’s got significant firepower on the Pavel. So he just keeps going. And ultimately those helicopters turn around and land back at their airfield.

 Now moccasin gets to where they believe Boots is based on the voicecoms that were established, but they don’t see him. They also don’t see the F-15s above them. Now the Prowler that was part of the original strike package that Slate 46 was escorting is still overhead kind of as the onseen commander. And the report that the initial coordinates transmitted by the AOX were terribly inaccurate.

 That Boots is actually 50 mi to the north of their current position. So moccasin 05 loiters in the area that they thought Boots was for about 25 minutes. They can’t find him now. They’re out of fuel. They got to return to RR. So, reluctantly, they do that. So, meanwhile, on the ground, Rat tries to dig a hole using his knife, but the ground is too hard.

 So, he’s just lying there flat in the middle of the desert. And about 10:30 a.m. local time, he spots a white Dodson truck. Inside are two civilians. They’re both armed with rifles. They see him and they take him prisoner. He was not able to establish comms using his PRC 112 before he was captured. Meanwhile, Boots is walking east. Then he heads northwest.

 So, he comes across this blue water tank, and the ground there is soft enough that he can attempt to dig a little bit of a foxhole. So, he does that. Boots thinks back to the combat search and rescue brief that they’ve been given. And he figures that he won’t be rescued until nighttime. He also complies with the CESAR procedures and that he comes up on his prick 90 every hour in the hour and makes a transmission, shuts the radio off to save battery, and then does it again the next hour.

 So, he does this for a few hours. At some point, his small truck pulls up to the blue water tank. As the truck pulls out of sight, he flips over and exhales and he looks down in his sleeve and there’s a black scorpion on him. So, he shakes it off and kills it with his survival knife. So, that was kind of an eye openener. So, meanwhile, the A-10 Sandy 57 and 58 launch and they get word that the helicopter has returned to RR to get gas.

 the survivor had been unable to be located and so they get redirected into a Scud Hunter mission. So in the early part of the war, Scuds were a big deal. The Iraqis had Scuds and they were afraid they were going to launch them at Israel and that would drag Israel into the war and the coalition very much didn’t want to complicate the picture by having Israel involved in Desert Storm.

So finding the Scuds was a high priority mission. So after 90 minutes of Sandy 57 and 58 not finding any Scuds, they hit the tanker. Once they’re done refueling, they check back in with the Awax, expecting that they’re going to be sent back home, but instead they’re rerouted back to the seaar effort.

 So, the A-10s are overhead the general area that they believe the downed Tomcat crew is. Captain Johnson is transmitting Slate 46. This is Sandy 57. How do you read? He does this a number of times. Finally, Boots comes up on his prick 90 and says, “Sandy 57, this is Slate 46. I’ve read you loud and clear.

” Now with voice comms established, the A-10 can steer to Boots’s radio. So Captain Johnson does that, realizes that Boots is directly north of him, not sure exactly how far. So at first he asks Boots, “Can you hear me?” Boot says, “I can’t hear you.” And eventually he can hear them. And he directs the A-10 to his position.

 As they get closer and Boots doesn’t see any trucks or any other threats around him, he shoots a pencil flare, which Captain Johnson gets sight of, but he still doesn’t see Boots. So Boots continues to describe his position relative to the water tank and the Wadi and other things around. And all of this is taking place on an open frequency cuz unlike the PRC 1112, the PRC90 is not an encrypted radio.

 So the Iraqis can hear the comms that are going on. And by this time F-15s have been vetored over the site as well. So they can hear as well. There are starting to be a lot of people on this frequency. So meanwhile in the fuel pits at RR moccasin 05 with Captain Tras can hear these comms as well. And their original tasking was after they refueled they were going to fly the airplane to a maintenance facility for a routine maintenance.

 But Captain Tras petitions his CO and says, “Look, we know the situation cuz we’ve been there once. Give us this mission.” And that request is granted. So once they get a full bag of gas, they launch again and head back into Iraq. So they’re getting latitude and longitude information from Sandy 57. Sandy 57 does not have GPS.

Sandy 57 has an INS, inertial navigation. So early ’90s inertial navigation systems had a tendency to drift, especially the longer you were airborne. And by this time, the Sandies had been airborne for a few hours. The Latin long they were relaying to the moccasins was off by a considerable distance.

 So as the moccasins approach the Latin long they were given the sies report that they’re going to have to hit the tanker once again and that kind of frustrates Captain Tras. So he transmits just give me the survivor’s location. So instead of relaying the coordinates on an open frequency, Captain Johnson uses an encrypted frequency to relay that information to the Awax.

 So the Awax just starts to vector Moccasin 05 without giving away the survivor’s location. So the Awax relays that Sandy’s tanker is 150 mi away, which is not the right answer for Captain Johnson. So he requests that the tanker vector towards them, which will actually put the tanker over Iraq, which violated the doctrine at the time, but the tanker crew was there to help.

 They had an America on the ground, so they did what they were asked and actually flew over Iraq. First tanker to do so during Desert Storm. So they meet halfway. The Sandies get topped off and return to where Boots is. So Tras and his crew are plotting the location is relayed by Johnson. They realize that he’s farther north than they thought.

 And now they’re going to have to cross the main highway between Jordan and Baghdad, which is well traveled and a high threat. So they know this, but pressing on is not an option. So they keep going. So they relay their intentions to Socks HQ. They don’t get any push back. As they cross the road, they spot a lot of heavy traffic, but nobody stops or appears to shoot at them.

 So they figure they’re okay. Then suddenly Awax reports that a Roland SAM site directly in front of them is active. And the SAM site also appears to be very close to where Boots is. Because the moccasin crew had done their homework, they knew exactly how close they could get to the Roland threat ring. And they skirted it perfectly.

 They got indications the Roland was tracking them, but fortunately it never fired. So at that point, they orbited beyond the Roland threat ring and waited for the A-10s to get back on station. A10s report back on station. Captain Tras in moccasin 05 says he’s in the vicinity of the survivor and the A-10’s relay. No, you are not.

 So again, Captain Tras figures that the difference between the GPS location and the INS location is substantial at this point because the A-10s have been airborne for some time at this point. So what they wind up doing, A10s drop down to 1500 ft and they find the payloads because of the voicecoms. They’re able to get bearing lines to them and they finally get their tally.

 At the same time, because there’s so many different airplanes on this frequency, the F-15s are asking for a lot of superolous information. So Johnson just says, “Get off the freak. All I want up here is Sandy Moccasin and the survivor.” And so the F-15s stop talking and they have a clear net. About that same time, Boots comes up and says, “I see the helicopter.

” So Boots is vectoring him in. Tras is homing in on his radio signal. Unfortunately, because it’s an uncovered net, Iraqi forces are doing the same things. So, there are two armed trucks heading for boots. So, the moccasin 05 door gunner, Sergeant Ben Pennington, spots the trucks and he relays that to Captain Tras.

 Captain Tras, in turn, transmits to the Sandies, “We’ve got movers approaching at 11:00.” Captain Johnson responds, “What do you want me to do?” And moccasin 05 says, “Smoke the trucks. Smoke the trucks.” So, the A-10s immediately set up an attack pattern. Johnson rolls in first. He just misses the lead truck. His wingman rolls in, hits the truck with a bunch of 30 Mike Johnson rolls in again, does the same.

 The second of the two trucks gets the hint and turns around and departs the area. So after that little distraction, Tras immediately asks Sandy, “Where is he?” And Captain Johnson replies, “Just land next to the burning truck.” So as he’s about 500 meters out and entering his flare for landing, he sees Boots stand up and run towards them.

 Captain Tras directs his two PJs aboard, the special operators to go meet him. This picture was taken from the cockpit as that happened. So, as soon as Boots and the PJs are back aboard, they launch and start to head back south again. Now, they have to cross this main east-west highway from Jordan again. So, before they get there, Captain Johnson asks Captain Tras, “Do you want to find a quiet spot or do you want to blast your way through?” Trash picks the quiet spot part.

 So the A-10s do a little bit of a road wrecky, find a less dense spot in the road and direct the H53 to cross the road there, which they do. So the Pavlo has 140 mi transit at 20 ft. When they get over safe country, the A-10s bid them farewell, head back to King Fod. By the time the A-10s land, they have logged 9 hours of flight time.

 So the Pavlo continues its transit without the A-10s. And this footage you see here is them landing at Aljuf and Boots getting off the helicopter and being greeted by the SEO there. Obviously, spirits are very high. A great day for this Pavel crew and for Boots. So, Boots got a quick checkup there and then returned to Saratoga. Meanwhile, Rat was taken to Baghdad where he became one of the 23 American PS during Desert Storm.

 He and the others were repatriated on March 4th. Boots and Rat were awarded fighter pilot and Rio of the year in 1991 as a result of their courage and skill demonstrated by each in different but both meritorious ways once they hit the ground in Iraq. Now I later served both with Boots and with Rat. Boots and I were rag instructors together at VF 101 a few years after Desert Storm and then Rat and I were together in VF 102 a couple years after that.

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