Chapter 29

In the months following the rodeo, the maintenance and avionics crews worked double-time inspecting and repairing the Starfires. At first, it was all hands on deck, focusing on the Starfire’s. The pilots, however, were unable to keep up to date with their skills. They were able to get as much time as possible on the simulators, but there were only so many simulators available and too many pilots.

When the safety committee and the command group released the Starfire’s there was a rush for the pilots to get back in the saddle, so to speak.

Thad was just as anxious as everybody else to get back to flying, but he wasn’t willing to have everybody just flying off without direction. So, he called for a pilot’s meeting.

As Thad came into the ready room, it was the usual crowd talking until he called out. “Alright, everybody, let’s quiet down.” When the room was silent, he said, “OK, folks, the command group has lifted the grounding, and we are now able to resume flight operations. Starting today and for the rest of the week, we’ll be playing a little game. A little game called foxes and hounds. We’ll be pairing up as two teams. Today, team A will be with team B, and team C with team D. The object of the game is that A and B teams will be the Hounds, and C and D teams will be the foxes.”

“The foxes will have a 30-minute head start to hide. By hide, I mean you will go stealthy and avoid detection. After 30 minutes, the hounds will start looking for you. You can use anything that you have available, but the object for the foxes is to hide and the hounds to find them.”

“There are two objectives to this little game. First is to learn how to search and sharpen your skills in finding things that, for whatever reason, don’t want to be found. Second, you will learn how to hide from anybody looking for you, learn what is effective and what isn’t.”

“You’ll need both of these skills if we ever get into trouble.”

“Later, we will change how many hounds are searching for fewer and fewer foxes.”

“Now, if there are no questions, let’s head to our Starfire’s and get started”, Thad concluded. Looking around, he could see a lot of eager faces.

When Thad reached the flight deck, He found Bradley ready and waiting. As he stepped to the left side, he noticed that under the cockpit access hatch was painted, “Thad Sawyer, Commander,” followed by “Barney Lambert, Crew Chief.” On the nose of the ship was a stylized horse with “Freya” under it.