On April 18, Capt. Brian Udell, an F-15E fighter pilot from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, will acknowledge the second anniversary of that fateful day. There will be no celebration, because he lost a friend and coworker – weapons systems officer Capt. Dennis White. Yet on that bitter-sweet night, Udell miraculously survived one of the fastest known ejections in history at more than 780 mph.
But exposing his virtually unprotected body to supersonic speeds had its price. And Udell’s story is incredible.
Assigned to Seymour-Johnson AFB, N.C., at the time, Udell and White took off at about 8:45 p.m. in a four-ship formation. The F-15E’s were to fly out over the Atlantic, split into two groups and engage each other as simulated friendly and enemy forces – part of routine training.
“Two of us would head north, and two of us would head south,” Udell said, simulating the route of the aircraft with his hands. “Then we’d turn around and come at each other like we were in a jousting match.”
Actually, at night, the aircraft used radar to ensure they’d never come dangerously close to each other. At a predetermined distance, they would turn around, head back and do it all over again. Udell and White were in one of those turns when their tragic saga began.
