Passion for flying helped F-16 pilot soar to record

A passion for flying is behind the latest in a string of world records set by Lt. Col. Mike Brill, who crossed the 6,000-hour mark piloting an F-16 Friday while on a combat mission in Iraq.

The Air Force Reserve pilot assigned to the 419th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base was among the first pilots assigned to the F-16 when the fighter was new. He has stayed continuously ahead of his class by being the first to reach a steady string of flying-hour landmarks. Currently, only 21 pilots among the 24 nations whose air forces fly the F-16 have reached the 4,000 mark and only one other has logged more than 5,000 hours.

In a telephone interview from Balad Air Base near Baghdad, Brill, known by his peers as "Brillo," called his latest record-breaking flight both routine and exceptional.

"Most of what we have done in the past two months is, in the simplest term, just make noise, just keep the bad guys hunkered down in their holes right now, where we've got them and keep them there," he said. "We're up about 10,000 feet above the ground. At that range the F-16 is about impossible to see but you can very clearly hear it. Its a comfort blanket on the ground to hear that noise; but also for the bad guys on the ground, if they hear it, if they do anything like shoot a rocket or a mortar or small arms, we can get our sensors on that position in a matter of minutes and put a 500-pound bomb right on top of them."

Brill was expected to reach his latest landmark last Tuesday but dust storms in Iraq kept U.S. aircraft grounded earlier in the week. The "bad guys" have exploited the dust storms, and the absence of the overhead roar of the jets lets them know when they're not being watched, Brill said. "When it hasn't worked, the results have been pretty predictable. We've been hit pretty hard."

The remarkable part of Brill's Friday flight, or sortie, is his choice of wing man, Brig. Gen. Burt Field, Brill's classmate at the Air Force Academy and current combat commander.

"General Field asked me several weeks ago if I would let him be my wing man. I'm not used to telling generals 'no' but I could if I had wanted someone else. But I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather do it with; and it was fun because as we got back, even as busy as his schedule is, we sat in the (recreation) room of the squadron, and they had a cake for me, and we sat there with the young captains and lieutenants and reminisced about the good ol' days back at Nellis (AFB in Las Vegas) for probably an hour before he went back to work. So it was a pleasurable way to do a sortie."