Chapter Five -part eight

   The ROCAF pilots were all waiting in the largest briefing room available when Squadron 21 marched in to meet them. The entire squadron marched into the room together. The ground crews and enlisted all formed up along the back of the room. They remained standing at attention as the 13 pilots of Squadron 21, lead by Jeremy, marched up to the stage in front of the room and turned to face them. Jeremy stepped up to the podium and released everyone to be seated. The 13 pilots behind him remained standing and starting from lowest rank to highest each of them took one step forward to introduce themselves. Jeremy then introduced himself before calling everyone to attention again as James stepped forward from a door behind the podium area. James smiled as he stepped up to the podium, but he said nothing as he studied the ROCAF pilots for a moment. When he did speak it was a short welcome in Chinese.

   James saw the shock cross several faces as he issued that short welcome. Then switching over to speaking English he sprang his next surprise. "Gentlemen, I want to apologize to each of you for being so forward in my attempts to shock you, but I assure you it has a very real start of your training. Both I and Lt. Colonel Jeremy Adams were there to escort you all the way in from the coast, though I doubt any of you were aware of us before we reached the air space at Luke AFB. I didn't make our presence known to you for a reason. We were flying the most advanced stealth fighter ever built, the F/A-48. We were never out of direct sight of you for the entire flight and yet you were never aware of us. The purpose was to demonstrate one of the reasons the F/A-48 is the supreme fighter jet in the air. It is my understanding that in the recent past many of your fellow pilots who trained here felt that they received something less than the best available training. Well gentlemen, I assure you that you will be trained by the best and against the best."

   "Now in case some of you don't already know who I am, I will introduce myself. I am Colonel James Andrew Cooper. You may be more familiar with my call sign, Ironman. I am commander of 21. You will be flying for me and with me until your training is complete. Now I want to be very clear. I will do my best to make you the best pilots possible and I expect the best from you. That said I want to address an issue I have already seen developing. I suspected it might be an issue and that is one of the reasons you have been treated as you have. I noticed that many of you seemed to be either amused or angry that women escorted you in. I hope that you noticed that almost a third of our F-35 pilots are women. At this time I will direct your attention to the five additional pilots who are temporarily assigned to the 21st. They fly F/A-48's." James pointed to the five pilots who were stepping up to take a place by the others.

   Smiling he asked them to introduce themselves. When they were done he continued where he had left off. "As I told you I noticed a reaction to the women pilots. I saw it again when three of five F/A-48 pilots were women. Gentlemen, all of these women can and will out fly any of you. They are among the best we have. In fact all of these pilots are among the best in the world. Now you may have come here expecting training similar to what those before you have received; that won't happen. Now that we have that straight I want you to take notice that over a fourth of the rest of our squadron are women too. These women help to ensure the readiness and performance of Squadron 21. I know that in China and the Republic of China women are far outnumbered in the military. In fact they are the exceptions in actual combat positions. That isn't the case here and I warn you that if you fail to recognize and treat these women with the respect they deserve I will deal with you personally." James smiled at them, but there was no smile in his eyes as he watched them for a long moment before he continued.

   His next action was to dismiss everyone except the actual pilots. With those he spent the remainder of the briefing going over the basic training plan. It was much the same as the prior plans in the classroom, but once in the air it was totally changed up. The ROCAF pilots quickly sat up and became very interested when they began to learn about the actual flight training plans. They would be flying both offensively and defensively. They would be flying against not only F-35's, but also the infamous F/A-48. James made it clear to them that he would play no favorites. He intended to try and teach them how to win, but he also intended to let them know how impossible that would be against an F/A-48. He also promised each one of them a chance to fly against him personally, the man who had made the 'Dragon' run and hide. That challenge had wiped smiles from their faces, but it had put fire in their eyes and hearts too.

   Brigadier General Holt had been watching and listening over a closed circuit feed. She didn't want to be seen directly involved, but she wanted to be involved and aware of everything going on with this new class of trainees. She had agreed to the plans James had submitted, including all of this, but it had been a cautious agreement. James had assigned each of the ROCAF pilots another wingman in addition to the one they had arrived with. On any given day they might be flying with their original wingman, their new wingman, their wingman's new wingman, or any combination of those. James had made it clear that in combat situations they might have to fly with strangers and they had to be ready for that. After the briefing James went to go over things personally with Holt. The next day classroom training would begin along with some simulator training. The simulator training was mostly so James could watch the new pilots and get a feel for how they would fly.

   Things went smoothly during the classroom training. James watched the young pilots closely in the simulators. They were good, but like most young pilots, they were too sure of themselves. James spent a lot of time going over those simulator flights. He tried to point out mistakes and ways they could improve, but he also looked for patterns and weaknesses in each of them. It took time, but he found what he was looking for. James spent almost as much time going over what he had found with his own pilots. James knew that when they had completed training those young ROCAF pilots should be far better pilots, but he intended to be certain that his own pilots were even better. James had little doubt of the outcome when the F/A-48 was pitted against the F-35, but he was concerned about making the outcome the same when it was F-35 against F-35. That would be a true test of a pilot's skill and tactical thinking. If he couldn't get the same results there it would be a failure in his mind. His goal was to make them fear American pilots, not just a certain American plane.

   The first few actual training flights were simple ones, at least they should have been. James saw what he had expected happen in all of them though. The young ROCAF pilots were too eager. They would see an opportunity to get a kill and break off from the battle plan they had been given. And they were winning battles and getting kills, but often at the cost of completing the actual missions. They were growing more and more confident with each kill, despite taking extreme criticism for their failure to follow orders and complete the missions. That too was expected.  They thought that beating American pilots who were supposed to be training them was more important. James watched as his own pilots stuck to the mission plans. They were often beaten because they did and they didn't like it at all. James spent several long evenings convincing not only those same pilots, but also Holt that he knew what he was doing. Finally James gave the orders and let his own pilots react to whatever the ROCAF pilots did rather than just stick to the original mission plan. The results were immediate and profound. The ROCAF pilots were suddenly getting beaten on every mission. Not only were they beaten, they were beaten badly. They failed to complete their missions and usual they failed to survive the mission. Meanwhile the pilots of squadron 21 seldom even got hit once James released them to react without regard for the plan no matter what they were flying.

   The weeks became months and still the other half of the ROCAF class hadn't arrived. James couldn't help wondering about that, especially since he was reminded of it at every meeting with Holt. She wasn't to blame for that though. She was taking a lot of heat from above over that situation. It seemed that many politicians in Washington now worried about the training, because of the beating the ROCAF pilots were taking. They failed to see how much those same pilots were actually improving. And they were improving with each mission. It had taken time, but they had finally begun to listen and even follow the instructions they were given. The results were they were surviving and sometimes they managed to survive and complete the missions! It might not seem like much of an improvement to the politicians, but it was a clear improvement in the eyes of all the pilots involved. That was when the next big surprise showed up.