Keith "Rosey" Rosenkranz Interview - By Ryan "Kosmo" Cowley - Page 1 of 2
[Frugal's World] First, thanks for taking the time to do this Interview. How many years did you serve in the Air Force?
[Keith] I served eight-and-a-half years in the Air Force.
[Frugal's World] I think many people would be surprised to hear that your first choice for a flight assignment was. Tell us what that was and why?
[Keith] When I was a student at California State University at Long Beach, I used to watch the brand-new KC-10s fly into Long Beach Airport, where McDonnell Douglas was located. I knew one of the KC-10 bases was going to be March AFB in Riverside, California. I left Los Angeles in April 1983 to attend UPT in Lubbock, Texas with every intention of getting a KC-10 back to my hometown. I figured I would build up my hours in the KC-10 and eventually get an airline job.
On assignment night, I received a T-38 instructor position, which meant I would remain at Reese AFB in Lubbock. The entire time I was there, I still had my sites set on getting that KC-10 to March AFB. A few of my friends who flew T-38s with me were former fighter pilots and they were constantly telling me I should fly a fighter. We had a program called “Buddy-Wing,” which gave pilots an opportunity to visit another base for a couple of days; fly in one of their jets; and see whether or not they would be interested in going to that command as a follow-on assignment.
I had an opportunity to visit Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, where I took a four-hour flight in a KC-10. At the end of the flight, I felt as though I had seen everything one could ever see in a KC-10. I asked the pilots who were flying it what they would do if they were in my shoes. They told me they would try to fly a fighter. They said they weren’t getting much flying time and they didn’t like sitting alert in the Middle East for long stretches at a time.
I wanted to be challenged so when I returned to Reese AFB, I changed my dream sheet to reflect an F-16 as my first choice. The rest is history!
[Frugal's World] Serving in any branch of the Armed Forces can often be met with great personal sacrifice. You missed the 1st and 2nd birthdays of your twin daughters. What do you consider the greatest price you paid to fly and fight in the F-16?
[Keith] I graduated from F-16 training in December 1988. My twin daughters – Candice and Kristen – were born three months earlier. I left for Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, on a one-year remote assignment when they were four months old. By the time I returned from the Gulf War in March 1991, I had missed 21 out of the last 24 months of their lives. Their mother did an outstanding job taking care of them, but the separation from family was a difficult one. It was a heavy price to pay, but I was proud to serve my country in the capacity that I did. I wouldn’t change anything that happened.
[Frugal's World] What did you enjoy most about flying and fighting in the F-16?
[Keith] I would have to say the challenge of it all. When I strapped in, I felt as though I were sitting on the end of a rocket-powered pencil. The power was immense! Flying a few hundred feet above the ground in the middle of the night at over 600 miles per hour … it doesn’t get any better than that!
[Frugal's World] What do you do if you have to go to the bathroom in the F-16?
[Keith] We carried what we called “piddle packs.” They are plastic pouches with a dried sponge inside. The first thing you do is make sure the autopilot is on. Since the seat is tilted back, you have to pull the rudder pedals all the way out and stand on them to ensure you can get your lower body high enough to get a downward flow going. Your head is scrunched up against the top of the canopy and you are doing everything you can to make sure it doesn’t spill. When you finish, you tie it off and set it on the floorboard.
[Frugal's World] Can you take snacks on the plane?
[Keith] I carried two box lunches with me in the cockpit when I deployed to the Middle East. During my combat missions, I kept packages of granola bars in my flight suit. After our bombing runs, we would egress from the northern part of Kuwait and fly across the Persian Gulf back to Al Minhad AB. Once I was settled above 30,000 feet, I would put the autopilot on; break out my granola bars and a bottle of water; and reflect on the mission.
[Frugal's World] Is flying really “fast” scary?
[Keith] I was never scared of the speed. You learn to adjust your thinking and situational awareness to the speed at which you fly. You have to stay ahead of the jet mentally and physically. If anyone was scared, I would have to say the people on the ground were. I can remember flying in Korea during the summer. The rice fields were lush and a beautiful green. If there was anything flat, the Korean farmers planted rice there – even on the sides of hills.
I can remember a couple of times when I was egressing off target at nearly 600 knots. Flying through the hills and valleys, I would occasionally come upon a farmer tending to his field. They could never hear the jet until it was right on top of them and there was always a fraction of a second when I could see the whites of their wide open eyes as I flew by. Do you think they can still remember that?
[Frugal's World] Do you ever fly by the tower and make the commander spill his coffee like in Top Gun?
[Keith] Only if you want your wings to be taken away!
[Frugal's World] Do you know Tom Cruise (my wife insisted I ask this) ?
[Keith] I think a better question would be to ask if Tom Cruise knows me?
[Frugal's World] What are some of the weapons you employed during the war? Which is your favorite and why?
[Keith] I dropped a lot of different weapons during the Gulf War. If my memory serves me correctly, I dropped MK-84s; MK-82s; CBU-87; CBU-58; CBU-52; MK-20 Rockeye; and MK-120 Leaflet Bombs. I also fired ten Maverick Missiles.
My favorite weapon was the Maverick Missile. That thing came off the rail with over 10,000 pounds of thrust! There was an incredible “whoosh” sound and the fire from the exhaust lit up the sky around you, though just for a brief moment. I scored ten kills on the infamous “Highway of Death.” I have to admit it was quite an ego boost to fire that weapon.
[Frugal's World] Did you encounter any air-to-air engagements during Operation Desert Storm?
[Keith] I never saw a single Iraqi fighter during my six-month stay in the Middle East. None of the friends I flew F-16s with in combat did either. However, a classmate from my Air Force pilot training class flew F-15s during the war and scored two MiG kills.
[Frugal's World] What was your scariest moment ever behind the controls of an F-16?
[Keith] During the last week of the Gulf War, I was leading a two-ship into Kuwait. I had a pair of Maverick missiles on board and my wingman was carrying four canisters of CBU-87. The sortie took place at night and the weather was extremely poor. I think the clouds were solid from 7,000 to 30,000 feet.
We took off out of Al Minhad and I completed the entire rejoin on the tanker while in the weather. I didn’t even pick up the boom until I got to within one hundred feet of it. Once we were over Kuwait, I was descending in an attempt to lock up an Iraqi tank near an airfield called Ali Al Salem. I locked the tank up and dropped below the cloud layer. As soon as I took my shot, I pulled to the right and then rolled up to the left to see the kill. Around the time the tank exploded, my wingman – who was flying at a higher altitude and in the weather – asked me what my position was.
Our floor during combat was 5,000 feet. The commanders didn’t see a need for anyone to go below that altitude. Doing so would subject us to more small arms fire and the risk of being shot down was much greater. When my wingman - Geoff “Grover” Cleveland - asked me my position, he called out the wrong steerpoint. While trying to ascertain where I was, I broke a cardinal rule and stopped flying the jet.
While looking at my bearing pointer and distance measuring equipment (DME) off the steerpoint I knew we should be on, I had a funny feeling something wasn’t right. It was extremely loud inside the cockpit and the controls were extremely sensitive to my inputs. It reminded me of the first ride students used to take once they began training in the T-38. We used to take them on a supersonic run to show them the handling characteristics of the jet while going supersonic.
While flying the F-16 that night, I felt the same way I did when flying with a student on his or her dollar ride in the T-38. I knew I was going a lot faster than I should have been. I looked down at my attitude indicator and saw that I was 30 degrees nose low. Then I looked at my HUD and saw that I was passing through 1,600 feet. I pulled back on the stick as hard as I could. I don’t know how low I actually got, but it scared the crap out of me.
I recovered the jet; got one more Maverick missile kill; rejoined with Grover; and flew back to Al Minhad AB. During the flight back, a part of me didn’t know if I was dead or not. I can still remember it as if it occurred yesterday.
[Frugal's World] Inversely, what was your most humorous moment?
[Keith] It’s hard to look back at the combat missions I flew and find anything humorous. We were always so serious when we flew. I do recall a mission I flew with Carlos “Jackal” Nejaime. Carlos and I flew a large number of missions together and we were a great team. One night we were dropping on an Iraqi Republican Guard AAA site in either southern Iraq or northern Kuwait. I came off target after dropping my bombs without being fired upon. Less than a minute later, Carlos called off target and said AAA was being fired at him. My reply, which was kind of stupid, was “Copy, move the jet.” Though I obviously didn’t need to, I was simply trying to remind him to jink in an effort to make it harder for the gunners. Carlos calmly replied, “Thanks!” When we were back at Al Minhad going over the film in the debrief, all of us laughed at the exchange.
[Frugal's World] Did you take any life lessons with you after having fought in the war?
[Keith] I almost “bought the farm” a couple of times during the war. Having said that, I kind of look at my life since then as “gravy.” Seriously, though, I found out a lot about myself as an individual from my experiences during the war. I’m not as strong as I thought I was. There were some difficult times emotionally for me when I was in the Middle East. I missed my family terribly.
One thing I did learn was how to separate my emotions from the job at hand. I killed a lot of people during the war. That’s a difficult thing to live with sometimes. When I came in to brief each night, I knew soldiers were going to die. I thought about them. I thought about their families. When the canopy closed, however, I was all business. That may sound callous, but people who read this should know I never dropped a single bomb or fired a single missile with any hatred in my heart.
[Frugal's World] What do you say to those who suggest the U.S. led allied forces should have continued toward Baghdad at the end of the Gulf War and finished the job?
[Keith] Iraq invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990. President George Bush made his first speech condemning the attack six days later. During this speech, President Bush outlined America’s goals: The removal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait; the protection of American lives abroad; to bring stability to the region; and to come home when we were through. At no time did the President talk of going to Baghdad; removing Saddam Hussein from power; or setting up a new government. President George Bush reiterated these goals a number of times in the months that followed. He reiterated them once again during his State of the Union address after the Gulf War had started.
Only 148 Americans died from the result of combat during the Gulf War. If you recall, one suicide bomber was responsible for more American deaths – 236 – in one night in Beirut a few years earlier. The President and his administration took a lot of criticism for not continuing on toward Baghdad to remove Saddam Hussein. But had he done so, he would have had to use ground forces. The only support for such an invasion would have come from the British. The rest of the coalition would not have supported this. I know this from private meetings in which I have spoken directly to former President George Bush; Vice President Dick Cheney; Secretary of State Colin Powell; and former Secretary of State James Baker about this particular subject.
Had we taken American ground forces to Baghdad, hundreds more would have died and people would instead be saying: “President Bush told us for months he wasn’t going to do this. My son is dead now because of the decision he made to send ground forces to Baghdad! Why did you lie to us President Bush?” It was a no-win situation for the President, but he made the right decision as far as I’m concerned.
[Frugal's World] Why not carry the war on for just a few more days? We could have killed a lot more of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard.
[Keith] I flew over the “Highway of Death” every night during the last week of the war. I saw the Iraqi soldiers as they tried to escape home to Iraq. They were defenseless and killing them was as easy as playing a video game. It was easy for people … the media … to suggest we continue killing them off. I was one of many who was doing that. It was like shooting fish in a barrel and I didn’t get any enjoyment out of that at all. In fact, it still bothers me to this day. I often felt that if the media wanted these people killed off, they should come and do it themselves.
[Frugal's World] What about those who say that President Bush is no longer in power and Saddam Hussein still is?
[Keith] I will tell you what I told President Bush when I met with him and he asked what I thought of that statement. I looked him in the eye and said, “Great leaders are judged by what they accomplish while serving, not by the length at which they serve.”
