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Libya - 16 April 1986 “You Might Want to Pull it Back…”
Major Brian Shul (8 Feb 1948 - 20 May 2023) was a USAF fighter pilot, and I think it’s fair to say an all-around badass….who flew over 212 close air support missions in Vietnam. In 1973, he was shot down in his T-28 Trojan near the border of Cambodia. He was unable to bail out of the aircraft and subsequently suffered severe burns all over his body. Enemy fighters in the area delayed his rescue, and friendly forces could not immediately identify his location. His extraction from the jungle was met with fierce enemy fire. Fortunately, he was safely extracted and survived despite his doctors initially believing he had little or no hope of living.
Shul miraculously recovered and went on to fly the A-7D Corsair, A-10 Warthog, and SR-71 Blackbird. On 28 July 1976, SR-71, serial number 61-7958, set an absolute speed record of 1,905.81 knots (2,193.2 mph or 3,529.6 km/h ), approximately Mach 3.3 but that record would soon be beat…not officially of course.
In April 1986, the U.S. ordered the bombing of Libyan terrorist camps following an attack on U.S. soldiers in a Berlin disco. On the 16th of April, Maj Shul and his reconnaissance system officer, Major Walter Watson, were tasked to over-fly the camps and photograph the aftermath of an F-111 attack.
Well, it turns out that when you are second to the party after your buddies laid down some destruction, you will generally key up a nation’s air defenses. In the mid-1980s, Libya had a host of surface-to-air-missile systems that could shoot missiles upwards of Mach 5.
As Shul and Watson cruised over Libya, they were collecting valuable intel on the damage inflicted by the F-111s, but soon Watson detected several missile launches targeting them. The flight was already tense and Shul had already pushed the aircraft near the top end as they cruised at 3.2 mach. The cockpit was quite for a moment as the jet pushed through the sky when Watson broke the silence with “push it up.” Shul assessed the gravity in Watson voice and placed the throttles full forward. 3.3, 3.45, 3.5 mach…as the jet was still climbing. On that day, and every day the SR-71 flew, they outran surface-to-air missiles. In all, it is estimated over 4,000 missiles were shot at SR-71s — not one ever striking the Mighty SR-71 Blackbird or rather “Habu.”
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