|
 Excerpts
From:
THE
RED BARON MEETS THE BUDDHA
-
- - - - - -
by
Mark Williams
Mark J. Williams was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force from
1985 - 1992. He received his M.A. in Religious Studies at
Naropa University in 1996, where he first met The Dzogchen
Ponlop, Rinpoche. Mark remains a part-time reservist for the
U.S.A.F. and currently resides with his wife and daughter
in Boulder, Colorado.
AERIAL
COMBAT TRAINING
Ten years ago,
I trained and served with an elite group of warriors. I flew
the
F-15C during the Gulf War with the 58th Tactical Fighter Squadron,
the most decorated air-to-air combat unit of the war. We had
16 shootdowns, half the kills of the war. I participated in
a number of these.
I no longer fly
jets, but I can't shake the warrior's take on training.
VIEW
I was a "poster-child"
for the fighter pilot life - attitude, intensity, and aggression
- and I loved it. For a Type A bachelor kind-of-pilot-guy
like me, life didn't get any better. At 24, I'd been selected
to fly the F-15C, the premier air-to-air fighter in the world,
and I intended to make good on this. All of life fell under
the rubric of discipline and practice. I devoted my life to
cultivating the skills of a first class fighter jock. Body,
speech and mind were completely dedicated to mastery. I stayed
in shape so I could pull more G's; I spent hours at the temple
- the bar - studying and debating tactics and techniques to
improve my knowledge; in my spare moments, I visualized combat
scenarios in my mind's eye, meditating on the possibilities,
move by move. I would fly anywhere, anytime, with anyone,
practicing like my hair was on fire. After all, death was
the business at hand.
My goal was to
join mind, body and jet into a seamless union that would operate
flawlessly in the heat of battle. With single-minded determination
I pursued the Holy Grail of combat flying, situational awareness,
or SA. SA is the panoramic view that correctly discerns the
composition of a hyperdynamic battlespace. Only practice cultivates
SA, and the practice usually found me roaring through space,
closing on adversaries at Mach 2 with three other jets, radars
sweeping, trying to paint a picture of friendlies and "bandits."
At 80 miles separation,
it's two minutes from firing range and four minutes from passing
"beak to beak." Radios paint the changing canvas
of planes in motion through space. The cadence is clipped,
each player contributing information to describe the evolving
picture. "Pennzoil 21, bandits bull's-eye, 320 for 40,
three groups, possible champagne, engaged." Consciously
processing all the information is impossible. The information
pours in like the ticker-tape of stock quotes on a busy trading
day. Everything you see and hear - from radio calls to radar
and heads up display (HUD) information - describes a piece
of the four dimensional puzzle that is the battlefield at
that instant. Chaos and unpredictability reign in all ten
directions, pitching the intensity. Only two things remain
constant: change and the need for a relaxed and receptive
mind.
When mind is unclouded
and flowing with the engagement, SA blossoms. Thinking or
conceptualizing detains the mind and freezes the frame, losing
the view. Situational awareness "sees" without stopping.
SA demands an intuitive seeing in the mind's eye, like the
inkblot that suddenly morphs into a young woman. It rests
in the dynamic experience of the battlespace itself and unfolds
as the information flows. With SA I know the composition of
space, the movement of enemy fighters and their relation to
friendlies, who has the advantage or disadvantage, and most
importantly, whether or not to strike. Lacking SA, the thousand
arms of Avalokiteshvara clash in discord and fail to strike
the enemy. With SA, the swords strike a thousand targets without
pause, in unison, precisely.
**************************************************** |
