23/11/2010 – Vu sur le web anglophone
US, French pilots swap, bump elbows on first deployment
A U.S. Air Force pilot traded spaces with a French Air Force pilot who moved into a different American flying squadron, but now both are serving simultaneously at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, on their first deployments with the new units.”I never thought we’d be here at the same time, especially on our first deployments,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Skyler Hester, an instructor pilot currently assigned to the French 1/3 Fighter Squadron. “We’re doing great things out here, supporting the ongoing missions, and I’m hearing that they’ve absorbed him pretty well in his new squadron.”Major Hester, originally an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot, is now operating the French Air Force’s Mirage 2000D aircraft. He took the place of Maj. Yann Malard, who is now with the 75th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron currently deployed from Moody, Air Force Base, Ga., flying the A-10C Thunderbolt II. Both made the swap under the foreign exchange pilot program. Lire l’article >>