5:00 AM, Federal Republik, Deutchland. Rrrrinnnnngggg!
Mav's Wife: Honey! Time to get up! Don't forget you have that early DACT [dissimilar air combat training] against the Solingen [Canadian] F-18's all this week!
Mav: Wait a minute! You mean we're not at war? Maybe I was a dreaming! Maybe ALL of that was a dream! Maybe I never even went to TAC!
Narrator: Excited about the prospect that he still may be tactical ["tactical" was a word we used to describe things that were combat-oriented and desirable], Maverick heads for the airbase. He is greeted by a 2LT with an F-16 patch... [by the time I returned to Spangdahlem in 1989, the F-4E's had been replaced with F-16's and we flew together with them as "mixed pairs."]
2LT: Good morning, Sir. I'm your student for this DACT upgrade sortie.
Mav: You mean I'm an ACBT IP? [Air Combat training instructor pilot]
Scene: Spangdahlem [Air Base, Germany] O'Club
Viper [F-16] guy: Cow [Cow Lane, converted Weasel pilot] man, you'd better drive Maverick home. He's really drunk.
Young Pilot: Come on Maverick! Tell us about your dream!
Maverick: Well, Okay, first I went there as a 400 hour 4 ship flight lead and left as a 1000 hour 2 ship lead [true]...then they said I couldn't lead DACT or be the ACM bandit [a third plane that attacks the two that are practicing]! Also, everybody liked to fly around IFR [under radar control]! They did box [simple bombing] patterns and tried to avoid [as opposed to attack] other fighters! And the chain of command...Wow!
Young Pilot: No!!!!