Red Flag

I just got back from a 2 week TDY at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. It was freakin AWESOME! Nellis is the "home of the fighter" at least that what it says as you drive on base. Speaking of which, I've really been rethinking what I want to fly, and becoming less enchanted by fighters, they and especially fighter pilots are not nearly as cool as you always dream of growing up. While there I got to fly in a C-17, B-52, Huey, and Pave Hawk helicopters, and a C-130 on a low-level mission acting as Red Air (enemy) trying to avoid getting shot down by F-22, 15s, and 16s.
The 17 was cool, very new and advanced, floated a little bit in my seat when we did a little negative G action. They have a similar mission to the C-130, but seem to be babied more than a 130, so not as cool. The B-52 was cool just to be in a 52, but we didn't really do anything, just flew really high and released an ordinance (not really just simulated). They are really old and "not as nice."
The highlight was getting to act as a down pilot. They flew us to the middle of some restricted area we won't talk about, and dropped us with off with a flare, radio, signal mirror, compass, and other fun stuff. At the prearranged time (that we crashed) I sent our coords on the radio. An A-10 called back asking us for our info, and instructed us to signal with the mirror so he could get our exact location. We were on a hill overlooking an "enemy complex" and three guys came out of the village with rifles, so I called in the A-10 for cover. Just about the time, I was getting impatient cuz they were getting closer I saw a silent gray frame zipping up the dry river bed at a lower elevation than our 60 foot hill. The hog pulled up just enough to clear the hill after dropping flares because the complex shot off a "smokey sam" but made another pass to make sure he had taken care of them (they were now laying down acting dead) and it started raining little while fuzz from the flares. In a little while a black dot came down a nearby ridge, which turned into two dots that instructed me to pop my flare when they gave me the signal to verify it was really us. They circled twice to find an area to land, there wasn't enough room on our hill so they just put their front landing gear down and out rushed some of the scariest giants I have ever seen, the blast from the pave hawk was so strong it picked me up and slammed me against our down aircraft (an old van) but didn't even phase the PJs who grabbed us and threw us in the helos which proceeded to blast out of the canyon barely clearing ridges to get us back to safety. IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME.
So this is really long but the trip was awesome, the low level mission in the 130 was bout as cool as the rescue, I got to sit in the bubble on top to look for the guys trying to shoot us down. A few times I thought we were going to hit the dirt we were flying so low, but we still got "shot down" every time we had to cross open flat terrain.
The strip in Vegas was cool, but got old quick, I perfered the hike on Mt. Charleston which was probably the most intense hike I've ever done, 9 miles one way with about 4,000 ft gain on the way up, then there was the 9 miles back down.
Again, when on TDY you get a per diem on top of regular pay how freakin awesome is the AF, u should join...