Fighter Pilot with Air to Air Drone Shootdown | Homeless to the Cockpit | Ryan “Stinger” Fishel
About This Episode
This episode is also brought to you by CrayonEater Coffee. We’re proud to support CrayonEater coffee coming to you from, you guessed it, some former Marines (and current law enforcement officers!) You can order yours now at CrayonEaterCoffee.com
Join our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan for people who love and support our veterans, service members, and their families. It has info on a significant event in military and/or intel history, a funny military joke, an update on a current event I'm following, something I'm doing that week in my life, a book I'm reading, a look at an upcoming interview, a reflection on a past episode and more!
=====
Today we hear a fascinating Combat Story from an active duty and currently serving F-15 Eagle fighter pilot, Ryan “Stinger” Fishel whose been involved in some of the most recent combat operations we’ve talked about on the show, including Syria and Iraq in Operation Inherent Resolve fighting ISIS.
Ryan has an absolutely remarkable story of how he found his way to the Air Force that included a Forest Gump-like path of hustling and fighting for any flight time he could get in the civilian world, to include incredibly risky and sketchy flights shuttling aircraft from the US to various countries in the Caribbean. At one point, Ryan was living out of his car and working in a grocery store deli before a moment on a beach changed his perspective on life.
I would ask you to please listen through Ryan’s story to get to the cockpit because it makes what follows (his exploits inside the aircraft) so much more special, to include an air to air shootdown in hostile skies of a drone, a stand-off and near international incident with a Russian fighter, and dropping danger close ordinance literally in neighboring buildings as friendlies were fighting ISIS.
I am so excited for you to hear one of our best combat stories with insight into the fighter pilot community I’d never heard of before from a long time Combat Story listener and active duty pilot and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Find Ryan FishelOnline: - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-fishel-a258591b9/ - The Merge https://www.themerge.co/
Show Notes:
Ryan “Stinger” Fishel
Chapters
- 00:00Intro
- 00:55Guest Introduction (Ryan Fishel)
- 02:15Interview Begins
- 02:22How Ryan met Ryan
- 04:22Taking advantage of Podcasts and Veteran stories
- 05:53Callsign Origin
- 07:20The role of a Flight Weapons System Officer
- 08:55The role of a Fighter Pilot
- 12:39Suprising people become a Fighter Pilot
- 14:21Determination to become a Fighter Pilot
- 15:41Training route
- 17:05Childhood
- 25:35Living out of the car after highschool
- 32:37Path into Aviation
- 43:29Selling airplanes
- 51:18Black Diamond Jet Team
- 56:42Path to the Airforce through OTS
- 59:09Trainings and tests that put Ryan ahead
- 01:01:36Advantage and disadvantages through intesne training
- 01:04:409/11
- 01:06:40F15 Jets
- 01:10:38Being the 'new guy from flight school'
- 01:17:18Sharing oral history
- 01:20:42The best roast jokes
- 01:23:21First combat mission
- 01:31:12Processing pulling the trigger and danger
- 01:39:56Crazy radios and the road to flying F35s
- 01:59:05Dealing with aftermath stress of combat
- 02:04:14How to deal with mortality
- 02:11:44TheMerge.co
- 02:12:43Sentimental item
- 02:13:58Would you follow the same route
- 02:15:03Envisioning the next 10-15 years
- 02:16:36Listener comments and shout outs
