Badges - Great story of aerial combat

From: "Dan E Hubbell" <sogteama1@xxxxxxx>
To: "BADGES" <badges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:20:56 -0500
Great story of aerial combat


This came from a gent who runs a 2000 acre corn farm up around Barron , WI, not 
far from Oshkosh . He used to fly F-16s for the Air Guard and participated in 
the first Gulf War. Submitted for your enjoyment, and as a reminder that there 
are other great, magnificent flyers around besides us.

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- -

I went out to plant corn for a bit to finish a field before tomorrow morning 
and witnessed The Great Battle .. A golden eagle - big bastard, with about a 
six foot wingspan - flew right in front of the tractor. It was being chased by 
three crows that were continually dive bombing it and pecking at it. The crows 
do this because the eagles rob their nests when they find them.

At any rate, the eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, then landed 
in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. This eagle stood about 3 feet 
tall. The crows all landed too, and took up positions around the eagle at 120 
degrees apart, but kept their distance at about 20 feet from the big bird. The 
eagle would take a couple steps towards one of the crows and they'd hop 
backwards and forward to keep their distance. Then the reinforcement showed up.

I happened to spot the eagle's mate hurtling down out of the sky at what 
appeared to be approximately Mach 1.5. Just before impact the eagle on the 
ground took flight, (obviously a coordinated tactic; probably pre-briefed) and 
the three crows which were watching the grounded eagle, also took flight 
thinking they were going to get in some more pecking on the big bird. The first 
crow being targeted by the diving eagle never stood a snowball's chance in 
hell. There was a mid-air  explosion of black feathers and that crow was done. 
The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G climbing turn, 
using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow #2 less than two 
seconds later. Another crow dead.

The grounded eagle, which was now airborne and had an altitude advantage on the 
remaining crow, which was streaking eastward in full after burner, made a short 
dive then banked hard right when the escaping crow tried to evade the hit. It 
didn't work - crow #3 bit the dust at about 20 feet AGL. (Above Ground Level)

This aerial battle was better than any air show I've been to, including the war 
show at Oshkosh ... The two eagles ripped the crows apart and ate them on the 
ground, and as I got closer and closer working my way across the field, I 
passed within 20 feet of one of them as it ate its catch. It stopped and looked 
at me as I went by and you could see in the look of that bird that it knew 
who's Boss Of The Sky. What a beautiful bird!

I loved it. Not only did they kill their enemy, they ate them.

There are no noble wars-- Only noble warriors 


 
Dan E. Hubbell
101st Airborne Division (Airmobile)
Sgt., RVN, 69-70
sogteama1@xxxxxxx
sogteama1@xxxxxxxxx
Badges - Great story of aerial combat

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