European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 25, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday november 25, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 9 the ultimate fighter Job stories photos by Dave Diehl la. Col. Rod Kelly yeah we re the  Bui Kelly says that with out what he Calls some of the Best fighter pilots in the air Force the aggressor training would t be Complete. The basis of the aggressor Mission is the aggressor Pilot Kelly said. The qualifications for team members arc rigid. Before being considered for the Job the pilots must have at least 500 hours in a fighter have been an air to air instructor Pilot and have been qualified to Lead a four ship fighter formation. When they Are selected the pilots attend training Anellis for 125 classroom hours and 41 sorties to learn what it takes to be an aggressor. They also travel to washing ton for a course on soviet  they then return to Nellis to present a dissertation like study to the instructor staff there. Kelly said an important part of the aggressor Mission is to present More than the serial warfare aspect of the soviet Pilot s life he said that each aggressor studies at least two specialized subjects such As tactics or weapons and they give classroom talks and briefings to the pilots they train. He said the dissimilar training fighting against jets and pilots other than their own is the key to aggressor training. The goal of the aggressors is to get the pilots they Are training to be Able to beat their teachers. Kelly said aggressors can teach them valuable lessons in the air. He said sometimes he and his aggressor pilots will take on pilots Hying jets like f-l5s or f-l6s that the can never beat. However Kelly said the other pilots still learn from the aggressors. In the thing he a going to remember is when 1 Fly past him and he ran l kelp has eyes on me. He May eventually beat me but he can learn from it. Raf .  Cape. Mick Sim Mons is an aggressor. I pc looks and Speaks the part. Young dashing if you like and Quick to Tell Yuu that lying fighters and better yet being among the aggressors is More than one could ask for in life. Simmons. 31, was one of the Young Guys in Pilot train ing they Label Golden  Jet fighters an built for men like him. You Don t have to tug too hard on Simmons to find out what he s All about. He and the others assigned to the 527thaggressor so will go to great lengths to convince people that Riding 10,000 pounds of thrust feet on the rudders and a stick in your hand is what Paradise is All about. Hell Tell you that his kind of flying is hard work mined with a lot of pure fun. And that being an aggressor flying the f-5e, a pure air plane unencumbered with a lot of electronic gadgetry. Makes it a lot of fun. Simmons does t seem much different from any other of the aggressor pilots. They love their jobs and they believe in what they Are doing teaching the fighter pilots of their air Force and others How their potential enemy the Warsaw pact would Fly its air planes against them. Simmons and his companions will Tell you the aggressors Are the Best. They will not boast about themselves but they boast of the others they Fly with. All were picked to be aggressors because they can Fly jets and Fly them Well. Aggressors Are the Type of people who were picked from the lop of the Heap said Simmons a two year vet with the 527th. The commonality is the desire to Fly teach and  aggressors speak with a sort of reverence for each other and the fighter pilots they Fly against in other units. In that sense the aggressors seem to display an overwhelm ing sense of Mission one of winners teaching others How Tobe winners. And there s More to it than teaching their Brethren what to do if faced with air planes displaying red stars. Simmons and capt. Mike Kaufl old arc aggressors be cause during the War in Vietnam soviet trained pilots and their ground controllers were shooting Down a lot of air planes. In Korea the air Force ill Only one plane to every 13 of the enemy s. In Vietnam that ratio was Low ered to slightly but scr than i-to-1. Kaufhold said what happened in Vietnam won t happen again. Part of the reason he said is because of the aggressors. I Don t want to be the Guy coming up against us Kaufhold said. It s going to be bad for the other  his Confidence comes from seeing what today s front line fighter pilots Are doing. He said he knows he s doing his Job Well when pilots he s trying to teach end up beating him and maybe three other aggressors in one fight. I be been in fights where a single f-15 shot All four aggressors and never got shot at Kaufhold said. That Pilot used his air plane to do what it was meant to do. Our Job is to train them to act like that. We kind of take the Mirror and polish it up a Little Kaufhold said. The former enlisted Man said he remembers when As ayoung f-15 Pilot he heard he was going to fight against the aggressors. It was kind of intimidating he said. To my mind they were the Best. And it still is that  Kaufhold and Simmons Are a let alike in that both wanted badly to become fighter pilots. Becoming an aggressor they say. Is the ultimate. Bui not because they Fly a lot. Or even because they arc regarded As the Best. It s the perfect vehicle to learn about the threat Sim Mons said. We re training so no one is going to test what we re training to  soviet pilots More rigid Raf Alconbury England the Basic differences Between the ability and effectiveness of soviet an american fighter pilots Are rooted in the societies from which they come an aggressor says. Maj. Bill Thoma assistant operations officer for weapons and tactics and a Pilot with the 527th aggressor so makes it his business to know As much As he can about Warsaw pact pilots. He said the soviet society is reflected in the tactics and training of its pilots. The big difference is that they come from a very closed society Thoma said. That permeates everything the soviets do even More so from the military  Thoma said the soviet Pilot does very Little blinking on his own. He said every Basic fighter Man Euver and proce Dure they do is practice at least once on the ground and rarely do they deviate from what they arc told to do or what they have been taught. Everything they do is highly orchestrated Thoma said. They Don t have a Chance to do any self initiated thinking. On the ground or in the  Thoma said the Basic fighter tactics arc the same a those of the americans but the soviet Maneu vers Are so very Well scripted that any deviations from them leave few options for the soviet pilots. They soviet pilots practice everything on the ground before they even think about going up to Fly he said. Thoma said that s Why the aggressors Don t adhere strictly to everything the soviet pilots do. On the ground. Aggressor training includes teaching students about the soviets but in the air it s usually different Story. They Don t do any Type of the free play combat Wedo he said of the soviets. He explained that the aggressors try to teach their students How to fight As Best they can in the air. We re the Best we can be to give them the Best threat simulation Thoma said. If they can beat us  can beat  aggressor Pilot capt. Mike Kaufhold confers with a Crew chief. Staff sol. Jim Potter