Meanwhile, as the weapons were loaded, the pilots were briefed on the flying phase of the exercise. This usually meant they were given simulated targets in France or Germany. After the weapons were all successfully loaded, they were then downloaded and returned to the secure storage area. Once that was done, dummy bombs—concrete shapes—were uploaded; the exercise clock was restarted; sorties were launched in accordance with the tasking from the IG team (often the IG team threw in disruptive events, such as an enemy air attack on the airfield, to complicate matters); and the pilots had to figure out in the air how to fly their route and reach the bombing range on time to make their assigned Time over Target (TOT). As the pilots flew their routes, the IG had people in France or Germany on the ground at various checkpoints, noting if the pilots passed by there and the time. When the pilots reached their bombing range, they got a single pass to release their weapon, and this was scored by the IG team.

Much could go wrong: the jet could break (pilots often took off with a mechanical failure and sweated it out until they released their bombs and could declare an emergency); or the bomb might not release during the over-the-shoulder delivery. If there was weather, as there often was in Europe, crafty pilots would reset the switches while upside down in the overcast, near a stall, do a loop on instruments, and jettison the bomb while heading back toward the ground. The IG on the ground would see only this ton of concrete and steel scream out of the clouds into which the plane had just climbed, and score the hit.

Other missions were less demanding. Pilots would simply fly to a simulated target and do a dry pass. No practice bomb would be released, but the IG team would score the pilot’s time over target and whether he hit the proper offset point at the target.

ORIs were exhausting, and it was all too easy to fail. If a pilot didn’t get a high percentage of his weapons to release on the range on time with a given Circular Error Probability, for example, he died . . . or at least the wing commander died, and he usually took others along with him.

Horner was called to make what turned out to be his last flight at the “Heath” because of a surprise ORI. It was supposed to have been his last day in England, and he hadn’t expected to fly. Meanwhile, the Horner household goods were packed; Chuck and Mary Jo had moved into the officers’ club guest house in Brandon Forest, and they were waiting for transport out.