Magic laughed and said, “Don’t call me ‘Sir.’ This is a Reserve squadron, we’re all bros here.”

“Yes, sir,” Martin replied. “Dammit, sorry!”

“Ok, let’s take a look at the tapes,” Magic said as he pulled up the computer debriefing program. The “tapes” had long since been replaced by Digital Video Recorders, but years later, people were still calling them tapes.

As they watched the first set, Magic paused the DVR as he watched Martin accelerate toward the turn circle. “You see your airspeed? You’re way too fast here. That’s why it takes so long. You’re not getting a good rate and your turn circle is huge.”

Martin nodded and took notes as Magic hit PLAY again.

“And that’s why you’re sustaining 9Gs for so long. That had to hurt,” Magic said, wincing.

Martin looked at his forearms. The tiny ruptured capillaries, or “G-easles” as they were known, that peppered his arm were evidence of that.

They continued watching the fight as Magic gave Martin pointers on how to fix it properly.

“Any questions on that set?” Magic asked after confirming that Martin’s guns track was valid and sufficient to call a kill.

“None.”

“Ok, let’s watch the second one,” Magic said with a frown. He advanced the DVR to the start of the second set.

“Your parameters look good at the start, but why the climb?” Magic said as he paused the DVR. The HUD showed Martin ten degrees nose high.

“I was afraid to get fast again, I wasn’t really thinking,” Martin replied flatly. He didn’t want to make excuses. Good wingman didn’t make excuses or try to explain what they were thinking.

“Copy. Try modulating the throttle or using speed brakes next time,” Magic said as he hit PLAY again.

Magic let the DVR play through as Martin went from nose high to slicing back down toward Magic’s jet. As Martin pulled Magic’s jet into the HUD, Magic stopped the DVR.

“Straight to the HUD, huh? Did you have your attack cues met?” Magic asked.

Martin shook his head without saying anything. It looked right in the air, but he couldn’t say that. The book answer was that he did not have the appropriate cues to execute an attack. The cues were specific and definable. Gut feelings were not.

“This will lead to the ninety-degree off overshoot and subsequent reversal,” Magic said as he hit PLAY again.

They watched in silence as Martin stabilized Magic’s aircraft in the HUD and the display showed the simulated bullets hitting Magic’s aircraft.

“Wait, you tried to shoot here?” Magic said, pausing the footage and rewinding.

Martin said nothing as Magic hit the rewind button. He stopped as the green dots simulating bullets started to hit his fuselage, and then started advancing the footage frame by frame to count bullets.

As he reached twenty-five, he stopped the DVR, staring at it. Martin had more than exceeded the required number of frames to call a kill.

“You gunned me off the perch in a 9K set,” Magic said, stunned. “Wow, kid.”