“Gator 11, kill hostile Viper left hand turn, low,” she announced over the primary frequency.

“Gator 13 copies kill,” Magic responded as he discontinued the engagement.

Moss exhaled behind her mask. Her first engagement had been a quick, decisive kill. It was exactly what she felt she needed after a rocky brief and not being able to get Coach up on comms in the chocks. Her confidence was finally coming back.

Moss set up the flight for another engagement as before. This time, Coach called for her to break left as Magic started at her six o’clock. The setup went exactly according to plan, and as she merged with Magic and reversed her turn, Coach called the kill. Her flight was two for two in successful engagements. She just needed one more and the flight would be a success.

Moss performed an ops check to ensure all fighters had sufficient fuel for another engagement. They were all nearing Bingo, the prebriefed fuel state to go back to base, but they had enough fuel for another engagement.

Once all fighters called ready, Moss called the “Fight’s On.”

“Gator 11, break left, bogey your six,” Coach called calmly. There was no emotion or pitch in his monotone voice. He might as well have been telling her she had something in her teeth.

Moss rolled the jet and began a descending 7G left hand turn. She tried to look over her shoulder to find Magic’s jet, but was blinded by the sun.

“Bogey switched,” Coach called, indicating that Magic had disengaged from her aircraft and was now actively fighting Coach. As Moss completed the turn, she could make out the two F-16s swirling toward the ocean in a tight spiral. In combat, she could have easily picked out the F-16 from the MiG, but in training, it was nearly impossible to tell which jet was friendly and which was foe.

“Gator 12, status high or low?” she asked. She could clearly see one aircraft behind and slightly above the other. She had to be sure before employing ordnance. A fratricide would certainly be the abrupt end to her slowly improving day.

“Gator 12 is high man,” Coach responded. She could hear him breathing heavily as he keyed the mike.

Chloe locked the aircraft in the defensive position. With Coach offensive, there was no need to take the shot and risk a fratricide.

“Status shot?” Coach demanded. “Gator 12 defensive!”

Chloe was confused. He had called “high man” earlier, which was clearly the offensive fighter, but now Coach was calling defensive. She broke lock, fearing that she had inadvertently locked Coach instead.

“Gator 11, take the shot!” Coach exclaimed.

Chloe locked the trail aircraft and hit the pickle button, simulating the missile shot.

“Gator 11, kill hostile Viper, left hand turn,” she replied.

Chloe’s heart sank as she looked at her fuel. She had completely missed her “BINGO” warning and had burned well below Bingo fuel. She needed to climb up and get pointed toward home.