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Navy F-8s and a Pack of Dogs
One of my most treasured moments in my years as an Air Traffic Controller at Buckley Air National Guard Base, east of Denver, Colorado, was one morning when a pair of Navy fighters (F-8s) were going to depart toward the north on Runway 32. I loved the F-8 Crusader because it was so easy to control. It could slow way down in the pattern and yet it was the top Navy fighter before the arrival of the F-4 Phantom II.
The standard air traffic control phraseology used when talking to all planes and these F-8s was, “Navy 345 (I’m just making up the call sign), taxi to Runway 32 and hold short of Runway 32.” When traffic permitted, they were told to, “Taxi into position on runway 32, change to departure control frequency, monitor guard, wind, (I’m guessing) 320 degrees at 10 knots, cleared for takeoff.” This meant that they were to change to a Denver Departure Control frequency for an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight which meant that even though they were still on our runway, they were no longer under our control but were under the control Denver Departure Control located about five to eight miles away at the Denver airport, Stapleton, just north of Buckley. “Monitor Guard” meant that they were to listen to emergency frequencies of 121.5 vhf and 243.0 uhf. They pulled onto the south end of Runway 32 and sat there for about 30 seconds doing engine checks and were free to start rolling when they were ready with no further communication from the Buckley tower.
Just as they lit their afterburners and started to roll, a pack of dogs was observed crossing the runway at the 2,000’ remaining marker. Runway 14/32 was 11,000’ long and that meant that the dogs were 9,000’ away but still a concern. The controller at the time flipped down the switches for the emergency frequencies and said, “Navy 345, Buckley tower on guard, you have a pack of dogs at the 2,000’ remaining marker, clearing to the right.”
As expected, the F-8s didn’t acknowledge our communication but continued to roll in full afterburner. When they had enough speed to lift off, they lifted up just enough to retract their landing gear and continued in level flight about 20’ above the runway. About the 3000’ remaining marker, they shifted over to the right and slightly off to the side of the runway. When they got over the dogs, they stood it on end and put about 20’ of full afterburner flame and an incredibly large amount of noise right over the dogs. I didn't have a picture of an F-8 making an extreme takeoff so I included a picture of an F-15 making an extreme takeoff so that you could get an idea of the tremendous amount of flame and heat.
When last seen, the pack of dogs was seen still running flat out and about to cross the Colorado line into Kansas.
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