(It's a quiet day in Colorado Springs, Colarado. The sun is out and the Cadets from the Air Force Academy are enjoying a rare day off. Colonel Jordan Taylor was kind enough to meet me at a local diner. Not so long ago he was a pilot in one of X-Com NORAMCOM's 3 Raven Interceptor squadrons. He is also credited with the first takedown of an UFO.)
I was a Captain back then, 2nd in line for the 3rd Squadron. We got the call early in the morning, just coming on rotation. We piled into our Ravens, all armed with AIM-27 Avalanche air to air missiles. We felt pretty good, the Raven was one of the best interceptors ever made and the Avalanche was newest and greatest, bigger payload and faster than its predecessors and each interceptor carried 8.
He takes a purple jam container and places it on the table. 6 ketchup packets seem to spiral around the purple jam with 2 more directly behind the jam.
He shakes his head "There was no SOP for UFOs back then so most of the squadron was spread out to contain the bogey, give him no place to go without getting a missile up the ass. Major Cortez took the first shot and the damn missile went wide. Some kind of jammer screwed with guidance. So he got closer and kept trying until all 8 missiles went wide. Then it was my turn."
He takes away one of the ketchup packets from behind the jam and puts it away. He moves the other one very close.
"I got close, very close. In hindsight it would have been a horrible thing to do when fighting other humans. I was a mile behind him and took the first shot. It got close only for a green burst of plasma to slap it away. The bastard didn't even try to dodge. So I did something even more stupid. I fired everything. Doing that while fighting humans is a huge no-no. Waste of money, ordinance and time."
He chuckles "7 of the best missiles designed by human hands and only 2 hit. It was enough though, knocked out the engine and sent it down to earth. After that it was it was the dirt humpers' problem and I went home as the first person to shoot down an UFO. It's funny, 100 years of air combat and the best way to fight is suddenly how we did it during WWI."