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"  It&amp;#039;s past 10 pm, and we&amp;#039;re standing alongside the main runway at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. The night air is thick with humidity and bugs, both of which cling to any exposed skin. Glowing green, red, and white lights dot the sky, moving over our heads in every direction. These flashes are the signs of dozens of aspiring fighter pilots from around the world flying patterns over the base tonight. Some are flying prop-driven T-6 airplanes. Others tear through the sky in T-38 jets. In the summer, when the sun sets as late as 8 pm, these training flights can go on past midnight. On the runway, U.S. Air Force Lt. Michael Terry awaits his turn to take off in the T-38 Talon, a supersonic training jet. It&amp;#039;s a big evening for him, having graduated to jets after weeks on a prop-driven trainer. Now he must guide the twin-engine Talon through the dark Texas night to practice approaches to the airbase.  His instructor pilot, USAF Capt. Edemumo Oboho of the 469th Flying Test Squadron, sits in the rear seat. This is his second flight with a student today. He&amp;#039;s swapped out the sun visor on his helmet for a clear one. He&amp;#039;s also wearing a suit that guards his body against the gravitational forces of high-speed turns. Not that he&amp;#039;ll need it, with his student just getting acclimated to night flying. &amp;quot;It just wouldn&amp;#039;t feel right without a g-suit,&amp;quot; Oboho says. The T-38&amp;#039;s engine whines, then roars as the aircraft leaps to life. It races down the runway, but to get enough air flowing over its stubby wings, Terry hits the afterburners. Two licks of blue flame form a single, super-hot cone, and the T-38 jumps into the sky. Pilots describe a sashaying, double-kick sensation if one engine ignites a split second before the other. Within seconds, the jet is just another formation of lights in the sky.   NATO&amp;#039;s Show in North Texas Sheppard Air Force Base is not especially well-known in the United States. But in some parts of Europe, particularly Germany and the Netherlands, the base is famous for its role as a NATO pilot training center. Every German and Dutch fighter pilot first learns how to fly in this part of North Texas. Italians, Norwegians, Greeks, the Dutch, and Turks also train here.  There is nowhere in the United States quite like Sheppard AFB. The base U.S. hosts a NATO-run training program called the Euro\u2013NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT). It&amp;#039;s been here at Sheppard since 1981 and has produced 6800 fighter pilots for the alliance. Although most of the pilots who train here are American, Europeans direct the instructors, command leadership, and create the syllabus. Nations contribute funding based on their level of participation. And why Texas? Europeans appreciate the dry weather and the open sky of North America. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s hard to find good airspace in Europe,&amp;quot; says Maj. Antonio Nappi, an Italian air force instructor pilot at Sheppard. Joint training is the foundation of any effective alliance. And NATO, the North Atlantic alliance born of the Cold War, remains relevant largely because of its air power. When Russia annexed the Crimea earlier this year, NATO responded by moving more fighters and multirole warplanes east, increasing patrols over the Baltics. Interceptions occur regularly. Joint NATO combat training has been put to use in Afghanistan to support ground troops and to shatter the Libyan army and navy. The other NATO nations may lag behind the United States in funding and troop levels, but fielding potent warplanes is what military planners call a force multiplier. The impact of air power often outweighs the numbers committed to a fight. Just ask Muammar Gaddafi. The pilots here hail from across NATO. Instructors teach students from all nationalities, and they say that the culture of military aviation supersedes any differences of national identity. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the language of flying,&amp;quot; says Lt. Robbin [last name redacted at pilot&amp;#039;s request], an instructor pilot (IP) from the Netherlands. &amp;quot;The students are of the same mindset, no matter where they are from. Flightwise there&amp;#039;s no difference.&amp;quot; That may be true, but students say the international cadre of teachers brings some variety to what is a standardized syllabus. &amp;quot;The Norwegian IPs are much more reliant on the HUD [head-up display]. The U.S. IPs train on these instruments from a different point of view,&amp;quot; says Lt. Kyle Smith, a student flyingT-38s. &amp;quot;It broadens your perspectives, and can open your eyes to different types of tricks when you&amp;#039;re flying.&amp;quot; For student pilots of all nationalities, their time in Texas is the start of their military lives. They are usually between 21 and 26 years old, except for U.S. National Guard pilots, who trend older. The lessons learned here over the 55-week course\u2014half in the T-6 Texan II, half in the T-38 Talon\u2014will inform the rest of their careers. That includes the way they learn to fly, and the people they meet. Foreign air forces are not that big, and there is a good chance that they will bump into each other at NATO training exercises or combat deployments. ENJJPT is the first opportunity for these pilots to learn about the way other nations&amp;#039; militaries work, an important thing to be familiar with in an alliance. &amp;quot;The role of military officers differs from country to country,&amp;quot; says Lt. Michael Buhr, a student from Germany. Sheppard is like high school for pilots, where they learn the basics. Later, they&amp;#039;ll progress thorugh a Formal Training Unit, where they learn how to operate a specific aircraft, and then to a real operational squadron. Finishing an education at Sheppard is the end of the very beginning of a fighter pilot&amp;#039;s career. &amp;quot;They still don&amp;#039;t know anything,&amp;quot; says Capt. Oboho, who flew F-15s before coming to Sheppard as an instructor pilot. By the time students leave Sheppard, &amp;quot;you basically have someone who is trainable.&amp;quot; The students usually fly at least once a day, a rare treat for fliers at any experience level. It&amp;#039;s a good thing the classwork and flying keeps them busy; the student pilots say there are few distractions in Wichita Falls. &amp;quot;I am amazed by how little there is to do here,&amp;quot; says Gijsbrecht Van Batum, 22, who grew up an hour outside of Amsterdam. Now he&amp;#039;s at least 2 hours&amp;#039; drive from Oklahoma City and sees the boundless prairie from the cockpit of a T-38. &amp;quot;I am amazed by the sheer nothingness,&amp;quot; he says. Many of the instructor pilots have a different perspective on training in North Texas. They cite a good atmosphere for families, regular schedules, and a lack of deployments as positives of the job. They have the benefit of experience. &amp;quot;I have been at much worse places,&amp;quot; says USAF Maj. Lindsey &amp;quot;MiG&amp;quot; Giggy, the 80th Flying Training Wing&amp;#039;s Commander Air Group. She&amp;#039;s been at Sheppard for two years of her three-year stint. &amp;quot;I did my training at Del Rio,&amp;quot; she says, referring to the 35,000-person town that&amp;#039;s home to Laughlin AFB in Texas. &amp;quot;Now, that&amp;#039;s in the middle of nowhere.&amp;quot;  Tip of the Spear To stay relevant in the age of F-22s, F-35s, and Eurofghters, Sheppard needs an upgrade, says Col. Lance Bunch, commander of the 80th Flying Training Wing. &amp;quot;We need a more modern airplane for our guys to fly,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;The T-38s are great airplanes, but they are not up to what we need to send guys out to fly fifth-generation airplanes.&amp;quot; (Fifth-generation warplanes are considered those with aspects of stealth and networked warfare roles.)  The T-38s flown at Sheppard have been around since the 1970s, and the wear and tear is breaking them to pieces. Four of 10 T-38 jets have wing-spar cracks that are discovered during inspections. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not that we can&amp;#039;t repair these aircraf\u2014we can,&amp;quot; Bunch says. &amp;quot;But they are old and cracking.&amp;quot;  The Air Force is trying to purchase a new training aircraft it now calls T-X, which could be fielded by 2023. The requirements point to early teaching of the sophisticated information-management skills needed to fly a fifth-generation warplane like the F-35. Until then, the T-38s will have to be lovingly maintained. As NATO finds new relevancy in a chaotic world, the partnerships forged at Sheppard will grow more important. But for all the talk of coalition building and foreign cooperation, the pilots know they are not diplomats. They will be the ones sent into harm&amp;#039;s way. &amp;quot;Today is training,&amp;quot; says Maj. Nappi, the instructor pilot from Italy. &amp;quot;Tomorrow is war.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a10741/the-texas-air-base-where-nato-fighter-pilots-are-forged-16920796/>