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‘That’s My Plane,’ Fellow Pilot Declares

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

When Capt. Ken Dwelle heard that the pilot of a U.S. F-117A from this base had been rescued in Yugoslavia on Saturday night, the relieved Stealth fighter pilot instructor turned off the TV, satisfied. But Sunday, after seeing pictures of the downed craft, Dwelle sprang back into action.

Clearly printed on the plane’s surface was Dwelle’s name, and he began calling family members to assure them he was safe at home.

A nine-year Air Force veteran who trains new pilots, Dwelle was one of many in Alamogordo, N.M., a military-dominated town of 30,000, who followed the news of the downed craft and the pilot’s rescue with special concern and familiarity.

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“Oh, yeah, that’s my plane, [but] it doesn’t mean that’s the plane you fly everyday,” Dwelle said Sunday, assembling his two small children in a scarlet minivan outside his home.

The single-seat, high-tech Nighthawk fighter, whose curved surfaces and specialized coating diminish radar attention, was one of 12 F-117As that left this mountain air base for Aviano, Italy, last month.

In the air base’s tradition, each plane bears the name of the pilot who has flown it the longest time. Though “it was spooky” to see the $45-million plane’s smashed and smoking fuselage, Dwelle, like many in this town ringed by pistachio farms, said he was filled with happiness and admiration that the pilot, whose identity military officials have not disclosed, was rescued.

“I was pretty concerned,” Dwelle said. “Planes are replaceable. He’s not.”

Dwelle would not disclose the pilot’s identity, but he did note that he is not a former student.

Dwelle said the aircraft are far too expensive to have had maintenance problems. “We don’t have problem players,” he said of the Stealths, adding that even the most sophisticated planes are not invulnerable.

His observations echoed those of Brig. Gen. William Lake, 49th Fighter Wing commander, in a news conference at the base.

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“They are not invincible. They are not invisible,” Lake said of the Stealth craft. “They are what I frequently refer to as low-observable, capable of going against certain threats.”

Ray Brown, 66, was an electronic technician who helped test the ejection system of Stealth fighters before he retired 10 years ago. “When I heard it went down, the first thing I wondered was did the ejection system work,” he said from his Alamogordo home.

When the pilot was reported safe, Brown said he was pleased. “It worked.” The downing of the plane hasn’t shaken his confidence in the craft. “You think they’re not vulnerable, but they haven’t made that one yet.”

At the Alamo-Rosa Fuel Stop & Restaurant, waitress Carie Lawrence, 26, said that she has grown up with Stealth planes. “It’s kind of jarring when one goes down. You think it could never be picked up as a target, that it’s invincible. You realize it’s not, and you do the natural thing: You want to make sure the pilot’s all right.”

This Air Force base, named after Col. George V. Holloman, a pioneer in guided-missile research, is situated at 4,093 feet, surrounded by the Sacramento, San Andres and Organ mountains in south-central New Mexico.

The air history of the base dates to the 1950s, when Lt. Col. John P. Stapp was nicknamed “the fastest man alive” after he rode a rocket-propelled test sled at 632 mph. In 1961, a Holloman-trained chimpanzee rode a Mercury Atlas capsule twice around the Earth before it was safely recovered a little over three hours later.

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The base today is home to 4,900 military personnel, 870 civilians and 143 chimpanzees, the survivors and descendants of the astronaut chimp corps.

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Times researcher Lianne Hart contributed to this report.

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