Yeah the ol' brief the ready room on doing stupid ***** is a tradition.
I was in Turkey on a detachment off the America and we were flying in and out of a remote station fighting with some F-16s and F-5's. When we landed and were taxing to the refueling location, I was the lead FA-18 following a couple of F-16s that landed ahead of us. Taxi way was tight, small remote base with aircraft bunkers. I was locked on keeping the nosewheel right on the taxi painted centerline. As we spun a 180 near the concrete bunkers, there was a pucker factor, but I am nuts on the taxi line, right? All was good until I felt the impact of the AIM-9M CATM's outboard fins shearing off while impacting the concrete bunker. They sheared off, but I could not see that from the cockpit and felt the bile rising in my throat. Zero damage to the aircraft, and in fact after stripping the fins from the missile I refueled the aircraft and flew it home slicked off. The CATM had not worked during the detachment, but ramming into a bunker reseated a electronics card and she worked perfectly after.
Upon return to Eskishir (a garden spot), I hung my head in shame and reported to the det Commander to take my woodshedding and fill out accident report paperwork. As it turns out, the fins were already earmarked for removal and disposal due to cracks, the CATM and wingtip rail checked out 4.0, so after buying beer for the weapons tech and maintenance crew, it never happened.
When we got back to the carrier I did get up and share my lessons learned from the det training and included in my slide deck the fact that an FA-18 has a slightly greater wingspan than the F-16, then included graphic pictures of the AIM-9 on the ground as the closing Questions Slide. Some never caught it...
