The later Starfighters featured upwards ejection and a two-step eject handle - push forward to blow canopy, pull back to eject. It was in this aircraft that the Air Force discovered that the two-step handle didn't work. In an emergency, most pilots just pulled back. Because the seat didn't have a canopy penetrator built in, ejection through the canopy was often fatal. There was a National Guard base at my hometown airfield with an F-104 interceptor squadron based there. The squadron was re-tasked and handed over its F-104s to the Luftwaffe. A Germanicon pilot developed an engine fire on takeoff and fatally punched out through the canopy.

Now let's talk about awkward re-tasking. The fighter squadron mentioned above, 151st fighter squadron with its F-104s, was re-tasked to fly KC-97GL Stratotankers in support of the Strategic Air Command's Operation Chrome Dome and MAC's Operation Creek Party. They carried out the transition in eight months. Can you imagine the morale problems with going from F-104 fighter jock work to flying a 4.2* engine piston freight plane? Oh, my. The unit was re-designated the 134 Air Refueling Wing.

Bob

* Four double-row Pratt & Whitney R-4360-59B radial engines, two General Electric J47 Turbojets