Gripen squadron leader can't wait for Mondays
Date: 2 February 2011
By Ken Helfrich
He is not the first black man to command a SA Air Force squadron but he is the first to have the sharp end of the country's airborne fighting force under his control.
Lt Col Musa Mbokota is the new boss of 2 Squadron at AFB Makhado in Limpopo and is well acquainted with the Swedish-manufactured Gripen fighter jets that are the long-range spear of the nation.
The man who goes by the call-sign "Midnite" when he is in the cockpit of the fourth generation fighter, first encountered military jets when he was at boarding school in Elim, not too far away from what was then AFB Louis Trichardt (now Makhado).
"I used to see the jets (Mirages) flying over at incredible speeds and then pass low over the school. It was awesome, it was technical, it was teamwork and it was handsom. It was everything I wanted to do," he said in an interview with the SAAF magazine, Ad Astra.
The decision made, he joined the SAAF after finishing schooling, and the rest, as they say, is history. His understanding and appreciation of flying fighter jets by hours spent in the cockpit of the SAAF's former front-line fighter, the Cheetah, made him a natural for Gripen selection and in 2002 he had his first flight in one of the new jets in Sweden.
Three years later he moved into the front seat of the aircraft and successfully did his conversion to the type early in 2008.
A career highlight to date was last year's Fifa Soccer World Cup when the Griens were deployed alongside other SAAF aircraft in an air policing role.
"From a pilot's point of view I think the Gripen is the ultimate," said the man who enjoys his work so much that when he finishes on a Friday, he cannot wait for Monday to get back to work.
Source: The New Age
