Editor's Note: His call sign was Derka. Bridgeport High School alum John Hadjis is Bridgeport's own Top Gun and his story soared with popularity. This feature by Julie Perine ran on Connect-Bridgeport May 29, 2016:

 

If you fly an F-16 in the U.S. Air Force, you have a call sign.

 

Buzz Aldrin was “Gemini 9.”

 

Robin Olds was “Wolf01.”

 

John Hadjis is “Derka.”

 

“Here we are six years after I left Bridgeport for my dream of becoming an Air Force fighter pilot and I was finally leaving for Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma to begin that journey,” said Hadjis of the Bridgeport High School Class of 2007.

 

On April 29, Hadjis graduated from F-16 initial fighter training, where learned to employ the F-16 fight and kill enemy aircraft and drop guided and unguided bombs during day or night combat conditions.

 

He said he knew from a young age he wanted to fly.

 

“You see the movies and you see the planes at the air shows and it just looks so cool that I think all children at some point think they’d like to do that,” he said. “Second, my father graduated from West Point, the United States Military Academy, and served five years in the Army as a tank commander so I always considered military service a possible route for my life.”

 

His dad’s military career came to an end when Hadjis was three years old, after which he worked for a company that also required the family to relocate on a regular basis.

 

“We moved to Bridgeport in 2003 when my father took a new job with J.F. Allen Construction Company so we wouldn’t have to move anymore,” he said. “(My dad) grew up in Clarksburg so it was kind of like coming home.”  

 

Hadjis said he always felt at home in Bridgeport.

 

“I started in 8^th grade at BMS, then graduated BHS in 2007. During that time, I made so many friends and was part of the varsity track, soccer and wrestling teams – and also took part in the school theater doing fall and senior plays,” he said.

 

He said his teachers and coaches challenged him, instilling in him good study habits, work ethic and competitiveness.

 

“The leadership and physical skills from the sports teams and study skills from the advanced math, English and science courses taught at BHS strengthened my application to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs” Hadjis said.

 

He graduated from the USAFA in 2011 with a degree in electrical engineering and a pilot spot to attend undergraduate pilot training.

 

“However, the Air Force offered to delay my pilot training so I could further my education and funded my graduate degree through Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio,” said Hadjis who graduated from AFIT in May 2013 with a master’s degree in electrical engineering. He began undergraduate pilot training in April 2013 at Vance Air Force Base in the Class 14-11.

 

“UPT is split in to three phases of training. If you make it to graduation without washing out, you are rewarded with your military pilot wings,” he said.

 

Stretching over a two-month period, Phase 1 included academics on basic flight principals and the T-6A Texan systems – fuel, flight controls, oil, electrical, etc. - and emergency procedures. The next five months – Phase 2 – included T-6A Texan training in basic airmanship, instruments and formation flying. Performance in Phase 2 determines Phase 3 specialty of fighter/bomber, helicopter or transport/tanker.

 

“Because I was the top student of my class in Phase 2, I got my first preference of track selection and began the fighter/bomber track of Phase 3 training on the T-38C Talon,” Hadjis said. “This included more academics on the T-38 systems and emergency procedures.”

 

After about five additional months of airmanship, instruments, tactical formation and low level flying training, Hadjis completed Phase 3, graduating from UPT as a distinguished graduate and awarded his Air Force Pilot Wings.

 

“At the completion of Phase 3 training, UPT students then provide preferences of what USAF aircraft they wish to fly,” Hadjis said. “Just like track selection, this is based on your preferences, training performance, the Air Force’s operational needs.”

 

As the Distinguished Graduate - top of his class – he was selected for his first preference and assigned to the F-16 Fighting Falcon AKA “The Viper.”

 

Hadjis then attended various short training courses to prepare him for Initial Fighter Training.

 

“A short trip to Brooks Air Base in San Antonio Texas for the 9G Centrifuge training taught me techniques to stay conscious while employing the F-16 at up to 9.0Gs - meaning the maneuverability of the aircraft causes your body to experience nine times normal gravity,” he said.

 

After the Centrifuge, he went to Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape “SERE” school at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington, followed by Water Survival School in Pensacola, Fla.

 

“Then I attended IFF (Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals) at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio where I learned basic Fighter Aircraft Tactics, Dogfighting (BFM-Basic Fighter Maneuvers) and Bomb employment skills,” he said. “I was again the Distinguished Graduate of my IFF course.”

 

In April of 2015, Hadjis moved to Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Ariz. to begin F-16 training.

 

“This eight- to 11-month course trains us to become not only pilots, but combat wingmen,” he said. “Fighter jets are unique to other aircraft in the fact that they are mostly crewed by a single pilot and their average airspeeds are 350 knots - about 400 miles per hour.”

Decisions have to be made quickly and correctly to employ the aircraft safely and effectively, he said.

 

“Where other aircraft pilots spend months - or even years - as a co-pilot, a fighter pilot must learn very quickly how to master his jet and then learn to employ it at high speeds in close proximity to other jets or very close to the ground at high Gs,” he said.

 

During F-16 training at Luke Air Force Base, Hadjis said he earned his first call sign “Derka.”

 

“It was mostly given to me because of my last name ‘Hadjis’ which sounds similar to the Arabic term ‘Hadji,’” he said. “My call sign derives from the phrase commonly heard in the movie ‘Team America World Police.’”

 

Editor's Note: Hadjis is pictured above with his parents Greg and Diana.