[Hacker15e]

I flew a 4-hour combat sortie over Iraq during the opening "shootin' war" part without the shoulder straps connected to my chute.

That would have been an interesting ejection should anything bad have happened to my jet.

The reason why?

My WSO was being interviewed by a TV crew before the flight, so my strapping-in habit patterns were broken as we just sat there in the cockpit for 20-30 minutes during the interview.

Lesson learned: "Do normal things normally". Be careful not to get out of habit patterns established in training, especially when things are non-standard.

Of an even larger discussion topic, how about checklist useage (which we are very poor about in the fighter business..), which would have eliminated the problem.