Call sign FRANK for the F22 pilot references Frank Luke, the
“Arizonia Balloon Buster” who destroyed 14 Germen observation
Balloon on the Western Front in 1918
Yeah, so chosen ostensibly in "honor" of Frank Luke's exploits, but it smells more like "stolen valor" to me in this circumstance, using a couple of $130 million-a-pop aircraft to attack a slow moving gas bag.
Frank Luke was eventually KIA'd doing what he did. I wonder if these chuckleheads will paint a balloon kill mark on the fuselage of their jet, to commemorate their great achievement? Perhaps the greatest American military accomplishment since Reagan took Grenada.