The main difficulty with fire-and-forget missiles is that they only target the things the gunner designates for them. The Lone Star gunner, I figured, could be excused for losing a second or two of reaction time when a golden Dragon appeared out of nowhere and rose to challenge the helicopter’s dominance of the air. Of course, had I been the gunner, I would have made damned sure the Dragon became my new target and that I hit what I was aiming at.