Jim Thomas wrote:

Its actuallly about a C-172 getting intercepted, about a 110 knot airplane.
Still pretty slow though.
Guess we would need one of the eagle drivers to chime in...

This led me to go find my F-15A-1, circa 1975. Level flight, 0 bank,
military thrust, gear & flaps down, sea level stall speed (defined as
30 deg AOA) was about 100 KIAS. Final approach speed under those
conditions was 143 KIAS. So, assuming the numbers haven't changed much
for the F-15C/D, staying with a 110-120 KIAS Cessna would be sporty,
but doable.

With a pair of fighters it would be fairly easy for one to pass the
Cessna at a modest pace while the other does a 360 to take over.
Another option would be to "tack", allowing a noticeably higher
airspeed.

That said, ISTM that the civvy pilot was remarkably clueless:
sufficiently so to lose his ticket, I'd have thought.

Consider this paragraph:

Wirig says the F-15 pilot, with whom he was not in
radio contact, kept lowering his landing gear and
flaps, trying to get the GA pilot to understand. "I
couldn't figure out what he was trying to get me to
do," said the 69-year-old pilot.

The military pilot "kept lowering his landing gear", eh?

I can think of two possible reasons for that: as a signal that the
Cessna's landing gear is in an abnormal state, or as a signal that Wirig
should use his gear for its intended purpose.

I can also think of two reasons to dismiss the former signal a unlikely:
if your typical 172's landing gear is in an abnormal state there is a
fair chance that its pilot will be aware of some bent metal (although
the RG *could* have a gear fault manifest in flight); and the military
pilot "kept lowering his ... flaps", making the signal either "you have
*two* visible faults on your aeroplane" or "land now". I know which *I*
reckon is more likely ...