2004-1 by avia lduo

A N

A I R P O W E R

LOCKHEED MARTIN AERONAUTICS COMPANY

P R O J E C T I O N

M A G A Z I N E FIRST QUARTER 2004

SPECIAL ISSUE: O PERATION I RAQI F REEDOM

TURKEY Al Mawsil Arbil

NORTHERN NO-FLY ZONE

SYRIA

Karkuk

As Sulaymaniyah

Bayji

IRAN

Tikrit

Al Haglanyah Ar Ramadi

Al Fallujah

BAGHDAD

SOUTHERN NO-FLY ZONE

IRAQ

JORDAN

Karbala Al Kut

Al Hillah

NO-DRIVE ZONE

An Najaf

Al Amarah

Ad Diwaniyah

An Nasiriyah

SAUDI ARABIA

BLACK SEA

Al Basrah

UZBEKISTAN

GEORGIA ARMENIA

KUWAIT

AZERBAIJAN

TURKMENISTAN

TURKEY

CASPIAN SEA

SYRIA MEDITERRANEAN SEA

LEBANON ISRAEL

AFGHANISTAN

IRAQ

IRAN

WEST BANK

JORDAN KUWAIT

PAKISTAN

IAN RS F PE GUL

EGYPT

BAHRAIN

QATAR

EA DS

SAUDI ARABIA

GULF

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

OF OM AN

OMAN

ARABIAN SEA

SUDAN

YEMEN

ERITREA

ETHIOPIA

DJIBOUTI

SOMALIA

PHOTO BY MSGT. TERRY L. BLEVINS

REPUBLIC OF

IRAQ

VOL. 19 NO. 1

FIRST QUARTER 2004

WWW.CODEONEMAGAZINE.COM E D I TO R Eric Hehs

A N

A I R P O W E R

P R O J E C T I O N

M A G A Z I N E

M A NAG I N G E D I TO R Catherine Blades A S S O C I AT E E D I TO R Jeff Rhodes E D I TO R I A L A S S I S TA N T Greg Whitten

A RT D I R E C TO R Stan Baggett V I C E P R E S I D E N T, C O MMUNICAT IONS Mar y Jo Polidore

IRAQI FREEDOM DEBRIEF Views From Some Of The People Who Were There

INTERVIEW SUBJECTS People Who Shared Their Experiences

E XE CU T I V E V I C E P R E S IDENT, L O C K H E E D M A RT I N C ORPORAT ION P R E S I D E N T, A E RO NAUT ICS C OMPA NY Dain M. Hancock PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS Send name, address, and $20 for a one-year subscription (four issues) to PO Box 5189, Brentwood, TN 37024-5189. Foreign subscriptions are $30 (US). Some back issues are available.

A DDRESS AND PHONE NUMBERS Send correspondence to Code One Magazine, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, PO Box 748, Mail Zone 1503, Fort Worth, Texas 76101 Editorial office phone number: 817-777-5542 E-mail: eric.hehs@lmco.com Web address: www.codeonemagazine.com Fax: 817-777-8655 Distribution information: 888-883-3780

R ESTRICTION NOTICE This publication is intended for information only. Its contents neither replace nor revise any material in official manuals or publications. Copyright © 2004 Lockheed Martin Corporation. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint articles or photographs must be requested in writing from the editor. Code One is a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Code One is published quarterly by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. ISSN 1071-3816

ABOUT THE COVER This special edition of Code One, the largest issue of the magazine ever, highlights the people and hardware of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The images on the covers come from official government photos taken in and around Iraq.

This Operation Iraqi Freedom debrief was collected and assembled by Code One editor Eric Hehs and associate editor Jeff Rhodes, with additional reporting by Renee Ekman, Jamie Hunter, Mark Lewis, Lans Stout, and Evan Sweetman. Special thanks to Capt. Rob Alford, 2nd Lt. Julio Bermejo, Maj. John Bryan, 1st Lt. Robin Celatka, Maj. Ken Ekman, Lt. Col. Trulan Eyre, Maj. John Glass, Karen Hall, 1st Lt. Pete Hughes, 2nd Lt. Caroline Lorimer, Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden, Lt. Cmdr. Dick McGrath, Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete, TSgt. Colleen Roundtree, SMSgt. Julius Shook, Lt. (j.g.) Brian Schulz, 1st Lt. Jean VanAllen, and Maj. James Wilson who provided additional photographs and other assistance. The editors also thank all the service members who participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom who took the time to share their stories.

PERATION I

First Quarter 2004

N IRAQI FREEDOM

has been described as the first

information age war.

he men and women of the US Armed Forces and its coalition partners used an array of technology to quickly amass and disseminate data during OIF. Commanders received video and other data in real-time from operation centers hundreds of miles from the battlefield. Combat pilots in the air were often retasked to hit targets in a matter of minutes thanks to data supplied by high-flying reconnaissance assets, including military satellites and the still much in demand U-2 manned reconnaissance aircraft. Time-sensitive targeting was a reality in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unprecedented levels of interservice cooperation highlighted the operation. Coupled with new technologies, this cooperation accelerated operations. Navy P-3 crews carried Army or Marine observers who relayed information to forces on the ground who, in turn, called in F-16 or F/A-18 pilots to hit enemy forces with satellite-guided weapons. Special forces teams on the ground illuminated targets for both Navy and Air Force bombers and fighters to prosecute an attack with laser-guided munitions. Behind the scenes, an enormous logistics effort by C-130, C-5, and other airlift crews brought thousands of tons of materiel into the theater. Even the venerable C-141, which is likely seeing action in its last war, was used to haul mountains of supplies into Baghdad and often returned with wounded soldiers. The words in this special edition of Code One come from people who fought Operation Iraqi Freedom—enduring heat and sand, living in tents, eating MREs, and often working eighteen-plus-hour days. This edition does not claim to be a definitive history of OIF, only a collection of firsthand impressions from people who operated, crewed, maintained, and supported military aircraft built by Lockheed Martin. What follows are accounts from more than 100 pilots, aircrew members, maintainers, and weapons loaders from twenty-one active duty, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve, and Navy units flying ten different aircraft types. Operation Iraqi Freedom can be summed up in the words of Maj. Akshai “Abu” Gandhi, a traditional Guardsman and an instructor pilot with the 169th Fighter Wing, South Carolina Air National Guard: “When you think about it, why would anyone want to pick a fight with us? They have to know what this country is capable of doing.” Code One

G L O S S A RY AOR ADVON AEW AFRC AIMS ANG AO APC ARB ASOC ATACMS ATO AWACS BDA

area of responsibility advanced echelon, a group that goes in early to prepare a base for military aircraft Air Expeditionary Wing Air Force Reserve Command Advanced Imaging Multispectral Sensor, a long-range optical, infrared, and electronic intelligence-gathering pod Air National Guard aircraft ordnanceman armored personnel carrier Air Reserve Base Air Support Operations Center Army Tactical Missile System air tasking order Airborne Warning and Control System, aircraft designated E-3 Sentry bomb damage assessment

First Strike

Maj. Mark Hoehn was handed a set of coordinates and asked to find the target. It didn’t take long for the F-117 pilot to figure out he would be going to Baghdad. The war, he thought, was starting. “I knew by the nature of where we were going that this was going to be significant,” he said. Neither of the two pilots knew Saddam Hussein was the target. Within minutes, Lt. Col. Dave Toomey, the flight lead, and Hoehn were putting together their portion of the mission. On the flight line, maintenance crews and support people prepared the Nighthawks for a mission they knew nothing about. All they knew was they had less than two hours to get the aircraft airborne. “The maintenance area was a swarm of activity,” Hoehn said. “They wanted to pull it off as much as we did.

CAG CAS CBU CCD CCIP CE CEP CJTFHQ COMMINT CSAR DDF DEAD DME

commander, air group close air support cluster bomb unit (general designation) charge-coupled display Common Configuration Implementation Program civil engineering circular error probable Combined Joint Task Force Headquarters communications intelligence combat search and rescue deployed debriefing facility destruction of enemy air defenses (pronounced “deed”) distance measuring equipment, which usually consists of airborne and ground equipment that provides distance (and in some systems, groundspeed) information

Those guys—maintenance, munitions, support—teamed up to make miracles happen.” The mission plan called for each pilot to drop two bombs on the bunker. The bombs—EGBU-27 Advanced Paveway III bunker-busters—can be directed to the target using either laser or satellite guidance. They were designed to burrow underground before detonating. The problem: The bombs were unknowns. They had only been tested once, and neither pilot had flown with them before. In fact, the Air Force tested the bombs in the United States just six hours before the crew began preparing for the mission. Fighter aircraft dropped the munitions in the same configuration the Nighthawks would use. The tests were a success.

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. DERRICK C. GOODE

Maj. Mark Hoehn

First Quarter 2004

ELINT E/O EOR FAC GBU GPS HARM HHQ HTS IAMS IAP IFF INS ISR

electronic intelligence electro-optical end of runway, refers to place where final checks are made before takeoff forward air controller guided bomb unit (generic designation) Global Positioning System, a satellite- based navigation system High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile, an AGM-88, used against radar sites higher headquarters HARM Targeting System inertially aided munitions International Airport identification friend from foe inertial navigation system intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance

With the planes loaded and the pilots ready, Ram 01 and 02 launched into the night sky at 3 a.m. toward Baghdad. At about the same time, a pair of Navy EA-6B Prowler crews flying patrol in the region was tasked to meet the Nighthawk pilots en route to Iraq. A couple of Air Force F-16s flying nofly-zone missions were also called as escorts. Another Prowler, from the USS Constellation in the Arabian Gulf, joined the package as the seven aircraft met up with a KC-135 tanker to refuel the Nighthawks. “We’d been in radio silence for most of the flight,” Hoehn said. “No one knew what we were doing, and I hadn’t said anything to Toomey because I was having problems with my communications setup. I had to talk through the boom operator to see if the mission was still a go.” The tanker dragged the pair toward Baghdad, then broke off and headed away. The EA-6 crews and F-16 pilots stayed with the Nighthawks a little longer, then peeled away to let the F-117s slip into Baghdad airspace. When the pair was about two hours from target, Navy ships in the Arabian Gulf and elsewhere fired a battery of Tomahawk cruise missiles. The launches were timed to reach Baghdad within minutes of the bunker strike. Both pilots had wanted to get to the target before daylight, but the sun was already bleaching the desert sky a bright orange as it crept over the horizon. “At altitude, it gets very

JDAM JRB JSTARS LGB LPOP MEF MEZ MMC NFO NVGs OCA OEF OIF ONW OSW

Joint Direct Attack Munition, GBU-32 satellite-guided munition Joint Reserve Base Joint Surveillance Targeting Attack Radar System, aircraft designated E-8 laser-guided bomb listening post/observation post Marine Expeditionary Force missile engagement zone modular mission computer Naval flight officer night vision goggles offensive counterair Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Iraqi Freedom Operation Northern Watch Operation Southern Watch

bright,” Hoehn said. “That’s not a good time for a stealth fighter. We needed to get to the target quickly.” Toomey broke away from his wingman and headed down toward the target. As his fighter dropped under broken skies, Hoehn banked in and raced in from the east. Both pilots released their weapons. The satellite tracking systems guided the bombs to a series of buildings in the compound. As the Nighthawks peeled off the target area, Hoehn

PET ROE RPG RTB RTU SADL SAM SCU SEAD SOF SOLL II SSU

preemptive targeting, a HARM shot based purely on timing against a specific surface-to-air missile site, regardless of whether the site’s radar is emitting rules of engagement rocket-propelled grenade return to base replacement training unit, final pilot training before entering an operational squadron situational awareness data link surface-to-air missile system capability upgrade suppression of enemy air defenses special operations forces special operations, low level. The II indicates use of night vision goggles. Surveillance System Upgrade

could see flashes of light in his canopy as explosions tore the compound apart and the antiaircraft batteries started firing. Hoehn flew west out of Baghdad. Toomey also skirted out of the airspace as the Tomahawk missiles began hammering the city. They flew on, not knowing where the other pilot was or if the other had survived the attack. Because the planning timeline was so scant, the pilots had to find their own refuelers.

SWA TACC TACCO TACP TALCE TBM TD TFR TOD Triple-A TST WCMD

Southwest Asia Tanker/Airlift Control Center tactical coordinator tactical air control party, pilots assigned to ground forces to assist with targeting and communications tactical airlift control element, a group that directs unloading and loading operations at a forward base tactical ballistic missiles target designation terrain-following radar technical order data antiaircraft artillery (also written AAA) time-sensitive targeting Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser, a tail kit attached to existing munitions

Toomey found a KC-135 refueling no-fly-zone patrols in the east and gassed up for the return trip. Hoehn linked up with the tanker that dragged the pair to Baghdad. The pair landed in the bright sunlight of a Southwest Asia morning. The first thing Hoehn did on landing was hug his crew chief. – Excerpted from “The First Shot” by TSgt. Mark Kinkade from the July 2003 issue of Airman magazine

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. DERRICK C. GOODE

Code One

F-117 alert

We usually kept two F-117s on thirty-minute alert status, which translated to three to four hours from notification to a designated time on target. The alert pilots were dressed and ready to go on short notice. The weapons and the jets were preflighted. We just got in the truck, drove out to the flight line, did a quick walkaround, climbed in the cockpit, started the engine, and off we went. I never thought we would use the alert jets as much as we did. We never trained for alert missions before OIF. The first night’s strike, which was carried out by two F-117s on alert status, was probably the fastest F-117 mission plan thrown out the door and executed. – Maj. Don Cornwell First Night Striker Support

The 22nd Fighter Squadron was airborne with its F-16s on the first night of the war. I was on that first night wave armed with HARMs. The first couple of nights we were involved with the counter-Scud fight in the western desert. We supported all of the strikers out there. Providing SEAD support to those guys was a huge challenge. They were all over the place trying to find targets of opportunity. We would find them on the radar and try to help them out. – Capt. Darren Gray

USAF PHOTO BY TSGT. RICHARD FREELAND

Official Start

The war started a little sooner for us than CNN reported. We penetrated beyond the no-fly zones into western Iraq with our F-16s in early March to search for Scuds. We were flying over some of their airfields, which had not been bombed, without support from jammer aircraft. All of their air defenses were active. We knew they

saw us and knew that they knew what we were doing. Sure enough, AWACS called us up and said some MiGs were moving on one of the Iraqi airfields. We were redirected to attack them. We hit three, two MiG-21s and a MiG-25. That was our first combat mission of the war, and they were really shooting at us. – Maj. Pat Hanlon USAF PHOTO BY TSGT. MIKE BUYTAS

Our MC-130E was the first fixed-wing aircraft to land in Iraq after hostilities started. It was a special operations mission. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson First Bird

First Quarter 2004

Another First

Iraqi Navy

Our unit had the proud distinction of performing some key events in the OIF air campaign, including SEAD lead for the first package to Baghdad on A-day and the first nonstealth aircraft over Baghdad on 21 March. We also fired the first HARM of the war. – Maj. Ken Ekman

We were patrolling with our P-3 near an Iraqi gas and oil platform on the first night of the war. We saw the only real Iraqi navy ship afloat. It was next to a wreck from the first Gulf War. We called the Combined Air Operations Center and they sent an AC-130 that was returning from an overland mission to take out the Iraqi patrol boat. Unfortunately, we did not have any weapons on board on that particular mission. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon

Wing Wave

The night of the first strike was quite memorable. Everyone from the launching shift stayed over to make sure the jets got back. The pilots flew over the next morning and did a little wing wave for everyone below. Everyone was leaning over to see if the weapon bay was empty. Seeing the traps come down and an empty weapon bay on the F-117 was definitely exciting. – Amn. Shelly Lagania

Fire Hose

We were on a counter-Scud mission in western Iraq with our F-16s the first night of the war. The night was overcast. With my NVGs, I could see the lights above Baghdad as the bombs exploded from the initial strikes. A mile to my north, tracer rounds

shot into the air like a fire hose. – Lt. Col. John Reed Hat’s Off

My hat’s off to our soldiers on the ground, whether they are special forces or infantry. Making radio calls with bullets racing by your cranium is a much different experience from being above the whole situation in a fighter. – Maj. Mark Lantz Record Strength

We deployed more U-2s, flew more sorties, and deployed more people. We were in Iraq in greater depth than we’d been anywhere else in the history of the airplane. Still, our operations tempo was so high that we had very little room to recover if someone got sick and went on nonflying status. – Maj. Cory Bartholomew US ARMY PHOTO BY SGT. IGOR PAUSTOVSKI

H-Hour Prelude Before H-hour, or “shock and awe” as the news called it, we pressed well north of the thirty-second parallel to support the antiScud war in the west. The surface-toair threat was relatively minimal with spurious triple-A and the occasional

ballistic missile. On the opening night of the major air assault on Iraq, our two-ship of F-16CJs were supporting some F-16C+s thirty-five miles or so west of Baghdad about ten minutes before H-hour was to begin. Sure enough, we got the call to support some of

the CJs near Baghdad with a couple of our four HARMs. We supported that push into Baghdad and continued with our support of the F-16C+s out west at the same time. We were in the right place at the right time that night. – Capt. Matt Allen

Code One

and smooth-flying jet. The HARM’s launch defied both of those norms—it was incredible. – From the journal of Capt. Kris Padilla C-5 Tactical Crews

USAF PHOTO BY SMSGT. EDWARD E. SNYDER

My First HARM Shot

We got real-time tasked in EOR. I’d be taking two PET shots in support of some Hornets going downtown. The weather was clear above about 14,000 feet, but billowing clouds of sand had been ravaging the AOR and the troops on the ground. The sandstorm didn’t stop the bombs from dropping and provided a sanctuary for us, since the Iraqi air defenses couldn’t track us visually. We pushed the mission up ten minutes and I shacked my first PET. The HARM left the jet like a friggin’ freight train. I knew what to expect visually, based on the video I had seen from earlier missions, so I was primed for the shot. The delay between pickle and launch was very noticeable, easily 1.4 seconds. As soon as it left the rail, the entire jet shook from the rocket launch. I checked hard to the left to prevent the intake from sucking down the rocket blast, and I was engulfed in the rocket’s roar. The Viper is a very quiet

We were notified three days before the war started that the Air Force was going to send in the first C-5s. We left Dover within twenty-four hours for the designated base in western Europe and got into crew rest. We handpicked the crews and chose the guys with tactical experience. After Baghdad International Airport was secured, we began making combat entries into Baghdad. Later, once we got a little more comfortable flying into Baghdad, we started using regular airland crews. – Lt. Col. Don Gresham Job One

Everybody in the EP-3 is focused on the mission. Our job is to locate threats to aircraft in the vicinity and threats to friendly ground forces like the Coalition, Army, or Marines. We pinpointed targets and passed evaluations off to V Corps or the 1st MEF and they would persecute the target with an appropriate aircraft. We located surface-to-air missile sites and passed the information to the strikers. We sifted through the data and turned it into useful information. – Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden

Good By Comparison

We had a chow hall, phones, and e-mail. When we first got there, we thought, “Man, this really sucks.” But others were in situations far worse than ours. When people complained, I told them to think about the Army dudes riding out sandstorms on the border of Iraq in northern Kuwait waiting for the war to start. We had it pretty good by comparison. – Lt. Col. Andy Larson Parking Spaces

We got on the ground with fortysix aircraft, and enough parking for twenty and a fuel truck. The civil engineering guys came in later and built additional parking for eighteen aircraft. – Maj. John Church En route Briefings

En route, we briefed the flight plan with the entire crew. That gave them a sense of being in the loop. If the loadmaster knew where to look, especially going into Baghdad, that helped the crew. We wanted to integrate the crew into our combat tactics. – Lt. Col. Jim McGann

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. QUINTON T. BURRIS

We arrived at Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Dragging our stuff off the aircraft in the heat and sand, I thought, “It was never this hard in the Marines.” I am a pilot with Northwest and I will never again complain about a winter layover in Minot, North Dakota. – Maj. John Raulston

Appreciating Minot

First Quarter 2004

Information Overload We were not airframe- or pilot-limited for the first time we’ve employed this aircraft in combat. We typically had four to five U-2s in the air at one time. We covered various quadrants of Iraq with aircraft from three bases. One day we had six U-2 missions in the box. The limitations during OIF were a function of our ability to move and exploit the information. The limits were set by the photo interpreters and our intel collectors on the back end. They had to receive a huge volume of data, digest it, make it actionable information, and then push it back to the commanders. At one point, the intelligence community said, “We’re maxed out. We can’t possibly move any more electrons for you.” – Lt. Col. Troy DeVine

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

All Over The Place

We were flying our P-3 at 30,000 feet talking to and working with ground forces making their way across the Iraqi border. I saw the coordination between the Army, Air Force, and Navy work better than I have ever seen it happen before. We were able to identify possible targets and the fast movers would come in. After positively identifying the targets as hostile, they would take them out. We pretty much rolled right over anything that came into our path that first night. There were lots of bombs hitting and destroying their targets on the first try. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon Initial Strikes

We targeted SAM sites near Saddam International Airport weeks into the conflict, allowing other forces to go in unhindered. On the initial strikes into Baghdad, we often supported other aircraft inbound with our F-16s. – Capt. Frank Bryant Record Force

We had ten aircraft, and the other six units each brought six, for a total of forty-six. We had the largest contingent of C-130s at one location in the history of the Air Force. We all worked together. If, for instance, the

guys from St. Joe needed a part, they got it. Maintenance was an all-inclusive organization. We organized to take care of all the aircraft. An aircraft landed every fifteen minutes around the clock. – Maj. John Church Built For War

Passing Information

We reported to the battle group. We did everything we could to find the enemy. We passed the information off to the ground forces directly or through JSTARS, AWACS, and the fighters and bombers. – Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden

High over Iraq, you notice that that country was built to go to war. Revetments and bunkers are everywhere, especially near Baghdad. – Maj. Jerome Dyck Happy Birthday To Me

I arrived at Base X at 2 a.m. on my birthday. My present was a cot and a sleeping bag. I immediately started working twelve-hour days, sometimes sixteen hours. I didn’t get one day off for the entire 102 days I was there. – MSgt. Stephen Wells Long War

On my first mission, I came off the tanker and AWACS said, “Hey, help out these guys over here.” Back to the tanker and then, “Help these other guys out over here.” Back to the tanker for the third time and “Hey, help these other guys.” When the mission was finally over, I thought, “Man, this is going to be a long war.” – Lt. Col. Andy Larson USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. LEE A. OSBERRY, JR.

Code One

PHOTO BY GREG L. DAVIS

Niche Capability

We were handed the mission in October 2002. The F-16 Block 30 had developed a niche capability with the targeting pod and the datalink, which was critical for working with ground forces. The SCU 5 upgrade allowed us to drop JDAMs. The software came on board after we were deployed. The only hardware change involved the 1760 pylons. Everything else was software. – Col. John Mooney

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

Orions Everywhere

Most of the missions we flew in the P-3 before the war were all over water. We flew a racetrack pattern between Kuwait and Iraq and looked as far north as we could. We flew missions up the Straits of Hormuz. We flew escort missions around our carrier battle group. We flew missions down to the Horn of Africa. – Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete USN PHOTO BY PM2 MICHAEL SANDBERG

Life Near The Front

Al Jaber is a completely different world, definitely more of a war zone. Everyone walks around in their Kevlar and carries chem gear. About once a day they go Alarm Red. We experienced that firsthand about three hours after we diverted to the base. The sirens wailed and everyone ran for cover as they donned their gear. We had none, much to our chagrin, and it felt pretty awkward experiencing my first realworld Scud attack without the gear we train with. Fortunately the alert lasted about four minutes. We bedded down for the night. At about 0230, waves of jets launched for CAS sorties. The launch was motivating in spite of losing a little sleep as a result. – From the journal of Capt. Kris Padilla Snotless

We went through eight or ten days of missile attacks at our base. A Patriot missile launch will scare the snot out 10

First Quarter 2004

of you. In my opinion, the Army does not think about tents when they position Patriot missile batteries. The first couple of times a siren went off, guys were lollygagging. The first time the Army launched a Patriot 100 feet over the top of the tent at Mach whatever, those same guys were track stars sprinting to the shelter. One time, we watched a Patriot hit something right over our heads. – Maj. Bruce Taylor

cent oxygen in a fish bowl every third day. The effects are accumulative and subtle. After about a week or two, the fatigue sets in and we start forgetting what day it is. Decompression sickness is another threat. Those affected have to go to a hyperbaric chamber to get rid of the symptoms. – Maj. Brian Ferrar

Physical Toll

The average duration of a U-2 flight over Iraq was close to ten hours and could extend to eleven hours. By regulation, we have to have forty-eight hours out of the pressure suit after nine hours of flying. Every pilot was flying every three to four days. The long durations and frequency take a physical toll. The U-2’s cabin is pressurized to the equivalent of 30,000 feet the entire sortie. So OIF pilots are sitting on top of Mt. Everest sucking 100 per-

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

Eight Turn Eight

We were launching up to eight F-117s at first. We were prepared to launch ten to twelve. We went down to launching six and then four jets near the end of the air war. We had two jets on alert at the very end of our deployment. We launched eight and then turned eight at night. The first group took off just after sunset and the last were coming back just before sunrise. F-117 pilots typically flew 5.5-hour missions. – Capt. Jim McGlone

We flew into the heart of Baghdad to take out whatever SAMs were found for us to kill. We truly went back to our roots of a hunter-killer squadron. The Block 50 is advancing beyond belief. Future HTS upgrades will give us near-IAM accuracy coordinates. Sniper pods, Link-16, IFF interrogators, and helmet-mounted sights will make F-16 Block 50s the airframe of choice in any combat environment. – Capt. Matt Allen

Airframe Of Choice

For thirty minutes after the first strikes of the air war, the entire sky filled with triple-A, SAM launches, and explosions from air strikes. The light show was the most incredible sight I will probably see my entire life. Our Block 50 F-16s became very dynamic and flexible within the next few weeks. We were supporting ourselves around the clock with mixed element loadouts of HARMs, CBU, and GBU-31.

Two-Weeks Notice

We weren’t planning to deploy our F-16s for OSW or ONW for a while. We got word to deploy for a possible war in June. We actually deployed in mid-February. After months of anticipation, we found out we were leaving only two weeks in advance. – Capt. Frank Bryant Versatility

The nature of the OIF air campaign changed quickly as the war progressed. We adjusted what we did, and what we carried, on the F-16CJ. We carried HARMs, CBU-103, GBU-31, and AGM-65D/G/H in a three-week period. Most of us had never seen, much less carried, live WCMDs or JDAMs. The 14th Fighter Squadron OIF ledger attests to this versatility, as we employed nearly seventy HARMs, about eighty CBU-103s, more than twenty JDAMs, about ten AGM-65s, and nearly 2,000 bullets. – Maj. Ken Ekman

The Constellation became the night carrier; the crew had shifted their schedule twelve hours over the course of a week. We were in the Gulf on 19 March with the Lincoln and the Kitty Hawk, and our primary mission was passing gas. A section of S-3s would launch, tank the strikers, return to the boat, refuel, and meet the same customers coming back. We would drag them back to the boat. On the sixth day of the war, the mission was to destroy the remaining Iraqi naval order of battle. The strike would be time-sensitive against emerging targets. They included Saddam’s oceangoing yacht, which was essentially a medium-sized cruise ship. Laser Maverick [AGM-65E], which has a low CEP and low danger of collateral damage, was the weapon of choice. The strike took place during the day in a low- to medium-threat environment. The target wasn’t assigned on a whim. In training, we had demonstrated tactical proficiency before we had gotten there, mainly with SLAM-ER. Since the S-3B doesn’t have a laser designator, it can’t self-designate. On the mission, we carried a buddy store for refueling on the left pylon and the Maverick on the right. We flew out with an F/A-18 and had to coordinate the buddy lasing on the fly. We also had to give the F/A-18 gas on the way in and on the way out. We set up the attack on secure voice. After a couple of unsuccessful runs, we adjusted the shot geometry and the aim point. On the final run, we got a good spot and we fired the missile at 18,000 feet, 380 knots. The missile came in from above, impacted, and it fractured the hull. After that, the yacht became target practice for everybody in the area. We had two hours to do all the planning. We received the tasking at 0245; launched at 0549 from the Constellation; found the target and fired at 0732. We trapped aboard CV-64 at 0853. I never saw a happier bunch of AOs than the ones on deck when we came back empty. The mission was the first time ever that an S-3 had attacked a target. – Lt. Cmdr. Dick McGrath

Scratch One SeaGoing Yacht

Code One

During surges, we launched a two-ship of F-16s every twenty to thirty minutes, twentyfour hours a day. The initial surge lasted ninety-six hours at the beginning of the war. The jets continued to be missioncapable, but the pilots eventually began to feel the effects of cumulative fatigue. The toughest physical part of the mission was wearing night-vision goggles for six hours straight night after night. That’s tough on the nose. After four or five consecutive nights on NVGs, most pilots were wearing moleskin strips.

We were flying longer than the normal 3.2-volt NVG batteries would last. We modified our brackets to accept the larger 3.6-volt NVG batteries once we got in theater. We flew 2,800 combat hours in twenty-six days. Back home at Dannelly Field in Montgomery, Alabama, we normally fly 4,000 hours a year. So, we packed nearly nine months of flying into less than one month. Of the 2,800 hours, more than 1,300 were NVG hours. These 1,300 hours nearly doubled my squadron’s total NVG experience. There was minimal hangar space. The jets

were out in the weather most of the time in blowing sand and dust. Our effort was a tribute to our maintainers and to the airframe. – Lt. Col. Carl Jones

More Versatility

What’s An S-3? Part I

Into Baghdad

My first combat sortie in a Block 50 started with night SEAD in the vicinity of Baghdad and ended in a daytime delivery of CBU-103 against Medina Division artillery while doing CAS in support of V Corps near Karbala. – Maj. Ken Ekman

Media interest in the S-3 peaked after we shot the Maverick. They had concentrated on the fighter guys before that. After the shot, it was “Tell us more about what you do.” We became a news story. Nobody had ever heard of an S-3 before. – Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite

Not An Average Cruise

What’s An S-3? Part II

We knew when we left port in November that this wasn’t going to be a regular cruise. Our training became more serious. We initially performed OSW missions, but intensity level increased ten-fold. The adrenaline was high. – Cmdr. Steve Kelly

The destruction of Saddam’s yacht gave me a reason to take the photo of the S-3 out of my wallet. I had kept one in there to show people what I fly because nobody knows what an S-3 is. – Cmdr. Ian Vatet

A beautiful day over Iraq, but a painful sortie as we waited for a tasking that never came until the last half-hour we were in the container. It sucks having a two-ship of bomb droppers orbit around Baghdad, waiting for tasking, when the ground forces are parked in the outskirts of the city. I’m sure they could use some airborne artillery support. The good news is that the bombs we finally did drop were on the main road leading into Baghdad International Airport. Recent reports say that we control the airport now and will be using it as a staging point for the siege. We paved the way for them. Rhino did a visual JDAM delivery and shacked the road. I rolled in and employed on the same spot with my WCMDs. It was a great pass as far as the parameters go. It was really awesome seeing the cluster bombs pepper the target area. – From the journal of Capt. Kris Padilla

OIF By The Numbers

Opportunity Target

We had been training with SLAM-ER and Maverick on the S-3, doing captive carry with live weapons. We flew a lot of training missions. We were ready. We wanted our crews to be in a position to shoot when the time came. We were fully prepared, but the opportunity didn’t present itself until Saddam’s yacht became a target. – Cmdr. Ian Vatet

Media Magnet

The destruction of Saddam’s yacht brought the S-3 to the attention of a lot of people before the president flew in one. – Cmdr. Steve Kelly Troubles At Home

I used the Sailor Phone to call home and got in trouble with my wife. I had been telling her that what we were doing was not that dangerous. I told her that we never flew over Iraq, that we were doing a lot of tanking over water. I lost all credibility with her when she saw the story about us destroying the yacht on CNN. – Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. BENNIE J. DAVIS III

Bag Men

We got to Base X and got assigned to Echo Row. When we got there, we had no place to put our tools, no place to store our equipment, no place to hang our shirts. We found some wood, screws, and screwdrivers and started to build everything we needed to support

USN PHOTO BY PMA JUSTIN MCGARRY

First Quarter 2004

our operation. Some people built beds to sleep on. Everyone lived out of bags. – TSgt. Jason Moss

showing. I didn’t wonder anymore. – Capt. Shamsher Mann

Body Armor

Putting a C-5 in harm’s way really optimizes the loads. On the first mission, we carried 95,000 pounds of cargo. The second mission was approximately 120,000 pounds. The third mission was thirty-five pallets and 130,000 pounds. – Lt. Col. Don Gresham

I knew it was the real deal the first time I had to put on body armor and Kevlar. – Maj. Tom Hanson Young Guns

I led a four-ship of F-16CJs in support of a mixed package of nearly twenty-eight aircraft hitting targets in and around Baghdad on the third night of the air campaign. The other three guys in my flight were relatively young. Numbers Three and Four were brandnew two-ship flight leads, and my wingman was a young lieutenant just months out of RTU. Accomplishing the mission was obviously the first priority, but getting all three of my wingmen back home safe was a close second. While flying around some fairly active shooting, we reformed the flight while troubleshooting my wingman’s fuel malfunction. Number Three took a PET shot, so I then had him take my wingman home. I took Number Four onto my wing. We had now lost all our reactive HARMs, since we had just enough HARMs to cover our planned PET shots. Soon after I rejoined with my new wingman, he began defending for two missiles launched under his wing. The remainder of the sortie was spent trying to reestablish some semblance of a SEAD cap while trying to take on-time PET shots and defending again for SA-2 missile guidance indications on our radar warning receivers. We got all our missiles off on time, but we definitely earned our pay that night. I felt incredibly satisfied as we flew home in the dark of night without HARMs. I couldn’t have been prouder of the guys I flew with and how three relatively young Viper pilots had handled themselves like seasoned warriors that night. I was also glad I was flying an F-16. I remember watching the CNN coverage from the first Gulf War when I was in high school and wondering what the pilots must have felt like flying around all the shooting over Baghdad that CNN was

Big Loads

Shot On Goal

During the first week of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Reed and I were pressing to our tanker track for a topoff before RTB, following an uneventful sortie providing SEAD and strike coverage for four one-hour vulnerability

USAF PHOTO BY AMN1 STACIA M. WILLIS

periods. Our two-ship of F-16s was a mixed element, with Reed carrying one JDAM and one WCMD, and my aircraft had two AGM-88s. As our two-ship was taking gas, AWACS called on Guard frequency and directed us to contact them when off the tanker. AWACS directed us to a location where troops were in contact and needed immediate support. We pushed directly to the area at .95 Mach and wheeled up for CAS over a town where we could see the battle in progress below. An east-west river intersected the town with US forces to the south and Iraqi army personnel to the north. Kiowa helicopters provided FAC coverage for us and we were

soon talking directly with them. Enemy forces were firing on US units from a large soccer complex. The ground forces made it clear that this threat needed to be neutralized as quickly as possible. After a very specific talk-on, Reed rolled in and dropped a single JDAM on the south side of the soccer complex in visual mode. The weapon impacted precisely where it was directed and exploded in a large fireball, throwing debris all around. The FAC in the Kiowa applauded the effectiveness of this attack and requested another. Moose again rolled in from the south and dropped his WCMD in visual mode. The CBU-103 created a neat pattern in the middle of the soccer stadium; the explosions of the submunitions were visible from all around. This pass, too, was greeted with appreciation by the Army personnel, who referred to it as a direct hit. Following the second attack, I noted a significant number of personnel running to their vehicles and driving at high rates of speed north, exiting the town and fleeing from US forces. I rolled in from the south to strafe the vehicles, but was called off by my flight lead because of uncertainty of identifying those on the ground and by fuel constraints. We RTB’d after coordinating a tanker. The attacks of the day neutralized Iraqi army units in that town and allowed the US Army to continue with their advance toward Baghdad. Even with IAMs on board, often we have to resort to our dumb bomb days to take out the targets. – Capt. Ryan Petersen USAF PHOTO BY MSGT. STEFAN ALFORD

Code One

under one wing and one JDAM under the other. We always saved ordnance in case we were the lucky guys who found a Scud site. At the very end of the vulnerability period, we would occasionally unload everything since we were going home anyway. We flew 24/7. At the beginning of war, we decided that pilots would alternate nights and days for two-week periods. The schedule never worked out that way, though. – Maj. Pat Hanlon Insurance Policy

We were a big insurance policy against Scuds, maybe a deterrent at

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

Not In The Recruiting Ad

Gun-Toting Loadmasters

The first night I got to Tabuk and had to put my tent up, all I could think of was, “I’m just in the Guard. I did this to get money for college. What am I doing here?” – MSgt. Trevor Williams

We always carried guns and Kevlar flak jackets. The loadmasters check out weapons before every flight. The guns are an antihijack measure and for selfdefense. – TSgt. Alexis Richardson

In The Dark

Thunderstorms

My family knew what was going on in the war when we were in Tabuk. But we didn’t. – TSgt. C.M. Madden

We flew into a thunderstorm that would have shut us down if we were off the coast of California. It was hailing and ice was hitting the fan blades. We had an aviation technician riding in the backseat aboard that flight and I asked him after we got back if he was scared. He said casually, “Yeah, it was pretty scary.” I’m glad he thought so because it was the scariest flight I’d ever been on. But we had guys out there who needed our help. – Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite

Twenty-Six-Hour Days

We had a twenty-six-hour duty day for the first couple of weeks. – SMSgt. Clinton Foster Time Flies

When you are all done and you take a toll of the day, it is amazing how fast everything gets done. You concentrate on doing one thing at a time through the whole day. When you look back, a lot of things got done. – SSgt. Phil Sigstad

24/7 Coverage

We carried either four 500-pound bombs or two 500-pound bombs USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. STACY L. PEARSALL

OSW To OIF I arrived as part of the first group of 23rd Fighter Squadron personnel in the beginning of February and started to fly our F-16 Block 50s straightaway. We began OSW missions after the first week and right up to the start of OIF. Initially, Iraq was divided into lanes. We roamed around a large area to provide SEAD support. The jet was excellent. We were overly qualified. The Iraqi air-defense system was almost nonexistent. A lot of the air strikes had taken out the crucial air-defense nodes making the Iraqi SAM sites autonomous, which meant they weren’t doing very well. I shot two HARMs and dropped some JDAM and CBU-103 WCMD. – Capt. Brandon Roth

First Quarter 2004

best. We ended up being an on-call air force for the special operations forces. – Lt. Col. Sammy Black P-3 Passengers

We often flew Marine or Army observers who were familiar with ground targeting and recognition. They brought their own comm gear and sat on a camp stool or their helmet between the nav and the TACCO or back by Sensor Station 4, so they could have a clear view of the AIMS display. They evaluated potential targets we found with our AIMS pod. They then relayed target information to ground units in the area and they would investigate or eliminate threats as necessary. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

14th First

We went out as a four-ship DEAD mission on the fourth night of the air war. The weather was so cloudy that we had to drop down to a lower altitude over eastern Baghdad to support Hornet strikers. The shooting was the worst I saw during the first week. Being so low made the ground fire seem even more intense. Triple-A and ballistic SAMs were flying all around and above us. The Hornets did not mention that they were safe. Assuming they still needed support, we stayed down there getting shot at for an extra ten minutes. We then got tasked to take out an SA-3 radar in southern Baghdad near an SA-6 site. The two wingmen in our flight took PET shots to support us as the other lead and I descended into the weather

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. SHANE A. CUOMO

to drop. Triple-A was thick and blowing up all around us. I followed him down the chute by about two miles and saw him light his afterburner and punch his tanks off as he came off target. I pickled my bombs and followed him up in full grunt. I looked over my shoulder for explosions. When I finally looked forward once I got above the clouds, I was thirty degrees nose high at about 38,000 feet and about 200 knots. Not smart. I guess I should have considered punching my tanks, too. The four of us thought that was probably the coolest thing we’d done at the time. We were the first members of the 14th Fighter Squadron to ever drop ordnance in combat. – Capt. Shamsher Mann Baggage Handlers

We carried our chemical defense gear, personal bags, protective gear, and

helmet bag. Each person ended up with six or seven bags. Everybody would get their bags on the bus, take their bags off the bus, and put their bags on the ramp before getting on our C-141. Moving all that baggage got to be a running joke. – Capt. Paul Szweda NVG OTJ

I arrived in March. The war kicked off a week later and I started flying right away. I didn’t see as many threats as I had expected. Even though I had only five hours of NVG flying when I went over, I flew all my OIF missions at night. This is a testament to the Viper as a great platform. I think everybody flew a close air support mission of some sort. I felt like the war was a lot more organized than I ever expected it to be and also a lot more restricted. – Capt. Tim Curry

USAF PHOTO BY MSGT. JAMES M. BOWMAN

Code One

Stocked And Ready

I replenished required munitions trailers and chaff and flares on the flight line. We always kept the trailer stocked and ready. We figured everybody would come back from every mission, but we were never certain. Seeing the jets coming back without their weapons was exciting. We knew our part of the mission was carried out. – SSgt. Rick Walker Smoke Trail Rising

I got within a few miles of the target and saw some explosions. At first I thought the explosions were bombs going off. Then I saw a smoke trail coming at us. That got my attention. I realized that I was, no kidding, getting shot at by a SAM. – Capt. Jason Charrier First Time In The Left Seat

I had just finished upgrade training when OIF kicked off, so my first mission as a C-141 aircraft commander was a combat mission. We flew with three pilots. The new guy would fly with two experienced guys, including the Reservists. The third pilot sat in the jumpseat and provided another set of eyes. – Capt. Avi Perras

so he supported me as I dropped my JDAM in a visual attack on an Iraqi compound containing trucks and an unknown number of troops. The bombs went through the pipper. As I performed my safe escape maneuver, the FAC said, “Perfect! Secondaries! Lots of secondaries! You made our day.” I felt pretty good about my contribution at that point. We didn’t know how to spell CAS before OIF. But once the war started, we performed flawlessly. – Lt. Col. Kevin Fowler Too Big For C-17

We carried equipment that wouldn’t fit in a C-17, items like radar and communications equipment. With the items we brought in, Baghdad went from a beat-up base to an international airport again, particularly in terms of radar coverage, in just one or two weeks. After the initial

I saw a bomb explode in the distance on the ground to my left. I checked my time-on-target card and counted down from three. Consistent with the card, a bomb exploded on a target off to the left. Being able to tell exactly when bombs would go off was a wild and amazing display of what this country and our allies can do. – Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden Getting There And Back

Spelling CAS

After my wingman, Capt. Eric “Bodhi” Puels, and I were released from our TST duties, we found a ground FAC who needed airborne assistance to destroy a target situated behind a tall ridgeline during the battle for Kirkuk. Army artillery was having little luck. So, we jumped in line behind a pair of F-18s and started to search for the target. The Navy pilots thought they had the target nailed, so they dropped their ordnance after getting clearance from the FAC. The FAC appreciated their efforts, but it wasn’t the target he really wanted. So, we circled the wagons. The FAC did a good job of talking our eyes onto the target. Bodhi was carrying only HARMs,

Well-Timed Display

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. STACY L. PEARSALL

set of seven missions, the airport had radar for air operations. We had no approaches to fly on the first mission. We had a validated instrument approach by the last mission. We flew one or two missions a day and were done in four days. – Lt. Col. Don Gresham Better With Time

We were flying our P-3Cs 24/7 for about two weeks prior to the war to provide battlespace assessment of the Iraqi border. We had one aircraft on station with the battle group in the Arabian Gulf and one flying the Kuwait/Iraq border. The planes held up very well. The more you fly them, the better they work. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

F-117s went from Holloman to Langley [AFB, Virginia] to Moron [Spain] to al Ueidid Air Base in Qatar. I was part of the ADVON team that left on 30 January about two or three weeks before the jets showed up. This was my first time to deploy with the F-117. We took several C-17s and C-141s to get material over. Seven C-5s were needed to get everything back to the United States. – Amn. Brandon Wannarka Changing Weapons

The conflict progressed quickly. The Army moved north fast. The changing nature of the threats determined what we carried. We substituted CBU-103s for HARMs on the third day of fighting. – Maj. Boris Armstrong Chicken Transport

We tried to help the Army guys and Marines on the ground. We crammed as much mail and meals in as we could. We take these things for granted, but they are critical to the guys on the ground. We bought them buckets of fried chicken from Popeye’s or steaks from the base exchange. Those guys were so thankful. – Capt. Paul Szweda

Zero

How many fifty-seven-year-olds do you know who fly combat missions? – MSgt. Lamar Cutchins Flight Attendant, Where’s My Drink?

We flew in the back, strapped to the floor, on missions to bare bases. The crew would put the cargo in. We sat on the floor at the very back. The crew then ran cargo straps over us. For landing at a bare base, we grabbed our guns and they would let us out first. – TSgt. Joel Byrd

55,000 pounds a shot going in. They were trying to get as many combat supplies in theater as quickly as possible. We were expecting to bring back nothing, but then we’d get word that a medevac team was coming in twenty minutes. – Capt. Paul Szweda Direct Communication

We talked directly to F/A-18 crews. In one or two cases, we had targets of unusual interest and the F/A-18 guys answered and diverted. – Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden

Magical Appearances

We saw people magically appear out of the desert when we landed, and we wondered if the people approaching the aircraft were the people we wanted to see. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson Preventing Meltdown

We went out for six hours with a collection deck of places we were responsible for searching. We filmed everything that looked interesting from different angles. We were fighting a quiet war in the west, searching for things instead of destroying them. In terms of strategic significance, our job was to keep neighboring countries out of the fight. The whole region would melt down if the Iraqis launched Scuds into Israel. – Col. John Mooney Part Of ATO

Our P-3s were part of the ATO, which was a first. We were used to doing things independently in a maritime environment. We got folded in like a TacAir asset and were assigned to patrol a kill box. We had Have Quick UHF radios, which allowed us to seamlessly integrate with all of the other airborne assets. Every mission would have been like flying with a blindfold without the Have Quick capability. We used the UHF radios in the normal mode of operation on airways, then shifted them to Have Quick mode as we transitioned across the Iraqi border to check in with the AWACS for kill box assignment. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon

and these things were flying right in front of my flight path and hitting the ground in bright explosions. Fortunately, we were time deconflicted. – Maj. Don Cornwell U-2 Advantage

The U-2 is the only aircraft in the Air Force that can collect both signal and imagery intelligence. That allows us to cross-cue sensors. We can transmit information in near real time to command and control elements and to warfighters in airplanes, at sea, and on the ground. – Maj. Brian Ferrar Need Ordnance Now

VP-46 GREY KNIGHTS BACKGROUND

A detachment of P-3s left Whidbey Island, in Washington State’s Puget Sound, for Diego Garcia in late 2002. The unit later moved to Thumrait, Oman, and had a detachment in Bahrain. It stood up operations in Kuwait. Two other P-3 squadrons, VP-1 and VP-47, augmented them. The force ultimately had twelve aircraft assigned to OIF. The Grey Knights were in theater from 1 December 2002 to June 2003.

Raining ATACMS

I’ll never forget the first time I saw ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles impacting on my ingress. The Army was south of Baghdad and they were shooting ATACMS. The large missiles shoot to about 80,000 feet and come screaming down. Our F-117s were turning westbound into Baghdad

A real nervous, high-pitched voice came over the radio saying that he was getting shot at and he needed ordnance now on this bridge. This is the first time I’ve ever dropped bombs in a war. The weather was scattered to overcast, broken deck up to about 10,000 feet. We break right through the clouds and were immediately lit up by what we thought were some surface-to-air missile sites. But they were more likely false readings from microwave towers. Still, the radar warnings got our attention. We got the coordinates for the bridge. The flight lead dropped a 2,000-pound JDAM near an overpass on an east/west road. The Iraqi forces scattered and many went under the bridge. The Iraqis had been exchanging fire with ten to fifteen Americans about a half-mile from the bridge. The US forces are supposed to be covert. This was fairly early

USN PHOTO BY PM3 DANNY EWING, JR.

Please Fence Me In

We carried concertina wire and tank treads into Baghdad for the first month. It was 6,000 pounds per pallet, Code One

CNN Briefing We usually watched CNN before we departed. The news occasionally gave us a rough idea of what we would be bringing out. – Maj. Paul Szweda

in the conflict. My flight lead dropped two more bombs, this time GBU-12s. They didn’t guide very well. I go in there and put my JDAM in just long of the bridge. Then, I dropped a dud GBU-12. After that, my flight lead strafed and took out one of the Iraqi APCs. We did a few more reconnaissance passes and called in some more air cover. We destroyed two vehicles that day. Our ground forces captured five Iraqi soldiers. – Lt. Col. Chris Kelley Lightning Strikes

We couldn’t turn around in the Straits of Hormuz because the cleared path was so narrow. We had to squeeze through the straights under a thunderstorm one night on our way to Iraq. Lightning put three holes in the radome of our P-3. Flying through that storm was beyond belief. – Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete

Fired Up

The VS-38 AOs were the most fired-up guys I had ever seen. Every day they would load a SLAM-ER on the S-3 and ask, “Are we going to launch today?” We carried two Mk-82s in the bomb bay, just in case something came up. – Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite Super MEZ

Most of our tasking was SEAD and DEAD around Baghdad since that’s where the surface-to-air missile sites were concentrated. The area around the city was called the Super MEZ. Our job was to make sure the shooters could get into the MEZ. We also flew missions west of Baghdad, north toward Tikrit and Mozul, and as far south as Basra. Basically, we worked the whole country. What we did depended on what was needed and where it was needed. – Lt. Col. Deane Pennington

169th FIGhter Wing Background

The unit deployed to Qatar as the 157th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron assigned to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, the largest fighter wing ever assembled in one place. The wing had Australian F/A-18s and RAF GR.4 Tornados, F-15Es from Seymour Johnson, F-14s, and F-16CJs from Spangdahlem. McEntire deployed fifteen aircraft, which included six Block 52 F-16s from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Four active-duty F-16 pilots from Mountain Home deployed with McEntire as well. The unit flew 411 sorties in totaling 2,322 combat hours. The pilots dropped JDAM, CBU-103, CBU-107, and GBU-12, and shot AGM-88 HARMs. Pilots typically flew fifteen to seventeen sorties. Average sortie duration was about seven hours. The unit used both LANTIRN and Litening II targeting pods. McEntire is the first F-16CJ unit to employ air-to-air interrogator, the first to employ a CBU-107, and the first to drop laser-guided bombs off Block 50/52 aircraft in combat.

Sentryplane

We don’t use the word spyplane to describe the U-2. The aircraft is a reconnaissance platform. We’re not in the spy business; we are in the sentry business. The distinction can be thought of in terms of sentries USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. STACY L. PEARSALL

They crammed us in the C-141 with the cargo on outbound missions. They put the aeromeds on almost as an afterthought. We carried our equipment as well as stanchions and restraint straps. We set up the landing for evacuation after the aircraft was unloaded. We flew long legs—usually nine or ten hours. Sometimes the missions were extremely long because of having to fly at lower altitudes because of patient care requirements. – Maj. Tom Hanson MAKE ROOM FOR AEROMEDS

First Quarter 2004

Dam Happy We launched in the dark at some ungodly hour. We got up and hit the tanker and they snapped us immediately to go work with some SOF guys on the ground at a dam. It was still dark, but the sun was just coming up. Just before dawn, it was about time to take off the NVGs. The special forces had just gotten to the dam. They were taking mortar rounds from an island in the lake above the dam and heavy machine-gun fire from below. The forward air controller was calm and cool as could be even though he was pinned down by ground fire. He tried to talk our eyes onto the island, but the lake had half a dozen or more islands. We circled and circled and couldn’t find it. Every time we flew over the lake, the Iraqis would quit firing. After ten minutes of circling without any luck, I asked the controller if he had a laser marker. He got the laser up there and marked the island. We found it right away. I had two GBU-12s and one JDAM and my wingman had only two GBU-12s

manning guard towers of a fort in the Old West. They put sentries up in the towers so they could see farther. A spy, on the other hand, is someone who would sneak into hostile territory. We perform more as sentries than as spies. – Maj. Cory Bartholomew

US ARMY PHOTO BY SGT. BRIAN COX

left. My wingman put a GBU-12 down on the island and hit it. I put one on top of it. The mortar fire stopped. Then we turned our attention to a couple of concrete buildings below the dam where the heavy machine-gun fire was coming from. We could see the tracers. An SA-8 had launched against an F-15E

from the same location previously, so we were hesitant to stick our noses down there really low. We each put our remaining GBU-12s into two separate buildings. The bombs silenced the gunfire. I could tell from the radio calls that our guys were very happy not to be under fire anymore. – Maj. Jerome Dyck

Two Bombs, No Waiting

Earplugs And An Alarm Clock

The F-117 has a unique capability with the GBU-27. We drop two bombs on a single target almost simultaneously. The second bomb goes into the hole made by the first bomb and penetrates deeper. – Capt. Robert Alford

With seventy-two people in a tent and jets taking off all night, I slept with earplugs and hung an alarm clock next to my head. – Amn. Roderick King Keepsakes

They sold American flags at the base exchange. We’d give the flags to the pilots, who would take them on a mission for us. The pilots would sign and date them and put a short mission description on them when they got back. – Amn. Shelly Lagania Knock Knock

Low On Gas, Part I My most vivid memory of the war has to be a pleading radio call, “Can you meet me here with gas?” We gave until it hurt. We led the fighters toward a divert field until they felt comfortable that they could get back to the boat. – Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite

Our mission was a combined effort between special forces on the ground and coalition airpower on top. Special forces troops performed search and reconnaissance in western Iraq. They knocked on doors and looked in garages. They did this before the war officially kicked off, but not in any great numbers. The intel prep of the battlefield had been going on for years. Our job wasn’t a normal job for a fighter pilot. We were out there in our F-16s drilling around looking Code One

for Scud missiles in what we called nontraditional ISR. We had fairly liberal rules of engagement. We were cleared to drop on any Scud-related piece of equipment if we were deconflicted from special operations units in the west. – Col. John Mooney Low On Gas, Part II

Two fighters coming back were both very low on gas. The first hit the basket and took a couple of hundred pounds, unhooked, and let his wingman get up. When the wingman was hooked, the first guy wiped his brow with his arm. – Cmdr. Steve Kelly Low On Gas, Part III

A fighter guy coming out of the box called on the radio with a concerned tone, “Is the gas going to be there?” The next voice was his lead, who came on and said, “Would you relax? I’ve got them on radar.” – Lt. Cmdr. Darin Curtis Low On Gas, Part IV

The sheer amount of sorties was amazing. We were flying thirty sorties a day. Sometimes when we were recovering aircraft, they would be so low on gas that we had to launch downwind to get to them in time. – Lt. Cmdr. Dick McGrath Dark And Craters

We landed on bombed-out runways in the desert at night—yet another time the Talon I guys showed the rest of the world how it’s done. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson

One mission was supposed to be a resupply flight—beans and bullets—but it turned into a rescue mission. We got a call to transload wounded and dead into another country. It turned into a twenty-two-hour duty day. We got retasked quite a bit. – MSgt. Lamar Cutchins Retasks

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. QUINTON T. BURRIS

Tactical Peppering

As a whole, the C-5 community doesn’t have a large tactical contingent, but we are building one. We need more crews that can do the kinds of things tactical crews do all the time. We want to pepper the C-5 community with the kind of tactical experience we needed in Iraq. – Lt. Col. Don Gresham Mini Shuttle

Launching the U-2 is like launching a small space shuttle mission. As many as thirty folks gather around the jet before we take off. Another forty or fifty take the data that we collect and turn it into useful intelligence. A pilot may appear to be alone in the U-2. In reality, it’s a very big mission, involving a lot of people, every time we fly. – Maj. Brian Ferrar Final HARM Shot

I unexpectedly shot the squadron’s final HARM of the air war today: a PET against a SAM site being struck by our No. 3 jet piloted by Lt. Col. Dennis.

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. CARRIE HINSON

We have a basic TFR system that is very reliable. Our Combat Shadow, which is nearly identical to the Talon I, is able to refuel helicopters. The Talon I is an MC-130E with -15 engines [higher performance T56-15 engines] – Maj. Kevin Nicholson

MC-130E Details

First Quarter 2004

The shot was the sportiest I’ve yet to take. I was typing in coordinates and setting up the shot while flying a fluid route position off of my wingman, multitasking between the weapons employment, staying visual, and not hitting him. It was a great shot under challenging conditions, and a surprise tasking since I wasn’t expecting to fly today with the early sandstorm. I wasn’t expecting to shoot a HARM since the ROE has become so much more restrictive. 140th Wing Facts

Most pilots flew about eighteen missions in twenty-eight days of combat. Buckley was one of several units assigned to hunt for Scud missiles in western Iraq for the duration of the air campaign. While no Scuds were found, the units did support special forces on the ground.

It was a challenging sortie in many more ways as well. The weather over Iraq was horrendous everywhere, so we were continually challenged flying our formation. Additionally, we employed as a three-ship—my second threeship in as many sorties. And finally, the sortie took place later in the day, so we RTB’d at night. I witnessed the sun set and a breathtaking number of stars rise on the way back. – From the journal of Capt. Kris Padilla Counting Afterburners

We lived in a tent city near the end of a runway. Every twenty minutes, jets were taking off. So, it was hard to get a good night’s sleep. – Maj. Pat Hanlon

Loadouts

At the beginning, we flew our Block 30 F-16s with four GBU-12s; then we flew with two GBU-12s and one JDAM; then two GBU-12s and two Mk-82s with contact or airburst fuzes. We used different loads at different times for different reasons. We preferred the airburst Mk-82s for CAS missions. We never carried cluster munitions. – Lt. Col. Chris Kelley Lost Without Air Support

The Army needed us fairly far north. We found a unit in trouble. They were being fired upon from all sides. We could see the GIs on the ground returning fire. Our forces didn’t have a map, and they didn’t have laser designators. So, they had a real hard time with directions. We could see their position from the air.

They had decent ground cover, but the Iraqis were around them moving in vehicles, shooting at them with mortars, and throwing grenades. We had to get fairly low, around 200 feet at times. We used flares to make sure exactly where we wanted to drop. We made several low passes and did a lot of strafing. We hit some vehicles, which scattered the enemy. We dropped laserguided bombs, guiding them with our targeting pods and sometimes just rolling in and dropping them as dumb iron bombs to help those guys out. They lasted the whole day. I think they were able to move out later that night. Without air support, they would have been lost. – Maj. Mike Popovich

We usually programmed the bomb in flight as we were doing time-sensitive targeting. We rarely took off with a predetermined strike mission. For SEAD missions, we did a bit of both, that is hitting preplanned targets and receiving new target information in flight. The first week we flew as part of a package; after that we had three pairs of F-16s airborne roaming around. The aircraft were responsible for an area between Tikrit and Najaf. We averaged eight- to nine-hour missions. – Capt. Brandon Roth Three Man

We tend to load ordnance with the people we train with. We can load with anybody, but we prefer to keep crews intact. We know each other and how everyone else works. A load crew consists of three people. The One Man is the lead. He makes sure the TOD is followed and the jet is ready.

The Two Man controls and maintains the tools, making sure the bomb racks and launchers are ready to go on the jet. The Three Man drives the jammer and checks the munition before it’s loaded. – SrA. Katie Bowling Workhorse

We have nine C-141B models. We had ten for a majority of our time over there, but only three had defensive systems. Only those three could go into the AOR. Tail number 40619, one of the three, was flown on ninety of our 151 total missions. She was a real workhorse. She required just a little attention from us, though. We would pat her on the nose when we went out for good luck. – Lt. Col. Jim McGann

Three Pairs Roaming

Mission Success

We worked with Marine, Air Force, and Army forward air controllers. We were given the coordinates and just typed that into the computer. JDAM performed great. It’s very easy to use. The feedback from the forward air controllers was usually “direct hit.”

VQ-1 and VQ-2 were conducting twenty-four-hour operations. We had enough assets in theater to keep two EP-3s in the air at the same time. We were flying 250 to 300 hours a month. Maintenance worked very hard. We didn’t miss a mission the

F-16 PHOTO BY TSGT. JACK BRADEN

first three weeks of the war. None were ever delayed because of the mission system. We had parts there. The supply system made it happen. – Lt. (j.g.) Nicholas Boyter Three-Engine Takeoff

The C-130 flies fine on three engines. We had to do a three-engine takeoff inside Iraq. We had supported a SOF mission and the engine blew out eight gallons of oil in about twenty seconds. The area was not secure, so we decided to go. It was somewhat risky, but the aircraft performed just like the manual said it would. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson Tiny Bubbles

The U-2 is a physically demanding aircraft to fly. Breathing 100 percent oxygen sucks the moisture out of your lungs faster than you can replace it by drinking water. The pressure suit is cumbersome. The more you move around, the more fatigued you get. The suit’s fabric doesn’t breathe, so heat tends to build up. Sitting in one position for long periods can cause stagnant hypoxia—blood pools in the lower extremities and doesn’t move across the brain as well. Unless you really enjoy tube food, your state of nourishment might not be so good. You may experience some intestinal discomfort if you’ve eaten anything that produces any kind of bubbles. Those bubbles will expand to eight or ten times their normal size at 30,000 feet. – Maj. Cory Bartholomew USAF PHOTO BY MSGT. JOHN P. SNOW

Surprise! We slept in huge seventy-two-person tents. One windy night, I was laughing on my way back to my living quarters because fortyand fifty-mile-per-hour winds had ripped out some tent stakes and literally destroyed one of the big tents. Those folks are in for a big surprise, I thought. I stopped laughing when I got closer and realized it was my tent. – Amn. Roderick King

coalition airplane. Turning south and flying home was the most dangerous part of the mission since most people to the south were playing defense. We weren’t flying with a big blue flag saying we were on their team. We had to hope that everyone paid close attention during their mission briefings to where the F-117s were going to be. – Maj. Don Cornwell MiG Strafe USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. DERRICK C. GOODE

Linen Closet

I was the only female on deployment among the officers, so I ended up sleeping in a linen closet. The closet was a storage room for the facility, and it had a bathroom. I didn’t mind the accommodations one bit. It had a bed and it wasn’t a tent. – Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete

49th Fighter Wing Background

The Air Force’s only F-117 unit, based in Holloman AFB, New Mexico, deployed twelve jets in early February 2003 to al Ueidid Air Base in Qatar and returned in mid-April. The unit sent approximately twenty pilots. F-117 pilots dropped more than 100 bombs during the air campaign, including GBU-27, GBU-12, and GBU-10. The EGBU-27 (a GBU-27 with both laser and GPS guidance) was used for the first time in combat on the first night of the war. The 379th FW maintained two F-117s on alert status for about ten days during OIF. The most sorties any F-117 pilot flew were six. Most pilots averaged three or four sorties. The missions lasted about five hours.

Game Face

Everybody was on top of their game. The ATs and AEs [maintainer specialist ratings] really enjoyed working with the S-3. If we lost a sortie for whatever reason, those guys took it personally. – Lt. Cmdr. Jay Crawford Greasy Hands, Furrowed Eyebrows

I never worried about the basic soundness and airworthiness of the U-2. I have flown this airplane in places where I could not land. We flew many OIF missions in which we had no emergency divert option. We would 22

First Quarter 2004

not come back if the aircraft did not come out of the AOR. That consideration never percolated above the noise level for me or for any other mission pilot because we believe in the airworthiness of this aircraft and in our maintainers and field service reps who put it together. That confidence allows us to focus on the new sensors, the mission employment, and all the other issues that pop up. We appreciate the men and women who support the mission—the guys with the greasy hands and the furrowed eyebrows. – Lt. Col. Troy DeVine

Despite being fragged as the HARM truck for the four-ship, I got to roll in and gun a MiG-23 Flogger today after my wingman’s passes shacked the target. The defunct jet, as brown as the dirt surrounding it, was parked across a canal and only about 100 meters from a small town. Fortunately, we had a clear attack axis that helped prevent any buildings or people being hit inadvertently. I made two very solid passes and ran the bullets right though the target. After my first attack and safe escape, I looked over my shoulder and saw the bullets hit and explode almost like a cluster bomb. It was very cool. – From the journal of Capt. Kris Padilla

On The Blue Team

We weren’t that worried about Iraqis shooting us down. We were more concerned about getting shot down by one of our own or running into another

Friendly Factor

We use F-117s against relatively high priority targets. That is our forte. That type of target didn’t change as

We supported some special operation forces who were getting ready to take Haditha Dam, which is about 100 miles northwest of Baghdad, on the Syrian border. The ground forces called us in and talked us onto the target—some tanks that were dug in to the south and southeast of the dam. The cloud deck cleared out below 10,000, but we couldn’t see much until we got there. We’d drop below the clouds and they would be shooting at us. As soon as we found a tank with the targeting pod, we climbed back up to a higher altitude with the coordinates. We didn’t have time to attack the tanks because we were low and getting shot at. We turned back around and got below the weather again. As soon as we found the tank, the bomb would come off. We spent only enough time below the weather to lase the bomb in. We did that four times. We had two GBU-12s and one JDAM on each jet. We dropped the GBU-12s on the first four tanks. We found two more tanks and we dropped our JDAMs on them. So, we destroyed six tanks with six bombs that day. – Maj. Scott Hufford

Six Bombs For Six Tanks

USMC PHOTO BY SGT. PAUL L. ANSTINE III

187th Fighter Wing Facts

The unit put its F-16s up all the time for the Scud-hunting mission. Two core expeditionary fighter squadrons, from Montgomery and Buckley, performed the mission, while the Washington, DC, unit was split to reinforce both squadrons. The units divided the day into two twelve-hour shifts. Air Force Reserve Command pilots from the 466th Fighter Squadron at Hill AFB, Utah, supported a six-hour period in the middle of the day. While the pilots came from four units, a total of thirty aircraft came from Montgomery and Buckley. Six AFRC jets came from Hill, Carswell JRB, Fort Worth, Texas, and Homestead ARB, Florida. Air National Guard A-10s from Barnes IAP, Massachusetts, and Bradley Airport, Connecticut, were also a part of the force mix in the 410th AEW. RAF GR.7s and PR.9s were imbedded into the unit’s mission as well.

the war progressed, but friendly ground forces became more of a factor. – Capt. Jim McGlone Unable To Tell Friend From Foe

A couple of weeks into the war, a bunch of special forces were inserted into Iraq at night in relatively short order. They were compromised and were taking fire from all sides. They split up into separate teams. The situation was out of control by the time

we got a call. Some of the teams were on the Guard frequency screaming for coalition aircraft support. All the radio calls were stepping on each other. When I showed up, I saw vehicles on fire. My NVGs and Litening pod were washed out from all the light. Fifty to 100 vehicles were packed in a space of about a five-mile square, in relatively flat desert, close to the Syrian border. Headlight beams shot every which way.

I had to drop down to about 5,000 feet to get below the weather. I was gun-shy because I couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys. I couldn’t see the laser from the ground forces and they couldn’t see mine under these conditions. I spent about thirty frustrating minutes in the area, but couldn’t do anything. I burned a bunch of JP-8 and never dropped a bomb. They told us later that our forces had to abandon their vehicles and run for their lives. – Lt. Col. Will Sparrow Down Low

We had just completed a loop through the west looking at some of the potential Scud hide sites. We came off the tanker for our second of three tours. We started heading north and got a call from the AWACS. They urgently vectored us to the northwest and gave us a secure frequency to

The Block 30 F-16C+—F-16s equipped with the Litening pod and SADL—was assigned the Scud-hunting mission in western Iraq because of its combination of GPS, targeting pod, data link, night-visiongoggle system, and precision-guided munitions capability. No other platform offered such a combination of advanced capabilities. We had the ability to search for Scuds day and night with the Litening pod. We had the speed to run rapidly from one predicted hiding site to another. We could drop laser-guided bombs in good weather or GPS-guided bombs in bad weather. The data link system allowed us to communicate with other F-16s and with other systems. The F-16C+ is more capable than it has ever been. While the primary mission was to support the counter-Scud hunt, we ended up doing one heck of a lot of close air support for special operations forces. In fact, we did almost every mission imaginable including OCA, CSAR, SEAD, interdiction, and time-sensitive targeting. We never cancelled a single sortie because of maintenance—a testament to the aircraft, the logistics, and our maintainers. – Col. Sid Clarke Perfect Combination

Code One

contact a team on the ground. The team needed immediate help. We raced to the general direction, typed in the coordinates, and switched to the frequency. We tried to check in, but no one answered. As we got closer to the area, the weather deteriorated. The clouds were down below 10,000 feet and very broken. A voice comes on the radio with a lot of gunfire in the background. He’s screaming the code word for being overrun. I could tell from his voice that he was running. He said they were being attacked by four trucks full of Iraqis with automatic weapons. The friendly forces on the ground had split up into two parties sepa-

rated by a couple of kilometers. The main party had about six people in it. The other had two or three. They were an LPOP, a listening post/observation post. It became apparent that we would have to go down through the weather. I saw a hole in the clouds and navigated down through it. I didn’t know what to expect. My wingman, Capt. Tony Simmons, stayed high initially and then worked his way down shortly after and rejoined the formation. We broke out under the clouds about 4,000 feet above the ground. The terrain was extremely flat. I was nervous about being down in the heart of the envelope for all kinds of potential threats.

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

By the time we got to the scene, we heard a call on the Guard frequency for any coalition aircraft immediately. The guy on the radio was not composed at all. He was screaming. We got their coordinates and arrived at about two in the morning. The weather was awful with an overcast layer of clouds about 10,000 feet and thick enough to block out the starlight. The ground was black. They didn’t want to use their infrared lights because they suspected that the enemy had NVGs and could see them. So, they had no way of guiding us. We circled in their general location for a while before I saw the guy’s firefly, which is a small nine-volt battery with an NVG-compatible light source that blinks. I didn’t see any truck lights or any firefights at this point, but I could hear the gunfire in the background when he keyed the microphone. He located the hostiles north of his position, but he never anchored his own position. Once I got the firefly located and took a mark

A Strike In Time

First Quarter 2004

on it with the targeting pod, I roped him with my infrared marker and he confirmed that we had his spot. He said the Iraqi soldiers had abandoned their vehicles and moved to some hills on foot. His radio calls made it sound like a thousand troops were about to overrun his position. I asked him to confirm that if I drop a bomb two kilometers north of his mark, the drop would be deconflicted with his position. He confirmed it. I reconfirmed the location twice more and USAF PHOTO BY SSGT LEE A OSBERRY, JR.

I made two circuits at 3,000 AGL to get familiar with the battlefield. I got my eyes on both of the friendly positions on the ground and located at least one of the enemy trucks, which was about half a kilometer away from the smaller group. I got clearance to destroy the first vehicle. The Iraqis must have heard my jet noise and abandoned it because it stopped moving. I flew over the vehicle and took a mark point to get my targeting pod slaved to its position. I was cleared hot by both teams, and they gave me a sensible attack heading. I started at 3,000 feet, but I felt too vulnerable just below the clouds. I wanted to get down in the dirt, but I couldn’t since the weapon would not fuze that low. I dropped down to 1,000 feet, which is the minimum altitude for the bomb fuse arm time. I successfully tracked the vehicle, received a valid release, and performed a level, straightthrough safe escape maneuver. The guys on the ground said it was a direct hit. I then climbed up and was able to locate another vehicle that was trying to hide itself behind a

then rolled in with a GBU-12. I pickled a bomb off in a thirty-degree dive drop into a black hole four kilometers north of his position, adding two kilometers for a safety margin. The bomb exploded. I went off target and popped flares and dropped chaff. I had flown down to about 5,000 feet, so I climbed back up to altitude. The guys on the ground saw my flares, heard the explosion, and confirmed that the bombs helped their situation. – Capt. Brian Wolfe

stone wall in an estate. I got clearance to attack this vehicle and wheeled around about 3,000 feet. The bomb took out the wall adjacent to the enemy vehicle. The ground team indicated the attack succeeded in flushing this vehicle to the north. One soldier was running after it waving his arms. He got in and they took off for a short distance. Then they stopped and got out because they knew they must be targeted. I spaced my flight to the north to change my attack heading and to look for other vehicles. I found one and got clearance to engage it. As I rolled in, it took me steeper than fifteen degrees, so I aborted the delivery. I had only enough altitude below the clouds to do a tendegree, low-angle, low-drag delivery. It was difficult to get enough separation from the target and still keep it in sight to remain on a ten-degree or shallower flight path. I dropped a bomb and damaged the truck, but didn’t destroy it, so I went out in a different direction and came in from the east and got clearance to strafe. The ground forces reported the strafing attack successfully destroyed the truck. All of this had taken about twenty minutes. After strafing, I pulled off and climbed up through the clouds. A little voice was telling me that I needed to egress the area, but the guys on the ground insisted that they needed the remaining truck destroyed. I elected to make one more re-attack. Thankfully, the clouds were breaking up a little and I was able to track the remaining enemy truck with my Litening pod from a higher altitude than

USN PHOTO BY PH1 KEVIN H. TIERNEY

before. I navigated through these scattered to broken clouds and was able to achieve a valid release with another laser-guided bomb. The video from my Litening pod shows the weapon impact the back of the truck. The bomb exploded, throwing the remnants of the truck into the air. The burning wreckage made a good reference point for flights that arrived on scene after mine. All in all, I would say we destroyed several vehicles and

Media Attention I also performed as the PA officer, so I would have to do things like get up at four in the morning and talk to NPR live. Having the media on board was a challenge. They wanted to be in your face. Getting guys to talk to the press was like pulling teeth. We were there to support the national interests, not to draw attention to ourselves. – Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite

got the job done. We were fortunate the Iraqis either had no shoulderfired SAMs with them or at least they were unwilling to use them or it could have been a totally different story. – Lt. Col. Will Sparrow Nothing New

There is nothing aerial porters don’t see—everything from whole blood being shipped over, to wounded, to body bags, to fences, to boats. You name it, we load and unload it. – SMSgt. Clinton Foster

VQ-1 Background

National Assets

VQ-1 had four crews in the war at any one time. VQ-2, home based at Rota, Spain, was there, as well, with two crews. The World Watchers were performing reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan during the buildup to the war. During OIF, the unit didn’t have any more missions into Afghanistan. As the war in Iraq scaled down, they revisited Afghanistan. The crew day was typically sixteen to eighteen hours preflight to postflight. Crews would have an eighteen-hour day, have twelve to fifteen hours off, then do another mission. A number of missions lasted more than ten hours.

We never go to the forward edge of the battle. We can’t. We stay where no threats can get at us because we can still look beyond the battle. Our aircraft are, no kidding, national assets and we don’t have many of them, so we never place ourselves in a situation where we could get shot at. – Lt. (j.g.) Nicholas Boyter Staging Areas

We picked up loads from forward staging areas and would then fly them into Iraq at low level. We did that for two months. The battle was going on

118th Airlift Wing Background

The unit was activated in October 2001, having been doing Homeland Defense missions. Crews were on a trip to Arizona, learning to fly using night-vision goggles during the last week of February, and a week later, they found out they were deploying. Six months later, they returned to Nashville, but only a couple of weeks after that, some of the unit’s crews were sent back to the theater. The 118th was tasked on 3 March, and three aircraft a day were deployed on 4, 5, and 6 March. Ten of the unit’s aircraft and all of its crews were sent. It required two or three days to get in theater. The 118th AW was stationed with seven other units—six Guard and one Reserve. There were forty-six C‑130s plus two squadrons of F-15s. At Tabuk, the 118th AW was the lead C-130 unit. The wing commander was an F-15 pilot from Langley AFB, Virginia, and the vice commander was a C-130 pilot stationed at Air Mobility Command headquarters at Scott AFB, Illinois. Col. Randy Jones, from the 118th AW, served as the operations group commander.

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. ALEX KENIG

Code One

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

just ahead of us. After Baghdad fell, we carried pretty much everything. We tried to minimize exposure to ground threats by doing tactical takeoffs, approaches, and landings. – Maj. John Raulston Dedicated Crews

We flew as dedicated crews, which worked out well. We started reading each other’s minds. We got used to what each person would do in a certain situation. Everything was clicking. Nondedicated crews didn’t work as well. Mission planning that might take

off my left wing. I could see the booster separating from the missile as it continued up and over our two-ship. It looked like it was headed for the moon. Almost immediately, a second missile was fired and appeared to be heading our way. We watched the missile as it slowly started to lose its guidance and arced back toward the ground. The morning was very clear. Next to a large gravel pit, we could see the exact area where the missiles had been

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. SAMUEL A. PARK

two hours to do with an unfamiliar crew took a dedicated crew one hour. We got the missions down to a science. – Maj. Carl Hoagy DEADing A SAM Site

We were a two-ship of Vipers packing two CBU-103s and two HARMs. My wingman, Capt. Paul “Buzz” Steinport, had the HARMs. I lugged the bombs. Our two-ship was providing SEAD support to a couple of F-16CJs from our sister squadron, the 77th EFS, as they charged across downtown Baghdad from north to south. Buzz and I orbited on the southwest side of town. This was the first week of the war, and no Army units were close to our position. Buzz had just fired one of his HARMs at a SAM sight in downtown Baghdad. I ordered a left turn, so we could monitor the area without driving into the middle of the town. We had just made the turn when I noticed a SAM heading skyward about five miles 26

First Quarter 2004

launched from. I turned toward the site and attempted to mark the exact coordinates, but they fired a third SAM. We had to turn away from the site momentarily until we were sure this last

missile was not guiding on us. By this time we were fairly close to the site, so I decided to fly over the top of it to get its exact position and to try to spot the launchers and supporting equipment on the ground. I didn’t want to get shot at again, but I really wanted a chance to prosecute these guys before they could pack up and move. I saw several launchers and a vehicle parked exactly where the missiles had come from. While Buzz covered me with his last HARM at the ready, I passed the site’s coordinates to the AWACS to make sure no friendly troops were in the area and to get permission to attack the site. After monitoring the area for about ten minutes, I finally got the “all clear” from AWACS. I immediately called that I was rolling in hot. As I went down the chute, I set my TD container right in the middle of the launchers and equipment and pressed the pickle button. I heard two thunks as the bombs came off the jet. I started a climb away from the target and watched over my shoulder as the bombs eliminated the entire site. It was a great day to fly, and everything worked out well. Buzz and I left the area to get gas and support more players later that day. – Capt. Steve Tittel

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. JEREMY T. LOCK

We flew various missions. We did leaflet drops, airland delivery, and lots of airdrops. We refueled a lot of Army helicopters. – Maj. Bruce Taylor

MC-130 Mission Types

Fuel Hauler

Hauling fuel trucks in a C-130 was tough. The aircraft had barely enough room to get them on and off. – TSgt. Chris Pickens Three Versions

We had three different versions of the F-16 in one unit. Operating successfully involved more than just preparing an aircraft to fly. We had to have the right software and ordnance combination as well. Flight leads flew the latest version of the software, which is MMC 3.1. We had six jets equipped with 3.1 software, which gives the F-16 the ability to carry targeting pods and self-designate LGBs. MMC 3.1 also gives the aircraft air-to-air interrogator as well as all the capability provided by previous software. Six other jets had MMC 2.3 software with color displays and the remaining three jets had Tape 50T5, which provides our standard HARM, HTS, and inertially aided munitions. Getting all these versions to work together was a pain, but worth it. The experience of the maintainers and

the experience of the pilots made it all possible. – Maj. Boris Armstrong Doing More

Even with the three configurations of F-16s in one unit, we flew our standard tactics. The CCIP upgraded jets gave

USN PHOTO BY PMA REX NELSON

us improved capabilities that greatly enhanced our ability to execute our tactics. – Maj. Akshai Gandhi Day In The Life Of An F-16CJ Intel Troop

My day starts off at 0530 when I get up to shower and shave. I get dressed in the bathroom so I don’t wake my roommates. I leave and head to the chow hall thirty minutes later for a little breakfast. I then get on a bus bound for Ops Town no later than 0630, ensuring my early show before my shift starts so I can get the previous guy out the door and heading home. My shift officially starts at 0800, at which time I make my way out to the DDF for the day and start reading on the current war situation. Just about the time I know what’s going on in the war, the pilots start making their way into the DDF for their final Intel step brief. I brief them on the current situation with any important updates that need to be mentioned and issue them their Intel-related survival equipment. From this point on, a steady stream of pilots step for their missions and

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

The U-2 is about the only aircraft in the inventory that when the pilot lands, comes in and stops, and shuts down the engine, twenty people are standing at the bottom of the ladder waiting for him to get out. Some are there to welcome the pilot back. Others are there to see how their sensors worked. Contractors and blue-suiters are there waiting to fix the jet so it can be gassed up and turned right around for the next mission. When a mission jet lands at a deployed location, all the pilots who aren’t on the flying schedule or in crew rest welcome the pilot back. – Maj. Tom Parent Landing Party

Code One

USAF PHOTO BY MSGT. DAVE AHLSCHWEDE

another stream is returning from their missions. I debrief those returning. They tell me what they shot or dropped, who and what shot at them, any SAM or triple-A threat indications they received, and enemy tactics they observed. I type up a mission report and send it to HHQ where all the information is analyzed and disseminated throughout all the squadrons. A full debrief takes about two hours. Four or five debriefs can take up the majority of the day. Between debriefs and steps, someone brings me lunch. At 1930 my shift replacement shows up. I catch a bus back to Coalition Complex between 2000 and 2100. I grab a quick dinnerto-go from the chow hall and take it back to my room. I eat dinner, take a shower, and get ready for bed. The next day, I do it all over again. – SSgt. Shaun Abell Generic Sand And More Sand

The weather was not always good. We often had to go down below the clouds and expose ourselves to a lot of threats to help our ground forces. Once we got down there, the terrain

Combo Block 40/50 We received our first CCIP F-16 back in August 2003. The CCIP modifications will be complete in July 2004. Under CCIP, we are going to be the first Link-16-equipped Block 50 wing. We’ll also be able to carry the Sniper targeting pod. Tape 4.0 will give us the capability to carry an ASQ-213 HARM Targeting System pod on the left side of the inlet and a targeting pod on the right. The full-up CCIP F-16CJ mission is going to be huge. We’re becoming a combination Block 40/50. We will be able to carry pretty much every bomb in the fleet. The new color displays in the CCIP cockpit make a huge difference. We can look down and instantly differentiate objects by color instead of having to read the green text. – Maj. Dave Youtsey

was usually all nondescript desert. – Lt. Col. Andy Larson Helping Out

We never bickered when something needed to get done. I’d offer to help the crew chiefs when I wasn’t busy. Even though I specialize in weapons, I can help maintenance by removing panels. Every effort made a big difference over there. – TSgt. Larry Hunt

419th Fighter Wing Fact

This unit from Hill AFB, Utah, flew from 19 March to 31 April, recording 260 sorties and 1,430 combat flight hours.

BDA By CNN

On about the tenth day of the air campaign, a CNN guy stood on the rubble of a building that was my flight lead’s target. My target was about a block down. The strikes cut off communication between Baghdad and surrounding area, so the Iraqis couldn’t coordinate resupply efforts. – Maj. Don Cornwell

You Just Need The Numbers

OIF was the first time Spangdahlem Block 50s used JDAM, which is an allweather weapon that doesn’t require a laser to designate a target, just good GPS coordinates. We initially carried HARMs, but later we substituted a pair of JDAMs or WCMDs. Coalition ground forces moved north in a matter of days, which lowered the threat posed by surface-to-air missiles. – Maj. Adrian Pone An Able Workhorse

The C-141 is an able workhorse and a steady platform. We handled a large number of patients—seventy-five or so on each flight. We often flew with a medical crew of seven people. We would normally carry twenty-four to twenty-six litters and the rest would be ambulatory patients. The C-141 does the job. The load varied a bit. At the start, we transported small numbers, but most needed critical care. Later, we transported up to ninety-four patients, but the total never got to 107, which is the maximum for the C-141. – Maj. Tom Hanson

52nd Fighter Wing Background

Spangdahlem crews flew 888 combat sorties for a total of 5,400 hours for an average of about six hours per mission. These totals also include SWA sorties that were flown prior to OIF. The unit’s pilots fired ninety-four AGM-88 HARMs, dropped ninety-two JDAMs and sixtytwo WCMDs, and had four strafing employments, all in OIF. The wing sent fifty-five pilots along with maintenance and support personnel. The unit had a mission-capable rate of 100 percent. Spangdahlem was in theater from January to May 2003 and flew OIF sorties every day of the war from approximately 20 March. USAF PHOTO BY MSGT. DAVE AHLSCHWEDE

First Quarter 2004

Freedom Doughnuts

When we were not over Iraq, we were tasked to do what we called Doughnut of Freedom missions. We flew circles in our P-3s around the carrier battle group and checked out and chased away any threats. – Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete Night Carrier

We were the night carrier, and our duty day was from six in the evening until noon the next day. Our average sortie was about 2.75 hours, and we flew about twenty-five percent of all the air wing’s sorties. We helped generate 250 strike sorties that wouldn’t have happened without us there to give gas. We passed 1.7 million gallons of gas during the war. – Cmdr. Steve Kelly Retargeted Inflight

Although I dropped on only one mission, it was one of the more interesting missions for an F-117. The mission was the first time an F-117 was retargeted in flight during the war. We took off from alert status to hit a particular target. We reached the tanker and were getting ready to push into Iraq. The next thing we knew, command and control came over the radio and redirected us to a new target. We got new coordinates, a description, and a time on target. We didn’t have a picture of the target, just a verbal description. I think that was the first time an F-117 hit anything without a photo of the target. The mission demonstrated that the airplane has some flexibility. – Capt. Alex Jernigan First Combination Targeting Pod AND HTS Mission

We sent a four-ship to several potential SAM locations in what was the first dedicated mission for an F-16CJ formation equipped with both targeting pods and HTS. The SAM sites were, for the most part, not radiating. So, we were directed to some tripleA installations. We found Iraqi forces getting in a truck when we arrived. I hit that truck with a GBU-12, and then I hit three S-60s [Soviet-designed 57-mm antiaircraft guns] with the other LGBs. I passed coordinates of some other nearby targets to the other

410th Air Expeditionary Wing

The 410th AEW operated from two bare-base locations. Fighting alongside their fully integrated special operations ground task forces, the 410 AEW’s pilots, flying F-16 and A-10 aircraft, pursued enemy equipment, personnel, and high-value targets, including regime leadership. In total, the wing flew 9,651 fighter and attack hours in twenty-six days flying counter-tactical ballistic-missile missions and never left the special operations forces in western Iraq without air cover. Often flying in extremely hazardous conditions in and around Iraq, the wing’s crews generated 2,547 sorties, providing around-the-clock, time-sensitive targeting, interdiction, OCA, CAS, ISR, and CSAR missions deep within enemy territory. These missions were flown from bare bases with little supporting infrastructure and necessary logistics. The wing accurately employed more than 600 precision-guided munitions and expended a total of 800,000 pounds of weapons. In addition to eliminating TBM support equipment, the wing is credited with destroying aircraft, armored vehicles, artillery pieces, surface‑to‑air missile systems, ammunition supply dumps, radars, and enemy troops. The wing is also credited with the destruction of two Baath Party headquarters buildings in western and central Iraq. Although the wing was engaged in more than 200 troops‑in‑contact scenarios, there were no fratricide events. During OIF, 410th personnel supplied thirty F‑16s, four HH‑60s, four HC‑130s, eight RAF GR.7 Harriers, and two PR.9 Canberras with 130,000 gallons of fuel per day for twenty-three days.

members of my flight, and they hit them with JDAMs. In the end, the mission incorporated SEAD, DEAD, and TST. – Maj. Boris Armstrong

Powder Sand

Pit Crews

Thursday Night Bingo

The skin of the aircraft would reach 172 degrees, so we bought NASCAR mechanics’ gloves. – Lt. Col. Bryan Walkup

Thursday night bingo was huge at our base in Qatar. Big Time Bingo they called it. The prize money would get up to $700. I won a DVD player. I plugged it into the galley of our C-130. Some kind of funky power surge through the airplane damaged it. I have to tap on it to get it to work now. – Lt. Nate Kazek

U-2 Food Tubes We can eat a variety of tube food through a little port in our helmets. I’m partial to sloppy joe and chicken á la king. The chocolate pudding is caffeinated. We h a v e a super-caffeinated version that raises our attention level before a critical phase of the flight. – Lt. Col. Troy DeVine

It is amazing the places sand can get into on an airplane. The sand is very fine, like talcum powder. – TSgt. C.M. Madden

Golden Arches

We could see a McDonald’s at the end of the runway outside the fence. We were restricted to base and had to eat MREs and battle rations. If the wind was right, we could almost smell the fries. Seeing those golden arches that were just out of reach was painful. – TSgt. Brett Allen

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. LORI M. STEWART

Code One

Second-Generation Ordnance

Ermey Flight

My father is in the Marine Corps as an aircraft ordnance man. I used to go into work with him. He worked on F/A-18s. I was fascinated with his job. – SrA. Katie Bowling

We carried some interesting people like Paul Wolfowitz. We s a w R . L e e Ermey in Kuwait City and then later at Al-Jaber. – Maj. John Raulston

Patient Frequencies

I spent most of my off time in my room. We could go sixteen hours on a mission, plus two more hours on the aircraft commander’s decision. So, I was on for twenty-four hours and would have thirty-six hours off after the flight. Basically, I was on the aircraft an average of every third day. Aircraft flew to Kuwait or Iraq every day and one aircraft remained on standby at Ramstein. We launched the standby aircraft for urgent cases. One time we took a standby flight to pick up six patients and came back with another twenty or thirty ambulatory cases as well. – Maj. Tom Hanson Parking At Christmas

The gas situation got easier as the fighting moved north because the tankers had more space to work in. The tankers spread out so they were easier to find. Later on, we also had fewer assets in the air. The first couple

nights of the war we had to find our tanker, get gas, and get out of the way as quickly as possible—or we ran out of gas and diverted. A lot of guys diverted. Early missions were like trying to find a parking spot in the mall at Christmas time in a car that is running out of gas. – Capt. Jim McGlone

During my twelve hours off, I ate, checked the news, e-mailed, and showered before I went to bed. We sometimes raced back after a sortie to watch the war coverage on Fox News. To fly a mission and then see the results on television was amazing. – Capt. Quentin Esser SAND CASTLES

The compressor blades were sandblasted clean by the elements. Finding leaks was easy, though. All the sand would collect on the fluid. – TSgt. Brett Allen

Zapping Coordinates

We flew mixed four-ship formations equipped with HTS and Litening II pods. We became the SEAD and DEAD experts. We found targets with the HTS pods and then zapped the coordinates to the aircraft with the targeting pods. – Lt. Col. Deane Pennington Racing Back

We split our operations into two twelve-hour shifts. For the late shift, pilots took off at three in the evening, flew through sunset, and landed at ten or eleven at night.

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. SHANE A. CUOMO

Feel The Pain

It is better looking down on the battle than looking up, though. I started as an Army grunt. I got out, went to school, and ended up here. I was able to help a little with the ground coordination. I can feel their pain on the ground. – Lt. (j.g.) Nicholas Boyter Crew Down, Part I

I happened to be flying with another crew when I heard on the radio an aircraft had gone down. It was my regular crew. I got sick to my stomach. It was the first time I realized people could get hurt. I have never been quite so relieved as when I heard that they were safe. – Lt. Cmdr. Jay Crawford Crew Down, Part II

I heard aircraft number 707 went down. The first thing I did was look at the calendar. It was 1 April. I thought that this has to be a bad joke. We later found out that a mechanical failure was the cause. – Lt. Cmdr. Darin Curtis

USN PHOTO BY PM1 EDWARD G. MARTENS

First Quarter 2004

something to do if they are not already busy. On a busy combat mission, we might not eat any of them. On slower missions, we might eat them all before the halfway point. – Maj. Tom Parent Living Conditions

Everything Stopped We had a dust storm once a week. One time, the sand blew for thirty-six hours. We couldn’t see thirty feet. Everything stopped when the sand blew up. – Maj. John Raulston USAF PHOTO BY MSGT. TERRY L. BLEVINS

Low-Density/High-Demand

Our mission is pretty clear and we are all combat veterans. We are considered low-density/high-demand assets, and that is an understatement. Our MC-130s move more SOF missions than any other aircraft in DoD. We do everything any other airlift platform can’t. We are air-refueling capable. We are a big element in AFSOC. – MSgt. Tom Mason No Running Lights

Our missions tended to be complex. We took off, hit the tanker, airdropped something, refueled helos, hit the tanker again, airlanded someplace else, and then went home—all in the dark. We never saw running lights. In a select few instances, we landed the aircraft where no runway existed. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson GPS Necessity

Handheld GPS sets were a necessity. We could program coordinates of the

known threats and pick evasion points. If we had to put down in the desert and found ourselves on the ground, we knew where we were and could be told where to go. We were fat fingering each one at first, but then we got a program and a patch cord so we could download information from laptops. – SSgt. Clint Ervin

We lived in a tent city, with twelve guys to a tent for the pilots. Some of the maintenance personnel stayed in large seventy-two-person tents. We did have hot food and showers, though. – Lt. Col. Deane Pennington In The Loop The pilots would come back and keep us in the loop. They would tell us what they did, and their mission descriptions boosted morale. When the jets came back empty, you really felt like you had done your job. – CMSgt. Bruce Voigt

The U-2 Diet

Tube foods range from main course meals like turkey a la king, beef and gravy, and spaghetti to smaller meals like clam chowder. We have tube desserts, such as apple or cherry pie and chocolate or butterscotch pudding. On long missions, we carry six to eight quarts of water and anywhere up to eight of these tube foods. We pop them in a little heater in the cockpit, so we can get a nice warm meal throughout the flight. A lot of guys will pace their eating, like one an hour, to give them

I have been supporting operations at the 169th for about four years from my perch on top of the TV set in the wing’s maintenance ready room. Obviously, when the wing deployed to the Middle East for Iraqi Freedom, I went with them. During the operation, I spent most of my time in a tent in Qatar, but the guys wanted to give me a chance to see what was going on. They first tried getting me into an F-16, but those jets don’t have much extra room. A British Tornado crew offered me a space in the lap of their backseater. The British g-suit didn’t fit me very well, so they wrapped me in bubble plastic for the flight. Near Baghdad, the crew dropped a couple of 2,000-pound LGBs on a target. I’m one of the few unit mascots that can honestly say they have combat time. – Rocky Raccoon Rocky Combat Time

Jointness

Technology allows many more people to be in the air and increases the situational awareness of all the players. Iraqi Freedom had an incredible amount of connectivity with the other players and joint service cooperation. – Capt. Quentin Esser Biggest Threats

Triple-A was the biggest threat. SAMs were easy to see, but we did not see nearly as many SAMs as we expected. We had to step around those areas where triple-A was heavy. We eventually got immune to it to some extent. We know how to avoid it. – Capt. Jason Charrier DEAD And SEAD

Rather than shooting HARMs, we put iron on targets for the DEAD mission. We got information from a number of off-board sources. We did time-sensitive targeting, getting updates from Code One

the CAOC. We often coordinated with the EA-6Bs. We started going in as our own SEAD and DEAD. As the war progressed, we had air superiority, but the SAMs were still a factor. We started to go back and retarget them. – Capt. Frank Bryant

We saw more missiles and triple-A than I could count, but none of it was guided. On that first night, I thought for sure we were going to be coming home with no HARMs. But our F-16s were effective with our SEAD mission. The Iraqis didn’t even turn on their radar. – Capt. Darren Gray

Shooting Blind

Home Cooking

We carried an air-transportable galley and a small cooler on the medical evacuation flights. We made hot dogs with all the fixings and chocolate chip cookies for the patients. The crew management people started a kitty for this. Crews would chip in $20 to $80 each for food and drinks. One flight nurse chipped in $300 of his own money. The weather was hot, 120 degrees at times. You should have seen the faces of guys when we pulled out hot dogs and cold drinks. These soldiers had not had a soda in months. We ran into some of the patients at the base later on. They told us how much they enjoyed that hot dog and Coke on the flight. – Maj. Tom Hanson Trading Up

Tabuk was wind and sand with cool nights. Minhad, our second base, was 125 degrees everyday with ninety to 100 percent humidity. We traded sandstorms for the heat. – Maj. John Church Russian Visitors

The Russians brought down a battle group to train with the Indian Navy while we were over there. We flew over the Indian Ocean to monitor the exercise. It was the first time since I joined the Navy in 1994 I had actually seen a Russian ship—the stuff we had to know everything about and had trained to fight against. They also had Badgers

USAF PHOTO BY TSGT. JACK BRADEN

and Bears [long-range bombers/patrol aircraft]. That experience was really something. – AW1 Matthew Pope Sending Pictures

Litening II has a CCD camera, an E/O capability, and a laser spot tracker. We can spot something on the ground and send the picture to our wingman so he knows exactly where we are looking. – Maj. Akshai Gandhi Accurate And Fast

I woke up and went straight to the flight line. The workdays lasted twelve to fourteen hours. They went by fast, though, because we were doing so much. We loaded five or six jets per crew. The jets often returned empty and that was a great feeling for us because we knew we had done our job. We have to be accurate and fast. We follow the tech data and make sure it is done right. – SrA. Katie Bowling USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. SAMUEL A. PARK

On The Ground

Once on the ground, we got off and the cargo was unloaded. The medical teams would come out to the airplane with the patients and brief us on their status. We determined the priority patients and where to place them on the aircraft. We then assigned medical teams to patients. Then we would button up and get going. After that, we settled in for a long flight, monitored patient care, and made decisions about offloading. – Maj. Tom Hanson Cooperative Airlift

The C-17 guys helped us with tactics, and we all provided community lessons learned. A lot of the C-17 pilots are former C-141 drivers. – Capt. Avi Perras Not Graceful

The EP-3 is much heavier than a P-3. Actually, it is a little bit of a pig. We have to fly slower, and the airframe has a number of flight restrictions. After a takeoff on a very hot day, we had to stay at 500 feet altitude for two miles before we could gain altitude. People on the ground probably thought we were showing off. – Lt. (j.g.) Nicholas Boyter Close To Ground

When I heard that targets we passed on to the ground guys had been destroyed, I knew we had saved some Coalition lives from having to deal with 32

First Quarter 2004

those threats. Knowing that one less opposition force that had to be dealt with was the closest I got to the ground guys. – Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden Comfort Counts

The first night we wore everything— flak jackets, helmets, radios, etc. After strapping all that stuff on, we’d avoid the coffee. After the first couple of nights, we stopped. We couldn’t move. We couldn’t wear all that stuff and work. – Maj. Bruce Taylor Most Successful

The Block 50/52 F-16 is the most successful fighter around. Commanders appreciate the aircraft’s wide range of ordnance and outstanding capability. – Capt. Quentin Esser

Repeated Stories

We came back from one flight and I was eating in the wardroom. I saw guys either looking really beat up or amped up. An F-14 pilot was telling a story that they had dropped all their bombs and the guys on the ground were screaming for more, so they came in and strafed with their cannon. I went back to my room and turned on CNN before going to bed and heard the exact same story an hour and a half later. That happened at least three different times. – Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite Dirty Landings

The aircraft fills with sand on desert landings. Having the sand blow back at you is actually a pretty severe threat. At times, I literally could not see my

We scheduled most of the heavy maintenance at night. – Maj. John Church Blistering Hot

The heat would sink into the a i rc r a f t . Eve n wo r k i n g i n s i d e the aircraft could blister your hands. – MSgt. Donnie Porter Night Precipitation

The cold air from the air conditioners and the humid night air created a lot of condensation. It rained inside our tents at night. – SrA. Justin McClellan Boredom And Excitement

The missions were peaks and valleys. They were four-, five-, or sixhour missions. They became hours of sheer boredom followed by seconds of sheer excitement. We pretty much roamed the countryside. TST is a flexible, more dynamic environment. We spent three hours waiting to drop our bombs, then we dropped, and then we went home. There is nothing else to do. We wanted those munitions to drop off the jet and do real work. – Capt. Jason Charrier One Less SAM

The intel folks had spent all night poring through sources, and they gave us a list of potential SAM sites, but no imagery. We started looking in downtown Baghdad and located the area where the SAM was supposed to be. We used a targeting pod to visually identify the radar, which was up but not operating. We dropped GBU-12s and destroyed it. – Maj. Akshai Gandhi USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. QUINTON T. BURRIS

Solving Problems

ASOC handed me over to a TACP in the Najaf area. The weather wasn’t great and the Army guys on the ground were taking fire from a building. They were more concerned about our not hitting a nearby mosque and wanted me to come in on a nonoptimal axis. I told them I wanted a different axis for their protection and that I wouldn’t hit the mosque. I executed the attack, put the GBU-12 on the building, and solved their problem. Working directly with the guys on the ground is quite an experience. You want to make sure you get it right. – Maj. Akshai Gandhi

hand in front of my face. We had to wipe off the instruments to see them. – Maj. Bruce Taylor Plan Your Trips Wisely

I remember sitting through a thirtysix-hour sandstorm in my tent, waiting for it to fall down. Going to the restroom was a major decision, since it was in another tent. You had to really need to go. – TSgt. Brett Allen Cool Motivation

A crew chief would be more motivated to work on an aircraft that had just come down from 30,000 feet because it was cooler to the touch.

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

Code One

SEAD Guy

I was a SEAD guy in a mixed fourship package. The two leads flew with JDAMs, and the wingmen had HARMs. We were tasked to support a B-1 package going to downtown Baghdad. They ingressed at medium altitude and were engaged by an SA-2. I protected those guys with my HARMs, they put iron on target, and no aircraft were hit. – Capt. Taj Troy Manned Reconnaissance

The U-2 can carry many types of data-gathering equipment at once. We carry image-type collection in the form of an advanced synthetic aperture radar, radar imaging, and electrooptical sensors. We also have other types of signal sensors. We can carry two or three different types of sensors, whereas our unmanned reconnaissance air vehicles can only carry one thing at a time. In that respect, my single flight can equal at least three unmanned flights. A pilot does offer some advantages. We can, for example, often troubleshoot and fix a sensor that is not working. If a sensor is not working on an unmanned platform, you have to bring it back. – Maj. Jeff Olesen

off the aircraft. We have to carry communications gear, NVGs, spare ammo, food, and water. – TSgt. Joel Byrd Maintenance Kudos

Nothing To Do

We worked two twelvehour shifts. The workday was particularly long for the night shift since all of the launches and most of the recoveries happened at night. The goal of the night shift was to leave the day shift with nothing to do. – SMSgt. Russ Withrow Summer Breeze

We got off the bus in a fifty-fivemile-per-hour wind at Tabuk. The bus driver reaffirmed that it was indeed my tent scattered on the ground. – MSgt. Donnie Porter Heavyweights

We carry enough stuff in a rucksack to last for three days. If someone weighed 200 pounds normally, he would weigh 350 coming

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. JEREMY T. LOCK

Our maintenance guys did an outstanding job keeping the aircraft going. The conditions are not conducive to aircraft operations, with the desert heat and all the sand that gets kicked up. The maintenance guys worked on the ramp in 100-plus-degree heat. They did a real good job holding up in those conditions. – Maj. Dan Wilson No CNN

We didn’t have CNN. The people at home saw more of the war. We were practically next to it, but had no idea of what was going on. We eventually received briefs from the intel folks, but they gave us information that was two or three days old. – MSgt. Donnie Porter Twenty-Four Off

We were flying just about every day. We would have twelve to eighteen hours between flights. If someone ever got twenty-four hours off, they felt like it was their birthday. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon Unconfirmed Destinations

It was sort of weird. In Panama, I saw an A-7 land and thirty minutes later it was on TV. In Desert Storm, it was routine to see what you were doing on TV. Here, you would get back to the base and call home, and your son would ask, “Did you go into Baghdad tonight? I saw it on TV.” The only thing I could say, was, “Well, I can’t confirm that.” – MSgt. Tom Mason Great Support

Leaflet drops are a classic case of measure with a micrometer and hit with a sledgehammer. We pick an altitude and figure the winds. The navigator checks the dispersion charts. The process is all very scientific. Once we release them, they just go everywhere. If a leaflet box opens early, we have leaflets everywhere inside the plane. They even get in the cockpit. – Maj. Bruce Taylor

Leaflet Science

Spare parts were readily available to us. I was amazed to get them in short order. We blew a main tire in Baghdad and it destroyed the door. We flew the aircraft with the door off, and a replacement came in less than a week. The assets came directly from Warner Robins ALC. They were geared up to support us. – SMSgt. Russ Withrow F-117 PHOTO BY SSGT. DERRICK C. GOODE

First Quarter 2004

Cluster Load

We did engine-running offloads with the Army guys, who would take whatever the load was to wherever it was going by truck. One night, we moved 20,000 pounds of cluster bombs. – TSgt. Chris Pickens Phoning Home

At Minhad, we could call home and send e-mail. We could receive photos and not feel like we had missed anything at home. Guys with cell phones could get through to the states for about $3 per minute. Ten minutes talking to the family was expensive, but great. – MSgt. Trevor Williams CSAR Near Baghdad

When we were on the southern edge of the Baghdad threat array in early April, our two-ship of Block 50 SEAD was engaged by Iraqi triple-A fire. We headed west to remove ourselves from the threat and witnessed an apparent shoot down of an egressing

Navy F-18. We immediately assumed on-scene SEAD command for the CSAR effort. Our two-ship, along with other airborne assets, began receiving more hostile fire north of Karbala. We placed ourselves between the threat array and the CSAR AOR, while maintaining sensor coverage for the SEAD support. We coordinated further CSAR and SEAD support, relaying CSAR transmissions to AWACS, coordinating more than ten extra refuelings, while still receiving spurious enemy fire throughout the night. It was our longest, most exhausting mission. We maintained sensor coverage for Karbala and Baghdad for more than ten hours that night. – Capt. Derek O’Malley You Name It, We Hauled It

On the first C-141 mission into Baghdad, we faced a big threat. We handpicked the crew, made a tactical approach, and got in unhurt. Overall,

we flew 151 missions in Iraq, including flights into Balad and Kirkuk. We flew human remains out of the AOR. We flew distinguished visitors, including the entire Iraqi Ruling Council, to Madrid for a conference. We flew in Richard Armitage. You name it; we hauled it. – Lt. Col. Eric Wydra No Going Back

I was awestruck at being in Baghdad. It is not a friendly place. We were always motivated to get out of there. We had a hydraulic system failure on takeoff once when we were leaving Baghdad. Hydraulic fluid was misting into the cockpit. Fortunately, the aircraft has two hydraulic systems. We got the leak under control and I said, “We are not turning around and going back to Baghdad. We’re pressing on to Ramstein.” We got to Germany and the landing was fine, though we had to use differential braking to get off the runway. When we stopped, the maintenance and emergency vehicles were waiting for us. The maintenance guys hooked us to a tug and towed us in. – Capt. Paul Szweda Potshots

We never really felt as if we were being directly threatened, though a couple of people took potshots at us. We did see some antiaircraft artillery within a couple of miles of us. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN USN PHOTO BY PM2 MICHAEL SANDBERG

Code One

How To Start A Wing From Scratch

Maj. Gen. Nick Williams, the 21st Air Force commander and Director of Mobility Forces, called me in late January 2003. He was looking for a one-star with a significant background in C-130 tactical operations and who was willing to deploy to command the 486th Air Expeditionary Wing that was being stood up. It took me about fifteen or twenty minutes to realize he wasn’t talking in general, but was talking directly to me. Going in, the basing situation was unclear. There was a lot of turmoil. We stood up at this location as a bare base. It was an existing field and was used by coalition forces, but there was no base or infrastructure and no agreements to have US forces there. We put together an ADVON package, but we had no approvals. On February 27, we were allowed to pick the command element for the new wing. We were in a little bit of a vacuum when we got to the location in theater two days later. What if we brought twenty C-130s in here? We knew we would have to bed them down. It had enough space and a runway, but there was no water, power, sewer, or electricity. We were going to be required to bring that all in. We started with thirty-nine people, mainly refuelers. There was an emphasis on maintenance and things associated with flying. We wanted as many C-130s in theater as quickly as possible, as we didn’t know when offensive operations were going to start. To start, it was almost all teeth and no tail. We had no CE, no Security Forces either, until three weeks later. We had 400 people there within a week, all the C-130s, some maintenance guys, 36

First Quarter 2004

and some refuelers. Food was trucked in daily and water was trucked in weekly. We had 1,500 people and 100 tents within a month. We flew the day after the aircraft arrived and never stopped flying until the time they shut the base down in August. We ended up with twenty-one aircraft. All the aircrew members were NVGqualified, and most of the aircraft were fully equipped. And we only had half the required maintenance for the first six weeks. We were tasked at a ninety to ninetyfive percent utilization rate. Missions were fourteen or fifteen hours on average. We had a launch reliability rate of 100 percent—we never missed a sortie. That speaks more than words can describe the patriotism of our airmen. They worked 24/7 and did what it took to get those aircraft airborne. As soon as C-130s went into the box, we flew—Talil and further north, then into Baghdad. We were supposed to be the second aircraft into Baghdad, but when we got there, there was no evidence that the other aircraft had been there, so our aircraft were in first. The coalition forces helped us—some gave us a few beds, some had extra food, some had extra communications gear, etc. We had one cell phone to start with. Then we had six cell phones, and then another twenty. If you had one of the six original cell phones, you were somebody. We had to go every day to another base to get on the classified network to get our tasking, file situation reports, etc. It was a case of airmen helping airmen—they had work to do as well. The cooperation was just exceptional.

A Wall Street Journal article discussed how the US was frantically building an airbase for fighters. Everything was accurate except that it wasn’t being built for fighters. Things started getting a little better after that. The first thirty-nine airmen who came in were unarmed, uninitiated, and, quite frankly, uninformed. Most of the stories they had heard beforehand came true. They had a positive attitude and energy throughout the fighting. We had almost zero discipline, physical, or psychological problems. The Canadians had said they would not participate in offensive operations, but the local unit there was more than willing to help with base defense. We were fifty percent active duty, thirty percent Guard, and twenty percent Reserve—it was truly a representation of the Total Force. The coalition forces had no problem reporting to a Guard general. Our presence was twice the size of that of the coalition forces. The job the maintenance guys did was incredible. We would have an aircraft come back with a shelled turbine and it was ready to go the next morning. There was no downtime for those guys. We flew into Baghdad the first night it was open. The result of the work of the combat air forces was obvious. We could see the flames and smell the fires. Through the NVGs, we could see a firefight on the civilian side of the airport. Before we departed, we had reports of tracer rounds at the end of the runway. That really made it up close and personal for me. The first day, we had one day and two night sorties. Everybody on the base went out to the runway to watch them depart and when they got back. Baghdad opening was the crown jewel, particularly for us lifters. The spirit of the airmen is what I’ll most remember. They carried such a positive attitude from the beginning, and they had no reason to have a good attitude. Everybody bought into the idea we would make the base better every day. Out of that spirit came the result—a 100 percent launch rate in a war with old aircraft. – Brig. Gen. John Iffland

It was not an actual SOLL II run going into Baghdad, but we did fly with NVGs and no lights. We flew tactical approaches to keep the threat away. Later, when we flew into Balad, the Army commander on the ground said he had no idea that a C-5 was even in the area until we taxied in. We basically made our approach by cruising at just above flight idle. We flew the C-5Bs equipped with defensive systems. – Maj. Jon Erickson

Stealthy Behemoth

Job Description

The pilots eject flares five minutes out of Baghdad. My first thought is to blink, but I keep my eyes open and do my job. Everybody is at a window looking at crossfires and stuff coming at us as we descend. That kind of environment is not in the usual job description. Once on the ground, we take care of the jet. – SSgt. Jay Sherman Equal Share

Everybody has an equal share in everything, including the crew chief. The object is getting in and then getting out of there. Gas and go. – SSgt. Jon Hoffman Prepared

Even going into Iraq, our job is pretty much the same as it always is. We make sure the pilots are on speed and altitude. We run through the checklists. I’m set up to mind our configuration. We prepare for the worst-

case scenario, like a missile or triple-A hit. We’re ready to do damage control, if necessary. – TSgt. Joe Foster Loyalty

On one flight out of Baghdad, one of the Army guys went into cardiac arrest. Our copilot was a radiologist. She went to the back and saved him. We picked up guys who had been through a lot. We transported a twenty-one-yearold who had been shot. He was getting out of there, but all he wanted to know was when he could get back to his unit. – TSgt. A. J. Jelks Worth The Wait

On one mission, we lande d, downloaded cargo, and were set to go. We were told to wait. Another aircraft landed, taxied up, and twenty wounded soldiers were put on a truck and brought right to us. Half of them were in bad shape. An RPG had gone into a fuel truck. We had to get them out of there. – SSgt. Jon Hoffman Turn Times

We got good support in Baghdad. They had a K-loader and forklifts. The TALCE guys were there. It ran fairly well for off-load and on-load. We wanted minimal ground time, and the guys were racing the clock. They would check the oil and get gas. As long as we had our stuff together in the back end, our turn times were excellent. – TSgt. Karl Eckberg Hub And Spoke

We went into Baghdad on 14 May. At first, the C-5s did hub and spoke operations with the C-17s, the C-5s taking the bulk of things to staging facilities

in Germany at Ramstein and Frankfurt, and the C-17s taking the cargo in country. Then we went in country. – Capt. Hugh Hansens More Than Expected

The TALCE guys were used to seeing six pallets and maybe a trailer on the C-17. Then a C-5 lands with seven times the amount of stuff. They couldn’t believe it. – Capt. Hugh Hansens Pathfinders

We sent a handpicked crew in first. They would pass the information from their experience along to the crews that followed. A pilot from the previous flight would go back as an observer to help a crew that hadn’t been in before. We call it a pathfinder concept. We got a lot of crews trained that way. – Maj. Jon Erickson No Overnights

We didn’t stay overnight in Baghdad. Nobody wanted to stay in Baghdad. We would land, unload, and get gas. On those first flights in, we spent about an hour and a half on the ground. – Maj. Jon Erickson Close, But No Cigar

We saw ground fire flying into Baghdad, just like you see on TV. Luckily, it was not aimed at us. – Maj. Jon Erickson High Morale

In Baghdad, we started off with extreme amounts of caution and took in only the things they needed. After the first couple of weeks, the restrictions eased up a little and the floodgates opened. A lot of people worked Code One

together for a common purpose. The operation was really successful and still is. We have very high morale rates, too. – Maj. Louis Patriquin Unloading In Baghdad

I was part of a group that relieved the first guys who had gone into Baghdad. Baghdad International had gone from the Wild West to a small city by the time we got there. I slept in an airconditioned tent that held ten people, but the amount of work didn’t let us stay in the tent much. The day was typically fifteen hours, but we worked as long as twenty-four hours as the volume of incoming aircraft increased. We sent about twelve people from our unit. We had thirteen people from an Air Guard unit and about the same number from McChord. We were fired up. I think we would try to unload an aircraft that was still in the air if we could. – SMSgt. Clinton Foster Thirty Days And Counting

I was activated in February with a thirty-day scheduled return time. We are still activated as of December. The plan was to go out with the same crew in this for thirty days. Typically, our flights went from Europe to theater to Europe or back to the United States. Initially, they sent only SOLL II crews into Baghdad, but we began flying there when they realized they didn’t have enough SOLL II crews. – Maj. Louis Patriquin

Wake-Up Call

Better Than Gold

We slacked off just a little bit, once going into Baghdad became a regular occurrence. Then the Kentucky guys got shot at by an SA-7. That woke up everybody. – Maj. Carl Hoagy

The people at home sent us a flatbed of stuff. We boxed it all up and sent it to the guys in Baghdad or at the front. Wet wipes, ChapStick, and toilet paper were valued more than gold. – Maj. Carl Hoagy

Subway Missions

We would come in from the north by flying through Turkey or from the south through Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The southern route added oneand-one-half to two hours of flying time. We mostly had twelve- to fourteen-hour days. The longer southern route, what we called the subway mission, extended the workday to twenty-three hours. We were very happy whenever a subway mission was cancelled. – Capt. Paul Szweda

First Mission To Balad, Part I

I was on the first mission to Balad. It was a moonless night with clouds, rain, and only ten percent illumination. The base was hard to locate even with NVGs. The beacon was the only navigational aid, and I think it was out. We navigated by NVGs, following the bend in the Tigris River to the edge of the field. – Capt. Paul Szweda

We were not flying in-country during the shooting war. The TACC told us to take three crews and two C-141s and set up a Baghdad Express in early May. We got to Ramstein five days later. Soon, we were flying three days a week into Baghdad. We flew into other countries the other four days of the week. We did that for a month and then we stopped flying to the other countries. We were originally told we would be deployed for a month. We were there from 7 May to 22 November. – Lt. Col. Eric Wydra

Baghdad Express

First Quarter 2004

First Mission To Balad, Part II

Balad had no DME. We updated the INS, but the route was a demanding, rugged route at night and the INS in the C-141 tends to drift. The group commander got antsy. I told him, “No problem, sir. We’ve got it wired.” We had handheld GPS, but it was not integrated into the aircraft. Balad was the most heavily attacked airfield in Iraq. Getting in there was sporting. We knew the procedures. We knew the tactics. But we also knew nobody was going in there unless we did it the first time. We made it. The C-141B, though, didn’t receive much glory for completing the mission. – Lt. Col. Jim McGann Not Just Another Load Of Stuff

The first night in Balad, some Army officers told us that we had saved lives that night. It was a feeling that we had done something vital. It was not just bringing in another load of stuff. – Capt. Phil Brown

S-3B, not from the cab of an Army Humvee. Before our departure, we found out we would acquire the S-3B Surveillance System Upgrade, or SSU, a one-of-a-kind, carrier-based intelligence gathering asset. The SSU had the capability to stream real-time video from a WESCAM camera and its synthetic aperture radar to the ship or to a unique, mobile ground station. Once in the Persian Gulf, one mission for the Combined Forces Maritime Component Commander and one mission for the Combined Forces Air Component Commander were flown each day. CFMCC missions average 3.5 hours and covered the Persian Gulf coastal regions, while CFACC missions covered targets spanning the entire area of Iraq and lasted, on average, 6.5 hours.

Balad’s First Internet Café

We carried a large communications trailer with a transmitter on our first flight into Balad. We had to get shoring built to an external ramp to get it off. We flew to Charleston [AFB, South Carolina] and loaded the trailer. We flew this trailer and twenty-seven pallets to our operating base and then on to Iraq. It took four loadmasters working together to get it off. On the seventh mission to Balad, we delivered an Internet café. – Capt. Phil Brown Live From Baghdad

When I departed San Diego on 3 March on the USS Nimitz, I planned to see Iraq from the cockpit of an

Lt. (j.g.) Brian Schulz and Lt. Ken Wasson

The SSU quickly gained fame and filled the gaps left by the Predator and Hunter UAVs, but commanders still needed real-time full-motion video from central Iraq. In late May, VS-29 sent Lt. Cmdr. Halsey Keats and Lt. Cmdr. David Slayton on a scouting mission to locate the best place for the SSU ground station. They returned a week later with the obvious answer:

Baghdad, with an Army military intelligence division. On 10 June, Commander Keats, Lt. Ken Wasson— known as Shrimpburger—and I traded our flight suits for desert cammies. We left the ship with more than 1,200 pounds of gear and headed for Baghdad. We arrived at Baghdad International Airport at midnight. We slept on top of the gear because a convoy couldn’t be scheduled until the next morning. Around five in the morning, a master sergeant and his crew pulled up with a 2.5-ton truck and said, “Put on your Kevlar, put a clip in your weapon, and welcome to Baghdad!” We found out the Army doesn’t serve omelet MREs. In short order, we were bouncing around on our way to Camp Victory. After a quick nap in our 110-degree tent, we briefed the commanding officer and began setting up our station. The next day we had connectivity with the SSU. We tweaked the equipment over the next three days to achieve max range. The downlink had a range of more than 150 nautical miles from the ship and ground station, allowing link coverage over a majority of southeast and central Iraq. The incoming data could be stored on a removable hard drive on the jet and downloaded postflight, but the capability to downlink video real time allowed commanders and intelligence personnel to help aircrew focus on areas of interest while airborne. Lieutenant Commander Keats went back to the ship a couple days after our arrival. Soon thereafter, Wasson and I were upgraded from our tent to the porch of Uday Hussein’s palace.

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. SUZANNE M. JENKINS

Code One

The bathrooms had ten or twenty sinks and toilets, but we located only two showers in the whole complex. Luckily, the Army had set up a showering tent nearby. We were pretty happy that we had a real toilet and running water a stone’s throw away from our racks. The first night in the palace, Shrimp and I were awakened by two F-16s providing close air support for an attack occurring at the airport, which we could see from the porch. It was an eye-opening moment for us both— witnessing a ground battle from the ground and not 20,000 feet in the air. Needless to say, we prefer the latter. The Army had set up two airconditioned trailers for chow and prepared three hot meals a day. Near the chow hall entrance, a sign read “You must have your weapon to eat in the chow hall.” The Aussies had a pool they kept in working order, and during one visit, we saw two girls laying out in bikinis with M16s next to them—not something you see every day in San Diego. I departed 21 June and headed back to the ship, leaving Shrimpburger, the lone Navy man at Camp Victory, to operate the ground station for the rest of the month. The Army took care of him, and he became proficient at driving a Humvee on his many trips to the newly opened Burger King at Baghdad International. Lt. Peter Weston relieved Shrimpburger at the beginning of July and continued to operate the ground station throughout the remainder of the month. He brought a digital thermometer with him and recorded an average temperature of 125 degrees, with a high of 150. On 22 August, Wasson and I were tasked to get to Baghdad as fast as possible and retrieve the ground station. The word on the street was that we were pulling out of the Gulf and possibly relieving the USS Carl Vinson off the coast of Korea. We arrived in Baghdad after sixteen hours only to find out that the Nimitz might remain in the Gulf. Since Shrimpburger had already spent a full month there, I knew that I’d draw the short straw to stay and operate the station. Fortunately, the order came to 40

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dismantle the equipment and return to the ship—we were finally pulling out. The experience made us appreciate Navy life. We got four hot meals a day. We always had showers, unless the reactor was stealing our water. And we didn’t need to carry a weapon to eat lunch. We were also able to experience the professionalism of the Army, from the newest private to the dusty colonel. Our return to the Nimitz was the first time in our careers that we were glad to shove off and head back to sea. – Lt. (j.g.) Brian Schulz Significant Upgrade

The SSU is a significant upgrade to the legacy S-3B. Because of intensive training, we had two pilots and six NFOs who were fully qualified on the jet’s system when we received it. The SSU worked as advertised, highlighted by the successful utilization of the jet’s SSU ground station

datalink. The admiral in his stateroom could look at exactly the same things we were monitoring in the jet while airborne. It was real-time video and a secure voice communications line. We worked closely with the command structure on the ship, receiving airborne retasking to focus on areas of interest. – Lt. Cmdr. Halsey Keats SSU Learning Curve

The Navy had only one SSU aircraft. We trained the crews on the fly. We integrated ninety percent of our aircrew into the mission by the middle of the cruise, even though the learning curve was pretty steep. – Lt. Cmdr. Halsey Keats Trial By Fire

We didn’t receive the SSU S-3 until we were already in the Gulf. The aircraft arrived only thirteen days after the test program concluded. It quickly became the primary choice for aerial surveillance in the theater. We put a lot of highway miles on that jet—565 hours in a little over five months. – Lt. Cmdr. Tom Davis Ground Station Datalink

The SSU was operational by 15 April and proved to be such an asset to the troops on the ground that the ground station deployment was requested on SSU-equipped S-3

of Central Command’s naval forces, into Baghdad for a meeting with Gen. Tommy Franks on 16 April. We did a lot of planning for threats and flew a minimal risk route into Baghdad. We carried chaff and flares and came in by combat approach. We landed on a parallel taxiway because of debris on the runway. – Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon Tough Schedule

Jessica Lynch We supported the Jessica Lynch rescue.

We took the special forces guys in. We originally planned to use troop seats, but then they asked us to take them out and more people were added. We just strapped the troops to the floor. – Maj. John Church USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. JERRY MORRISON

10 June. Our guys were pumping data right into CJTFHQ in Baghdad. The actual ground station fits on a table. It has a radar antenna and is run by two laptops. With its boxes, it takes up about one pallet to transport. We were a multibranch asset: We were monitoring safe houses for the SEALs, providing real-time video of ground troop operations for the Army, locating convoys of personnel fleeing Iraq for the Marines, and providing SARgenerated target-quality coordinates to the F/A-18s. – Cmdr. Keff Carter Million Words

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words in the targeting business, a video is worth a million. – Lt. Cmdr. Tom Davis Changes In Attitudes

with fully loaded weapons on that flight. – Capt. Paul Szweda Scroll Work

The most unusual thing we had to load was a refrigerator truck. As it was told to me, in the rush to capture Baghdad, an Iraqi had thrown an ancient Israeli scroll into a pool of water near one of the palaces. Some US engineer came in and built an aquarium around it and froze it so the scroll would not deteriorate any further. They loaded the aquarium on this refrigerator truck to return the scroll to its rightful owner. – SMSgt. Clinton Foster VIP Pax

We had an opportunity to take Adm. Timothy Keating, the commander

We had a lot of eighteen-hour days. We got eight hours of sleep every thirty-six hours whether we needed it or not. We were flying every other day for a while, and then it got to be we flew once every couple of days. We were flying sixty to seventy hours every month in March, April, and May. We were down to forty hours by June. – Maj. John Raulston Above The Fight

The contribution of the U-2 to the war effort is sometimes hard to see. We provide imagery so the strikers have a good look at their target before they go in. We’re looking at the target after they strike it to assess battle damage. We’re gathering lots of information on other emissions. The pilot is detached from a lot of this collection. We are far above the fight. We can see all the shooting and all the missiles going off. But we’re usually not interacting directly with the guys who are performing those strikes. Everything we collect gets disseminated electronically and we don’t US NAVY PHOTO BY PM3 DANNY EWING, JR.

People seemed to recover quickly once we left the theater. Their attitudes would change dramatically when they knew they were getting out of there. Just this change in attitude can speed a recovery. – Maj. Tom Hanson Medevac Restrictions

We were sometimes surprised by medical evacuation sorties. The patients can be affected by altitude, so we might have to fly lower than normal. When that happened, we needed more fuel. The load was sometimes a surprise. We took a team of forensics guys that was bringing DNA samples of some of the Iraqi leadership back to Dover. We had Marine guards Code One

see most of it. The pilot seldom, if ever, sees the pictures he takes. But we know those images are important. – Maj. Tom Parent

targeting pod would be focused on that location immediately. We could then provide real-time intelligence or destroy it if necessary. We could also send them images of the point of interest after we landed. – Lt. Col. Sammy Black Misfit Toys

Nobody really understands a U-2 pilot like a U-2 pilot. I call our U-2 squadron the Land of Misfit Toys. Everybody here is a little bit different. You need a unique quality to operate the U-2. – Maj. Jeff Olesen Competitions

Baghdad had a little bit of everything—Reservists, Army, Navy, British, youngsters, experienced guys— all working to get the job done. We all helped each other. We couldn’t go anywhere, so we concentrated on work. The various groups competed to get the cargo downloaded and uploaded the fastest. – SMSgt. Clinton Foster Air Force Food

USAF PHOTO BY AMN1 LINDSEY M SLOCUM

Sand Effects

We saw a lot of things with the aircraft we don’t see at home. The air conditioning worked great for the first month, but then sand started building up. Maintenance had to get a pressure washer to blow the sand out of the oil coolers. The props were sandblasted. – TSgt. C.M. Madden Technical Advances

This was the first time we used the Litening pods in combat. It was also the first time we integrated that with SADL, which allowed us to network the jets together. We could see information within our flight as well as information from CAOC and also tracks for the JSTARs. The system did away with a lot of the communication requirements and allowed us to get our sensors looking where we wanted them to look much quicker. If the CAOC had a point of interest, or JSTARs had a mover they were interested in, they would put the coordinates on the network. We’d select it and then, zing, the 42

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Thank goodness for the Air Force and their Services people. If they hadn’t shown up, we were looking at a lot of peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. The galley that was first set up was only open at certain times, usually when we were leaving, gone, or coming back. When the Air Force got there, they were open twenty-four hours. They also made our in-flight meals. – Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete SCU 5 To Go

One of our greatest accomplishments in the war was our maintenance guys

getting SCU 5 in the airplanes and moving to a combat location all in a matter of days. The Reserve sent some outstanding people over to upgrade our software. Our own maintenance personnel were outstanding as well. We installed SCU 5 in about two days, which made us JDAM-capable. – Maj. Mike Popovich Home Front

My wife and kids had it a lot more difficult than I did in many ways. I knew what I was dealing with. They knew little more than I was flying in a shooting war. I couldn’t explain to them my level of risk. The openendedness of the deployment was difficult as well. We were there until we came home. – Maj. Tyler Otten Fresh Scent

Ninety percent of the guys there had it much worse than we did. The Army guys are still there. The plane didn’t smell quite as fresh when the guys were coming out for R&R. – MSgt. Trevor Williams Canceled Orders

I’ve been at the base for four years working on F-117s that did nothing but training missions. I got orders to go to Korea just before we were to deploy to the Middle East for OIF. I canceled my orders so I could deploy to Qatar. I’m glad I stayed with the unit and went to the desert. I have a lot more pride in my job after seeing the airplane used in combat. The job can get repetitious. To launch a jet with bombs and see it return without them is exciting.

The guys in Baghdad were always looking for the aircraft with the red tail bands. They knew we would be bringing in extra food, along with whatever supplies we had. Everybody would throw something extra in to take to the guys up there. – SrA. Justin McClellan Red Tails

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. CHERIE A. THURLBY

The experience makes training more meaningful. – Amn. RW Ehart Gaining Experience

OIF was a good experience for me even though I didn’t fly. I worked in the mission planning cell. I deployed because I wanted to be part of the team. This was my first deployment after pilot training. I had been in the unit for only five months. The open timeframe and uncertainty surrounding a return date was the most difficult part for the families. We didn’t know how to prepare ourselves or our families for such unknowns. We were very lucky that the deployment lasted only two months. – Lt. Tom Kelly Job One

I tried to keep the unit focused on the situation: We have one job, that is, kick Saddam Hussein’s butt and get home safely. We had to work together because our lives depended on each other, whether on the ground or in the air. – Lt. Col. Andy Larson Refueling Pods

Refueling pods are as complicated as any system on the aircraft. The

hydraulics and hose gears work very hard, and they do require considerable maintenance. They are hard to troubleshoot, too, because so many systems are tied into them. Still, we never missed a refueling mission—not one. – SMSgt. Russ Withrow Biggest Improvement

The biggest improvement going from SCU 4 to SCU 5 is JDAM capability. The combination of SADL ability with the Litening pod proved to be a fantastic tool for identifying targets. The combination made it easier for ground forces to hand off targets to us. – Lt. Col. John Reed Show It Some Love

The C-141 is still a great aircraft. She just needs a little love. – SSgt. Jay Sherman Hunting Trip

On one flight into Baghdad, we brought these two guys with long hair and beards. They looked kind of rough and they were driving Humvees. I nodded at them and asked, “How are you doing?” They nodded and said, “Fine.” I then asked, “What are you doing?” They said they were going

hunting. I realized they were special forces types and that was pretty much the end of the conversation. I saw them again a couple of weeks later and asked them how the hunting was. They said, “Great. We got Uday and Qusay.” [sons of the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein]. – Lt. Col. Jim McGann Dream Job

I was in the tenth grade in Mullins, South Carolina, in 1991. I watched guys like D‑Dawg [Col. Deane Pennington] on television after the first Gulf War. My dream was to fly one of those jets and wear the Swamp Fox patch. – Capt. Taj Troy High-Bomb Jets

We always tried to keep all the jets ready, even those that weren’t on the schedule. Every jet was a potential spare. If something was broken, we worked the problem. We rarely had to cannibalize another jet for parts. Some crew chiefs did nose art and kept mission markings. Tail numbers 543 and 541, both of which are 3.1 jets, tied for most drops. – TSgt. Rick Spears USAF PHOTO BY MSGT. TERRY L. BLEVINS

Sand And Rain The sandstorms were the worst. I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me.

We had two straight days of rain. We had problems with the APU valves and replaced a lot of them. Getting parts was really not much of a problem, though. – TSgt. Rick Spears Code One

High-Use Platform Some of our crews flew a lot. We were there for four months and we were a high-use platform. Special operations personnel tend to go in early and unseen. After the shooting part of the war tapered off, we shifted to peacekeeping and hauling DVs and special loads. We had a lot of requests from special forces units for unique missions. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson

USAF PHOTO BY AMN1 BRIAN FERGUSON

Dark Work

Iraq Enterprise

We went three or four months without seeing the light of day. – Maj. Bruce Taylor

One enterprising maintenance guy in Baghdad sold Iraqi money, flags, uniform buttons, stuff like that. He operated his little souvenir shop out of a helmet bag. All the crews wanted that stuff and so did the people back at the bases. He had quite a business. I asked if he was planning to claim his earnings on his taxes. He just laughed. – TSgt. Alexis Richardson

The Longest Minute

I was on a DEAD mission when AWACS called and said they had an emergency need for CAS. An Army unit was pinned by enemy fire in Baghdad. I had the only Viper armed with JDAMs in our four-ship and that was the weapon they were looking for. The troops-in-contact situation made me more than a little uncomfortable when I found the Army unit was less than 1,000 meters from the target building. The ground FAC did an outstanding job of passing the required data and had to stop several times during transmission to take cover from incoming fire. Finally, the coordination portion was complete and I received clearance to drop. I said a prayer as I released both JDAMs. The time of fall was fifty-nine seconds. I will never forget those seconds. Terrible scenarios raced through my mind, but finally, the FAC’s voice erupted over the radio, “Great bombs, one! Great bombs! The building is gone and the battle is over. Thanks for the work.” The feeling of relief was indescribable. The worst thing I could imagine in the world would have been to hurt one of those heroes on the ground. The JDAMs functioned flawlessly. – Maj. Brad Lyons 44

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cate was interesting. The only ice I got over there came from an Iraqi boy, who ran out to meet me with a glass of ice water. – TSgt. Joel Byrd Moats Even

Flying into Baghdad, we could see these two huge palaces near the airport. They had to be as large as city blocks. These weren’t like rich movie star mansions. They were huge, museumlike buildings. They even had moats. – Capt. Bob Manning Ruling Council, Part I

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. DERRICK C. GOODE

Familiar Faces

We carried some nineteen-year-old special forces guys who didn’t know what they were getting into. The special forces guys tend to be more mature. We were a lot better informed about what they were getting into. A lot of people had flown with us before and knew some of us by name. A lot of guys were sad to see us go back home. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson Warm And Cold Welcome

The locals appreciated us. They liked us. We preserved security in their city, in their streets. Learning to communi-

Moving the Iraqi Ruling Council to Madrid for a donor conference was an indication of the trust in the C-141. They could have moved them on a C-17. Of course, the C-5 is the biggest and has seats, but it is not a 747. But they chose a C-141 to go in daylight hours. We transported four ambassadors, twenty American support personnel, and eighty Iraqi Council members. Anybody who was anyone was on that flight, and we flew in broad daylight. – Lt. Col. Jim McGann Ruling Council, Part II

We fed the ruling council in flight. We got hoagie sandwiches at Ramstein. They were Muslim, so we had to make sure they got roast beef and not pork. A couple of them went to the back of the aircraft at sunrise, faced Mecca, and did their prayers on the cargo ramp. They had their prayer mat and the stones they place in front of them. Once we

Employer Support, Part I

I work for an engineering firm in Panama City. My employer has been very supportive. My company does force protection, so they encourage me to contribute to the Reserve. The experience has been beneficial on both ends. – SSgt. Thomas Webster Employer Support, Part II

My employer held my job well beyond the point he could have gotten somebody else. – TSgt. Joel Byrd Positive Impacts

We flew a lot of good missions that made a positive impact. The rest and recreation runs for the Army were especially pleasing for me. The troops were always very happy when they got USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. STACY L. PEARSALL

got to Madrid, we were met by a lot of media. The president of the Council needed to get off the plane first. Everybody else lined up in rank order. The procession took at least fifteen minutes to get organized before the president stepped out. Three days in Madrid was great. At the hotel, we turned on CNN and saw one of our passengers shake hands with Colin Powell. – TSgt. Karl Eckberg Newbie Skills

I was the last pilot to get here from training, arriving in April 2002. I was combat ready in October. By January, I was flying into a combat zone. I felt more challenged in training than on some of the missions we flew over there. We were all well prepared and I never felt backed into a corner. I was inexperienced, of course, but I had learned so much in training and was well prepared for combat. – Capt. Taj Troy Return To Iraq

The Talon I is an awfully versatile platform. We don’t need a runway—we showed that numerous times during OEF and OIF. We flew Rumsfeld to Baghdad. It was the first time in twentyfive years he had been there. The last time he went, he met with Tariq Aziz and Saddam Hussein about the IranIraq war. – MSgt. Lamar Cutchins

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. CHERIE A. THURLBY

USAF PHOTO BY TSGT. JACK BRADEN

Bare-Base Security We provided aircraft security and security for 1,700 US personnel at a bare base. We sent two five-man teams from our unit, two five-man teams from an active unit, and two five-man teams from a Guard unit. So, we had thirty people total. We stayed there more than 100 days. The base had no barriers, no walls. The only structure was a well. We couldn’t take a shower. – TSgt. Joel Byrd

Code One

on the plane for their three-day leave to Qatar. – TSgt. Stacy Meiser Familiar Faces

The teamwork and professionalism stick in my mind. We are all brothers and we know we are all out to do a job. We get used to the people we fly with. That familiarity is critical. – SSgt. Mike Daugherty Frequent Flyers

Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld wanted a rugged, reliable platform. We have the communications gear and equipment to fly in weather. We have our own navaids. We have added a lot of self-protection with the ECM system. We managed to take the secretary of defense several places on a couple of trips. He stayed on the flight deck for most of the mission. We also flew Gen. Tommy Franks. – Maj. Kevin Nicholson USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. CHERIE A. THURLBY

First Quarter 2004

On Time

We didn’t miss a sortie and we were always on time. – MSgt. Lamar Cutchins 100 Percent

We accomplished 100 percent of our taskings and we didn’t get shot down. We had no fatalities. That is an accomplishment. – Maj. Bruce Taylor Raining Mud

We had what we brought and we brought everything we thought we would need. We even took saws. We were really like a CE unit. We built a facility in a hardened shelter and built a break room. We took a lot of plywood. The whole time there, we made a list of what we will need the next time. Pressure washers are one thing. We had to thoroughly clean the equipment before it could come back to the United States. So, we had some pressure washers shipped to us while we were there. We would wash them and it would rain mud off them there was so much dust. – SMSgt. Russ Withrow Waving Flags

I’ll never forget images of Iraqi people waving American flags in the streets of Baghdad and other cities. Knowing that I was there and contributing to their liberation was very rewarding. – Maj. Mark Lantz A Different Kind Of Brinks Truck

We hauled just about everything in and out as well. One mission out of Baghdad, we carried $44 million in cash that had been confiscated in one of Saddam’s palaces. One night, we picked up 20,000 pounds of gold bullion. – MSgt. Trevor Williams

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

Mission Capable

The aircraft were in very hostile conditions. The sand would blow so hard that we couldn’t see five feet. We worried where all that sand was going. After an aircraft landed, we saw where all that sand was going—everywhere. Despite that, we had a ninety-six to ninety-seven percen t fully mission capable rate. – Maj. John Church

USN PHOTO BY PM AMNA JEFF KLEMM

Code One

USN PHOTO BY CMDR. THOMAS LALOR

Proof

Transitions

No Contest

We flew seventy-five percent of our annual flying program in ninety days. We had a ninety-three percent flyingeffectiveness rate, and those statistics are for combat sorties. We were really challenged to launch sorties. That level of performance says a lot about our young people, our maintainers, and it is proof the F-16 is an all-weather fighter. – CMSgt. Bruce Voigt

I will be going on to the C-17 when it replaces the C-141 at McGuire. The Starlifter has been a good aircraft. It kept us safe. It has had quite a career. A lot of people in the mobility world are sad to see the old bird go. – Capt. Avi Perras

God help the next person who decides to cause some problems for the United States because we’re going to steamroll them. – Maj. Mark Lantz Great Accomplishments

The greatest honor for anyone in uniform is to lead guys in combat.

Excitement

Everybody was excited to be involved in Iraqi Freedom. We flew cargo missions for seven months, and that excitement level never changed. Bad things are happening over there. But few people see the great things we are doing every day. – Lt. Col. Jim McGann No Fame, Glory

The greatest thing about OIF was getting to live and work in a fighter squadron with such great people. My memories of most of the sorties I flew will fade, but I’ll never forget the people I shared those experiences with. Flying fighter aircraft isn’t about fame and glory. It’s about taking care of your best friend flying the jet right next to you. – Capt. Benjamin Price USAF PHOTO BY TSGT. JACK BRADEN

First Quarter 2004

The greatest accomplishment is to bring them all back safely. This squadron’s people and our aircraft were vital assets in the national strategy. – Lt. Col. Jim McGann Accumulated Time

This unit flew 5,000 hours in the twelve months prior to OIF. We flew 1,000 hours per month during the six months over there in desert conditions. Our C-130s went through a lot. – Maj. Carl Hoagy Not Dead Yet

The C-141 performed great. We only had minimal malfunctions, and there was nothing that kept us in Baghdad. Flight engineers may have one foot in the grave, but we are not dead yet. – TSgt. Joe Foster Obligations

My number-one obligation was to deploy, kick ass, and come back alive.

We succeeded. We brought everybody home safe to their families and to South Carolina. – Lt. Col. Deane Pennington Changes

My daughter turned nineteen and joined the military while I was gone. My one-month-old granddaughter was nine months old when I got back. – TSgt. A. J. Jelks Like No Other

I’d volunteer to go back in a heartbeat. The deployment was an experience like no other. How many other twenty-year-olds can say they’ve traveled to a war zone to work on a $47 million stealthy aircraft? – Amn. Bradley Richardson Relief

Most memorable event is when we got everybody home. I was in a fiveship package and we pulled in together. We put the chocks in and released the

brakes, and it was a huge sense of relief to know we had gotten everybody home—every plane and every person. – Lt. Col. Bryan Walkup Fourth Generation

I am a fourth-generation veteran and my family is very proud of that. Having that kind of history in your family is nothing new with Americans, but it does mean a lot to me. Serving in the military with the caliber of men and women that I do causes you to make very close friendships, which makes it easier to do your job and make the sacrifices we in the military do. Putting it on the line for our country with a friend beside you that feels as close as a brother is a feeling that is hard to explain, and is something I’ll never forget. – Capt. Jason Charrier

USAF PHOTO BY SSGT. MATTHEW HANNEN

Code One

INTERVIEW SUBJECTS Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1) World Watchers NAS Whidbey Island, Washington EPâ&#x20AC;&#x2018;3E ARIES II Lt. (j.g.) Nicholas Boyter

Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden

Maj. Cory Bartholomew

Lt. Col. Troy DeVine

Maj. Brian Farrar

Maj. Jeff Olesen

SrA. Katie Bowling

Capt. Frank Bryant

Capt. Jason Charrier

CMSgt. Bruce Voigt

Cmdr. Keff Carter

Lt. Cmdr. Tom Davis

Lt. Cmdr. Halsey Keats

Lt. Cmdr. Adrian Lozano

Lt. (j.g.) Brian Schulz

SSgt. Shaun Abell

Maj. Ken Ekman

Maj. Brad Lyons

Capt. Kris Padilla

Capt. Benjamin Price

Lt. Cmdr. Jay Crawford

Cmdr. Steve Kelly

Lt. Cmdr. Dick McGrath

Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite

Cmdr. Ian Vatet

AW1 Matthew Pope

Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete

Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon

99th Reconnaissance Squadron 9th Reconnaissance Wing Beale AFB, California U-2R Maj. Tom Parent

20th Fighter Wing Shaw AFB, South Carolina F-16CJ Block 50

Sea Control Squadron Twenty-Nine (VS-29) Dragonfires NAS North Island, California Deployed on USS Nimitz (CV-68) S-3B

35th Fighter Wing Misawa AB, Japan F-16CJ Block 50

Sea Control Squadron Thirty-Eight (VS-38) Red Griffins NAS North Island, California Deployed on USS Constellation (CV-64) S-3B

Patrol Squadron Forty-Six (VP-46) Grey Knights NAS Whidbey Island, Washington P-3C

First Quarter 2004

Capt. Steve Tittel

49th Fighter Wing Holloman AFB, New Mexico F-117A

Capt. Robert Alford

Maj. Don Cornwell

Amn. R. W. Ehart

Capt. Alex Jernigan

Amn. Shelly Lagania

Capt. Jim McGlone

Amn. Bradley Richardson

Amn. Brandon Wannarka

Capt. Matt Allen

Capt. Tim Curry

Capt. Darren Gray

Capt. Ryan Petersen

TSgt. Brett Allen

Maj. John L. Church

SSgt. Clint Ervin

TSgt. A. J. Jelks

TSgt. C. M. Madden

SrA. Justin McClellan

TSgt. Chris Pickens

MSgt. Donnie Porter

Maj. John Raulston

MSgt. Trevor Williams

Lt. Col. Bryan Walkup

Lt. Nate Kazek

Capt. Bob Manning

TSgt. Stacy Meiser

Amn. Roderick King

22nd/23rd Fighter Squadrons 52nd Fighter Wing Spangdahlem AB, Germany F-16C Block 50 Capt. Brandon Roth

118th Airlift Wing Tennessee Air National Guard Nashville IAP, Tennessee C-130H2

133rd Airlift Wing Minnesota Air National Guard Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, Minnesota C-130H Maj. Dan Wilson

Code One

120th Fighter Squadron 140th Wing Colorado Air National Guard Buckley ANGB, Colorado F-16C Block 30 Maj. Jerome Dyck

Maj. Pat Hanlon

Maj. Scott Hufford

Lt. Tom Kelly

Col. John Mooney

Maj. Boris Armstrong

Capt. Quentin Esser

Maj. Akshai Gandhi

Lt. Col. Deane Pennington

TSgt. Rick Spears

Capt. Taj Troy

SSgt. Rick Walker

Lt. Col. Sammy Black

Col. Sid Clarke

Lt. Col. Carl Jones

Lt. Col. Will Sparrow

Capt. Brian Wolfe

TSgt. Karl Eckberg

TSgt. Joe Foster

SSgt. Jon Hoffman

SrA. Elliot McClanhan

Lt. Col. Jim McGann

Capt. Avi Perras

SSgt. Jay Sherman

Capt. Paul Szweda

Lt. Col. Eric Wydra

Maj. Mark Lantz

Lt. Col. Andy Larson

Maj. Tyler Otten

Maj. Mike Popovich

169th Fighter Wing South Carolina Air National Guard McEntire ANGS, South Carolina F-16CJ Block 52

160th Fighter Squadron 187th Fighter Wing Alabama Air National Guard Montgomery Regional Airport, Alabama F-16C Block 30

6th Airlift Squadron 305th Air Mobility Wing McGuire AFB, New Jersey C-141B

419th Fighter Wing Air Force Reserve Command Hill AFB, Utah F-16C Block 30

First Quarter 2004

Lt. Col. John Reed

3rd/9th Airlift Squadrons 436th Airlift Wing Dover AFB, Delaware C-5A/B Capt. Phil Brown

SSgt. Mike Daugherty

Maj. John Erickson

SMSgt. Clinton Foster

Maj. Louis Patriquien

TSgt. Alexis Richardson

TSgt. Joel Byrd

MSgt. Lamar Cutchins

MSgt. Tom Mason

Maj. Bruce Taylor

SSgt. Thomas Webster

SMSgt. Russ Withrow

Lt. Col. Don Gresham

Capt. Hugh Hansens

446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron Air Force Reserve Command McChord AFB, Washington Maj. Tom Hanson

486th Air Expeditionary Wing Al Minhad AB, United Arab Emirates C-130H Brig. Gen. John Iffland

512th Airlift Wing Air Force Reserve Command Dover AFB, Delaware C-5A/B

919th Special Operations Wing Air Force Reserve Command Duke Field, Florida MC-130E Combat Talon I/ MC-130P Combat Shadow

NOT PICTURED:

Maj. Kevin Nicholson

Lt. Col Kevin Fowler, Capt. Shamsher Mann, Capt. Eric Puels — 35th Fighter Wing (F-16CJ Block 50) Misawa AB, Japan Lt. Cmdr. Darin Curtis — Sea Control Squadron Thirty-Eight (VS-38) Red Griffins (S-3B) NAS North Island, California Deployed on USS Constellation (CV-64) Capt. Derek O’Malley, Maj. Adrian Pone, Maj. Dave Youtsey — 22nd/23rd Fighter Squadrons, 52nd Fighter Wing (F-16C Block 50) Spangdahlem AB, Germany Lt. Col. Chris Kelley — 120th Fighter Squadron, 140th Wing (F-16C Block 30) Colorado Air National Guard Buckley ANGB, Colorado TSgt. Larry Hunt, TSgt. Jason Moss, MSgt. Stephen Wells — 419th Fighter Wing (F-16C Block 30) Air Force Reserve Command Hill AFB, Utah SSgt. Phil Sigstad — 3rd/9th Airlift Squadrons, 436th Airlift Wing (C-5A/B) Dover AFB, Delaware

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