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Operation Iraqi Freedom has been described as the first information age war. The 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."
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