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 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
 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
First Bird
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
Another First
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
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