OIF By The Numbers
During surges, we launched a two-ship of F-16s every twenty to thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day. The initial surge lasted ninety-six hours at the beginning of the war. The jets continued to be mission-capable, 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
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

Not An Average Cruise
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

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

What's An S-3? Part I
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