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 brand-new 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 showing. I didn't wonder anymore.
     — Capt. Shamsher Mann

Big Loads
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

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