Not In The Recruiting Ad
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

In The Dark
My family knew what was going on in the war when we were in Tabuk. But we didn't.
     — TSgt. C.M. Madden

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

Gun-Toting Loadmasters
We always carried guns and Kevlar flak jackets. The loadmasters check out weapons before every flight. The guns are an antihijack measure and for self-defense.
     — TSgt. Alexis Richardson

Thunderstorms
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

24/7 Coverage
We carried either four 500-pound bombs or two 500-pound bombs 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