Zero
How many fifty-seven-year-olds do you know who fly combat missions?
     — MSgt. Lamar Cutchins

Flight Attendant, Where's My Drink?
We flew in the back, strapped to the floor, on missions to bare bases. The crew would put the cargo in. We sat on the floor at the very back. The crew then ran cargo straps over us. For landing at a bare base, we grabbed our guns and they would let us out first.
     — TSgt. Joel Byrd

Magical Appearances
We saw people magically appear out of the desert when we landed, and we wondered if the people approaching the aircraft were the people we wanted to see.
     — Maj. Kevin Nicholson

Preventing Meltdown
We went out for six hours with a collection deck of places we were responsible for searching. We filmed everything that looked interesting from different angles. We were fighting a quiet war in the west, searching for things instead of destroying them. In terms of strategic significance, our job was to keep neighboring countries out of the fight. The whole region would melt down if the Iraqis launched Scuds into Israel.
     — Col. John Mooney

Part Of ATO
Our P-3s were part of the ATO, which was a first. We were used to doing things independently in a maritime environment. We got folded in like a TacAir asset and were assigned to patrol a kill box. We had Have Quick UHF radios, which allowed us to seamlessly integrate with all of the other airborne assets. Every mission would have been like flying with a blindfold without the Have Quick capability. We used the UHF radios in the normal mode of operation on airways, then shifted them to Have Quick mode as we transitioned across the Iraqi border to check in with the AWACS for kill box assignment.
     — Lt. Cmdr. Chris Saindon

Please Fence Me In
We carried concertina wire and tank treads into Baghdad for the first month. It was 6,000 pounds per pallet, 55,000 pounds a shot going in. They were trying to get as many combat supplies in theater as quickly as possible. We were expecting to bring back nothing, but then we'd get word that a medevac team was coming in twenty minutes.
     — Capt. Paul Szweda

Direct Communication
We talked directly to F/A-18 crews. In one or two cases, we had targets of unusual interest and the F/A-18 guys answered and diverted.
     — Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden

VP-46 Grey Knights Background
A detachment of P-3s left Whidbey Island, in Washington State's Puget Sound, for Diego Garcia in late 2002. The unit later moved to Thumrait, Oman, and had a detachment in Bahrain. It stood up operations in Kuwait. Two other P-3 squadrons, VP-1 and VP-47, augmented them. The force ultimately had twelve aircraft assigned to OIF. The Grey Knights were in theater from 1 December 2002 to June 2003.