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Raining ATACMS
I'll never forget the first time I saw ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles impacting on my ingress. The Army was south of Baghdad and they were shooting ATACMS. The large missiles shoot to about 80,000 feet and come screaming down. Our F-117s were turning westbound into Baghdad and these things were flying right in front of my flight path and hitting the ground in bright explosions. Fortunately, we were time deconflicted.
— Maj. Don Cornwell
U-2 Advantage
The U-2 is the only aircraft in the Air Force that can collect both signal and imagery intelligence. That allows us to cross-cue sensors. We can transmit information in near real time to command and control elements and to warfighters in airplanes, at sea, and on the ground.
— Maj. Brian Ferrar
 Need Ordnance Now
A real nervous, high-pitched voice came over the radio saying that he was getting shot at and he needed ordnance now on this bridge. This is the first time I've ever dropped bombs in a war. The weather was scattered to overcast, broken deck up to about 10,000 feet. We break right through the clouds and were immediately lit up by what we thought were some surface-to-air missile sites. But they were more likely false readings from microwave towers. Still, the radar warnings got our attention. We got the coordinates for the bridge. The flight lead dropped a 2,000-pound JDAM near an overpass on an east/west road. The Iraqi forces scattered and many went under the bridge. The Iraqis had been exchanging fire with ten to fifteen Americans about a half-mile from the bridge. The US forces are supposed to be covert. This was fairly early in the conflict. My flight lead dropped two more bombs, this time GBU-12s. They didn't guide very well. I go in there and put my JDAM in just long of the bridge. Then, I dropped a dud GBU-12. After that, my flight lead strafed and took out one of the Iraqi APCs. We did a few more reconnaissance passes and called in some more air cover. We destroyed two vehicles that day. Our ground forces captured five Iraqi soldiers.
— Lt. Col. Chris Kelley
 CNN Briefing
We usually watched CNN before we departed. The news occasionally gave us a rough idea of what we would be bringing out.
— Maj. Paul Szweda
Lightning Strikes
We couldn't turn around in the Straits of Hormuz because the cleared path was so narrow. We had to squeeze through the straights under a thunderstorm one night on our way to Iraq. Lightning put three holes in the radome of our P-3. Flying through that storm was beyond belief.
— Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete
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