Fired Up
The VS-38 AOs were the most fired-up guys I had ever seen. Every day they would load a SLAM-ER on the S-3 and ask, "Are we going to launch today?" We carried two Mk-82s in the bomb bay, just in case something came up.
     — Lt. Hartley Postlethwaite

Super MEZ
Most of our tasking was SEAD and DEAD around Baghdad since that's where the surface-to-air missile sites were concentrated. The area around the city was called the Super MEZ. Our job was to make sure the shooters could get into the MEZ. We also flew missions west of Baghdad, north toward Tikrit and Mozul, and as far south as Basra. Basically, we worked the whole country. What we did depended on what was needed and where it was needed.
     — Lt. Col. Deane Pennington

169th Fighter Wing Background
The unit deployed to Qatar as the 157th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron assigned to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, the largest fighter wing ever assembled in one place. The wing had Australian F/A-18s and RAF GR.4 Tornados, F-15Es from Seymour Johnson, F-14s, and F-16CJs from Spangdahlem. McEntire deployed fifteen aircraft, which included six Block 52 F-16s from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Four active-duty F-16 pilots from Mountain Home deployed with McEntire as well. The unit flew 411 sorties in totaling 2,322 combat hours. The pilots dropped JDAM, CBU-103, CBU-107, and GBU-12, and shot AGM-88 HARMs. Pilots typically flew fifteen to seventeen sorties. Average sortie duration was about seven hours. The unit used both LANTIRN and Litening II targeting pods. McEntire is the first F-16CJ unit to employ air-to-air interrogator, the first to employ a CBU-107, and the first to drop laser-guided bombs off Block 50/52 aircraft in combat.

Sentryplane
We don't use the word spyplane to describe the U-2. The aircraft is a reconnaissance platform. We're not in the spy business; we are in the sentry business. The distinction can be thought of in terms of sentries manning guard towers of a fort in the Old West. They put sentries up in the towers so they could see farther. A spy, on the other hand, is someone who would sneak into hostile territory. We perform more as sentries than as spies.
     — Maj. Cory Bartholomew

Make Room For Aeromeds
They crammed us in the C-141 with the cargo on outbound missions. They put the aeromeds on almost as an afterthought. We carried our equipment as well as stanchions and restraint straps. We set up the landing for evacuation after the aircraft was unloaded. We flew long legs—usually nine or ten hours. Sometimes the missions were extremely long because of having to fly at lower altitudes because of patient care requirements.
     — Maj. Tom Hanson

Two Bombs, No Waiting
The F-117 has a unique capability with the GBU-27. We drop two bombs on a single target almost simultaneously. The second bomb goes into the hole made by the first bomb and penetrates deeper.
     — Capt. Robert Alford