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 Tiny Bubbles
The U-2 is a physically demanding aircraft to fly. Breathing 100 percent oxygen sucks the moisture out of your lungs faster than you can replace it by drinking water. The pressure suit is cumbersome. The more you move around, the more fatigued you get. The suit's fabric doesn't breathe, so heat tends to build up. Sitting in one position for long periods can cause stagnant hypoxia—blood pools in the lower extremities and doesn't move across the brain as well. Unless you really enjoy tube food, your state of nourishment might not be so good. You may experience some intestinal discomfort if you've eaten anything that produces any kind of bubbles. Those bubbles will expand to eight or ten times their normal size at 30,000 feet.
— Maj. Cory Bartholomew
Surprise!
We slept in huge seventy-two-person tents. One windy night, I was laughing on my way back to my living quarters because forty- and fifty-mile-per-hour winds had ripped out some tent stakes and literally destroyed one of the big tents. Those folks are in for a big surprise, I thought. I stopped laughing when I got closer and realized it was my tent.
— Amn. Roderick King
 Linen Closet
I was the only female on deployment among the officers, so I ended up sleeping in a linen closet. The closet was a storage room for the facility, and it had a bathroom. I didn't mind the accommodations one bit. It had a bed and it wasn't a tent.
— Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete
49th Fighter Wing Background
The Air Force's only F-117 unit, based in Holloman AFB, New Mexico, deployed twelve jets in early February 2003 to al Ueidid Air Base in Qatar and returned in mid-April. The unit sent approximately twenty pilots. F-117 pilots dropped more than 100 bombs during the air campaign, including GBU-27, GBU-12, and GBU-10. The EGBU-27 (a GBU-27 with both laser and GPS guidance) was used for the first time in combat on the first night of the war. The 379th FW maintained two F-117s on alert status for about ten days during OIF. The most sorties any F-117 pilot flew were six. Most pilots averaged three or four sorties. The missions lasted about five hours.
Game Face
Everybody was on top of their game. The ATs and AEs [maintainer specialist ratings] really enjoyed working with the S-3. If we lost a sortie for whatever reason, those guys took it personally.
— Lt. Cmdr. Jay Crawford
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