Greasy Hands, Furrowed Eyebrows
I never worried about the basic soundness and airworthiness of the U-2. I have flown this airplane in places where I could not land. We flew many OIF missions in which we had no emergency divert option. We would not come back if the aircraft did not come out of the AOR. That consideration never percolated above the noise level for me or for any other mission pilot because we believe in the airworthiness of this aircraft and in our maintainers and field service reps who put it together. That confidence allows us to focus on the new sensors, the mission employment, and all the other issues that pop up. We appreciate the men and women who support the mission—the guys with the greasy hands and the furrowed eyebrows.
     — Lt. Col. Troy DeVine

On The Blue Team
We weren't that worried about Iraqis shooting us down. We were more concerned about getting shot down by one of our own or running into another coalition airplane. Turning south and flying home was the most dangerous part of the mission since most people to the south were playing defense. We weren't flying with a big blue flag saying we were on their team. We had to hope that everyone paid close attention during their mission briefings to where the F-117s were going to be.
     — Maj. Don Cornwell

MIG Strafe
Despite being fragged as the HARM truck for the four-ship, I got to roll in and gun a MiG-23 Flogger today after my wingman's passes shacked the target. The defunct jet, as brown as the dirt surrounding it, was parked across a canal and only about 100 meters from a small town. Fortunately, we had a clear attack axis that helped prevent any buildings or people being hit inadvertently. I made two very solid passes and ran the bullets right though the target. After my first attack and safe escape, I looked over my shoulder and saw the bullets hit and explode almost like a cluster bomb. It was very cool.
     — From the journal of Capt. Kris Padilla

Friendly Factor
We use F-117s against relatively high priority targets. That is our forte. That type of target didn't change as the war progressed, but friendly ground forces became more of a factor.
     — Capt. Jim McGlone

Six Bombs For Six Tanks
We supported some special operation forces who were getting ready to take Haditha Dam, which is about 100 miles northwest of Baghdad, on the Syrian border. The ground forces called us in and talked us onto the target—some tanks that were dug in to the south and southeast of the dam. The cloud deck cleared out below 10,000, but we couldn't see much until we got there. We'd drop below the clouds and they would be shooting at us. As soon as we found a tank with the targeting pod, we climbed back up to a higher altitude with the coordinates. We didn't have time to attack the tanks because we were low and getting shot at. We turned back around and got below the weather again. As soon as we found the tank, the bomb would come off. We spent only enough time below the weather to lase the bomb in. We did that four times. We had two GBU-12s and one JDAM on each jet. We dropped the GBU-12s on the first four tanks. We found two more tanks and we dropped our JDAMs on them. So, we destroyed six tanks with six bombs that day.
     — Maj. Scott Hufford