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In The Loop
The pilots would come back and keep us in the loop. They would tell us what they did, and their mission descriptions boosted morale. When the jets came back empty, you really felt like you had done your job.
— CMSgt. Bruce Voigt
 Rocky Combat Time
I have been supporting operations at the 169th for about four years from my perch on top of the TV set in the wing's maintenance ready room. Obviously, when the wing deployed to the Middle East for Iraqi Freedom, I went with them. During the operation, I spent most of my time in a tent in Qatar, but the guys wanted to give me a chance to see what was going on. They first tried getting me into an F-16, but those jets don't have much extra room. A British Tornado crew offered me a space in the lap of their backseater. The British g-suit didn't fit me very well, so they wrapped me in bubble plastic for the flight. Near Baghdad, the crew dropped a couple of 2,000-pound LGBs on a target. I'm one of the few unit mascots that can honestly say they have combat time.
— Rocky Raccoon
 Shooting Blind
We saw more missiles and triple-A than I could count, but none of it was guided. On that first night, I thought for sure we were going to be coming home with no HARMs. But our F-16s were effective with our SEAD mission. The Iraqis didn't even turn on their radar.
— Capt. Darren Gray
Home Cooking
We carried an air-transportable galley and a small cooler on the medical evacuation flights. We made hot dogs with all the fixings and chocolate chip cookies for the patients. The crew management people started a kitty for this. Crews would chip in $20 to $80 each for food and drinks. One flight nurse chipped in $300 of his own money. The weather was hot, 120 degrees at times. You should have seen the faces of guys when we pulled out hot dogs and cold drinks. These soldiers had not had a soda in months. We ran into some of the patients at the base later on. They told us how much they enjoyed that hot dog and Coke on the flight.
— Maj. Tom Hanson
Trading Up
Tabuk was wind and sand with cool nights. Minhad, our second base, was 125 degrees everyday with ninety to 100 percent humidity. We traded sandstorms for the heat.
— Maj. John Church
Russian Visitors
The Russians brought down a battle group to train with the Indian Navy while we were over there. We flew over the Indian Ocean to monitor the exercise. It was the first time since I joined the Navy in 1994 I had actually seen a Russian ship—the stuff we had to know everything about and had trained to fight against. They also had Badgers and Bears [long-range bombers/patrol aircraft]. That experience was really something.
— AW1 Matthew Pope
Sending Pictures
Litening II has a CCD camera, an E/O capability, and a laser spot tracker. We can spot something on the ground and send the picture to our wingman so he knows exactly where we are looking.
— Maj. Akshai Gandhi
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