Hunting Trip
On one flight into Baghdad, we brought these two guys with long hair and beards. They looked kind of rough and they were driving Humvees. I nodded at them and asked, "How are you doing?" They nodded and said, "Fine." I then asked, "What are you doing?" They said they were going hunting. I realized they were special forces types and that was pretty much the end of the conversation. I saw them again a couple of weeks later and asked them how the hunting was. They said, "Great. We got Uday and Qusay." [sons of the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein].
     — Lt. Col. Jim McGann

Dream Job
I was in the tenth grade in Mullins, South Carolina, in 1991. I watched guys like DDawg [Col. Deane Pennington] on television after the first Gulf War. My dream was to fly one of those jets and wear the Swamp Fox patch.
     — Capt. Taj Troy

High-Bomb Jets
We always tried to keep all the jets ready, even those that weren't on the schedule. Every jet was a potential spare. If something was broken, we worked the problem. We rarely had to cannibalize another jet for parts. Some crew chiefs did nose art and kept mission markings. Tail numbers 543 and 541, both of which are 3.1 jets, tied for most drops.
     — TSgt. Rick Spears

Sand And Rain
The sandstorms were the worst. I couldn't see ten feet in front of me. We had two straight days of rain. We had problems with the APU valves and replaced a lot of them. Getting parts was really not much of a problem, though.
     — TSgt. Rick Spears

High-Use Platform
Some of our crews flew a lot. We were there for four months and we were a high-use platform. Special operations personnel tend to go in early and unseen. After the shooting part of the war tapered off, we shifted to peacekeeping and hauling DVs and special loads. We had a lot of requests from special forces units for unique missions.
     — Maj. Kevin Nicholson

Dark Work
We went three or four months without seeing the light of day.
     — Maj. Bruce Taylor

The Longest Minute
I was on a DEAD mission when AWACS called and said they had an emergency need for CAS. An Army unit was pinned by enemy fire in Baghdad. I had the only Viper armed with JDAMs in our four-ship and that was the weapon they were looking for. The troops-in-contact situation made me more than a little uncomfortable when I found the Army unit was less than 1,000 meters from the target building. The ground FAC did an outstanding job of passing the required data and had to stop several times during transmission to take cover from incoming fire. Finally, the coordination portion was complete and I received clearance to drop. I said a prayer as I released both JDAMs. The time of fall was fifty-nine seconds. I will never forget those seconds. Terrible scenarios raced through my mind, but finally, the FAC's voice erupted over the radio, "Great bombs, one! Great bombs! The building is gone and the battle is over. Thanks for the work." The feeling of relief was indescribable. The worst thing I could imagine in the world would have been to hurt one of those heroes on the ground. The JDAMs functioned flawlessly.
     — Maj. Brad Lyons