Col. Whitley flew a lot of the missions and recalls, "These airfields were jammed tight with aircraft, mostly fighter types. Part of the mindset of Iraqis had been brought by the fact that Iran hadn't been able to penetrate their defenses and bomb the aircraft parked at the airfields. Early in the conflict, we flew a lot of missions against these hardened aircraft shelters with ordnance that did not work [the GBU-10]. We were tasked to go against these targets with 2,000-pound blast-fragmentation bombs with a nose plug and delayed tail fuse. Although we vehemently objected to the CENTAF [U.S. Air Force Central Command] planning on the weapons selection, we were told that we had no choice and we continued to use them. The results were pitiful against the very heavily defended targets that we were going after.
"The bombs simply exploded on the exterior of the shelters and the fault was not with our pilots because the hits were true. The explosions were on the outside, causing very little damage to the structures. Our pilots were not happy having gone through the stiff ground defenses for so little damage to the interior of the shelters. It was a breakdown in the system, which led to a waste of some very valuable sorties, including a serious risk to the pilots.”
This story is from the January - February 2023 edition of Flight Journal.
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This story is from the January - February 2023 edition of Flight Journal.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
A Legendary Sortie
BRADLEY WENTZEL
Fairchild 24 Sean Neal pays tribute to history
“AT THE END OF THE WAR, there was an interview with a senior German U-boat commander asking why they pulled their submarines from the Atlantic coast in 1943,” American Airlines Boeing 737 captain Sean Neal recalls. His reply was, It was because of those damn little red and yellow airplanes!” The little red and yellow airplanes the U-boat skipper was referring to were the general aviation aircraft pressed into service by the newly formed Civil Air Patrol CAP) in 1942 to report, deter, and disrupt the operations of German submarines, which had begun to devastate merchant vessels along the East Coast that January.
FIRST BRIDGE The start of the Vietnam war
General Curtis E. LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff, was not happy. First-line U.S. fighters had been in South East Asia in small numbers since 1960. By mid-1964, more fighters began rotating through bases in South Vietnam and Thailand as a show of force. Reconnaissance missions with a pair of fighters as escorts, known as armed recce,” were being flown into Laos and Vietnam, but they were severely restricted in their operations. The fighters escorting the reconnaissance aircraft could attack enemy positions only if they were first fired upon. The politicians were being cautious. By January 1965, there had been several protective reactions,” and even a few fragged planned) missions, but nothing of any real scope. In fact, many of the preplanned missions had failed to find their targets in the confusing jungle landscape or reported disappointing Battle Damage Assessment.
Hying for \"DEVOTION\"
Behind the scenes with the pilots who brought the story of Ensign Jesse Brown & LTJG Thomas Hudner to life, Artic cold invaded Jesse Brown’s cockpit as he desperately looked for a place to land his F4U-4 Corsair in the snow-covered mountains of North Korea, near the Chosin Reservoir.
The Original \"Old Crow\"
Col. Bud Anderson's airborne reunion with a P-39Q Airacobra,The evening sun was low on the horizon as John Cyrier taxied toward the Commemorative Air Force's (CAF's) ramp at San Marcos, Texas on July 28. He had just completed the final leg of a four-stop flight home from AirVenture 2022 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Cyrier pivoted the Central Texas Wing's P-39Q around to the right, braked to a stop, and cut power to the fighter's Allison V-1710 V-12 engine. Just after its 11-foot, seven-inch Aeroproducts propeller swung to a stop, he shot both arms through the P-39's rolled-down cockpit door windows, clenched his fists, and yelled an exultant \"Yeeeaaah!\"
F-117s OVER BAGHDAD
Stealth fighters adapt new tactics in Desert Storm, On January 16, 1991 Nighthawks unleashed their stealth capabilities and Guided Bomb Units (GBUs) on Baghdad and some of the most heavily defended airfields in Iraq. During the “43 Day War,” F-117As of the 415th and 416th Tactical Fighter Squadrons flew nearly 1,300 sorties under the command of Col. Alton Whitley.
THE LAST COMBAT Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 Wk. Nr. 1342
In 1988, a Frenchman walking on the beach near Cap BlancNez near Calais, France, discovered a piece of metal sticking out of the sand. There had been a storm and, as sometimes happens, the sand on the beach had shifted, revealing something that had been buried for almost 50 years. It was the wingtip of a crashed World War II fighter aircraft. As the tides ebbed and flowed, most of the wreck of a relatively intact German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter was revealed, with both wings, the landing gear, and parts of the fuselage.
Samurai SURVIVOR
Zero ace Saburo Sakai
The Guys with the Wrenches
The pilots got the glory but the unknown heroes were the mechanics
EARLY CHANNEL BATTLES Spitfires fend off Me 109s
Of all the written accounts by the fighter pilots of the RAF during 1941, two stand out, in my opinion. Both were by pilots who flew Spitfire Mk Vs with 610 Squadron, which by summer 1941 was one of the squadrons under Wing Commander Douglas Bader. "Circuses" were usually composed of six bombers, escorted by many squadrons of fighters, typically Spitfire Mk Vs; the formation was called a "Beehive."
A gift at war (for Veterans Day)
In March 2003, as news networks broadcast images of American tanks racing north toward Baghdad, my infantry platoon dug shallow foxholes in south-ern Iraq. We were part of a defensive perimeter guarding FARP Exxon, a helicopter refueling point for the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
Hero Hound Took Down Terrorists' Top Dog!
U.S. Military Canine Ran Al-Baghdadi Into Tunnel Of Death
'Get a Weapon'
When a veteran military man gave me that advice before I left to join U.S. forces in Baghdad, I thought he meant that I needed a way to protect myself from the enemy.
Meet The American Who's Taking The Fight To ISIS
Can a former prep schooler from Baltimore help protect the Christians of Mesopotamia from the Islamic State? A dispatch from northern Iraq.
INTO HELL
Iraq War 20 years on: By Mirrorman who was there | Invasion toppled tyrant but terror rushed to fill the power vacuum
The first dispatch as bombs rained down on Baghdad
Twenty years ago, the Iraq war began with the bombardment of its capital - and Robert Fisk was there to witness it all
Baghdad memories
When US troops arrived in Baghdad, they were hailed as liberators bringing democracy where there had been oppression. What I saw was the unfurling of -lawlesschaos that would ripple across the region
VENECIAFRENIA : DE LA IGLESIA
EL CINEASTA BILBAÍNO DENUNCIA LA TURISTIFICACIÓN A TRAVÉS DE LOS ASESINATOS MÁS SANGRIENTOS
Bubbles of fire tore into the sky above the Iraqi capital
March 2003: Robert Fisk gives an eye-witness account of the start of the ‘festival of violence’ as US bombs fall on Baghdad
Next ISIS leader likely to be veteran Iraqi extremist
At least 4 possible choices, with group seen to pick a successor to Quraishi in coming weeks