421st Tactical Fighter Squadron
Doha International Airport
Qatar
August 19, 2002
We have been flying ground attack training missions since
our arrival one month ago. Of course we have had to be careful not to fly over
Saudi airspace, as it is believed that our presence in the region is in
preparation for an immanent attack on Iraq. This apparently is unacceptable to
our Saudi “allies”. Well its funny how quickly the worm turns. Anyway, some of
the other senior aviators in the squadron and me have been called up to
headquarters for a security briefing. After breakfast Major Thomsen, Major
Ward, Major Gagnon and I hop a jeep and head over to the other side of the
airfield to the headquarters briefing room where we are greeted my Major General
Perrin and a couple of guys from the State Department. We figure the suits to
be CIA and time would prove us correct. Entering the briefing room the lights
come down and a satellite image is projected on the screen. We take our seats
in the front row and study the photograph. It looks like some sort of training
complex with barracks offices and other associated buildings. “Atteeention!” we
jump to our feet and stand rigid as the General enters the room. Walking to the
front of the room the General looks at the image being projected on the screen
and then turns to face us. “Gentleman take your seats and relax” General Perrin
commands. We do as instructed but are a little uneasy about being called up to
HQ.
“Gentlemen, the assault on Iraq code name “Preemptive Eagle” will begin at 0130 tomorrow morning when 55 sea launched cruise missiles will begin to impact on critical military targets within Baghdad and the surrounding area. This will be followed by an air-assault comparable to that of 10 years ago. By that time you should be safely in your bunks getting some rest. Men the mission you have been selected for is of the highest priority, top secret but voluntary. If any of you wish to decline this mission now is the time to leave.” We all remain in our seats. “I thought so,” says the General. “Mr. White they are all yours.” Mr. White is a tall skinny man with silver hair clearly an Agency hump. He steps forward and begins to speak. “Gentleman our president has indicated to the world that we will come after any country or government that harbors or assists terrorist. With the disruption of Al Qaeda operations in Afghanistan and our pressure applied in Pakistan and Malaysia Al Qaeda has had a difficult time reconstituting itself. We have information that a large Al Qaeda camp has been established in Iran. An image of this camp is depicted on the screen before you. In the photograph we can clearly see barracks, dining facility and what appear to be classrooms. Also we can see a large factory. Our operatives inform us that the factory is a research and development center for Biological and Chemical weapons. The leadership of our country has decided to act and to act without consultation with the Iranians or the International Community. You gentlemen have been chosen to be the pointy end of our spear. Your primary target will be the factory in the new middle of the complex. Of course feel free to kill as many Al Qaeda guys as you like but the main target is the factory. Now for the bad news, the United States will disavow any knowledge of this attack. Because of this you four will be on your own out there. You will be provided cyanide capsule for use if you are captured. The decision to use these capsules if up to you but the United States will claim you acted without orders and will make no attempts to negotiate your release. There will be no escort and no radio communications once you reach the designated checkpoint. Because of the secrecy of this mission your planes are ready right now and when you return to the other side of the airfield you will commence your preflight without speaking to the ground crew, you will then take off. Your flight path and targeting data has already been programmed into the aircraft computers and photos of the target area are in your map case. Good luck gentleman, our citizens owe you a great debt but they will never know it.”
Another slides pops up on the screen to our front. This was a listing of our load out and it listed our load as follows:
Fury41 – Puma
Fury42 – Maj. Thomsen
Fury43 – Maj. Ward
Fury44 – Maj. Gagnon
The next slide indicates the steer points that will be used during the mission:
We study the slide and take the appropriate notes. Mr. White continues speaking and I lay my head against the headrest and start to go over the mission in my mind. “You can expect CAP aircraft in the area and if need be must fight your way to the target. The abort code for this mission is buster but once in Iranian airspace there will be no mission abort. Any Questions?” Looking around the room I raise my hand. “Lt. Col. Bell,” I am recognized by Mr. White. “Yes sir, I’m not sure I understand completely. Its not that I don’t welcome the challenge but it seems to me that a flight of 117s could do this job quite nicely.” “Well the F117s are in theater but allocated to other missions later tonight. The B2s cannot reach the target on time” “Listen boys, we have some Intel that the Al Qaeda is going to launch a chemical attack on a major US city. We know the people behind the plan are in that building along with the materials that are going to be used in the attack. They will be moving in the next few hours to an unknown staging area. If you fail hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of our citizens could be placed at risk. Our window of opportunity is small and failure is not an option. Good luck gentleman.” With that we jump to our feet as Mr. White and the General leave the room.
We mill around the briefing room discussing what we have just heard and making preliminary plans on how we will execute the mission. In order to maintain radio silence I will give a two second shot of smoke to signal the attack. I tell the group to form up on me in a very tight wedge formation as soon as we are airborne and we will Ingress in that configuration. Once we hit the enemy coast we will drop below the enemy radar. At the IP we will assume a trail so that all can see my attack signal. One pass each and we should be heading back out to sea before the enemy knows what hit them. We leave the briefing room and head over to rescue to suit up for the mission. Once suited we head to the flight line, the silence is a little eerie. Once at the parking area we commence the pre-flight of our jets. An unusual aspect of this pre-flight are the armed SPs standing guard over, well I imagine they were watching us. After several minutes we scramble up the ladders and into the cockpits. With APU power applied we continue with our checks. We communicate with each other over the designated channel for our flight. The jets are in pristine condition and once everyone reports in I contact ground for taxi instructions.
After being authorized to taxi I pick up the taxi line and head for runway 16 right. We are the only activity on the field at this time, a significant change from the beehive like activity of previous days. The other members of Fury4 fall in line behind me and we move towards takeoff position at a brisk 15 mile per hour pace. Holding short of 16R I switch over to the tower frequency and request permission to take off. As soon as I come off my microphone I am granted permission to take off. Lurching forward I line up on the centerline of the runway. Pushing the throttle past the afterburner stops my jet jumps forward and starts down the runway like a bullet through a gun. Quickly I am past the flying speed. I apply gentle backpressure on the stick and come gently off the runway. “Fury41 airborne,” “Roger Fury41, turn right heading 090 climb to angels 10” is the reply from the tower. I initiate a climbing right turn as the rest Fury42 and 43 get airborne. “Fury41 maintain 090 climb to angels 27, contact Chalis for further instructions, good day sir.” With that we are out of the control towers influence and heading towards the target. I continue to climb slowing so the others can catch up and get into formation. I level off at 27000 just as we cross the coastline and go feet wet over the Persian Gulf. Checking my left and right I see that all members are with. The close into position as previously briefed.
We have a fairly long way to go so I plug my Ipaq into my intercom system and listen to my favorite mp3s, a little, Genesis, Creed, Sting, Clapton, etc. Looking down on the earth below I smile as I am literally on the top of the world. The earth below looks so beautiful were the turquoise colored surf meeting the tan beach that goes on forever. Our air-controlled cockpits protect us for the heat that is clearly visible rising from the desert floor, actually at our altitude it would be pretty cold outside. Listening to the music I continue to lead the flight east bound towards Iranian airspace and the target. After several minutes of flight my Radar Warning Receiver starts to chirp and give indications that the Iranian Integrated Air Defense System (IADS) is active and searching for intruders. As we approach the second steer-point I decide that I will turn the flight left and fly parallel with the coast. This will be what the Iranians are expecting and it will give us time to get low before penetrating Iranian airspace. Because we are flying in such tight formation I give a short radio call to announce my intentions to the rest of the flight before making my move.
“Fury4 left turn heading 346 on my mark, three two one mark”, I slightly deflect the control stick to the left and pull back ever so gently. The others match my move perfectly and in a matter of seconds we are fly parallel with the Iranian coast up the Gulf towards Iraq. Once level I initiate a gentle descent. Crossing through angels 20 the contrails from the flight clearly mark our presence. No matter as the Iranian search radar is tracking us the entire way. We continue do dive and I level off at 500. Now without verbal commands I waggle my wings to get every ones attention before turning inland. The pucker factor increases as we cross into Iranian airspace. Crossing the beach, the flat sand below rushes by but up ahead lay several sand dunes that we can use to hide us. We continue undetected but I keep an eye on the RWR as we dodge the sand dunes. At this point we are committed and we will have to fight in and fight out if detected. We fly in silence approaching the third steer-point. Crossing the third steer-point we continue in silence. I look back and watch the shadows of my squad mates floating across the sand as we continue inland. I bring my attention quickly back to the cockpit as we approach the IP. It would really suck to come this far only to lawn dart into a sand dune. As we get closer to the IP my respiration picks up and the sweat starts to bead up on my forehead. Passing the IP I switch over to air-to-ground mode and set my Target Designator (TD) box to Slave. Quickly looking to my left and right I don’t see my squad mates. This is good as I am sure they have assumed the briefed trail formation. Cresting over another sand dune the training camp and factory complex comes into view. Using my left thumb I maneuver my TD so that it is squarely over the Factory complex. The targeting gate starts to “breath” indicating that my missile sees the target and is hungry. I press the designate button and lock the missile seeker head to the target. Watch as the range counter drops I give a quick two-second burst of smoke from my aft end.
Knowing that my squad mates will make short work of the factory I un-designate the target and climb to 1000 feet. So far there is no indication that the enemy is aware that they are under attack. I quickly lock up what was briefed as a classroom. I figure if the Al Qaeda dudes are home I can probably kill many of them by destroying this building. Well within range I pickle off my first Maverick. The missile falls from my plane and after its rocket motor ignites I can see the missile trail racing toward the target. Not waiting for the impact I lock up one of the barracks buildings and fire my second missile and break to the left. I continue my turn until I am at the end of the line of F16s attacking the target. Buy the time I turn around Fury42 has launched his missiles and has broken right. As I sit in my cockpit I can see fires and damaged buildings from my initial attack. Buy now the sky above the target is alive with flak burst and triple-A tracers. It does not appear as if the enemy has any idea where we are, as they appear to be firing blindly into the sky. I watch as Fury 43 and 44 execute their attack. The Factory is obliterated in a hail of Maverick missiles I break towards the turning point ducking behind the sand dunes as I go. Thus far the mission has been executed to perfection. I don’t think the Iranians or the Al Qaeda ever saw us.
Turning towards home we assume the briefed formation and race for the safety of the coast. Keeping an eye on the RWR we hope that no chasers can find us. The RWR is quiet all the way to the sea and we continue towards the Gulf at very low level. Once I am confident that we are safe we start our climb back up to cruising altitude. We level off at angels 20, spread the formation and continue towards Doha. We continue home with out incident. Touching down I taxi to the designated area were the black suits (agency) remove my combat tapes, never to be seen again. After parking we go back to the same HQ briefing room where we are able to see the latest satellite imagery from the target area. It seems the satellite was pre-positioned so as to take pictures immediately following our attack. The photos had been downloaded and analyzed even before we landed. Our attack was a great success completely destroying the building and everything/everyone in it. My decision to attack buildings I thought housed enemy combatants was also applauded but there was no way to tell who or how many people were killed in the attack.
Going in for a bite of dinner before bed we eat in the mess hall watching CNN. “The Iranian Government claims that the attack on the pharmaceutical factory killed several innocent civilians and two stray cruise missiles hit an adjacent school and housing area. Although we have not seen many victims our sources indicate that over 60 civilians have been killed in this unprovoked attack. Spokesman for the United States deny that U.S. Forces perpetrated any such attack. This is Vicky Jones CNN, from Jahrom, Iran. It is hard to hide the grin as it flashes across my face. Knowing that the coming days will require intense flying and combat I finish my meal and head off to sleep before the beginning of Operation Preemptive Eagle.
Lt. Col. Arnold “Puma” Bell
421st Tactical Fighter Squadron
Doha, International Airport
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