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Over Afghanistan: Anticipation and pride
By Mark Davis (CNN) -- They lifted off in the night as ground crews cheered their ascent into unfriendly skies. They flew over darkened country, propelled by an international mandate against terrorism and a personal conviction that their mission was just. Then, when they were back on friendlier turf, a handful of flyers who struck at targets inside Afghanistan Sunday night recalled their time aloft. Using only first names or nicknames, they spoke with reporters in a conference call placed to an undisclosed location in Central Asia. One airman likened his nocturnal mission to a training session back in the United States -- one that may not have been as difficult as the rigors he had experienced back home. A pilot thought about the safety of his crew as his B-52, its nose painted with the words, "NYPD -- We Remember," thundered forward.
A third airman felt "like a football player on Super Bowl day," excited to carry the nation's standard in the war on terrorism. They all felt pride at what they had done. "We're all Americans," said "Vinnie," a weapons officer on a B-1 bomber. "We are all in this together." "We're all volunteers in service to our country," offered "Woodstock," who piloted the B-52 with the fresh paint job on its nose. When he listened to President Bush speak to the nation Sunday, said "Stinky," an aircraft manager, "it made chills go up my back." The flyers and their crews were the point in an aerial assault that began about 8:45 p.m. Sunday (12:15 p.m. EDT) and targeted the Taliban's military and strategic positions in Afghanistan. The joint U.S.-British assaults could last for several days. A couple of airmen said they encountered fire, but they could not elaborate. Nor were they allowed to say what they hit. Military officials also forbade the flyers from discussing other details -- the type ordnance deployed, how far they flew, their destinations, where they are based. They could not even divulge their last names. But they could talk about how they felt. "We trained for this eventuality today," said "Woodstock," the lead pilot of a B-52, a machine so massive its wings droop when it's not in flight. "What I was thinking about ... was the mission handed to us ... and the safety of my crew. It was what we trained for, and it all came together just perfect." Somewhere during his run, said "Vinnie," whose job requires him to operate radar and deploy bombs, the B-1 in which he flew encountered fire. "We've faced more challenges and sorties in our routine training," said "Vinnie," who noted that military service runs in his family: His grandfather served in World War II and his dad did a stint in the Vietnam War. As the B-1 dropped its first payload, "Vinnie" said, he and his crewmates didn't say much. "We had a lot of other things to worry about rather than making emotional comments," he told reporters. "We just did the job and moved on." "Doc," the lead radar operator on a B-52, agreed. "The president and the people counted on us to do a job tonight," he said, noting that he and his colleagues had no trouble finding their targets. "We were well briefed by the people who put the [flight] packages together for us, and we went out and did what we do every day." A job that flyers anticipated, said "Chummer," who piloted a tanker airplane that kept the bombers fueled in mid-flight. The call to arms, he said, hardly came as a surprise. "Since September 11," he said, "we knew it was a matter of when -- not if." |
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