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Tuchman: 'Thumper' flight boosts Army forces
(CNN) -- CNN Correspondent Gary Tuchman, who is with the U.S. Air Force at a base near the Kuwait-Iraq border, spoke with a U.S. fighter pilot Tuesday soon after she flew a mission into northern Iraq. TUCHMAN: There have been 1,100 sorties here over the past four days. But there has been a letup because the weather is very inclement. We've had wind gusts of up to 55 mph here. The rains have been heavy at times and we've had thunder and lightning. But there have been sorties leaving from here, and with us now is a woman, a fighter pilot. She flies F-16s. She has just come back from Iraq in this wind, in the lightning, in the thunder. Her call center nickname is Thumper. She's from Texas. I think a lot of our viewers might not be aware that women are fighter pilots, They fly every airplane the Air Force has. What do people say to you when you tell them you're a fighter pilot for the Air Force? PILOT: Well, it depends on who asks me, but some people are really surprised by that and they think it's pretty cool. TUCHMAN: You just came back a couple of hours ago from Iraq. A lot of people also may not realize that F-16 pilots fly by themselves. You're the only one on that plane. You drop the bombs, you fly the plane. Where did you go and what did you do? PILOT: We went up into northern Iraq in support of some of the Army forces, and they were calling us in with our JDAM [joint direct attack munition] series targets, our GPS-guided weapons, to put the bombs on a road intersection which was right in the middle of an engagement they were having with the enemy. And they said that the bombs we put into that place actually ended up ending the conflict there. TUCHMAN: Your bombs actually destroyed the road between the enemy and the coalition troops? PILOT: Yes, that's right. It destroyed the road and probably added a little discouragement to the enemy fight. TUCHMAN: How did it make you feel when you knew it was a successful drop? PILOT: It was a really good feeling inside to know that we had helped support the ground troops. I know those guys are working really hard. They're getting less sleep, less comfortable than we are. And my job is to be out there to support them and to help them stay alive. So it was a very good feeling. TUCHMAN: Thumper, this is incredible, but you told me that your aircraft, your F-16 fighter, was just struck by lightning while it was flying to Iraq? PILOT: Yes, that's right. TUCHMAN: You're laughing about it. PILOT: Well, it's kind of funny because I never thought that would happen to me. But, yes, it got struck. TUCHMAN: What happened? PILOT: Nothing really. It knocked out my threat warning system. And that was a little bit stressful, but everything else was OK. TUCHMAN: Your threat warning system tells you if there are weapons being fired at you or anti-aircraft artillery. Isn't that dangerous? PILOT: It can be. However, we fly with other wingmen. TUCHMAN: Another plane in front of you. PILOT: Yes, another plane is with you. And so I just told him that mine had been knocked out and I was just going to react to threats as he did. TUCHMAN: Your first mission in this war was the day after the war started. Did you have butterflies? Were you scared? PILOT: I wouldn't say scared. I know that I've been trained well to do my job. So I wasn't scared. I have a strong faith in God, and so I trust him and I have a peace about that. TUCHMAN: You talk about your faith in God. Do you find that ever conflicts with the fact that, when you're in war, it's violent and people get killed? PILOT: I don't think so. I know a lot of people find those to be contradictory, but I believe that God's put me in this job, and the troops have said you should work at everything as if you're working for God. TUCHMAN: Thumper, how does it make you feel being here right now? PILOT: Nobody really wants to go to war, but it's our job as fighter pilots to be prepared to do that. And no fighter pilot wants to get left behind when a war is going on. So it feels great to be here supporting the mission, doing my real job and doing what I've been trained to do. TUCHMAN: Thumper, F-16 fighter pilot, thanks for joining us. PILOT: Thank you. TUCHMAN: Another F-16 fighter pilot, not Thumper, had an accident of sorts today. Nobody was hurt. But this pilot accidentally dropped munitions on a Patriot missile battery in southern Iraq. That raises two important issues: No. 1, how did that happen? A Patriot missile is what's used by the coalition to stop Iraqi missiles. But No. 2, we have learned there are now Patriot missiles in southern Iraq. They've been moved there after the ground troops got there. EDITOR'S NOTE: This report was written in accordance with Pentagon ground rules allowing so-called embedded reporting, in which journalists join deployed troops. Among the rules accepted by all participating news organizations is an agreement not to disclose sensitive operational details.
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