I
n last month’s article, I related the story of
my rst night’s mission during Operation
Desert Storm in 1991. However, this was
not the rst time I had own combat in the
Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk. On December
19, 1989 I was the F-117 Mission Lead for
Operation Just Cause, the rst time the
stealth ghter saw action.
In the spring of 1989, at our base in
Tonopah, Nevada, my squadron commander
told me to see the wing commander in his
office. When I arrived, I was informed I would
be involved with a combat mission, along with
several other operators from the wing staff.
One was a pilot from the wing’s planning
office and another was one of our electronic
warfare officers. We were reminded not to
let anyone else know what we were doing – I
couldn’t even tell my squadron commander.
Even though the F-117A had been revealed
to the public in November 1988, this mission
was going to be covert.Before the F-117A was chosen for it, we
had to prove we could do the job to some
of our special forces brethren. After all, we
couldn’t just tell these combat warriors that
we were able to hit a target at a precise time,
we had to show them! Several of the special
ops planners came to Tonopah one night.
They gave me a photo of a small target,
highlighted by a triangle, which was located
on one of the Nellis AFB ranges. They
said they would be on the range and that I
needed to demonstrate how I could hit the
target at a precise time; they would give me
my time-over-target (TOT) right before I took
off. We had the ability to videotape all our
target runs in the F-117A so, when I returned
to the squadron after ying my mission, they
asked for my tape. Since they were on therange, they knew my bomb had hit at the
exact time they gave me, but they wanted
to see my recording to convince them I had
accomplished the task. Let me just say they
were convinced. So, the F-117A was chosen
as the aircraft for this covert mission.
Our three-man team spent the next
several months planning our missions with
our special forces colleagues. The primary
objective of Operation Just Cause was to
capture General Manuel Noriega and restore
democracy to Panama. Our main mission
involved hitting targets that would stun
and disorientate the Panamanian Defense
Forces, so our special forces, consisting of
US Navy SEALs and the Army’s Delta Force
and Rangers, could drop into Panama and
convince them to surrender. The F-117A was
chosen because our pilots had proven we
could hit targets with precision and to exact
timing. We had to be accurate so as not to
cause any collateral damage and on timeIn this second article, Greg Feest details other elements of
his career on the F-117A Nighthawk, including fl ying a combat
mission to Panama and becoming a squadron commander.
22 Aviation News incorporating Jets January 2018FLYING THE F-117A PART 2
Greg Feest details other elements of
FLYING THE F-117A PART 2
BANDIT BOSSBANDIT BOSS
Above: Every F-117A pilot was given a Bandit
number based on when they rst ew the
Nighthawk. Rich Cooper/COAP22-27_f117_part_2DC.mf.mfDC.indd 22 01/12/2017 13:56