because the special forces planned to land in
the same elds we bombed, 30 seconds after
our planned TOTs.
On December 19, 1989 we launched from
Tonopah and ew to Panama. Immediately
after take-off we joined our tankers and ew
with them for almost eight hours in darkness,
performing seven in- ight refuellings en route
to the Central American country. When we
separated from the tankers, we started our
target runs. As the lead pilot, I was aiming
for a eld just short of two of the Panamanian
Defense Forces’ barracks. There was nointention to kill anyone, just to disorientate,
and my 2,000lb (907kg) laser-guided GBU-27
bomb hit the eld at the exact TOT. I ‘safed’
up my weapon system, headed back to my
tanker to refuel and started the journey home.
On this dark night over Panama, the F-117A
had made its successful combat debut.HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE
After ying combat sorties in the F-117A
during Operation Desert Storm, I was
rewarded with a ghter pilot’s nightmare, an
assignment to complete phase two of myprofessional military education (PME) at
Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell
AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. Following a
year of education, I served as an air force
liaison officer in the United States Senate.
After almost two years working this staff job,
my boss called me into his office and asked
if I was interested in going to Holloman
AFB, New Mexico, as an operations officer
in the F-117A training squadron, where the
Nighthawks had relocated in 1992. Two
months later, I was driving through the front
gate of Holloman AFB ready to begin myhttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 23Lt Col Greg Feest, 9th FS commander,
in front of a damaged hardened aircraft
shelter at Ahmed Al Jaber AB in Kuwait
that had been targeted by an F-117A
during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Five years later the Nighthawk was
deployed to the base for Operation
Desert Strike. via Greg FeestTwo F-117As taxiing at Holloman AFB
in New Mexico. Rich Cooper/COAP22-27_f117_part_2DC.mf.mfDC.indd 23 01/12/2017 13:56