Deliberate Force. They felt they were not
being consulted on matters affecting Italy
and were left out of the Dayton peace talks
that were trying to end the con ict. For
these reasons, on September 11, the Italian
government officially disapproved the bed-
down of F-117s at Aviano. The aircraft would
not be coming.
When we rst arrived at Aviano, we split
up the pilots from the support personnel.
Pilots would need to rest before ying
combat missions, so they stayed in separate
rooms in the wing’s Distinguished Visitor
quarters. Other squadron personnel were
in the tness centre, which had been turned
into a large dormitory with cots and sleeping
bags. We had more than 150 people in the
gym. Television sets and movies were made
available as well as
patio tables for a
lounge area outside.
Now that the
aircraft were not
coming, instead
of worrying about
combat sorties and
enemy re, my biggest
challenge was keeping
our personnel busy
until we could arrange
for transportation
home. During time off,
we sampled a number of the excellent local
restaurants, so our stay at Aviano became
known as the ‘Pasta Deployment’! After
seven days, the airlift arrived and we were
on our way back to Holloman, where things
quickly returned to normal.
A landmark day for me was November 2,
1995 when I ew a sortie that made me the
rst F-117A pilot to log more than 1,000 hours
in the stealth ghter. Landing and returning to
my hangar, I was amazed to see a crowd of
squadron personnel lined up inside. Among
them were my wife, Bridget, and two sons,
David and John. After shutting down, I was
met by Paul Martin, the Lockheed Martin
Program Manager for the F-117A. Members
of the media watched as he presented me
with a plaque, identifying me as the rst pilotto achieve this milestone. He also gave me a
patch stating the same – several more pilots
would earn the right to wear one in the years
that followed.
Over the next nine months, things
remained normal in the squadron. We won
all the Nighthawk trophies and bombing
competitions between the ghter squadrons.
We continued ying our usual training sorties
every night. However, things were about to
change once again.DESERT STRIKE
On August 31, 1996 the Iraqi military
launched its biggest offensive since 1991
against the city of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. The
world was worried that Saddam Hussein
intended to launch another campaign against
the Kurds, similar
to the campaigns of
1988 and 1991. This
offensive also placed
Saddam in clear
violation of United
Nations Security
Council Resolution
688, forbidding
repression of Iraq’s
ethnic minorities.
Two days of strikes
were made by the
US on Iraqi forces
and to show its resolve it was also decided
to deploy the F-117A to Kuwait to strike
fear in Saddam and his military forces and
deter any further aggression. We knew
he remembered what the stealth ghter
accomplished during Desert Storm and it was
time to reinforce his beliefs. After I received
the deployment order, I talked to the entire
squadron and emphasised the importance
of our mission. However, this time, one year
after Deliberate Force, I did not have to tell
any of the pilots that they would be staying
home. It was clear all our 9th FS F-117As
would deploy and we would need ‘all hands
on deck’. On September 13, 1996 I found
myself on a transport aircraft as part of the
advanced party team of 200 personnel to
Ahmed al Jaber AB. It again consisted ofpilots, maintainers and support personnel
who needed to get the aircraft ready for
missions as soon as possible after arriving.
The jets ew in on September 15 and I was
ying along the Iraqi border once again the
next day.
The world’s media highlighted the arrival
of the stealth ghter in Kuwait. Some writers
and reporters were aboard one of the tankers
that refuelled our aircraft as they ew from
New Mexico to Kuwait. My operations officer
led the aircraft en route and was interviewed
by the media over the tanker’s radio as he
refuelled. The goal was to show Saddam that
the F-117As were coming and he needed to
stop his aggression. The plan worked. He
moved his forces back to Bagdad as soon as
our aircraft arrived in Kuwait. We spent the
next ten weeks ying clockwise and counter-
clockwise around the country and sometimes
down south into Saudi Arabia, just to keep
our combat skills intact. However, we never
ew into Iraq or dropped any weapons. In
this situation, our show of force by deploying
F-117As into Kuwait solved this diplomatic
crisis. On December 6, I led the aircraft
home. We would be back with our families for
Christmas.FINAL FLIGHT
Arriving at Holloman, I made sure all
deployed personnel were able to spend some26 Aviation News incorporating Jets January 2018As its name suggests, the Nighthawk’s
‘natural environment’ was in the dark when
all operational missions were conducted.
Rich Cooper/COAPA 9th FS F-117A rolling out at Holloman
AFB with its drag ’chute deployed. It was
standard procedure to use it on landing.
Rich Cooper/COAP“the special forces
planned to land in
the same fi elds
we bombed, 30
seconds after our
planned TOTs.”
22-27_f117_part_2DC.mf.mfDC.indd 26 01/12/2017 13:56