First Lt. Michael Seltzer, an F-16 pilot recently returning from a five-hour mission over Iraq with two bombs still onboard discovered a problem with his fighter’s landing gear. His emergency checklist procedure failed to correct the problem as he circled, getting ever lower on fuel. The Viper pilot was in luck because a KC-135 crew already airborne had some fuel to spare, enabling Seltzer to tank up and head toward Southwest Asia’s largest lake, where he jettisoned his bombs. (Read more here from Air Force journalist SrA. Kerry Solan-Johnson.)
Air Force leaders hail recent strike missions like Midnight Hammer as a shining example of operational readiness, but Airmen who played a role in the bombing raid on Iran worry that the service is ill-prepared to mount an extended campaign of long-range strikes against a peer adversary.
