Above: A B-2 Spirit Air Force Fartiva Bomber returns to Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, after the US attack on the nuclear facilities of Iran (US Air Force/Handout/Associated Press)
The US bombing mission that aimed at three nuclear facilities in Iran over the weekend was a gigantic task that required bombing drivers B-2 to test the limits of human resistance during a 37-hour mission.
Seven stealing bombers, each with two crew, flew without scales, crossing half the world and returning, in one of the longest air strikes in modern military history.
Melvin G. Deaile is one of the few people who knows what it is like to be in the cockpit during a marathon of operations such as the one that was carried out over the weekend. The retired Air Force colonel was part of the B-2 crew whose 44-hour bombing mission over Afghanistan in 2001 still holds the longest record.
Deaile described Saturday’s operation as an “incredible feat.” More than 125 planes were used in the attack. In addition to the seven bombers who flew to the east from the Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, to attack Iran, the mission also included other B-2 bombers who flew west as part of a fun maneuver, as well as fighters, recognition aircraft and refueling tanker positioned along the bombing routes.
“What was more historic for me was the fact that we have seven jet flying over the target area, running seven different bombs series, all in a 30 -minute issue,” Deaile said.
The reformed colonel, currently director of the School of Advanced Nuclear Dismissal Studies at the Air Force Faculty of Command and General Staff, has offered to describe aspects of his 2001 mission, but made it clear that he is only talking based on his personal experience, has no personal view of Saturday’s attack and is not talking on behalf of the Defense Department.
‘If the president called us, we would fly’
Deaile’s record raid took place in the early days of Operation Lasting Freedom, launched by then -President George W. Bush less than a month after the September 11 attacks to attack Al Qaeda and the Talibans. Long-range and high altitude bombers, such as B-2, were needed for the initial attack on Afghanistan.
While in Whiteman, mission -qualified pilots were trained in a long -term simulator to help them plan sleep cycles, but these simulators usually lasted just 24 hours. The longest mission Deaile had flown before his record flight was 25 hours.
The bombing crews were identified for the mission in advance, but they had no idea when or even if the operation would take place. According to Deaile, the crew doctors gave them pills to sleep to help them rest in the days before the bombing.
“We just knew that if the president decided, we would fly on the second night,” he said.
On the day of his mission, Deaile, who was the mission commander, woke up three to four hours before the breakdown time to attend information meetings with his pilot and the crew of the other B-2 of his formation. They took off west in the stealth bomber called “Spirit of America.”
Politics during Deaile’s time required both members of the crew to be in their places at the critical moments of the flight, including collapse, refueling, bombardment and landing. In the intermediate hours, the two crew members slept in a small bed behind the cockpit seats.
“It is possible that in the last 20 years it has been improved for something a little more comfortable, but it was a modified cradle behind the two riders, so that the crew member that was not in the seat could leave and sleep for about three or four hours between the aerial refueling,” said Deaile.
It can be difficult to fall asleep. “Obviously, anyone who goes into combat has a certain level of anxiety,” Deaile explained, “but we can close our eyes, because our body so demands it.”
In Deaile’s mission, the plane was heading west, crossing the Pacific, with the advantage of having about 24 hours of sunlight working against the body’s natural circadian rhythm to prevent pilots from being sleepy. Both members of the crew also had some chemical support to stay awake as the mission was extended.
“The flight doctor had what we call ‘sleeping pills’ authorized for use – amphetamines,” Deaile said. Deaile stressed that policies may have changed over two decades between their flight and the recent mission, and that their experience may not reflect the crew of Saturday bombers.
A US Air Force B-2 Spirit takes off to support Operation Midnight Hammer at the Whiteman Air Force base at Missouri. 509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs/DVIDS
B-2, manufactured by Northrop Grumman, is one of the most expensive and sophisticated bombers in use. But the situation of the bathroom was primitive. There was a chemical bathroom on the plane, but the aviars wore it just for what Deaile described as “most pertinent emergencies” so as not to fill it too much.
There was no partition between the bathroom and the pilots seats.
“Privacy is the dude look the other side,” he said.
But the high altitudes and pressurized cockpits can dehydrate pilots, and drinking water was crucial. Deaile estimates that he and the other driver drank about one bottle of water per hour. They urinated in “piddle packs” – essentially ziploc bags full of sand for cats.
Deaile and the other pilot spent time calculating the amount and weight of the urine -filled bags that had accumulated: “These are the things that are done when you have 44 hours, right?”
Both pilots also took a lunch and received designed meals for the pilots to eat during the flight. But staying still for tens of hours – there was room to walk a little on the cockpit, but not enough to exercise – not burning much energy, and Deil doesn’t remember having eaten a lot.
The plane crossed the Pacific and southern India before turning north toward Afghanistan. The plane has been replenished several times on the flight. When the sun began to put, Deaile took one of the amphetamines given to her by the on-board doctor to stay alert.
The crew dropped the payload on Afghanistan, spending about four hours in total over the country before leaving. Deaile’s mission was not initially planned to last 44 hours, but as soon as they left the Afghan airspace was ordered them to fly again for another round of bombing. Deaile took another superior medication given to him by the flight doctor. After the second operation, the crew landed in Diego Garcia, a military base on an island about 1,100 miles southwestern India.
During a mission balance meeting, the pilots saw a video of the targets they hit. Then they ate a meal, it took about an hour to decompress, and finally fell asleep.
‘The Most Surreal Moment’
Steven Basham, a retired Air Force Lieutenant-General who drove B-2s over Serbia in 1999, in his first combat use, told CNN that offspring was probably “the most surreal moment” in the life of crews in the weekend attack.
“They are really running a mission that no one in the world knows, but which is very few for,” he said.
A unique aspect of Saturday’s mission was the payload that each plane carried: 13,607-pound Massive Ordnance (MOP) GBU-57 pumps, designed to penetrate deeply on the mountains that, according to US authorities, fortify certain aspects of the Iranian nuclear program.
It was the first time this bomb was used in combat, and only the B-2 are able to transport this type of pumps.
Seven bombers carried a total of more than a dozen bombs. The impact of the sudden loss of several tons of weight on each plane was probably insignificant in an advanced aircraft as B-2, Basham explained.
The refueling on the way to return to Missouri were probably one of the most difficult that the tired crew has ever experienced, he said, but “the only thing that will cheer up is that they will enter the US coast again and will receive that ‘welcome home’ of an American controller.”
CNN Tom Foreman contributed to this report.
