Page 52 - Never Fly Solo

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Check Six

Wingmen: They Have Your Back,
and You Have Theirs

On January 19, 1991, the president’s order came, and Oper-
ation Desert Shield suddenly became Operation Desert Storm.
The skies over Baghdad lit up with antiaircraft artillery, and
coalition forces launched missiles from sea and air against the
city’s highest-value targets. The “mother of all battles” had
begun.
Some twenty thousand feet overhead, Package Q, the
single largest strike mission of the war and likely the single
largest F-16 strike package ever flown into combat, was in
flight.
During one particularly harrowing moment, Maj. Emmett
“ET” Tullia was caught in an intense game of cat and mouse
with ground-based missile systems. He was the mouse.
Surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) locked on to ET’s jet, and
the pilot needed every ounce of training and instinct he
possessed.

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