18, 19, and 23. Weather continued to be a problem; only four of ten aircraft bombed on the eighteenth, while four out of six scored hits the next night. Finally, on the twenty-third, thirteen F-117As bombed the site in good weather, with eighteen out of twenty-six bombs hitting structures in the compound. Other F-117As bombed suspected nuclear facilities across Iraq, including the Al Qaim uranium extraction facility in western Iraq.
United States intelligence did not fully comprehend the scope of the Iraqi nuclear effort. Thus the identity of three nuclear facilities located at rocket development sites was only realized late in the war. The Tarmiya rocket facility was hit by F-117As and B-52s on February 15. By February 23, its nuclear role had been discovered and four F-117As were sent to bomb it. Two of the planes were unable to drop their LGBs due to weather. It became the highest priority target but was not hit again due to weather. The Ash Sharqat facility had been hit by six F-111E raids before four F-117As visited the site on February 16. Its nuclear role was not yet realized, and it was not bombed again. The nuclear site at Musayyib was not discovered until shortly before the war's end; it had been selected to be the final assembly site for the first Iraqi nuclear bomb. A pair of F-117As bombed the site on February 25, and a second group of nine Black Jets finished it off on February 28. [546]
United States intelligence had a much better understanding of Iraqi chemical and biological production capabilities, and all known sites had been bombed by mid-February. As the war neared a close, attacks on chemical and biological weapons storage bunkers increased, as did strikes on the remaining HASs, in an effort to hit as many as possible before the war came to a close.[547]
The F-117As became a kind of flying fire brigade. If a target needed to be attacked on short notice, it was far easier to send a handful of Black Jets, rather than a force of forty to sixty F-16s and support planes. One example of this was the February 15 attack on the fire-trench system in Kuwait. Distribution points, pipe junctions, and pumping stations were hit with 500-pound GBU-12 bombs. The attack was so hurried that the second wave pilots had to use sketch maps, because photos were not available. Despite this, twenty-four out of twenty-seven LGBs found their mark.[548]
Along with the serious business of war, the souvenir business was also booming. The F-117A combat missions were quite popular, and, as the weeks passed, ground personnel, as well as their friends and relatives, wanted a little piece of history. Major Leatherman gave his crew chief one of the bomb arming lanyards from the first mission. F-117 pilots found themselves carrying various items on missions. American flags were most requested, but everything from footballs to Bart Simpson dolls were flown. (Bart was the unit's unofficial mascot.) The pilots would then autograph the souvenirs. One crew chief put a teddy bear on his plane; 'Geronimo Bear' came along on every mission that F-117A flew.[549]
It was not until the final nights of the war that the F-117As were again authorized to fly into downtown Baghdad. The target selected was Ba'th party headquarters — a complex covering several city blocks. It had been hit by Tomahawk missiles on the first night and again by F-117As in mid-February. The largest F-117A raid of the war was planned — thirty-two Black Jets on the night of February 25–26 (the night after the start of the ground war). The bad weather that had dogged the air campaign foiled the attack.
All F-117A missions were canceled for the night. The following night was no better; only a few targets were hit outside Baghdad.
The mission was finally conducted on the night of February 27–28. The original plan was altered due to the progress of the ground war and the impending cease-fire. The size of the force directed against the Ba'th party headquarters was reduced to release planes for other targets. Still, sixteen of the twenty-plane first wave were directed against it. This became known as 'the pick-a-window mission.' The complex was left devastated, and a statue in front of the building was also destroyed. The other targets hit by the night's first wave were the biological weapons facility at Salman Pak, and two transport planes at Muthena airfield. It was thought Saddam might use them to flee Baghdad. The second wave struck rocket facilities. The final F-117A attack of the war was on the Al- Athir missile development and production complex.[550]
At 11:30 P.M. the night's third wave was canceled. Then, at 12:15 A.M. on February 28, word was issued that a cease-fire would take effect at 8:00 A.M. that morning.[551]
Just as the Gulf War had begun on live television, so too, did it end. One image was that of Iraqi prisoners. In small groups or huge columns, they willingly surrendered. They had expected the air war to last several days, or a week at most.[552] Instead, it had continued for six weeks. They were helpless before it, without the means to survive or fight back.[553] Another image was General Schwarzkopf's press conference, describing how the 100-hour ground war had been fought. Yet another was the crowds of Kuwaitis welcoming victorious U.S. and Coalition troops.
And there was that final image, which put to rest a ghost from the past.
It was a photo of a Blackhawk helicopter, hovering on the roof of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City. Special Forces troops were climbing from the Blackhawk onto the roof. Sixteen years before, it had been another roof-top — another helicopter, the last helicopter out of Saigon.[554]
In a very real sense, two wars ended that day.
The first group of F-117As arrived back at Nellis Air Force Base on April 1. On hand to greet them was a crowd of twenty-five thousand people.
To Col. Al Whitley, it was quite a contrast to his returns from two tours in Vietnam. In May, the town of Tonopah held a parade for the F-117 pilots and ground crews. A crowd of some three thousand turned out. A six- foot stone statue commemorating the plane and its crews was unveiled.[555]
In the meantime, the unit was on the move. Even before the Gulf War, the plan was to move the F-117As to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. This would allow the pilots' families to join them and eliminate the need for the Key Airlines shuttle flights. The savings would pay for the move in short order. With the new home came a new name. With the post-Cold War reductions, the air force sought to preserve the names of distinguished units. The 49th TFW, formerly based at Holloman, was one of these units. On July 8, 1992, Colonel Whitley turned over command to Brig. Gen. Lloyd W. 'Fig' Newton. The unit was also renamed the 49th Fighter Wing.
Less than a month later, the unit suffered the fourth loss of an F-117A.
On August 4, Capt. John Mills took off from Holloman in aircraft number 802. Under the name 'Black Magic,' it had flown nineteen combat missions in the Gulf. Within moments after taking off, a fire broke out. Captain Mills attempted to return to the field, but the plane began to roll uncontrollably.
Mills was forced to eject. He landed with only minor injuries, but the plane was destroyed. The loss was later traced to the improper installation of a bleed air duct just before the flight. This caused the fire and loss of hydraulic and flight-control systems.[556]
Two years after the start of the Gulf War, the F-117As were once more in action against Iraq. A detachment of six to eight F-117As had remained at Tonopah East as part of the U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. The cease-fire agreement directed that Iraq dismantle all nuclear, chemical, and biological facilities, as well as giving up all Scud missiles and long-range weapons.
United Nations inspectors were to enforce compliance. Saddam attempted to interfere with the inspections. There was also an increasing number of border incidents with Kuwait and interference with allied planes policing 'no-fly' zones in the north and south of the country. By January of 1993, these demanded a response.
On January 13, six F-117As, each with one LGB, were sent to hit targets in southern Iraq. The Al-Amara IOC was hit, as was an SA-3 SAM site's radar at Ashshuaybah. Yet again, the F-117A's old nemesis, low clouds, caused problems. Bombs dropped against the two radars at Nasiriya lost their locks due to clouds. Weather also prevented one pilot from even finding the Tallil SOC. Bad weather also apparently caused one pilot to bomb a farmhouse a mile from the Basra radar. Still, the results were successful — air defenses again collapsed.[557]
As with other Dark Eagles, the F-117A has undergone improvements to its systems. The planes were sent to the Skunk Works plant at Palmdale for modifications that included color displays, a satellite navigation system, and improvements to the infrared system. One modification was a result of the loss of Mulhare and Stewart in 1986 and 1987. It is called the pilot activated automatic recovery system: at the touch of a button, the plane would return to level flight.[558] Stealth modifications were also made. New coatings were
