波斯湾战机F15 F117第 13 课

When not flying combat missions 不出战斗任务时
pilots carry their belongings in personal effects pods that ride in the bomb bay飞行员便将自己的私人物品放置在炸弹盒上方的夹舱内

Until the Gulf War began even those familiar with the F-117 were not completely certain that Stealth would work against a sophisticated air defense system 在波湾战争爆发之前，即使那些深谙F117的人也无法确定隐密战机能对抗精密的空防系统

The Coalition's air command was gambling 联合空军指挥总部却放手一搏
that Stealth would work as advertised They planned to send F-117 s alone into Baghdad 认定隐密战机会 如广告一样有效并计划只派F117前往巴格达
the most heavily-defended city in Iraq 也是伊拉克空防最严密的城市

January 17 th, 1991. Three AM Saudi time 1991年1月17日 沙国时间凌晨三点
Two squadrons of F-117 Nighthawks launch simultaneous strikes across the city of Baghdad两个F117夜鹰号飞行小队同时向巴格达市发动攻击
dropping approximately sixty laser-guided bombs 为数六址枚雷射导引式飞弹
on Iraqi communications buildings air defense bunkers ammunition bunkers Scud missile sites Scud and the headquarters of the Iraqi Air Force纷纷投掷在伊拉克的 通讯大楼、防空壕、军火库飞弹基地以及伊拉克空军指挥总部

Within minutes, the foundation of Iraq complex command and control network has been crippled 伊拉克的指挥大楼和管制 网路在数分钟之内瓦解崩溃
and the war in the Persian Gulf has begun 波湾战争因此拉开了序幕
It is a mission Nighthawk pilots have anticipated for months 这是夜鹰号飞行员期待了 数月之久的任务

We got notified and were on a, ah a little bit of, ah emotional roller coaster for a couple weeks till we actually went 接获通知到实际参战之间的一两星期内情绪相当高昂
But we deployed through Langley Air Force Base 我们在蓝格利空军基地 展开布署
Ah, and then from there we made, ah a one hop... about fifteen and a half hours to a place called Khamis Mushait in Saudi Arabia southern part, ah, almost ah, just, oh maybe a hundred miles north of Yemen 接着再由基地航行45分钟进入沙国南部叶门北方一百哩处的卡米斯莫哈特

F-117 s from the Thirty-Seventh Tactical Fighter Wing forty-two in all were sent to a Saudi base far from Iraqi missile range第37战术战斗机组一共 派出42架F117前往沙国一个远离伊拉克 飞弹基地的基地
But their great distance from Baghdad would require them 由于与巴格达相距遥远
to fly two thousand miles round trip every mission 机队每次出任务需要做 两千哩的往返航程

On the plus side, Khamis Mushait was a state-of-the-art air base 有利的一面是卡米斯莫夏特 是一座现代化的空军基地
When we were, arrived in Saudi Arabia we were not sure what type of facilities we would have 我们抵达沙国时并不确定 是何种类型的设施
at one point we were not even sure which base we were going to once we were airborne But the facilities we were were put into were absolutely superb 事实上，我们甚至在升空后 还不确定要去哪一个基地可是我们被安排的设施 是绝对一流的
The Saudis were excellent hosts and gave us a brand new facility they had built and had not even accepted from the contractor 沙国人热情有余，把一座合约中没有同意的一座全新的设施供我们使用
So when we got there, they were still turning on the water 我们抵达之后 他们才开始启用自来水
finding beds and, ah, it still had, ah had to break the seals on all the the pipes and doors for us to get in安排床位，并且撕开所有 封条才能进入
So it was a, actually one of the better facilities 其实它和托纳巴基地是 同样好的设施 It was as good as we had at Tonopah as far as war protection bunkers and, ah, but the Saudis again, were just super 尤其是防弹、防空的保护 措施上
They gave us everything that we requested, plus some 沙国人好极了 对我们总是有求必应