波斯湾战机F15 F117第 3 课

But world events rushed the plane into service 但是却因为一起国际事件 而提前服役
The fighter bomber underwent a trial by fire 一架战斗轰炸机在炮火下 试飞
was a key part in the largest Coalition air effort since World War I I 是二次大战以来引发最大规模 的空军联合作战的关键因素

August 2nd, 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait1990年8月2日伊拉克入侵科威特

Western and Arab leaders fear that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's, next target is Saudi Arabia 西方以及沙乌地领导人 担心胡珊的下一个目标
and ultimately control of half the world's oil supply 是沙乌地阿拉伯 最终并掌控世界半数的油源

August 7 th The Seventy-First Squadron and the First Tactical Fighter Wing leaves Langley, Virginia 8月7日， 第71飞行小队 和第一战术战斗机组 由维州蓝格利出发
Their destination: Saudi Arabia 目的地是沙乌地阿拉伯

And I still did not believe we were going to, ah to do it until I saw the first, ah 我是在看到第一架飞鹰 起飞之后才相信
Eagle take off from the Seventy-First ah, heading over 我们要出任务了
And, ah, I was number twenty-four... 我是第71飞行小队的 24号
out of the twenty-four we sent that day and, ah pretty surreal, ah, atmosphere to take off at five o'Iock, ah in the afternoon, ah from Langley and ah, go out and hit a night tanker总共24架战斗机是在 蓝格里下午5点一种相当超现实的气氛下 出发攻击一架夜间加油机
And just the feeling that you were ah, going to go over and do something that, ah we do not normally do, ah nowadays in the military 感觉自己正要去进行一项 在部队中不常做的事
And the First, ah, Attack Fighter Wing had not done for, ah quite some time, ah, done a major deployment like that第一战术战斗机组很久 没有从事这种大型布署了
Ah, real world. And, ah I think a lot of us were thinking about that在真实世界… 我认为很多人都是这么想的
But, ah, the flight over was it was tense to tell you the truth, very tense 不过…说实话，整个飞行 过程很紧张

The fourteen-hour flight from Langley to Saudi Arabia required 由蓝格里到沙乌地阿拉伯的 14小时飞行过程
each pilot to execute up to eight mid-air refuelings 需要每个飞行员进行八次 空中加油工作
It was a fitting start to a war in which tankers played a crucial role这也是加油机在战争中扮演 重要角色的开始
Over the six weeks of combat 为期六星期的战争中
tankers would pump one hundred ten million gallons of fuel to forty-six thousand planes 加油机一共为四万六千架 飞机加了1亿1千万加仑燃料

When they arrived at Al-Kharj American air crews found state-of-the-art airstrips blast-proof hangars and modern maintenance facilities waiting for them. 当美国飞行员抵达艾尔卡吉时 发现了最现代化的跑道 防弹厂棚 以及现代化的维修设施