After Griz 11 passed near the field, he started giving his wingman a talk-on to where the airplanes were parked. His talk-on was quick and right on the money. The Migs were located all the way at the end of a taxiway, almost a mile from the runway itself. We could make out two aircraft with the naked eye, and when we looked in our targeting pods, we could see another one parked nearby. Both of us got the targets in our targeting pod and set up for an attack. We were wary of a SA-6 that was supposed to be nearby, but so far, we had gotten no indication of any radar activity trying to target us.

It was amazing to fly next to the airfield and not see any immediate SAM or AAA activity. You could see some movement on the roads, cars driving around – all in all, they may have been thinking it was just another day at work. The Buzzards had other plans…

The hole in the clouds gave us only one direction to roll in from, which meant passing over the SA-6 site. As number one set up for his attack, number 2 gave him a wide berth to watch lead and the SA-6 site at the same time. Lead made a pass, putting his bomb right on top of the Mig 21, which went up in a huge fireball. Number two captured his own target, saw his lead’s bomb hit, and let his bomb fly. In the final few seconds before impact, the fireball from leads bomb started to obscure the second Mig, and two’s bomb hit about two or three aircraft lengths from his target. Either way, there were two Migs that probably weren’t going to make the flying schedule the next day.

As we set up for a third pass to get the one remaining Mig, Griz 22 got SAM acquisition radar warning. Some S-turns and chaff made it break lock. As we rolled around to drop again, the hole over the field had moved far enough away to make any more run-ins impossible, so we pressed away from the airfield to look for other targets. Weather continued to deteriorate, so we ended up bringing the remainder of our bombs home. We also got a glimpse of what we think were some refugee camps inside Kosovo. We saw one wooded area outside a town that had literally thousands of tents and shelters scattered throughout the hillsides. Makes you appreciate coming back home to your own house at night.

All in all, not a bad day for The Buzzards.