Nighthawk Memories

Surprise, Surprise
The US Air Force announced Thursday the existence of an operational stealth fighter aircraft, officially known as the F-117A. The single-seat, dual engine aircraft is built by Lockheed Corporation in California. The F-117A first flew in June 1981. The F-117A has been operational since October 1983, and is assigned to the 4450th Tactical Group at Nellis AFB, Nevada. The aircraft is based at the Tonopah Test Range Airfield in Nevada. A total of fifty-nine aircraft are being procured. Fifty-two have already been delivered to the Air Force, and seven more are in production. With disclosure of the F-117A program, this mature system, which has enjoyed bipartisan Congressional support since its inception, can now be fully integrated into operational plans in support of worldwide defense commitments. This system adds to the deterrent strength of US military forces. — US Air Force News Release, 10 November 1988

The Black Jet
The F-117 Nighthawk, the world's first combat aircraft to fully exploit radar-evading stealth technology, was developed, tested, and flown operationally in complete secrecy. Even the official program nameÑSenior TrendÑwas a secret.

First flown in 1981 and declared operational in 1983, the futuristic-looking stealth fighters were based at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, an isolated facility roughly 250 miles north of Las Vegas.

The pilots, maintainers, and support staff of the cryptically designated 4450th Tactical Group would leave their homes at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas on Monday, fly via minimally marked 727 airliners to Tonopah, shift their body clocks to night operations for a couple of days, and then fly back to Nellis on Friday. After the F-117 program was publicly acknowledged, the unit was redesignated the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing.

The revolutionary design of the F-117, with its black paint scheme and faceted surfaces, would enter the national consciousness a little more than two years after the official Pentagon announcement. As Operation Desert Storm kicked off, TV news reports showed grainy video of targets in BaghdadÑone of the most heavily defended cities on earthÑbeing destroyed with a single 2,000-pound bomb being dropped precisely down an air ventilation shaft.

Two months shy of twenty-seven years since it was first flown, the F-117 was retired in ceremonies at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, where the 49th Fighter Wing had operated it since 1992, and then on 22 April in Palmdale, California, for the people who had designed and built it.

What follows is certainly not a complete history of what was called the Black Jet, but memories from some of the hundreds of people associated with the F-117 during its career.

In The Beginning
The genesis for stealth came in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War [between Egypt and Israel]. Russia had supplied Egypt with a sophisticated radar network, and the Israelis were sending aircraft to the front lines that the Egyptians were shooting down even though the Israeli aircraft were equipped with electronic countermeasures. What was needed was a way to make the aircraft invisible, or nearly so. If you can't see it, you can't shoot at it.

DARPA [the US Defense Advanced Projects Agency] gave $100,000 contracts to two companies [McDonnell Douglas and Northrop] to study the problem. The plan was that one of the companies would eventually build a stealth prototype. Lockheed received a $1 contract that gave us access to the DARPA data. We got in the competition through the back door.

We had produced a stealth aircraft in the SR-71 that DARPA didn't know about. We got the CIA to let us brief DARPA on the A-12/SR-71. After some convincing, DARPA officials told us to go ahead and bid on the program.

Dick Scherrer was Lockheed's director of operations research. He was a very inventive guy. He couldn't get anyone to explain RCS [radar cross section] to him in normal English. I was at home with a broken leg, and Dick called me on an open phone line and told me I had to design an invisible aircraft.

The day I came back to work, I explained stealth to him. The lowest RCS is taking the smallest number of flat panels and tilting those surfaces over, sweeping the edges away from the radar view angle. Dick went away and came back with some drawings. I told him to make it flatter so the radar couldn't reflect back. He came back with some new drawings.

We got Ben Rich [the head of Lockheed's Skunk Works] to get some money to build an anechoic chamber and a wind tunnel test model. The aerodynamics guys gave the design a nameÑthe Hopeless Diamond. It didn't have a tail. The idea was just to look at the basic shape. But the engineers looked at the model and said, 'You know, that would almost fly.'

Scherrer told me to write a computer program to show what we would need to measure RCS. He also said, 'I need it in a month.' It took us five 100-hour weeks, but we built the program [called Echo 1] to test the Hopeless Diamond design. It workedÑour predictions matched reality. I went from being regarded as the village idiot to being hailed as the village expert.

The Hopeless Diamond design led to the XST design, which was much more of an airplane. The XST design led to Have Blue, which was essentially a subscale version of the F-117. We had a pole model shoot-off at the test range at Holloman, and Have Blue did really well.

We turned in our proposal for Have Blue. Ben said to mark it as confidential. Two weeks later, we heard from DARPA, and the proposal was now Top Secret Special Access Required. Only two of our engineers had DoD Top Secret clearances. The rest of us had only Agency clearances.

We got that situation cleared up and went to work. We had great success with Have Blue. We proved the design would fly. The Air Force thought there was enough proof that stealth worked to start, even though the design wasn't completely tested. They asked us to take the Have Blue and weaponize it. — Denys Overholser, Lockheed mathematician and engineer

It Is A Model
Lockheed built a wooden mockup of the F-117. It was used it to plan where the displays would go and how the wiring and plumbing runs would be installed. The F-117 is probably one of the last aircraft to be mocked up in wood. — Hal Farley, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 117

Flight Control Laws
We spent two years and hundreds of hours in the simulator working with Bob Loschke, the chief flight control engineer. It was an iterative process. Bob would get aerodynamic data from the wind tunnel models and put the data in the simulator. We would then fly the simulator and evaluate the flying qualities. We took the F-117 control law package to Calspan to incorporate it in their NT-33 variable stability test aircraft. When they were ready, Dave Ferguson and I went to Buffalo, New York, to evaluate the predicted flying qualities in a real airplane. Rogers Smith was the Calspan project pilot and flew with us during our evaluation. Since the NT-33 was a variable stability aircraft, we could modify the control laws to see where the corners of the flight envelope were and how well we could handle the aircraft with degraded stability. This proved to be a very valuable experience. — Hal Farley, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 117

Tumbling Down
Dick Cantrell, the head of the aerodynamics department, wanted to see what would happen if the F-117 exceeded the AOA [angle of attack] limits. He made a crude catapult and launched a scale model from the rafters of Building 310 in Burbank [California, then the Lockheed assembly facility] where we had built the U-2 and the SR-71. He launched the model in the hangar and caught it in a net. He filmed the aircraft's departure [from controlled flight] characteristics. When it exceeded the AOA limits, the aircraft would tumble end over end. We pilots watched with some trepidation. — Hal Farley, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 117

Dead Of Night
The aircraft was taken from Burbank to the test range in a C-5 in the dead of night. It was loaded in nearly complete blackout conditions. I don't think the fact a C-5 was landing at the Burbank Airport in the middle of the night tipped the neighbors off to anything unusual. We did receive some complaints about the noise of the C-5 taking off. — Hal Farley, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 117

First Flight
I was well prepared for the first flight. I had flown the simulator during development of the flight control laws and had been practicing by flying the F-111, F-15, and F-16. I was also in the cockpit for all of the ground tests and engine runs leading up to first flight. We made several taxi runs and had reached the point of lifting the nose wheel off the ground and deploying the drag chute.

We planned the flight for early morning to take advantage of the smoother air at dawn. Just after liftoff, I noticed the nose was yawing considerably, indicating directional stability wasn't as great as anticipated. We took off with the AOA and sideslip sensors on the air data probes disabled, planning to turn them on after gaining some altitude. After it became evident that the yawing was getting worse and my attempts to control it weren't helping, I turned on the yaw sensor, and the airplane stiffened up and felt normal. Dave Ferguson, the primary chase pilot checked me over, and we continued.

Early in the climb, I heard this bang, and I wasn't ready for that. It was the intake blow-in doors slamming shut and not a problem. After we leveled off at 15,000 feet, the canopy warning light came on and that was troubling because the canopy is also the windscreen. That turned out to be a misadjusted microswitch. As we began to set up for the test maneuvers, Dick Burton, the test director, informed me that temperatures in the tailpipe were approaching limits and I would need to return and land. Overall, it was a simple flight with the gear down all the way. We did some mild maneuvers in pitch, roll, and yaw as we returned to base.

There was a big party after the first flight, but I stayed behind to write the flight test report while everything was still fresh in my mind. I wanted to be as detailed as possible. In the end, I didn't even get to the party. — Hal Farley, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 117

Small Group
One reason the F-117 came about so quickly was the effectiveness of the team. Air Force program management consisted of seven people. We were able to work one-on-one with the Air Force experts. We went from paper to airborne in two-and-one-half years. The Air Force team worked with us, gave us good suggestions, and let us get on with the program. — Dr. Alan Brown, Lockheed F-117 chief technical engineer

It's In Your Hands
I started on the F-117 in 1981. There were eleven people in the 4450th Tactical Group when I joined. Early on, I went in a room in the basement at Lockheed in Burbank and was told, 'This is the aircraft, and this is how it is supposed to work. Your job is to make sure it does.' — CMSgt. Kenneth Cody (ret.)

Really Black Program
Thousands of people kept the F-117 program secret. I had to take a polygraph test at the beginning, middle, and end of my time on the program. For years, we never even said 'F-117.' We called it 'The Asset.' Since it wasn't designated the F-19, which is probably what it should have been in the Air Force designation sequence protocol, I was able to truthfully answer, 'No, I don't fly the F-19' when somebody asked me if I did. — Mark Dougherty, Bandit 168

Team Nighthawk
The thing I most remember is the sense of dedication we all had. We had a real sense of purpose. They were tremendous people, and there was tremendous camaraderie. We probably had 400 people on the program, including mechanics on the assembly line. We also had one of the first true combined Air Force-contractor test forces. That teamwork was even part of the F-117 revolution. It's standard practice today. — Tom Morgenfeld, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 101

Stealth Trifecta
After the F-117, I went to the YF-22. After the YF-22, I came back to the F-117 and flew right up until the time I became involved with the X-35. I probably have about 1,295 hours in the F-117. — Tom Morgenfeld, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 101

Flight Envelope
We cleared the full AOA, loads, and speed flight envelope of the F-117, and the Air Force test pilots would evaluate operational aspects within the cleared flight envelope. Bill Park was the chief test pilot who made the decision that Hal [Farley] would make the first F-117 flight. I still feel slightedÑsort of. I was in the F-117 program for nine years and made the first flight of Ship 2. I mainly flew Ship 2 and did a lot of high AOA tests, loads test, high sink rate landings, and stalls. — Dave Ferguson, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 105

Test Fleet
Flight test missions began, and we worked our way incrementally through the flight envelope. The first two aircraft were flown continuously. Aircraft 780 is now on static display at Nellis, and 781 is at the Air Force Museum [National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio]. Aircraft 781 flew a tremendous amount while 782 served as the mission systems airplane. Aircraft 783 was the primary RCS test airplane, and 784 served as a catchall and did a lot of avionics testing. We were flying fifteen to twenty times a week. We would typically fly as many as two flights in the morning and two in the afternoon. We spent a lot of time making sure nobody else was around. That added a level of complexity that most programs don't have to deal with. — Jon Beesley, Bandit 102

Bandit Origin
Bandit was a standard radio call sign used by the Aggressor pilots at Nellis. We used Bandit because it wouldn't draw attention. In the test program, we were allowed to pick our number. The test pilots took Bandit numbers 100 to 125. — Dave Ferguson, Lockheed test pilot, Bandit 105

Bandit Legacy
A pilot was given a Bandit number after his first flight. His name and the date of the flight were embroidered on an aviator's scarf and then hung with the other Bandit scarves. All those scarves will be going to the Air Force Museum. There were 557 operational F-117 pilots. The operational pilots started with Bandit 150 [Col. Al Whitley]. There was no Bandit 666. The last Bandit was Brig. Gen. David Goldfein, who was the 49th Fighter Wing commander. He's Bandit 708. — Lt. Col. Ken Tatum, Bandit 527

Blue Suiter
My introduction to the aircraft came before its first flight. Skip Anderson, the Air Force's flight test director, showed me the airplane and asked me to be the operations officer for the Combined Test Force. I was the only Air Force test pilot for all five years of development and flight test. The whole time I was there, the program didn't officially exist. I remember calling my wife in 1988 and telling her to look at the TV when they made the official announcement. I told her that's what I was doing for five years. She was excited to finally know. — Jon Beesley, Bandit 102

Fin Departure
In 1985, I had a vertical fin explosively flutter off the back of the airplane. We were doing a weapons compatibility test, and the aircraft went into a flutter. The general sensation was like riding a motorcycle going fifty miles an hour on the crossties of a railroad track. We had a bomb hanging out in the airstream but were able to get it back in. We came back, landed the aircraft successfully, and were able to fix the problem and re-clear the envelope. We learned some things we hadn't known before. — Jon Beesley, Bandit 102

Welcome To The Air Force
I spent four years at Tonopah as a weapons troop. I was a young airman, only nineteen years old. It was really exciting. In the barracks, which were ten miles from the flightline, we even had maid service. I was new to the Air Force and didn't know any betterÑI thought it was like that everywhere. — MSgt. Michael F. Parkison, 49th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Holloman AFB, New Mexico

First Launch
Anybody who worked on the jet at Tonopah will remember their first launch. We ran completely blacked-out operations. It was lights out, comm out. The first time those doors opened with nothing on and nothing else out there on the outside was something to experience. For a long time, we weren't really sure it was flying. All we'd see were the lights go by. — CMSgt. Wendy Jones (ret.)

Psych
For the distinguished visitors who came to Tonopah, we would show them an invisible aircraft. We would place a set of chocks on the ground and set up a workstand with an air hose held up with fishing line looking like it was attached to the aircraft. — CMSgt. Wendy Jones (ret.)

Local Fauna I
When I started, Tonopah had no billeting. We would fly there from Nellis every day. Later on, when we had billeting, I would stay for the first launch and recovery and then go home before the second launch. I would see wild horses as I walked back to billeting. They would follow people and nip them if they weren't careful. — CMSgt. Kenneth Cody (ret.)

Local Fauna II
I was walking back to billeting at Tonopah through the snow one night carrying food when I got cornered by a coyote. I just gave it the food and quickly went the other way. — CMSgt. Wendy Jones (ret.)

On The Other Hand
We used palm readers to get into the secure area. One time I had a broken right hand, and the reader would go 'fail,' 'fail,' 'fail,' and then I could use my left hand. Those particular readers were right hand first, then left. — CMSgt. Wendy Jones (ret.)

No Follow-Up Questions, Please
The first eight years I worked on the program, I couldn't tell anyone what I did. I could say I worked on A-7 avionics, and that was the hard partÑI knew nothing about A-7 avionics. — CMSgt. Kenneth Cody (ret.)

First ORI
The group's first Operational Readiness Inspection was memorable. Time just flew by. We had to refuel, load bombs, and put in a new brake chute, all in the dark. Forty-five minutes was the standard. The evaluator asked me how long it took. I knew we had done it pretty fast, so I guessed about thirty-eight minutes. He said, 'No, it was a twenty-minute turn time.' — CMSgt. Kenneth Cody (ret.)

Light Load
You worked on the jet with one hand tied behind your back. One hand had to hold the flashlight with the red lensÑthere were no night vision goggles. — CMSgt. Wendy Jones (ret.)

Can I Touch It Now?
Even the janitors outranked us. I was just a buck sergeant. Everybody was so professional. When I started, I kept asking when I could touch the jet. For the longest time, they would only let me look at the jet. There was a lot of one-on-one training. — CMSgt. Wendy Jones (ret.)

Through The Looking Glass
Lt. Col. Jerry Fleming [Bandit 152] came to Homestead [AFB, Florida] where I was flying F-4s and interviewed me personally. He landed in an A-7 with no tail markings and wore no insignia on his flight suit. He looked like someone from the CIA. I was wondering if I were still going to be in the Air Force. He said, 'What you think you're going to do is not what you're going to do. I need you to make a decision now because I need you quick.' I got orders in two days to report to Nellis. It was fun being wanted. It was even more fun getting picked to fly the F-117. — Mark Dougherty, Bandit 168

What Else Do You Do?
I was flying F-15s at Langley AFB [Virginia], and my commander asked if I wanted to join the 4450th Tactical Group. I knew they flew the A-7 and did other things as well. We had a pilot in the squadron who had come from the 4450th. and he told me it would be a great thing to do. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

SLUF Time
All the pilots first went to Tucson [162nd Fighter Wing, Arizona Air National Guard at Tucson IAP] to learn to fly the A-7. We used the A-7 to chase the F-117 and also to prepare us to fly at night. When we were done, they put us in a secure room at Nellis and showed us a video of the F-117 taxiing out and flying. That was my first chance to see the aircraft and see that it can fly. It doesn't look very aerodynamic. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Initial Cadre
We had a whole bunch of hard-charging guys. Everybody had at least 1,500 flight hours. We had one or two F-15 and F-16 pilots and a lot of F-111, F-4, and A-10 pilots. In those early days at Tonopah, we flew the A-7 a lot more than the F-117. It was simply a matter of having more A-7s on the ramp. We did the operational test and evaluation and developed tactics and procedures. We took our business pretty seriously. — Mark Dougherty, Bandit 168

Got To Go
I was working at TAC headquarters at Langley when my boss asked if I were serious about going any place, any time, anywhere to get back to flying airplanes instead of a desk job. I said, 'Uh-huh.' He said to call this guy. So I called Col. Mike Short, who was the 4450th Tactical Group commander at Nellis. He said, 'I'm going to bring you on as the ops officer for avionics testing in the A-7, but I can't tell you anything about what else you're going to be doing.' I accepted the assignment and went to Nellis. I knew I didn't know what the secret was beyond the A-7. I didn't know what the program was. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

Joining Up
I signed my life away and was then taken into a vault. There was a standard projector that showed a frontal view of the F-117 coming out of the hangar. It was a jaw-dropping experience. The only thing that was more jaw-dropping was when they took me into the hangar at Tonopah, closed the personnel door behind us, turned on the lights, and I saw the jet for real. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

Big Sweep
My initial briefing was in the vault in our compound at the Lake Mead base north of Nellis; I was shown photos of the aircraft, and my initial reaction was, 'What the hell is that?' The sweep of the wingsÑseventy-two degreesÑwas striking. I wondered how that thing flew. It was sort of disconcerting to look at it. I figured it must have very high speeds for taking off and landing. — Mark Dougherty, Bandit 168

Life In Tonopah
Flying from Nellis to Tonopah, we essentially moved a small city of people back and forth every week. We would get there on Monday, fly a short schedule, and then come back and play midnight basketball to try and stay awake. We'd fly a full schedule on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. One turn, two goes flying the A-7 or the F-117. The A-7s were parked outside the hangars partly as operational cover for the base, but it was cold and dark getting into them. It was warm and lighted in the hangars where the F-117s were parked. They eventually had trailers for us to live in with heavy curtains to keep out the sunlight so we could sleep during the day. However, the beep, beep, beep of the trash truck backing up early in the morning could penetrate anything. — Mark Dougherty, Bandit 168

Nighthawk Night Owls
We flew at night under the cover of darkness. We would sleep until late in the day in what we called our cocoons or caves. They were completely dark with blackout curtains. We would get up, exercise, go eat, and go to the office. After dark, we would take the jets up and go fly. We would finish between 1:00 and 3:00 a.m. We would debrief, clean up, and relax a little. We would have to be in our caves by sunup. We had to be in the dark to minimize the psychological effects on our bodies and our circadian rhythms. On Friday, you'd go home [to Nellis] and try to get to sleep at 11:00 p.m., when we were used to staying up until 5:30 a.m. Then your four-year-old would come in at 7:00 a.m. and jump on your chest. And, of course, the only time the dishwasher would overflow or the car would break down was while you were away. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

I Can't See You
When the program was in the black world, we only flew on the Nevada test ranges. We slowly expanded and went into other airspace. We would file our flight plans as A-7s. We would hear airline pilots say they couldn't see the other traffic that was being called to them. We were in black jets running with lights out. They couldn't see us, and that was pretty cool. Until we came out of the black, our cover story was that we flew A-7s. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Out In The Open
Halfway through my tour at Tonopah, DoD issued the grainy photo of the stealth fighter. Families were then able to talk to one another. We could show the American public what we could do. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Jato Preto
I knew information about the F-117 had been released when I saw a photo of my airplane in a Brazilian newspaper with a caption in Portuguese. — Dr. Alan Brown, Lockheed F-117 chief technical engineer

Jumping In The Deep End
I was selected to be a squadron commander before I even flew the F-117. The wing commander made me a squadron commanderÑmorale was low in one of the squadrons and time was tight because of an ORI [Operational Readiness Inspection]. I pretty much came in from the cold. I knew the people, but I knew I needed to get vector going in the right direction for the ORI. I went off for a week and learned to fly the jet. It was really a matter of rallying the people who knew what to do to get the job done. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

Limited View
The jet flies better than you think it would from looking at it. The visibility for the pilot isn't good. But the jet was designed to minimize radar signature so the canopy had to be a certain shape. — Lt. Col. Ken Tatum, Bandit 527

Limited SA
The jet is easy to fly. Other jets had equipment like radar or radar warning that let pilots know what is going on around them. The situational awareness for the pilot just wasn't there in the F-117. We went into the target alone and unafraid. The other aircraft in the strike package would always want to know where we were. We just didn't talk on the radio during missions. — Lt. Col. Todd Flesch, Bandit 447

Martian Kudos
I have to give a lot of credit to our MartiansÑthe maintainers who kept up the low observable materials on the jet's skin. We quite literally placed our lives in those young Airmen's hands. — Lt. Col. Todd Flesch, Bandit 447

Different Personalities
Our maintenance troops knew every little detail about every jet. Each aircraft had a different personalityÑlittle quirks in how it flew or worked. The crew chiefs gave the jets individual nicknames. — Lt. Col. Ken Tatum, Bandit 527

Weaponology
The GBU-10 Paveway II 2,000-pound laser guided bomb and the Mk. 84 general purpose bomb were the baseline weapons for initial operational capability. I was working on a program called Have Void for an improved 2,000-pound penetrating weapon. This weapon needed to penetrate concrete and not fracture itself.

We took the more compact guide fins from the Paveway II and the penetrating capability of the BLU-109 warhead and kluged them together. We did a very slow fit check to make sure it would fit in the F-117's weapons bay. I called the program office and they sort of got mad. I wasn't authorized to do that kind of thing. After getting chewed out, the program people turned around and asked, 'Well, how did it do?' It was so new, it was called GBU-XX.

I drew up the requirements, and Tactical Air Command went forward on IOC [initial operational capability] with it. It worked so well that TAC threw out the toss delivery mode. The weapons guys said, 'This is stupid. We are not going to fly straight and level to a target,' even though that's the best way to deliver weapons. In the first test, the GBU-27 split the barrel. It later went directly down an air shaft in Baghdad. — Chuck Pinney, former Air Force F-117 Program Office director

Follow The Leader
The GBU-27s we used in Desert Storm were dropped singly. With the GBU-10 and Mk. 84, we could drop simultaneously. They would follow each other in, and you could see both explosions. — Klaus Klause, Bandit 283

Solo Flight
The first time you flew the F-117, you flew it alone. It was never a bad aircraft to fly. Wobblin' Goblin was a phrase invented by somebody who liked to rhyme words. The aircraft always flew pretty well. — Jon Beesley, Bandit 102

Not For Beginners
You learn to fly the F-117 in the simulator. Your first flight is solo. You have to have 750 to 1,000 fighter hours to get in F-117s. The jet flies like any other fighter tactically. But you usually fly with seven other aircraft, all at the same time. — Col. Jack Forsythe, Bandit 460

Family Affair
My wife and I both got stationed at Nellis with the 4450th Tactical Group at the same time. I was sent to Tucson to learn to fly the A-7, so she actually saw the stealth fighter before I did. Later on, we both deployed with the unit in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Once combat started, she would be there to meet me when I landed. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Home Front
The time in Tonopah was tough on families. The people we worked with became our family away from our family. They were the only people we could talk to about what we were doing É but we knew it was a safeguard for the defense of the United States. — CMSgt. Kenneth Cody (ret.)

Tropicana Or Golden Nugget?
My wife and I knew what each of us did and where we went on Mondays. People told us we should sell all of our household goods and just live in the Vegas casinos on the weekends. We'd both spend all week at Tonopah. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Lifestyle Change
The lifestyle of going away on Monday and coming home on Friday was not the most stressful aspect of what the men and women in the program had to endure. The inability to talk about what we did for five days out of seven with our families, friends, and neighbors was a bigger challenge. In between, phone calls and communications were limited. We were 250 miles north of home in a location at a higher elevation where it would actually snow. We could be talking with our families and even having the usual conversation about the weather, and we couldn't say what our weather was. It was an 'I can neither confirm nor deny that' situation. The inability to tell somebody how our week was going was hard. We could ask how our spouse's week was, but it was as if our week didn't exist. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

Separate Conversations
We were a tightknit group. We hung out on weekends together and attended a lot of social functions together. The pilots would get together in one area of the house or yard, and the spouses would meet in another area. We couldn't talk about what we did away from Tonopah. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Unique Distinction
I was chosen to fly the mission during Operation Just Cause. We didn't even go into Panama in stealth mode. We were chosen because we could drop a precision munition and hit what we aimed at with a specific time on target. We were told to hit a field. We didn't really show what stealth could do. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Getting Real
In Desert Shield, we didn't believe we were going to war until the second squadron arrived in theater in December of 1990. Then we started getting serious. We did a lot more target study and reading up on Iraqi order of battle. When we got the warning order, we realized we were going to war. — Klaus Klause, Bandit 283

Limited Asset
There was a general worry going into Desert Storm about whether the stealth stuff really worked. The naysayers said we were going to lose one or two aircraft a night. If that were the case, it wouldn't have been a problem for longÑwe only had a small number of aircraft. — Klaus Klause, Bandit 283

First Night
Having dropped a bomb in Panama, I was chosen for the first mission of Desert Storm. On the first night, none of the pilots knew whether stealth would work or not. The engineers told us what it could do, and we trusted them. But until we got through the enemy air defenses in Iraq, we weren't sure. We anticipated some losses that first night. But we returned with none of us getting hit by triple-A [anti-aircraft artillery] or SAMs [surface-to-air missiles]. Then we knew stealth worked. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Opening Shot
We only had four guys who had been in combat, but they were all professional pilots. All I said to them was: 'This is Night One, and you are going to hit your targets; concentrate on getting the job done; put your [ejection] seat all the way down and don't even look out the window.' We had a couple of devastating strikes, and we took the Iraqi C3I off the air. The mission was a great success. — Klaus Klause, Bandit 283

See It Live
I was watching CNN's coverage of the opening night of the Gulf War. I saw the explosions going off in the background, and then the power went out. The air raid sirens started going off after that. I knew it was the F-117s, and I knew we had succeeded. — Denys Overholser, Lockheed mathematician and engineer

Shack
During a drop, we would fly in on autopilot and put the cursor on the target. We would get consent to release, and the weapon bay doors would open. We could feel the bombs leave the bomb bay. The jolt would sometimes knock off the autopilot. We couldn't hear the explosions, obviously, but we could see the splash. We knew immediately if we hit the target. — Klaus Klause, Bandit 283

Fourth Time's The Charm
For deeply buried targets like Sadam's [Hussein] bunkers or the chemical [storage] bunkers, we'd have four pilots attack the target. The first bomb would move the sand. The second guy would hit the same spot; the third guy would breach the target; and the fourth would destroy it. We went after the C3I bunkers or antennas first; then we went after bridges and dropped the spans. We dropped on SA-2 SAM sitesÑthe BUFFs [B-52 bombers] wouldn't go in until the missiles were gone. — Klaus Klause, Bandit 283

Improving The Jet
I was the squadron commander of the 410th Flight Test SquadronÑthe F-117 flight test unitÑfrom 1997 to 1999. We had Air Force test pilots and maintenance, but we also had Lockheed test pilots and maintainers to help us. It was the most ideal test force I've ever been in. The depot was there; the engineering was there; the experience was there. We put the ring-laser gyroscope in the aircraft, GPS [Global Positioning System], and the new brake controller. We did the testing and development for the single configuration fleet. Our job was to keep the signature and reduce maintenance. We did that. — Crash Jaspers, Bandit 121

Keeping Information Flowing
I came to Holloman [AFB, New Mexico] a lot to brief the 8th and 9th Fighter Squadron pilots. I would interface with the operational pilots and their commander. It kept up rapport with the operational force. We had an operational test detachment at Holloman. Everything was right there for the operational pilots. Our OT guys would research how the operational guys would use a new piece of equipment. We tried to keep a free flow of information back and forth. Those were some fun times. — Crash Jaspers, Bandit 121

Changing Priorities
When we started, the priorities were: (1) security overall, (2) low observable performance, (3) software, (4) aircraft performance, and (5) cost. By 2001, everything was about dollars. In 2000, there was an effort to eliminate six aircraft from the fleet as a cost-cutting measure. We had to defend why we needed to keep the aircraft operational. — Chuck Pinney, former Air Force Program Office director

Life At Holloman
On my second tour in F-117s, the wing was in the white world. We had relocated to Holloman, and things were moving very well. It was a time when lots of things were happening. We were quite often called on to execute deployments. Some of those deployments came under the cover of darkness, and we did them well. We packed equipment and flew the aircraft out of town and nobody noticed. Other times we went overseas in support of contingencies. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

Making A Statement
We wanted to go to Aviano for Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia. We were going to put about 300 people forward, but Italy wouldn't let us in, and the aircraft never arrived. To them, the F-117 in country was an indication of an escalation in force. That made a key statement. — Col. Jack Forsythe, Bandit 460

No Go/Go Now
While I was commander of the 9th Fighter Squadron on my second tour in the F-117, we were supposed to deploy in support of Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia [1995]. Due to some political reasons, squadron personnel deployed, but the host nation didn't allow the F-117s in country. We were not allowed to participate. We did deploy to Kuwait for Operation Desert Strike [1996], and our presence, we felt, was one of the main reasons Sadam backed off the border and avoided conflict. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Shootdown
As a wing commander, you always want all the aircraft to come back and all the pilots back on the ground healthy and happy. Unfortunately, one time it didn't work out that way. In Kosovo, one of the F-117s was shot down by a SAM. I was in New Mexico, and the squadron was deployed.

We knew the pilot had gotten out and was in his parachute. He had the presence of mind to pull out his emergency radio and relay that information. We wanted to keep it under wraps. We were not going to hide the fact that an aircraft was shot down or went down. But we didn't want to highlight the fact the pilot wasn't back in friendly hands.

I had to break the news to the pilot's spouse without being overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. Fortunately, she was a uniformed officer, so I could call her into my office rather than make a visit to her home and draw all kinds of attention. I told her where we were, and that I would keep her up to speed.

Later that night at my vice wing commander's going-away dinner, there came one of those sterling moments in life when you get to go up to the podium, take the microphone, and relate the fact that the pilot of Vega 31 [radio call sign] had been picked up, was in US hands in a US helicopter, and was on his way to a safe haven. He got back to Aviano; we got his wife on the phoneÑand all was good. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

JDAM Addition
We could do close air support when the capability to drop JDAM [the GPS/inertial-guided, 2000-pound GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition] was added to the aircraft. Retargeting the weapon in flight was easy. We would get the coordinates of a new target and drop it there. Ten years ago, we would have never even thought about dynamic retargeting with the F-117. We went where the mission was planned to go. With laser-guided bombs, we couldn't drop if the weather was bad at the release point. — Lt. Col. Todd Flesch, Bandit 447

Keep On Keepin' On
We were combat capable until the very end. The F-117 retirement has been a leadership challenge. There could have been an attitude of 'why are you still worried about that?' There is too much history in this aircraft to not be worried about it until the end. There is a lot of love for this airplane all up and down the chain of command. It wasn't very hard to keep people motivated. — Col. Larry Stephenson, 49th Maintenance Group vice commander, Holloman AFB, New Mexico

Roadside Attraction
The American public just loved the F-117. The crowds would always flock around us at airshows. There was just something about this aircraft. When we took off out of the depot at Palmdale, people would pull over to the side of the road and watch. I had about 300 hours in the jet, and we put up a four-ship formation for my fini flight. We just about shut down the highway. — Crash Jaspers, Bandit 121

Been Everywhere
Over its career, the F-117 has been deployed to the desert, to Europe, and to the Pacific. The jet has done its job every time. The bombs go right where they are supposed to, and we go home. — Lt. Col. Todd Flesch, Bandit 447

What Goes Around
We had to modify some of our load and test equipment for the F-117. Now that the jet is retired, that equipment is going back into the inventory. I'm now the head of the weapons shop and I have young troops who are complaining, 'Who did this shoddy work?' I've never told them that it was probably É me. My career's come full circle. — MSgt. Michael F. Parkison

No Letup
We were moving full-throttle even at the end. We stopped training a week before the aircraft was officially retired. We could have been called up right up until the last minute. — Lt. Col. Todd Flesch, Bandit 447

Influence
Last year when things in Korea got hectic, the US Forces Korea commander said, 'Get those black things up to the front.' We made the F-117's last deployment and took eighteen jets to South Korea. We knew we were influential. North Korea came back to the Six Party talks because we were there. We did that. Everybody knows what the jet can do. — Lt. Col. Ken Tatum, Bandit 527

Last To Land
I think there is going to be a fight between the four of us as to who will be the very last F-117 pilot to land when we take the jets to Tonopah for storage. I'm thinking I'll flame out an engine if I have to. Making that last landing will be quite a distinction. — Lt. Col. Todd Flesch, Bandit 447, prior to the last F-117 flight on 22 April 2008

Lasting Legacy
Anybody who touched this aircraft will be sad to see it go. We will probably never be able to do what this program did. There was a lot learned on this aircraft that is being applied to every other stealth aircraft. — Crash Jaspers, Bandit 121

Game Changer
There was a lot of pride in the F-117. We knew we were making history working on it. This aircraft changed the way we fight wars. We don't want to see war, but we need to be prepared for it. — CMSgt. Wendy Jones (ret.)

Old School
I was here in 1995 and 1996 and from 2007 to 2008, and the jet always amazed me. The fighter we flew into combat has no radar, no radar warning, no chaff, and no flares. What it can do makes it unique. We relied on signature, which was maintained by our maintainers. — Col. Jack Forsythe, Bandit 460

All Star
The F-117 is the most capable air-to-ground platform in history. This jet changed the way people think about attacking ground targets. We were the first to use stealth. From concept to being fielded, development of this aircraft was amazingly fast. — Lt. Col. Todd Flesch, Bandit 447

What A Team
We had an Air Force and industry partnership that worked very well. We trusted the geniuses who developed the aircraft, and they came through for us. The Lockheed engineers and technicians always came up to help us. It was a neat, flexible organization for an aircraft that was developed in secrecy, on time, on schedule, and on budget. The program worked. — Mark Dougherty, Bandit 168

National Treasure
The F-117 was based on 1970s technology, and the American people got their money's worth. The military, the contractors, and the civilians kept the program a secret for so long. The F-117 was a national treasure. Everybody knew someday we would use that fighter in a war, and it would do a great job. And it did. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

Hearts and Minds
We were at Wright-Patterson for the program office farewell. I went to the Air Force Museum, and I realized this aircraft has entered the national mind. It's like the B-17, P-51, or F-86. The jet's capability is also stuck in an adversary's mind. Kim Jong Il went into hiding when we deployed to South Korea. When we deployed, it was national news. — Col. Jack Forsythe, Bandit 460

Nighthawk Alumni
This was a unique program. The people involved still see each other and go to reunions. It is a testament that we kept this aircraft a secret until we needed to use it in combat. — Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, Bandit 261

New Paradigm
The F-117 changed combat capability overnight. The thinking changed from how many sorties does it take to destroy a target to how many targets can be destroyed on a sortie. I'm proud of the ground-breaking legacy of this aircraft. We really did own the night. — George Zielsdorff, Lockheed Martin F-117 program manager

Nighthawk Legacy
The F-117 is regarded as one of the great success stories in aviation history. It made an impact on the Air Force and on the future of combat operations. Ben [Rich] trusted the engineers and mathematicians. He knew this aircraft would work. He never doubted that the team could deliver the jet on time and on budget. And it did. The F-117 retires at its peak. — George Zielsdorff, Lockheed Martin F-117 program manager

Unmatched
The F-117 was the leadoff batter for stealth combat aircraft. It proved the value of low observable technology, and its precision weapons delivery was unmatched. — Bill Lake, Bandit 252

Footprints
The F-117 changed the way wars are fought. This country has not started a major conflict when those little black airplanes were not asked to kick down the door. They are a critical part of history. — Jon Beesley, Bandit 102 Oleh:Jeff Rhodes