8 Seconds to Save my Wingman | Operation Midnight Hammer | F-16 Wild Weasel "Glitch"

Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the people who flew it. "Glitch" was one of the youngest F-16 pilots in the formation, flying his first combat deployment with the Wild Weasels who flew Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses ahead of the B-2 strike on Iran. Watch the three-part documentary series on Afterburn Defense: Part I: https://youtu.be/MgQ_X3Td8a4 Part II: https://youtu.be/GzdL6NMYDso Part III: https://youtu.be/Xc22-2RaGSY This is the full interview. He was woken up at ten at night and told to pack a bag. In this conversation, he talks about the night over Yemen when a surface-to-air missile came off the ground at his formation and he had seconds to respond, why Rough Rider frightened him more than Iran did, the drive out to the jets before the strike, and the call he made to his girlfriend when he could not tell her where he was. Before Iran, the 55th Fighter Squadron fought over Yemen in Operation Rough Rider, a sustained air campaign against Houthi surface-to-air threats. What they learned there is the reason the F-16 Block 50 and the AGM-88 HARM were part of the strike package on June 21st, 2025. These interviews were recorded between December 2025 and January 2026 and preserve firsthand accounts from pilots, maintainers, intelligence officers, and logistics airmen who were there. 0:00 Becoming an F-16 Pilot 2:06 Preparing for the Spring Deployment 3:19 A Threat Environment Nobody Trained For 5:18 What the Outgoing Squadron Warned Them About 8:46 Flying the SEAD Mission in Combat 11:01 First Combat Sortie Over Yemen 12:32 A Missile Launch on My Scope 14:09 Watching a SAM Fired at My Formation 17:28 Getting the Call for Operation Midnight Hammer 21:17 Mission Planning for the Iran Strike 24:23 I Can't Tell You Where I Am 26:15 The Drive Out to the Jets 31:41 Why Yemen Scared Me More Than Iran 35:28 Employing Over Iranian Airspace 37:57 How Tight the Fuel Was Have a story? Program and partnership inquiries: https://theafterburnpodcast.com/contact/ 🛫 Become a Fighter/Bomber/Cargo/Tanker/RPA Pilot 🎯 : http://bogidope.com/?bd=tappodcast 🛫 Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) Prep with AFOQT Wingman https://afoqtwingman.com/Code: AFTERBURN for 10% off 🔺 Aviation & Defense Newsletter - https://bit.ly/AfterburnNewsletter 🔺 Become a Patron, Support the Show, & Gain Exclusive Benefits: https://www.patreon.com/c/theafterburnpodcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.