We (69 BS, Loring AFB, ME) had already been on "the rock" for 6 months (deployed 13 Aug 90), so we were more than ready to get this thing over with.

We hit 5 airfields night one, low level, think it was 15 sorties. There were a lot of dire predictions on how many Buff's we'd lose in combat and they were all wrong, thank goodness.

High level vs low level was batted around for a bit, but low level won out (for the first 3 nights). I didn't agree with it, but it worked out. I thought the "golden BB" threat from random, wild fired AAA down low was a greater threat than their OCA or their SAM systems.

We flew low with dedicated cap the first 3 nights (maybe it was 4?) and then switched to all high level sorties with area cap. Sortie lengths were from 13-17 hours (depending on how deep in country you went) with 3 air refuelings (2 on the way up and 1 on the way home).

We co-pilots were usually always begging our AC's for AR stick time during normal training sorties, but AR time was so scarce that most of it went to the ACs to maintain their proficiency. That wasn't even an issue during our combat sorties

There's nothing like the light show from 51 MK82/M117s going off behind (and maybe in front of) you at night at 400 ft AGL followed by reactionary wild fired AAA from all quadrants!! It was an incredible light show for #3, but it also sucked!!