Note: All Prints are Signed by the artist but do not have the text graphics that are shown on the sample images.
New
to the U. S. Air Force inventory when Operation Desert Storm began in
1991, the F-15E "Strike Eagle" was quickly to prove itself as one of the
allied forces most effective tactical strike aircraft. Used to supress
the Iraqi defense network in the first days of the war, the Strike Eagle
was quickly transferred to SCUD missile destruction missions once
Saddam Hussein began launching the terror weapons toward Israel. In long
and dangerous missions over the vast reaches of Western Iraq the Eagle
pilots found the truck-mounted SCUD launchers frustratingly evasive.
F-15E
88-1686 from the 335th TFS "Chiefs" of the 4th TFW was piloted by Lt.
Col. Steve Pingel, with Maj. Taco Martinez as WSO (Weapons Systems
Operator) Here itjoins a companion to strike a SCUD launching site
before it is able to heave its missiles at non-combatant Israelis --
Saddam's attempt to widen the war by luring neighboring Islamic states
into the fight. Fortunately, weapons such as the Eagle kept any rash
notions of entering the fray from getting serious consideration by
Iraq's neighbors.
