Cat naps, ‘piddle packs’ and amphetamines: Here’s what it can take to complete a marathon bombing run

By Michael Williams, CNN

(CNN) — The US bombing mission that targeted three nuclear facilities in Iran over the weekend was a massive undertaking that required its B-2 bomber pilots to test the limits of human endurance during a 37-hour mission.

Seven stealth bombers carrying two crew members each flew nonstop halfway across the world and back in one of the longest air raids in modern military history.

Melvin G. Deaile is one of few people who understands what it is like to be in the cockpit during a marathon operation like the one carried out over the weekend. The retired Air Force colonel was part of the B-2 crew whose 44-hour bombing mission over Afghanistan in 2001 still holds the record for the longest.

Deaile described Saturday’s operation as an “incredible feat.” More than 125 aircraft were used in the attack. Apart from the seven bombers that flew east from Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force Base to strike Iran, the mission also included other B-2 bombers flying west as part of a feint, as well as fighter jets, reconnaissance planes and refueling tankers positioned along the bombers’ routes.

“The thing that to me was more historic than anything is the fact that we had seven jets over the target area, executing seven different bomb runs, all within the matter of 30 minutes,” Deaile said.

The retired colonel, now the director of the School of Advanced Nuclear Deterrence Studies at the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College, offered to describe aspects of his 2001 mission but made clear he is only speaking from his own personal experience, has no personal insight into Saturday’s raid, and is not speaking on behalf of the Department of Defense.

‘If the president made the call, we were going to fly’

Deaile’s record-setting raid took place in the opening days of Operation Enduring Freedom, launched by then-President George W. Bush less than a month after the 9/11 attacks to target al Qaeda and the Taliban. Long-range, high-altitude bombers like the B-2 were needed for the initial salvo over Afghanistan.

During his time at Whiteman, mission-qualified pilots were trained on a long-duration simulator to help them plan their sleep cycles, but those simulators typically lasted for only 24 hours. The longest sortie Deaile had flown before his record-setting flight was 25 hours.

Bomber crews were identified for the mission ahead of time, but they had no idea when or even whether the operation would take place. Flight doctors gave the crews sleeping pills to help them rest in the days leading up to the bombings, Deaile said.

“We just knew that if the president made the call, we were going to fly the second night,” he said.

On the day of his mission, Deaile, who was the mission commander, woke up three to four hours before his takeoff time to participate in briefings with his pilot and the crew of the other B-2 in their formation. They took off heading west in the stealth bomber named “Spirit of America.”

Policy during Deaile’s time required both crew members to be in their seats at critical flight moments, including takeoff, refueling, bombardment and landing. In the hours between, the two crew members would take turns sleeping in a small cot behind the seats in the cockpit.

“They may have upgraded it in the last 20 years to something a little bit more comfortable, but it was a modified cot behind the two pilots that the crew member not in the seat could clear out and grab some shut-eye for probably about three or four hours in between air refuelings,” Deaile said.

It could be difficult to fall asleep. “Obviously anybody going into combat has a level of anxiety,” Deaile said, “but eventually you’re going to get some shut-eye, just because your body is going to require that.”

Deaile’s mission had him heading west across the Pacific, with the advantage of having about 24 hours of sunlight working against the body’s natural circadian rhythm to keep the pilots from getting drowsy. Both crew members also had some chemical support to stay awake as the mission dragged on.

“The flight doc did have what we call ‘go pills’ authorized for use — amphetamines,” Deaile said. He emphasized policies could have changed in the more than two decades between his flight and the recent mission, and that his experience may not mirror those of Saturday’s bomber crews.

The B-2, made by Northrop Grumman, is one of the most expensive and sophisticated bombers in use. But the toilet situation was primitive. There was a chemical toilet on the plane, but the airmen used it only for what Deaile described as “more pertinent emergencies” to not overfill it.

There was no divider between that toilet and the pilot seats.

“Privacy is the guy looks the other way,” he said.

But high altitudes and pressurized cockpits can dehydrate pilots, and drinking water was crucial. Deaile estimated he and the other pilot drank about a bottle of water an hour. They would urinate in “piddle packs” — essentially Ziploc-like bags filled with kitty litter.

Deaile and the other pilot would pass their time by calculating the amount and weight of urine-filled bags they had accumulated: “These are the things you do when you have 44 hours, right?”

Both pilots also packed a lunch and were given meals designed for pilots to eat in flight. But sitting stationary for dozens of hours — there was room to walk around in the cockpit a bit, but not enough to exercise — doesn’t burn much energy, and Deaile doesn’t recall eating much.

They flew their aircraft across the Pacific and south of India before turning north heading toward Afghanistan. The plane was refueled several times in midair. Once the sun started setting, Deaile took one of the amphetamines given to him by the flight doctor to stay alert.

The crew dropped their payload over Afghanistan, spending about four hours in total over the country before departing. Deaile’s mission was not initially planned to last 44 hours, but once they left Afghan airspace they were ordered to fly back in for another bomb run. Deaile took another upper given to him by the flight doctor. After the second run, the crew landed at Diego Garcia, a military base on an island about 1,100 miles southwest of India.

During a mission debrief, the pilots were shown video of the targets they struck. Then they ate a meal, took about an hour to decompress, and finally fell asleep.

‘The most surreal moment’

Steven Basham, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who flew B-2s over Serbia in 1999, their first use in combat, told CNN that taking off was probably “the most surreal moment” in the lives of the crews in the weekend raid.

“They’re actually executing a mission that no one in the world knows, but for a very few, is taking place,” he said.

One unique aspect of Saturday’s mission is the payload each plane was carrying: 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs that were designed to penetrate deep into the mountains that US officials said fortified aspects of Iran’s nuclear program.

It was the first time that bomb had been used in combat, and only B-2s are capable of carrying these types of bombs.

Seven bombers carried a total of more than a dozen bombs. The impact of the sudden loss of several tons of weight on each aircraft was likely negligible on an aircraft as advanced as the B-2, Basham said.

The refuelings on the way back to Missouri were likely some of the hardest the fatigued crew had ever experienced, he said, but “the one thing that’s going to lift them up is they’re going to enter the coast of the United States again and they’re going to get that ‘welcome home’ from a US controller.”

CNN’s Tom Foreman contributed to this report.

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