Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

The five-person crew flew its sortie over northern Iraq in a Buff that was the 23rd Bomb Squadron flagship, with the mission lasting less than 15 hours.

"It was an honor to be part of the 100th mission and the group's five decade-long legacy," said Capt. John Eldride, pilot on the mission. "I'm glad to be a part of making Air Force history. The B-52s have played a vital part of coalition air strikes in this operation, and continue to do so as we speak."

Like many other leaders, Eldridge gave the reason for their success to some of the unsung heroes, the ground crews.

"For every sortie, the maintainers put 10 to 12 hours of work into each jet," Eldridge said.  "They are the reason we are able to achieve this milestone."   

The heavy bombers have had a variety of missions ranging from high-altitude bombing to close air support in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  In this historic flight, the crew performed a CAS mission.

With 100 missions in the book, aircrews from this forward-operating location have contributed more than 1,200 flying hours and dropped over 2,400 bombs to the coalition war effort. The coalition has flown more than 32,000 sorties, with more than 12,000 of those being strike sorties as of April 10.

Although the air expeditionary group here started less than two months ago, the 457th Bomb Group (Heavy) formed on May 18, 1943, flying B-17s. The War Department disbanded the group Aug. 28, 1945 after 236 combat missions.

The Fireball Outfit participated in six campaigns including Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe, and Air Offensive Europe. Their base of operations in England was out of Glatton, from Jan. 22, 1944 to June 1, 1945.

-- USAFENS --