U.S. Pilots Say They’re Ready to Do Their Job

As he crisscrosses the potentially hostile skies over southern Iraq, Navy Lt. Bryan Fetter aims an infrared laser from his F-14 Tomcat jet at would-be targets in the desert. After four months of practice, he’s ready for the real thing.

“The most difficult part is finding the target, but the laser has tremendous capability to guide our bombs exactly where we want them,” he said. “I feel very confident in our ability to take out only those targets we’re aiming for.”

As he roams the labyrinthine corridors of this aircraft carrier, Lt. Reuel Sample, its chaplain, hears the same obsession about targets--Iraqi military facilities and alleged stores of chemical and biological weapons.

“They’re concerned about ‘on-target,’ ” the Presbyterian minister said. “Do they worry about hitting civilians? Yes, they do. But to be perfectly honest, in order for them to get their job done, they need to put that out of their minds. . . . We as Christians strive for peace, but sometime God uses war to bring about peace.”

With President Clinton nearing a decision on whether to attack, the Navy pilots of Operation Desert Thunder, the U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf, sound like men of faith--faith in new high-tech weapons and belief that their vast destructive power is the lesser of two evils.

A new arsenal of “smart” bombs, developed since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, will give the fighter jocks from two U.S. carriers the lead role in any campaign to knock out Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

In interviews Saturday, pilots and others among the George Washington’s 5,500-strong crew expressed none of the doubts aired in raucous debates back home over the wisdom and aims of a potential strike.

“I shouldn’t say we’re looking forward to the mission, but, to tell the truth, we’re ready to assume the responsibility and show everybody that we can do the job,” said Fetter, a stocky, 26-year-old radio intercept officer from Chicago.

Fetter did not fight in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The F-14 Tomcat he now flies did fight then, but it could not deliver ordnance. Now it carries a targeting pod that shines a laser on ground targets, allowing bombs equipped with glass-eyed seekers and minicomputers to pursue the beam to the ground.

The F-14’s new nickname is the Bombcat.

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The George Washington and its Gulf-based partner, the aircraft carrier Independence, are carrying 102 strike aircraft, including F/A18 Hornets that have evolved since the 1991 war to deliver a full range of conventional air-to-ground weapons and to engage other aircraft.

“We have improved dramatically in terms of bang for the buck,” said Rear Adm. Mike Mullen, Los Angeles-born commander of the George Washington battle group. “We have more precision-guided munitions on these two aircraft carriers than we had on all six in 1991.”

In that campaign, Navy jets played a supporting role as the Air Force hit Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ground targets. This time, Saudi Arabia’s refusal to permit U.S. attack planes to launch from its territory, along with Washington’s unwillingness to deploy U.S. ground troops, has put the burden on the Navy.

“We’re not restricted where we can go; we don’t have to ask permission,” Mullen said. “We’re 4 1/2 acres of sovereign U.S. territory.”

Since sailing into the Gulf on Nov. 21, the George Washington’s 200 aviators have been flying sorties almost daily “over the beach,” enforcing a “no-fly” zone imposed over southern Iraq after the 1991 war.

The missions over the desert also enable them to hone their tactical skills and survey potential bombing targets.

Mullen and his pilots say the improved weaponry should minimize “collateral damage”--unintended harm to Iraqi civilians, hospitals and schools. But because Hussein has threatened to use civilians to shield military targets, even the smartest bombs might take innocent lives.

If that happens, the pilots say, they will not be to blame.

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In the corridors, mess halls and officer’s quarters, the pilots also talk about the debate over Iraq in the United States, and particularly the opposition to U.S. bombing that was voiced at Wednesday’s “town meeting” at Ohio State University--an event seen live on the carrier on CNN.

The opposition did not hurt morale, they insist.

“It’s good to get opinions aired out,” said Lt. Mike Amos, 26, of Orlando, Fla. “That’s one great thing about our country. You can have people disagree, and it makes everything stronger.”

The U.S. objective, he added, could not be clearer to him and his fellow pilots: “If we cannot get the [U.N.] weapons inspectors back into Iraq by diplomatic means, then we can at least degrade their ability to threaten their neighbors with weapons of mass destruction. The airstrikes will degrade those capabilities.”

About one-third of the George Washington’s pilots are veterans of Desert Storm or NATO bombing missions over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mid-1990s. They are accustomed to these controversies.

Still, that does not make the thought of war any easier, said Sample, the chaplain who oversees daily religious services on the carrier that draw several hundred worshipers a week.

“Oftentimes, people in the military are viewed as inhuman and uncaring,” he said. “These are men and women of faith aboard this ship, and I’m sure they’re struggling in their prayers and personal devotions with what’s going on too.”

The 29-year-old minister from Erie, Pa., expresses himself categorically about the morality of war against Iraq.

“Which is more moral?” he asked. “To allow these weapons of mass destruction to exist, which could kill millions of people? Or do we take the risk of killing hundreds of people? . . . You’ve got a very evil man saying, ‘Peace, peace.’ Well, the peace that he’s offering is an immoral peace.

“People on board are wrestling with that. A lot of these pilots were here in the last war. For the most part, they just want something decisive to happen--by diplomatic means or otherwise.”