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Kerry Barrett ReportingThey've spent months and years training for war. Now in the field, there are often split second decisions and changes in plans according to what our U.S. airmen are facing in flight.
How do you prepare for a mission of this magnitude and the individual sorties that comprise Life at War?
Lt. Col. Peter Gersten/ Pilot & Commander of the 388th Fighter Wing: "We flew missions the day after we got here. It was welcome to runway, here's your brief. You're on a mission."
No rest for the weary. They landed with only the information you saw them leave with from Hill AFB. They're well trained, but there's nothing that can really prepare you for split second, life or death decisions.
"You can talk as much as you want about what it's like to have a missile come at you or what it's like to have gunfire shot at you. But it truly is something that has to be seen."
The 4th fighter squadron's primary role is close air support of ground troops. When they get their mission, they get a specific task: the support equipment and files.
"They have an hour of preparation, an hour briefing, start the jet, fly the jet."
Then once they're airborn, intelligence on the ground will give them updates and changes in plans as they occur.
Thats' what they aim for. But because Balad is so strategically located, they're usually one of the first called out at a moment's notice.
"We have people that are always alert. Right now I have pilots that are sitting in their gear waiting for a distress call coming from the Army."
"Fromt he time the Army hits that button, we have people that will be airborn in 15 minutes. Typically we'll see them airborn in five."
I arrived in Balad shortly after the mosque bombing in Samarra in February. That bombing touched off a wave of violence between Sunnis and Shiites that Lt. Col. Gerston says was reflected in the intensity of their missions and the number of missions they flew.
On Monday, we go behind the frontlines, behind the scenes, to the Balad hospital. They're pictures you won't want to miss, Monday on Eyewitness News Today.
