http://hamptonroads.com/node/607338
By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 17, 2011
Nick Tsougas figures it was probably the longest 10 seconds of his life.
Flying his F-15E fighter jet at 500 mph, 500 feet up, unable to see the ground because of heavy cloud cover, he’d just dropped a 2,000-pound bomb within 100 yards of coalition ground troops pinned down in a ditch by incessant Taliban gunfire.
Tsougas and his weapons officer waited anxiously for the bomb damage assessment. Were their coordinates right? Did the instrument-guided weapon function properly? Did they hit their target or their own men?
Finally, the radio crackled to life with the ground officer’s report: “Good hits. Good hits.” A wave of relief washed over the airmen.
“It was the most hair-raising pass I’ve ever done,” Tsougas said.
That pass was the culmination of a nightlong assault by Tsougas’ jet and a companion F-15E over western Afghanistan in April 2010 that killed more than 80 Taliban fighters and saved the lives of 30 coalition troops.
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