House of Cards Behind the Iran Strike | Operation Midnight Hammer | Logistics Cmdr Lt Col Tilton
The Afterburn PodcastShow Notes
Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the people who flew it. Lt Col Tilton commanded the logistics readiness squadron at the deployed location, supplying the base the Wild Weasels flew from when they took Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses ahead of the B-2 strike on Iran.
Watch the three-part documentary series on Afterburn Defense:
Part I: https://youtu.be/MgQ_X3Td8a4
Part II: https://youtu.be/GzdL6NMYDso
Part III: https://youtu.be/Xc22-2RaGSY
This is the full interview.
Everything the mission needed had to arrive first. In this conversation, he explains why the base ran out of food more than once, what it took to run a second fuel line through a wall and under roads in the two weeks before the strike, how the fleet grew from a few dozen vehicles to hundreds, and the plan for what happens to loaded aircraft if the base goes to alarm red.
Before Iran, the 55th Fighter Squadron fought over Yemen in Operation Rough Rider, a sustained air campaign against Houthi surface-to-air threats. What they learned there is the reason the F-16 Block 50 and the AGM-88 HARM were part of the strike package on June 21st, 2025.
These interviews were recorded between December 2025 and January 2026 and preserve firsthand accounts from pilots, maintainers, intelligence officers, and logistics airmen who were there.
0:00 Getting a Fighter Wing Out the Door
2:14 The Air Force Isn't Built for Agile Deployment
8:37 Running a Squadron With Half the Leadership Gone
10:52 A Ramp That Kept Shrinking as Jets Arrived
14:32 The Fuel Trucks That Kept Breaking
19:04 When the Base Ran Out of Food
23:27 Running a Second Fuel Line Before the Strike
32:15 What Happens When the Base Goes to Alarm Red
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