Launching the F-16s into Iran | Operation Midnight Hammer | Maintenance Chief CMSgt. Hilliard
The Afterburn PodcastShow Notes
Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the people who flew it. CMSgt. Hilliard was the senior enlisted leader for maintenance in the 55th Fighter Squadron, the Wild Weasels who flew 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.
No jet flies without the people who fix it. In this conversation he talks about how the squadron decided which specific aircraft would fly the Iran mission, what it takes to generate a sortie that most people never think about, running a maintenance unit where many of the airmen had never deployed before, and the eighteen hours he waited after the jets taxied out.
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 From a One-Stoplight Town to the Viper
5:18 What It Actually Takes to Launch One Sortie
8:16 Spinning Up a Maintenance Unit for Combat
11:42 Leading Airmen Who Had Never Deployed
17:22 Flying With Fewer Jets Than You Need
21:16 A Week Out From Operation Midnight Hammer
23:27 Eighteen Hours of Waiting
26:06 A Different Kind of Battlefield
33:59 The Empty Break Rooms
39:05 How We Chose Which Jets Would Go
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