Lebrun said his goal was to let the crew know their welfare was his priority. Then, I went over my last rule, which was to get 14 guys home alive.” Then we went into a few other things about command structure, respect, tactics, getting gear ready, comm(unications) gear and how we’re going to work in the airplane. “The first goal was to get 14 guys home alive. “I sat down with my crew and we went over Captain Lebrun’s rules, objectives and goals,” he said.

That’s also when Lebrun went over his rules. You got what you got,’” Lebrun said.Ĭrews started flying and mission planning for a rear area security and air base defense mission after studying the threats up north. “Higher authorities said, ‘No, rotations stop. That soon stopped, leaving many junior members in place.

When the crew first arrived during Operation Desert Shield, Air Force Veteran Phil Lebrun said they were in a “two-week cycle mindset.” Lebrun’s crew and another spelled the initial crews, who only spent a few weeks in theater, then rotated home.Ĭommanders initially rotated people every few weeks to give crews experience. The crew’s actions followed their aircraft commander’s first and last rule: all 14 men come home alive. Flying into Iraqi airspace, the 14 men aboard destroyed a command and control center, then evaded three surface-to-air missiles through death-defying maneuvers in the lumbering, four-propeller aircraft. On their second mission during Operation Desert Storm, the crew of an AC-130H gunship, call sign Ghost 02, flew a mission that none of them should have lived to tell.

Air force c 130 gunship