Why the F-16 Flew Into Iran | Operation Midnight Hammer | Weapons Officers "Cash" and "Ghost"

Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the F-16 Wild Weasel fighter pilots who flew into Iran. Ghost" Trembly and "Cash" Croghan were the wing and squadron weapons officers for the 55th Fighter Squadron, the F-16 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

They planned the F-16 portion of the strike package. In this conversation, they explain why a fourth-generation fighter flew into Iran alongside the B-2s and F-35s, how the squadron reconfigured from the Yemen fight in a matter of hours, and why nobody in the squadron believed the mission was real until it was.

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 Preparing the Squadron for Deployment
5:16 New Equipment: AESA Radar and the F-16 Block 50
8:52 Operation Rough Rider: Counter-UAS Over Yemen
15:31 Mission Planning on a Folding Table
21:14 Five Days Out: Nobody Believed It Was Real
28:49 Reconfiguring the Jets From Rockets to HARMs
31:45 The Night "Glitch" Shot a SAM in 8 Seconds and saved "Cash"
41:21 Why the F-16 Was the Only Jet That Could Do It
46:38 The 15-Minute Brief Before Flying Into Iran
49:47 A 300 Mile Ingress Into Iranian Airspace
1:05:50 Is That a Missile Coming Off the Ground
1:12:41 How Tight the Fuel Really Was
1:20:40 Bunker Diving and Life on the Base

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