Mission heats up as sun sets
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq -- Lt. Col. Gary Middlebrooks, piloting an F-16 Fighting Falcon, waits in a hot pit area near a taxiway here for his wingman as sunset approaches Aug. 17. Fighters taxi to hot pit areas before takeoff so Airmen can ready the aircrafts' weapons systems for combat. Colonel Middlebrooks, a pilot with the 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron here, is deployed from the Air National Guard's 114th Fighter Wing at Joe Foss Field Air Guard Station, S.D. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Nancy Ausland)