The first sensation you have when you hear the dial tone of the GIANT VOICE system is the feeling of your heart pounding in your ears. No matter what you’re doing, everything around you quiets and the world freezes in anticipation as we wait for the inevitable “ALARM RED” announcement. For most on the installation, that sound meant immediate movement to the bunkers. Once you’re there, bracing for impact, within minutes you feel it; the over-blast pressure of an explosion. A low, concussive force rolls across the installation—felt in the chest then heard— followed by the delayed booms of other intercepts high overhead. Above, the night is briefly fractured as defensive fires meet inbound ballistic missiles or one-way attack drones overhead.
For our Airmen on the flightline, an ALARM RED announcement meant something else entirely. Engines are already turning. Cockpits are occupied. Aircraft sit armed, fueled, and committed to a fight that does not pause for the incoming threats. In those moments, the calculus is unfortunately simple: if the jet doesn’t launch or recover safely, the mission can fail, and the cost would be paid elsewhere, possibly on your own installation. On the flightline, an ALARM RED demanded exposure to the threat while executing our duty, ensuring the safety of our operators before the safety of ourselves. Our maintainers launching and recovering our aircraft knew that the loss of their sortie, aircraft, or aircrew would ripple forward. They were launching the aircraft performing active Defensive Counter Air for the base or heading into enemy territory to destroy the very power projection capability at its source.
ALARM REDs don’t stop mission generation actions. Rather, they compress our operations, forcing decisions into a narrow space between incoming threats and outgoing sorties. During the first 31 days of Operation EPIC FURY, we faced over 140 ALARM RED events. More than 50 in the opening 48 hours alone. Ballistic missiles impacting within hundreds of yards of parked aircraft. Intercepts overhead. Debris falling across active ramps. And still, mission generation continued.
A U.S. Air Force F-15E takes flight in the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury, March 2, 2026. (U.S. Air Force Photo)
To understand the lessons of EPIC FURY, we must understand the environment that our Airmen operated in. When the 492nd Fighter Generation Squadron (FGS) was tasked with a no-notice deployment, we stepped into an operational tempo that was immediate and unforgiving. Just 10 days after our arrival, Operation EPIC FURY commenced and the transition from a peacetime posture to the chaos of combat relied heavily on the mental preparation we gave our Airmen in those 10 days. We did what we could—intel briefs, all calls, one-on-one discussions, and motivation applied by constant leadership presence at every level. There was little time to process the magnitude of our situation or to mentally brace for the reality of war. We had to rely on the culture of our squadron and the preparation we had managed. The mission demanded absolute focus. So that’s what we did, we focused on mission generation over everything else.
Resiliency reveals itself not in the absence of fear, but in the decision to act in spite of it. General James Mattis famously noted that “resilience is the ability to withstand, to adapt, and to keep your head when everything around you is going sideways.” Maintainers on the flightline embodied this principle daily. They performed extraordinary feats of bravery, working exposed on the ramp while the GIANT VOICE siren wailed and threats materialized in the skies above them. Yet, if you were to ask A1C Joseph Newsome and A1C Levi Pigott, two Crew Chiefs from the 492 FGS, about their actions during the war, they would simply say “we were just doing our jobs.” Their profound humility masks the sheer magnitude of their courage, a trait echoed by many of their peers across the maintenance community. But what they viewed as a basic fulfillment of their duties is, in reality, a masterclass in overcoming terror to ensure the survival of their fellow maintainers, aircrew, and success of the mission.
Nowhere was this example of bravery more evident than during a chaotic ALARM RED condition with a ballistic missile incoming on the first night of the war with Iran. The base was plunged into darkness, the taxiways were congested with the jets that had just rapidly recovered after delivering an overwhelming number of munitions against the enemy, and our operators had little room to maneuver when the alarm rang out. In the pitch-black taxiway, an F-15E from the 492nd was effectively stuck with nowhere to taxi and seconds ticking down. As the pilot and weapons system officer sat in the open, searching for where to park their jet and deciding if they needed to abandon it on the taxiway, two young maintainers, A1C Newsome and A1C Pigott suddenly emerged from the darkness. The pilot of that aircraft later recalled the surreal sight of two Airmen appearing out of nowhere in the black of night: “As we’re game planning the best way to get out of the jet and to a bunker, we see Pigott and Newsome sprinting like Baywatch lifeguards. They came running from about 200 yards away towards our jet with chocks in hand.” Two young maintainers had emerged from the shadows, running full tilt, past six different hardened bunkers, toward the exposed aircraft without hesitation.
A1Cs Newsome and Pigott didn’t just secure the aircraft; they executed their duties with an inspiring level of precision and with absolute defiance to the threat. “Within seconds after getting to us, they’ve got the jet safely chocked in the taxiway, salute, and run for the bunker,” the pilot noted, allowing them to safely and expeditiously shut down both engines and egress the jet to get to safety. That final, fleeting gesture, a crisp salute rendered under the shadow of an incoming missile, speaks volumes about the character of these Airmen. It was, in the pilot’s exact words, “badass, absolutely unnecessary but just a baller move like they’ve got everything under control.” The salute wasn’t just a military courtesy; it was a physical manifestation of resiliency, a signal that even in the face of imminent destruction, they owned the moment, and they owned their mission.
All four of them made it into a bunker just before the roar of a Patriot missile was shot to intercept the inbound threat to the installation. This single event still gives me chills and brings a tear to my eye every time I think about it. It perfectly articulates what it truly means to answer the call and maintain the resiliency required of us in Major Combat Operations (MCO). These two young Airmen recognized a catastrophic vulnerability and acted decisively under the most extreme pressure imaginable. Without realizing it, their decision to act, to put the safety of our operators above seeking shelter, made a difference in the lives of the aircrew. It brought comfort, confidence, and safety when they showed up with chocks in the middle of the dark taxiway. While these maintainers may humbly dismiss their actions as just another day on a chaotic flightline, the reality is far more significant: it was profound, selfless heroism. Their actions exemplify exactly how we need all of our Airmen to respond in future conflict.
Conclusion
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Jan. 10, 2026) U.S. Airmen load bombs onto F-15E Strike Eagles in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in support of Operation Hawkeye Strike, Jan. 10, 2026. (U.S. Air Force Photo)
My lasting lesson from EPIC FURY is not simply that our Airmen can endure extreme conditions; it is that they can be prepared to act decisively within them. Technology, Air Force Instructions, and processes all matter, but none of them will close the gap between threat and execution in the seconds that define success in combat. However, cultivating a tremendous and resilient culture can. A culture that deliberately builds trust, ownership, and bias for action at the lowest level can produce Airmen who move toward the problem when every instinct tells them to move away.
What A1C Newsome and A1C Pigott demonstrated was not accidental. It was the result of leadership that set expectations early, of 7-level supervisors leading by example, of clearly communicated risk, and a culture that treated junior Airmen as professionals capable of making consequential decisions. In a fight where time is a constrained resource, we cannot rely on centralized control or perfect information. We rely on people who understand the mission, trust each other, and are empowered to act without hesitation. That kind of resilience is not built in combat. It is built long before it, through repetition, standards, and an understanding of the operational environment.
We should be clear about what this means for the future. Preparing for MCO is not just about equipment, tactics, or organizational design. It is about cultivating an environment where initiative is expected, where risk is understood and accepted, and where Airmen are conditioned to operate in ambiguity and danger without waiting to be told what to do. If we fail to build that culture in peacetime, we will pay for it in combat.
Equally important, we must continue to tell these inspiring stories. These moments of heroism are examples of what right looks like in combat. Stories like this reinforce standards, shape identity, and give meaning to the expectations we place on our people. Resilience is built through shared experience, reinforced through trust, and revealed in moments when it matters most.
About the Author
1st Lt Courtney Stenslie (née Swift) is the Sortie Generation Flight Commander for the 71st Aircraft Maintenance Unit, JB Langley-Eustis.
When she wrote this article, she was deployed to CENTCOM in support of Operation EPIC FURY, filling in as the Squadron’s Director of Operations. Her operational experience includes three years stationed at RAF Lakenheath, two combat deployments with the F-15E, and multiple NATO exercises around USAFE. She believes sharing stories like this can help inspire our Airmen to be prepared for future conflict. She can be reached at courtney.stenslie@us.af.mil.