First-hand Perspective

Martha Radditz, veteran ABC News correspondent, says she recently did what no reporter before her has done: fly in an Air Force fighter on an actual combat mission. In fact, she spent 5.5 hours in the back seat of an F-15E during the course of two sorties over Afghanistan with Strike Eagles operating out of Bagram Airfield. She chronicled her experience Wednesday on Nightline, including an armed overwatch mission supporting hundreds of French ground troops. The segment shows the skill of the F-15E aircrews in working with a French combat controller to neutralize some insurgents while avoiding damage to a nearby school. “In this war, making sure you kill the enemy and no one else, can take far more discipline and, yes, even courage, as we would soon find out,” Radditz said in her opening dialogue. Those words rang true. (ABC News report, including link to video segment)