Pilot Packed Sandwiches and Missiles

Air Force Lt. Col. Floyd L. Carpenter went to war Tuesday for the first time in his 18 years in the military, jammed into a plane filled with chicken sandwiches and 2,000-pound Cruise missiles.

Flying a B-52 aircraft that bore the name Mud Buff, Carpenter spent 33.9 hours in the air as his plane and a second B-52 flew nonstop from Guam to Iraq and back to launch missiles against military targets at dawn Tuesday.

Carpenter’s flight--13,600 miles each way--took so long that the two bombers had to refuel in the air four times. They made the entire trip over water, never flying over land, a political decision that Carpenter said was one made “above my pay grade.”