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Merely 15 seconds stood between F-16 “Wild Weasel” pilots Lt. Col. William “Skate” Parks and Maj. Michael “Danger” Blea and their survival or demise in the nocturnal heavens above Yemen.
Accompanying several B-2 Spirit bombers and additional aircraft, they participated in an intricate operation aimed at hitting Houthi ballistic missile manufacturing sites in Yemen on March 27, 2025. The B-2s released their ordnance, and the F-16s veered off from their objectives, anticipating a swift return to “feet wet” status above the Red Sea.
However, abruptly, they became the quarry. Upon observing a flare from the terrain beneath, Parks and Blea understood they were caught in the sights of an approaching ground-to-air projectile, with the pursuer transforming into the pursued.
Air & Space Forces Magazine was granted interviews by the Air Force with Parks and Blea to recount their perilous undertaking, an achievement that earned each of them a Silver Star—among fewer than a hundred such bravery decorations bestowed upon Airmen since the establishment of the autonomous U.S. Air Force in 1947. The Silver Star is the U.S. military’s third-highest commendation for gallantry, following the Medal of Honor and service Crosses.
Both pilots and Air Force representatives refrained from identifying the adversary or nation implicated, however, discussions with numerous present and past U.S. officials verified that these events unfolded above Yemen and the Red Sea. The squadron’s operations targeting the Houthis are additionally mentioned in no less than one other commendation record.
This narration of the operation and Operation Rough Rider, the 52-day aerial offensive against the Houthis, derives from conversations with present and past U.S. officials familiar with the air campaign.
Additional accolades were also garnered on that evening. A tanker team—comprising two pilots and a boom operator who dared to enter peril—received Distinguished Flying Crosses for their endeavors. According to the Air Force, these medals are slated for formal presentation in March. Parks additionally received a Bronze Star for his contributions throughout the squadron’s deployment.
The endeavor garnered attention due to its atypical organizational framework. The then-head of U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, transferred oversight of aerial maneuvers in the Yemen vicinity from Air Forces Central and the Combined Forces Air Component Commander, or CFACC, to the Joint Special Operations Command, situated in Fort Bragg, N.C., then under the leadership of Vice Adm. Frank Bradley.
This marked what was probably the initial instance of a Middle Eastern air campaign of such scale being managed by JSOC, a choice that remains contentious among certain active and former military personnel. Though some ex-special operators assert the reallocation was fitting, given JSOC’s extensive experience dismantling insurgent groups, detractors of the change contend that it excessively prioritized pursuing Houthi leadership and allocated inadequate focus to identifying and engaging targets utilized by the Houthis for national control, such as air defense sites. When solicited for remarks, none of the pertinent commands—neither U.S. Central Command, Air Forces Central, nor U.S. Special Operations Command—offered comment on the determination.
First In, Last Out
Operation Rough Rider, the comprehensive offensive aimed at the Houthis, commenced on March 15, 2025. The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman positioned itself off the Yemeni shoreline, with its flight deck overflowing with F/A-18 Super Hornet versatile fighter aircraft and EA-18 Growler electronic warfare jets. Unmanned MQ-9 Reaper aerial vehicles, controlled remotely, also participated in the undertaking.
As of March 25, six B-2s were reaching the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, based on publicly available information. While the Air Force chose not to discuss the B-2s’ involvement, individuals knowledgeable about the mission indicate their participation in the March 27 assault.
Parks and Blea, both belonging to the 480th Fighter Squadron, stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, were deployed to the Middle East in October 2024, with their unit staying until July 2025. The Spangdahlem fighters are “Wild Weasels,” instructed and furnished to neutralize adversary air defenses, an assignment, designated SEAD, originating from the Vietnam War era.
The 480th F-16s are equipped with Active Electronically Scanned Array radars and the laser-guided rocket system, APWKS, for countering approaching drones. Their HARM Targeting System, or HTS pods, assist them in identifying and aiming at hostile SAM locations.
In acknowledgement of their SEAD function and safeguarding of other aircraft, the Wild Weasel maxim is “First In, Last Out,” which serves as a recurring call-and-response within the unit. Their morale insignia feature a distinct idiom, denoted solely by its five-letter abbreviation—YGBSM—positioned beneath a depiction of a perplexed ferret.
The March 27 assignment represented Parks’ initial nocturnal undertaking of the campaign. Serving as the operation’s commander that evening, he had initiated his debriefings two days earlier, urging his colleagues to reorient their perspective from acting as multirole fighter-bombers during Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS in Syria, towards concentrating on the SEAD task in Yemen.
The U.S. armed forces chose not to disclose the F-16s’ Middle Eastern home station, however, aerial zone limitations directed them across the Red Sea while they entered and departed Yemeni aerial territory.
During the evening of March 27, they traversed that path alongside two additional F-16s from their unit. The assignment was SEAD, purposed to harm or annihilate Houthi air defenses, concurrently diverting the Houthis’ attention from the remaining segment of the offensive.
“The core principle of the Wild Weasel is to draw the gaze and focus of our adversaries,” Parks articulated. “This does not inherently imply that we aspire, wish, or even foresee ourselves becoming fully engaged under fire.”
Scarcely had the mission commenced when it became apparent the Houthis were cognizant of an ongoing operation. Initially, the terrain beneath them started to glint like pyrotechnics, but which, in actuality, signified their detection and, as some officials subsequently estimated, indicated Houthi air defense personnel were communicating amongst themselves.
“They are aware of our presence. Their focus must be on us,” Parks stated. “We must consciously and deliberately choose to move nearer to the hazardous zone, which is not an enjoyable choice, yet it was undeniably one we understood was necessary.”
U.S. military personnel never completely comprehended the complete scope of the Houthis’ improvised integrated air defense, according to current and former U.S. officials. Subsequent scrutiny suggests the Houthis integrated radar-directed SAMs with
visual observers and electro-optical and infrared sensors, passive means that U.S. sensors didn’t pick up.
“We tried to understand what exactly was happening,” a senior U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “We made a concerted effort to understand all the pieces of information that they were obtaining to build their picture. And I don’t think we ever had 100 percent clarity on that.”
Parks and Blea had reached their objective near the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and each fired one anti-radiation AGM-88 HARM missile each. The two HARMs were among nearly 50 fired during the campaign during almost two dozen engagements against surface-to-air missile sites and anti-aircraft artillery.
The Yemen campaign was the first by the U.S. military since 2011’s Operation Odyssey Dawn against Libya to employ HARMs.
The missiles found their targets and the Houthi air defenses appeared silenced. But as the U.S. jets began to exit the country, the Houthis were playing possum, waiting for their chance to respond.
“The main strike goes through, and it happens in an instant, and then it was over, and everything was quiet,” Parks said. The bombers’ mission was successful and the strike packages began their exit. “There’s no AAA, there’s no nothing,” Parks recalled. “The systems we’ve seen on air had turned off air, and now we’re getting ready to go home.”
But the aircraft were being tracked as they flew toward the Red Sea and the Houthis didn’t turn on their radars until they had a SAM ready to launch at the American jets, a so-called SAMbush.
“It was an ambush because we did not get much indication ahead of time,” Parks. “We only had about 15-20 seconds of indications ahead of time. So what does that tell you about what they were doing? Did they just turn it, leave it off, and then click it on and shoot? What were they doing? … It’s fair to say I do think they were using a lot of visual observation and EO/IR.”
Parks had few options, so he headed straight for the missile—a method of last resort—as he tried to confuse the munition and cause it to overshoot.
“You see this bright white light, and you see the rocket with the first missile launch, and it’s essentially directly underneath our position,” Parks said. “We have enough time to make essentially a hard turn into this missile. It goes past right underneath my left wing, close enough I can hear the rumble, and that’s something that’s stuck with me to this day.”
Parks had survived, but now Blea’s life hung in the balance.
“I watched the launch, and then I can see the missile the entire time,” Blea said. “Then I start my threat reacting, according to how we train. And then I vividly remember thinking, this is my only chance. I have one chance to make this miss.”
It did—barely. “It was flying within feet of the front of my nose,” Blea said. Thirty feet, he estimated later, a distance that is less than the length of his aircraft—an F-16 is just under 50 feet long.
For the next quarter hour, the pilots would pull defensive maneuvers and dispense countermeasures.
“It is 15 minutes of that for a total of six missiles being shot at the two of us, and just working as a team to make sure that we are always making moves in the right direction to get safe, while also making sure that we are defending from these missiles,” Blea said.
Because F-16s burn more fuel pulling Gs, the pilots now faced another challenge: Running out of gas would almost certainly lead to ejecting over hostile territory or into the Red Sea, neither one an appealing option.
In the event an F-16 engine is starved of fuel and flames out, pilots can keep their jets airborne for a few minutes using the aircraft’s emergency power unit, fueled by hydrazine. The fly-by-wire F-16 becomes uncontrollable, however, once it loses its fly-by-wire controls.
“I did not want to punch out because I ran out of gas,” Parks said. “We obviously were utilizing a much higher fuel rate. We’re on afterburner for some of these higher G maneuvers. And so, considering we did that over 10 minutes, and we were leaving already with our planned recovery fuel, it almost immediately put us well behind on fuel.”
Recognizing the risk, the Air Forces Central’s Combined Air Operations Center, which was responsible for flight safety, swung into action.
A tanker crew was dispatched closer to enemy territory and into harm’s way. Blea headed for fuel first.
“I will forever owe a debt of gratitude to the tanker crews that night, because without question, without knowing the full details of what was going on, they immediately were just willing to support,” Blea said.
Parks’ Bronze Star citation notes the accomplishments of the 480th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron. Parks was the unit’s commander, leading 56 Airmen and 12 F-16s. The squadron was one of the first to use APKWS as drone-killing air-to-air weapons and helped develop the “innovative tactics” employed to defeat enemy drones. It also used older AIM-9M Sidewinders, claiming the first air-to-air kill by an AIM-9M in over 30 years. The unit scored 108 total aerial kills of drones and cruise missiles during the deployment.
“The 480th executed a high-risk campaign against Houthi forces, employing over 134 bombs and 47 AGM-88 missiles while flying 9,000 hours and 1.4 thousand sorties under grave risk from 22 surface-to-air missile and air defense artillery engagements,” the award citation states.
But the most rewarding response came when the pilots finally landed back at base and were greeted by the dozens of maintainers and other crew who kept the aircraft flying.
“I turn the corner into a parking spot, and I see probably in the range of 30 people standing up front from there,” Blea said. “That’s kind of the first time you allow your mind to kind of go back to that moment.”
As Blea was unstrapping from his ejection seat, one of his close friends climbed up the ladder, exclaiming, “Dude, you’re home!”
Then Parks approached Blea.
“Nothing needs to be said,” Blea said, recalling the moment. “We look at each other, and we’re like, ‘Wow!’ One, what a night. And two, we’re both here. We did what we were meant to do. … We both made it.”
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org