If That's What Saves Your Life, It Has to Work | Operation Midnight Hammer | Weapons Tech SSgt Dray
If That's What Saves Your Life, It Has to Work | Operation Midnight Hammer | Weapons Tech SSgt Dray  
Podcast: The Afterburn Podcast
Published On: Thu Aug 13 2026
Description: Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the people who flew it. SSgt Dray was a weapons technician responsible for the munitions and countermeasure systems on the F-16s, arming the Wild Weasels who flew Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses ahead of the B-2 strike on Iran. Watch the three-part documentary series on Afterburn Defense: Part I: https://youtu.be/MgQ_X3Td8a4 Part II: https://youtu.be/GzdL6NMYDso Part III: https://youtu.be/Xc22-2RaGSY This is the full interview. He is one of the airmen who put the weapons on the jets. In this conversation he explains what it actually takes to reconfigure a fleet of F-16s from one mission to another, the failure he chased down that nobody could explain, what changed for him when he realized this was not training, and the night the loading told him something was about to happen. Before Iran, the 55th Fighter Squadron fought over Yemen in Operation Rough Rider, a sustained air campaign against Houthi surface-to-air threats. What they learned there is the reason the F-16 Block 50 and the AGM-88 HARM were part of the strike package on June 21st, 2025. These interviews were recorded between December 2025 and January 2026 and preserve firsthand accounts from pilots, maintainers, intelligence officers, and logistics airmen who were there. 0:00 What a Weapons Technician Actually Does 2:10 Spinning Up Before the Deployment 8:30 Reconfiguring a Fleet of F-16s 12:35 Arriving in Theater During Rough Rider 14:42 The Failure Nobody Could Explain 19:24 This Wasn't Training Anymore 20:48 The Night Something Was About to Happen Have a story? Want to Connect? Advertise? https://theafterburnpodcast.com/contact/🛫 Become a Fighter/Bomber/Cargo/Tanker/RPA Pilot 🎯 : http://bogidope.com/?bd=tappodcast 🛫Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) Prep with AFOQT Wingman https://afoqtwingman.com/Code: AFTERBURN for 10% off🔺 Aviation & Defense Newsletter - https://bit.ly/AfterburnNewsletter 🔺Become a Patron, Support the Show, & Gain Exclusive Benefits: https://www.patreon.com/c/theafterburnpodcast   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.