Profile of a Combat Mission

1.-- The alert is called the evening before the mission. When the target comes in, the operations and intelligence officers get together with the lead pilot and begin working out details.

2.-- The Group CO, who often leads his unit or bigger forces, calls in the weather man for a conference on the all-important "met problems".

3.-- Intelligence officers choose their maps and pictures hours before the briefing. The whole picture -- routes in and out of Germany, and the target itself -- must be clear in every airman's mind.