During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lt. Col. Ed Lynch was called in to help 52 British special operators that were stuck in a rough situation that just went from bad to worse.
Surrounded by 500 Iraqi troops, the British Spec Ops team was outnumbered 10 to 1. Suffering heavy losses, the Brits called for help over the radio, they needed help now.
Lynch and his wingman needed to drop their bombs now, but they could not acquire a visual target long enough to deploy their weapons. Lynch asked the ground troops to deploy a strobe, but there just wasn’t any time.
With no options left, the F-16 pilots improvised. Using the incredible power of the F-16’s F110 GE single engine, the pilots directed a sonic boom at the ground in a daring maneuver that was literally just crazy enough to work.
Lynch flies directly toward the ground at super sonic speeds, but breaks away at the last second. The sonic boom was “thrown” to the ground sounding like an ear piercing explosion. This breaks the Iraqi troops and gives the ground forces the distraction they need to escape.
Watch Lynch’s incredible story in the video below.