The Pentagon announced on January 20 that Capt. Harry M. Roberts and Maj. Jeffrey S. Tice were missing from early offensive strikes over Iraq and Kuwait. No further information was given as to date of loss, location of loss or probability of survival. Later media releases indicate that Roberts was stationed at Torrejon Air Base in Spain. He and Tice were flying from Doha Qatar airfield on a strike against an oil refinery south of Baghdad.
Both pilots were, infact, shot down by SAMs (SAM model not confirmed). One report (located on Oregon Air National Guard's biography page I believe) stated that Tice was able to glide almost 100 miles until he was forced to eject. I had thought perhaps Tice was "Benji 53" (see main page for the link to that recording), since he was able to glide (condusive with the recording). However, if he was a part of the STROKE strike package, his callsign would have been STROKE 4. Anyone with any information, please clarify. On January 22, Iraqi television broadcast post-capture interviews of Roberts and Tice. As was the case on January 20, these two POWs appeared to be subdued and under extreme stress — but alive and less severely injured than the first group. Roberts and Tice indicated their targets were south of Baghdad and that their aircraft had been shot down by surface-to-air missiles (SAM).
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- "Okay, SAM launch! Nose 5 low!"
- (Air controller interruptions)
- "Bank right! Bank right!"
- "Okay, missed him."
(impact)
- "Stroke One's a hit! Stroke One's a hit!"
- "Stroke One took a hit! Stroke One took a hit!"
- "Status?"
- "Okay, I've got a fire! I'm ah-stand by. Um, just south of steerpoint number seven. Still flyin'. And I'm headin' south."
- "Copy."
- "Okay, it we took a pretty good hit. I've got no engine."
