I remember it very well, was on nights at Buchan.
Around 6 to 6.30 in the morning, just before we were about to go off shift, we saw a whole load of traffic being picked up by Portreath coming in over Lands End, which was normally filtered out of the air picture and we did wonder what the hell it was all about, as we watched them change from Pending to Allied to Interceptor...
One of the more exciteable junior SAC's on watch then came hoofing into the ops room exclaiming:
"Ronnie Reagan's just bombed the s**t out of Libya!!"
having seen breakfast tv announcing the raid having been carried out (which had obviously followed on from the broadcast that the OP refers to)... I still remember the look on his face to this day.
There was some Pave Tack camera footage that was added to the news broadcasts not long afterwards, from what I recall, over an airfield (I seem to remember seeing the footage of a parked AN-12 taking a 2000 pound direct hit). I also remember getting hold of one of the Lakenheath Is Bombing Your Ass stickers as well - I think I might still have it on a cassette case somewhere in the garage!
This is the first time I've read anything about the raid in any kind of detail.
80 feet at 600 knots in pitch dark in an F111, in combat conditions?
Bloody hell. I bet that was one hell of a rush....
Thats what they join up to do though I guess..... amazing work!
