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Crossing the four thousand miles from DC to Ramstein, Germany, in just over three hours—a flight that normally took eight—with a midair refueling south of Iceland, was a brand-new experience for Holly.
She needed sleep, but there wasn’t a chance of it. and it wasn’t the new experience that kept her awake.
The back seat of an F/A-18F Super Hornet multirole fighter jet running hot wasn’t a place conducive to sleep. The pilot had assured her that all of the weapon systems controls had been disabled at her position, not that there were any weapons aboard. Instead of missiles under the wings, the jet carried four auxiliary fuel tanks, doubling its range.
The weapons officer seat didn’t offer much spare space, even for a woman, but that was fine.
Thankfully, the pilot seemed more than co
