Herpa U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52G Stratofortress – 596th Bomb Squadron, 2nd Bomb Wing, Barksdale Air Base – Operation Secret Squirrel – 58-0185 "El Lobo II" 1/200

On January 15, 1991, after the ultimatum issued by the United Nations Security Council to Iraq to withdraw from occupied Kuwait had expired, seven B-52 bombers with a crew of 57 took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana in the early morning hours of January 16 for the up to then longest combat mission in history. It took the seven Stratofortresses four aerial refuelings to cover the 14,000 miles, more than 22,000 kilometers, of the at the time highly classified mission. After no less than 35 hours in the air, the exhausted crews of the 596th Bomber Squadron were back on American soil. The mission, called "Operation Secret Squirrel", was the prelude to the large-scale "Operation Desert Storm" for the liberation of Kuwait. With their GPS-guided cruise missiles, the B-52s, including the B-52G with the nose art "El Lobo II", incapacitated critical Iraqi command, communications and surveillance infrastructure, which greatly facilitated the advance of the ground forces of the international coalition.