Best night of my Air Force career

Here are two pictures of the best night of my Air Force career: I got to ride in the chase car during a U2 Dragon Lady landing. This was during a deployment in 2001 while supporting the southern no fly zone in Iraq. A couple of us comm guys got in good with the Intel folks there. We were invited to their location one night as a U2 mission was coming to an end. I got to ride in the chase car, the blue Chevy Camaro packed full of comm equipment and driven by another U2 pilot. We got in the car and drove out to the runway and parked right in the middle of the landing strip. Complete silence and darkness. Probably sat there for about 15 minutes or so before seeing the landing light of the U2 turning on behind us. At this point, the two pilots are talking to each other. The purpose of the chase car is to guide the airplane down until he touches down on the runway. Instrumentation is very limited in the plane. As the U2 got closer, the driver floors the gas pedal and we take off, right down the middle of the runway. A few seconds later, the U2 comes right over the top of us. And I do mean right over top of us. The driver is constant contact with the pilot, telling him how far above the runway he is, since he can't tell. The pilot depends on the chase car to completely guide him for landing. The entire time, we're immediately behind the U2. He finally touches down, comes to a stop, and drops on the right wing. The crew came out, propped the plane up and put the wing supports underneath it, and it taxied back to the hanger. Once the crew got done doing what they do after a mission, we were allowed to go to the plane and check it out. The pilot (on the right) was gracious enough to take a picture with us. Best night ever. That's me in the middle. And of course that's the nose of the U2 behind us.