(NBC News) John Ray - In a rare opportunity, we were invited to an Israeli air base in the north of the country. As it turned out, just as the crew arrived, a deafening siren sounded and pilots raced to their aircraft. Within a few moments, F-16 aircraft thundered down the runway. "It's the kind of thing happening more and more," one of the uniformed escorts explained. "We have for 40 years been training for this exact moment. And we are ready for anything," said a pilot identified as "Major L." "We are searching for peace, but preparing for war." "We don't know what will come the day after Assad," explained "Commander M." "It could be that weapons that are pointed internally in Syria at the moment might be pointed at us in the future and that's what we need to be ready for." For the past several days, Israeli troops, sailors and airmen have been taking part in a massive military exercise in the north. We're told it's a routine war game. But the message is clear. At the airbase, the F-16s we watched take off a few minutes earlier soon safely returned. A false alarm, this time.
2013-06-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive