Tremel and the rest of the air wing were supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S. partner in the campaign to defeat the Islamic State, as they fought to retake Raqqa, which had served as the Islamic State's de facto capital for more than three years. Conducting these missions was different from previous campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, where coalition forces had flown more or less alone in the airspace. In Syria, the airspace was crowded with aircraft from all over, including Iraq, Russia and Turkey. "The difference here was that not all the aircraft that were airborne were friendlies," explained Tremel's wingman, Lt. Cmdr. Jeff "JoJo" Krueger. "They weren't necessarily enemies, but we certainly were not on the same side. So you didn't know what they would do." Earlier on the 18th, Tremel and Krueger launched their Super Hornets from Bush, which was operating in the Mediterranean Sea. Their jets carried air-to-air missiles for their own defense and that of ground units.
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