The F-111 has been caught by artist Keith Ferris just after take-off from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The Pilot, Lt. Colonel Ed Palmgren, a close friend of the artist, and Lt. Commander "SPADE" Cooley, a copilot, were flying a practice low level night bombing mission as part of project "Harvest Reaper". Every evening around 4:30 or 5 pm...as the lights of the Las Vegas "Strip" began to brighten the sky to the south and most hard working souls headed for home or a night on the town....four of those much maligned "birds," the "swing wing" F-111s, could be seen and heard taxiing out for the first of the night's missions. They would spend the next 3 1/2 hours at low level in the dark; bomb two different ranges and fire rockets and the gun, all carefully scored; navigate northeast to a simulated strike on a bridge in Utah; turn southeast for a radar scored strike on an intersection in southern Arizona; reverse their course for a strike on another bridge in Utah and then back southwest to Nellis Air Force Base and land around 8:30 pm. Debriefing and critiquing was followed immediately by preparation for another mission before midnight, which got everyone home quite late. This was the schedule the artist found when he visited Detachment 1, 4481st TFS, better known as "Harvest Reaper", the unit which as soon to take six F-111s and 9 aircrews to Southeast Asia.