WASHINGTON, D.C.—In Case You Missed It (ICYMI): Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11) joined Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy on Fox News to discuss the U.S. Air Force's successful precision strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend. As an Air Force Academy graduate and the only trained 5th-generation fighter pilot in Congress with nearly two decades of combat experience, Rep. Pfluger discussed his perspective on Operation Midnight Hammer.

Watch the full interview HERE or by clicking the image below. Highlights of the conversation are provided below as well.

Trey Gowdy: Take us inside a cockpit. What are these bombing missions like?

Rep. Pfluger: A huge shout-out to our forces, to our Airmen, to Secretary Hegseth for the professionalism that they displayed on these missions. These missions are incredibly difficult to fly with the precision that you saw this weekend. Minimal communications joining up at a point in the sky and then carrying out a mission over hostile territory. I've been there. I've been in combat situations. I know many of these Airmen who actually flew these missions last night, especially the F-22 pilots like I flew, but you know, you're facing a variety of unknowns, including timing...

...So, the difficulty starts with just getting to the right place at the right time, and then you have to carry out the mission. So proud of what the B-2 was able to do to truly devastate Iran's nuclear capability, of the F-22 and the other aircraft sweeping the area to make sure that there were no enemy fighters, that there were no surface-to-air threats...

...I cannot speak enough about airpower, the deterrence of the United States of America has rested on airpower for many decades—and once again, we see that not a single shot was fired at the airplanes. We brought everybody back home, but we need to continue to invest in airpower. I hope in this One Big Beautiful Bill we can double the funding that the Air Force and the Space Force to make these investments to have deterrence for what the fight looks like tomorrow.

Trey Gowdy: If Iran is going to retaliate where it would hurt us the most, it might be against our men and women in uniform, particularly on that side of the world. What would you be looking for in terms of a response or retaliation? Or is Iran so degraded that it can't fight back?

Rep. Pfluger: There certainly are indicators and warnings that they will have some sort of retaliation, and I think everyone in the region is in high alert. I trust Secretary Hegseth and the President of the United States...their number one mission is to keep them safe. They're going to follow the procedures and make sure [our military] stays safe. I think we've degraded Iran, and I hope whatever the retaliation is that we meet that with full force, and the President has levied a warning to them about what that can look like.

Trey Gowdy: But while you're also dodging things that may be coming in, what are you on the lookout for? As a fighter pilot, what can do you harm?

Rep. Pfluger: As an F-22 pilot, the number one thing that we were designed for was to protect the B-2. To protect the strike package, protect those who were going to be dropping the weapons against the enemy, and in this case, the B-2 dropping those penetrating weapons against those nuclear facilities.So we are on the lookout to make sure that no enemy fighters are going to try to shoot them down. We are on the lookout to alert those bombers so that if there's a surface threat, they can evade in one direction or the other. So our job was to always place ourselves in between the bombers and the threat that was trying to get to those bombers.