It’s Sunday, June 14, and exactly one year and a day ago, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets tore through Iranian skies, striking over 100 military and nuclear sites and eliminating more than 20 of the regime’s most senior commanders in the first hour.

What followed was twelve days of relentless, largely lopsided war, with Israeli air power systematically dismantling the Iranian nuclear apparatus. Yet all eyes stayed fixed on a single target: the deeply buried Fordow enrichment facility, beyond the reach of any Israeli bomb. Then came the Hollywood finish—seven American B-2 stealth bombers, “Flight of the Valkyries” all but playing in the background, dropped fourteen 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker-busters from 50,000 feet, collapsing the underground fortress and ending the war in a single dramatic blow. Benjamin Netanyahu declared it a “historic victory, which will stand for generations.”

That historic achievement would be matched only seven months later, when Operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury began. On the morning of February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched nearly 900 joint strikes in the first twelve hours alone, hitting more than 1,000 targets within the first day. A synchronized wave of over 100 American aircraft—alongside more than 200 from the Israeli Air Force—struck Iran’s air defenses, missile sites and naval bases. In a stunning decapitation strike, the opening salvo killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of other top officials before they could slip into hiding. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called it a “clear, devastating, decisive mission” that would ensure Iran “will never have nuclear weapons.”