The Hawaii Air National Guard’s F-22 Raptors made history on a just-concluded deployment to the Middle East in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The 199th Fighter Squadron dropped bombs on enemy forces for the first time in the Hawaii Air Guard’s 70-year history, said Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony. It was also the first operational deployment of the stealth fighters from Hawaii.

History aside, more than 200 Guard and active-duty Air Force pilots and maintainers are just happy to be home following the six-month tour of duty.

One 199th pilot described the changing — and increasingly friendly — landscape below during the 26 hours of flight time required to bring the stealth jets back to Hawaii.

The trip was made in three legs from the desert air base with stops in Spain and on the East Coast, and about 27 midair refuelings.

“It’s great to see the green and the blue … flying up the Mediterranean and seeing other countries nearby,” said the pilot, a lieutenant colonel who returned Thursday.

Flying over the center of the United States brought into view the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. “And then coming back home to Hawaii is just the most awesome experience,” the pilot said.

The National Guard asked that the pilot not be named due to security concerns for the airmen who deployed and their families. The Islamic State group is known to be social-media savvy and in the past has posted some service members’ names and addresses with a call for attacks on the Americans.

Pilots with the Air Guard’s 199th Fighter Squadron and active-duty 19th Fighter Squadron, along with maintenance and support crews from the 154th and 15th wings, deployed in September to the Middle East. The majority were Hawaii Air National Guard members.

Because of “host nation sensitivities,” the Guard did not release the base name or country of operation, but F-22s in the past have operated out of Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.

The Hawaii National Guard also did not reveal how many fighters were sent. The Air Force said six F-22s and more than 200 airmen deployed on a previous rotation to the Middle East.

Anthony said the Hawaii F-22s flew more than 500 sorties on the deployment, logged more than 1,500 flight hours and dropped 239 munitions on enemy forces in Iraq and Syria. The Hawaii jets generally were tasked with destroying Islamic State training camps, vehicle-borne improvised explosive device manufacturing and storage facilities, fighting areas and headquarters, and oil distribution capabilities.

Among the ordnance used by the F-22s were GBU-32 1,000-pound GPS-guided bombs.

In an interview Friday, the Air Guard pilot said it was “a pretty sobering experience” to fly over Iraq and Syria and to “think about all the history of all the fighting that’s been going on down there.”

Generally flying above 20,000 feet, the lieutenant colonel said it “was impressive to see all the city lights — to see Baghdad and all those lights out there” on the primarily night missions.

The Raptors flew in two- or four-plane formations but also operated in conjunction with other U.S. and coalition aircraft, including Australian F-18s and French Rafales. Russian aircraft, which were not part of the U.S.-led coalition, were sometimes encountered over Syria, he said.

“When I was flying near Russian aircraft, we weren’t talking on the radio with each other,” the pilot said. “So we’re on different frequencies. But I don’t think that they knew where I was or that I was even there. We have an array of sensors on the Raptor that allows us to find them and see them and basically monitor what they are doing.”

A memorandum of understanding was established with Russia in November to ensure safety in the skies. But “that’s really all we have with the Russians at this point,” Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the name of the Iraq and Syria operations, said in January. “We don’t share targets with them. We don’t tell them what we’re going to do. They don’t tell us what they’re going to do.”

The Raptor missions did not involve the type of advanced air combat and precision strikes against highly defended ground targets the high-tech fighter was designed for. The jets are capable of speeds of more than 1,500 mph and have a radar-evading design.

But the Hawaii pilot said the Raptors “fit in as a puzzle piece” in the assortment of aircraft that were tasked to destroy Islamic State targets.

With the F-22’s advanced capabilities, “we were sometimes mission commanders,” he said. “So we would run the entire strike and do all the coordination for all the other players.”

It was reassuring having a strong connection to those on the ground, he said.

“Our maintainers were awesome and our jets were extremely reliable,” the lieutenant colonel said. “It was very comforting flying over hostile territory knowing that my aircraft was maintained by the best maintainers — with us in mind.”