THE FLIGHT Beginning on the evening of 24 March 1999, aircraft from fourteen NATO nations struck Yugoslavia's integrated air defense system, command and control facilities, and military infrastructure. Over seventy-eight days, the alliance flew more than 38,000 sorties and expended some 28,000 high-explosive munitions. The campaign was the most precise ever conducted: no NATO combat fatalities were suffered, and collateral damage was minimized through strict rules of engagement and precision-guided weapons. On 3 June, Milosevic accepted NATO's terms; by 10 June, Serbian forces were withdrawing from Kosovo. The refugees returned home. As the RAND strategic assessment noted, Allied Force represented the third time in the 1990s—after Desert Storm and Deliberate Force—that air power proved pivotal in determining the outcome of a regional conflict.