In military aviation, there is one rule every mechanic knows: when a supersonic fighter jet is completely submerged in saltwater and tsunami mud, that airplane is dead forever. On March 11, 2011, a wall of black ocean water smashed into Matsushima Air Base in northern Japan and swallowed eighteen Mitsubishi F-2B fighter jets whole. Why did the pilots not simply fly the jets away before the wave hit? Because the earthquake knocked out base power and buckled the tarmac, and a fighter jet takes pre-flight checks and ground power carts before its engine can ignite. Instead of trying to save machines, the airmen ran out to rescue drowning local citizens. When the water receded, the blue fighter jets were buried in salt, mud, and crushed cars. Experts said every single one had to be scrapped. American and Japanese engineers refused to let those wings die. The F-2 fighter was born from a joint partnership between Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and America's Lockheed Martin, based on the legendary U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon. Immediately after the tsunami, U.S. Air Force airmen from the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base rushed down to Matsushima to help pump out hangars and wash corrosive salt out of the airframes before the metal rotted. Then Japanese and American engineers from Mitsubishi and Lockheed Martin spent four years disassembling, rebuilding, and rewiring thirteen of those drowned jets bolt by bolt. On April 22, 2015, the first resurrected F-2B roared back into the sky and touched down at Misawa Air Base to thunderous applause from American and Japanese airmen standing side by side. Saltwater can rust iron. It cannot rust the bond between the men who built it.