This article appeared in the July 1992 issues of Code One Magazine.

The guidebook to Eielson AFB describes Alaskan winter as "a cold affair" — a phrase likely to elicit a frosty chuckle out of first-time winter visitors. Locals, however may not catch the humor. These people straightfacedly refer to ten below zero as moderately cold. Cold, for them, occurs around thirty below. At this temperature, residents can drag newcomers outside for a traditional demonstration - the coffee toss. The event involves heaving the contents of a hot cup of coffee high into the air. If performed successfully, no liquid splatters on the ground. Instead, the audience witnesses the birth of a small Colombian ice cloud. The thin, vertical nimbus hovers indefinitely in the still winter air.

TSgt. Dwight Graham, an F-16 crewchief with the 18th Fighter Squadron at Eielson, can attest to that pain. "When you first go out in the cold," explained Graham who has spent three winters at Eielson, "it feels like you're breathing crystal. You can feel the air rubbing the interior surfaces of your lungs. The air is so crisp it burns. Any exposed skin on your face and hands tightens. After fifteen minutes out there, you begin to go numb."

Before becoming a crewchief on the F-16, Graham worked on A-10s, F-4s, and A-7s. "I came up here from South Carolina without really knowing what to expect," he admitted. "My first winter in 1989 was cold. Real cold. It got down to fifty or fifty-five below zero for a couple of days. Then it warmed up to thirty below — that's a normal temperature for the winter. It's hard to comprehend fifty below zero. It never got that cold when I was stationed in Iceland. I grew up along the East Coast. There, it's cold when the temperature drops into the twenties above zero."

Does anyone ever get used to a place where it "warms up to thirty below"? Graham laughed, "You adjust to it, but you never really get used to it."

Chief MSgt. Richard Schilling, who helps oversee the squadron's maintenance unit, spends much of his time behind a desk in a warm office during the winter. He said that he still tries to get outside, as a show of support, when the temperature drops. "When it is real cold," Schilling said, "I don't know how they take it. It is tough at forty below to prepare and launch jets. It is probably one of the hardest things I've seen done in the Air Force. It takes a lot of work."

Chief MSgt. David Larsen, another cold-weather veteran, transferred to Eielson in 1985 from nearby Elmendorf AFB (near Anchorage, which is about 350 miles to the south). "Everything is more difficult in the cold," said Larsen, "even a simple task like moving a B-4 stand (a stand used to get on the airplane). At Luke AFB in Arizona, one guy can move the stand to the other end of the flight line by himself. Here the task can take two or three people. If it is icy, you may have to hook the stand to a truck to move it.

"Plus you have the darkness to deal with," Larsen continued. "Drop an apex in the snow in the darkness of winter and you can spend all kinds of time searching for it. On top of that," he added, "you are wearing all this heavy clothing." And the cold takes a toll on your body. "You get tired faster. I'd say everything is at least twice as difficult outside in the cold. But we can't avoid working out there."

Eielson and other Alaskan bases carry a strategic significance. Forces from these bases can be deployed to the European theater and to the Pacific basin in equal time - a claim that bases in the continental United States cannot make. Europe is about a six-hour flight over the North Pole; the destination is closer from Eielson than it is from Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina.

Eielson also has huge and readily accessible tactical ranges. The nearest one, covering 225 square miles, is only fourteen miles from the runway. The next closest range, covering 600 square miles, is only forty-five miles away.

These geographic attributes as well as other factors played a role in the Pacific Air Force's choosing Alaska (Eielson and Elmendorf AFBs) for its yearly Cope Thunder exercises last year after Clark Air Base in the Philippines shut down. Cope Thunder is PACAF's version of Red Flag. The large-scale exercise presently lasts about four months, with participating squadrons staying for about two weeks. It is designed to take pilots through the first ten sorties or so of a real-life combat situation. The exercises involve about seventy airplanes, one half to two thirds of which are fighter aircraft.

While Col. Clinton V. Horn, commander of the 343rd Wing at Eielson, welcomes the exercises, he readily admits to the political realities that brought them to Alaska. "We had a lot of reasons to have Cope Thunder farther Out in the Pacific," he explained. "More of our Pacific allies could participate because it would be more centrally located. But the truth is they couldn't find a place that would approach the land mass that we have in Alaska. Nor could they find a location with the community support we have here.

"Though Eielson is considered an overseas assignment for USAF personnel," Horn continued, "I don't want your readers to think that such a distinction is demeaning. As I said before, we have a tremendous relationship with the local population. I have many more people saying, 'Bring on more airplanes, make the noise, fly the jets,' than I have saving, 'You're bothering me.' Since we started F-16 operations about a year ago, we have had only twelve noise complaints - eight from the same lady, bless her heart. We have great ranges, great air space, and great community support.

Horn believes Cope Thunder could surpass Red Flag in capability in five to ten years. "That's not knocking Red Flag," Horn said. "Red Flag is excellent and will continue to be excellent, but the ranges near Nellis [AFB, Nevada], like other ranges in the continental United States, will be constantly nibbled by encroachment and noise problems. I don't see that happening up here. I see this base and its associated airs pace expanding instead.

"We have a tremendous amount of air space available," Horn continued. "The land from here to the Canadian border is essentially uninhabited. Some folks live on the major roads and rivers, but the area is for the most part unpopulated. If I put you on the ground fourteen miles from here, you could walk 500 miles without crossing a road. And on that 500-mile walk, you would be putting your foot where no one else has ever stepped. Of course, this means that we have to be careful about environmental issues. We follow all the legally mandated processes that ensure that we don't hurt the ecology of this region."

Fewer than 75,000 people live within a 200-mile radius of Eielson. If the base were a city, it would be the fifth largest in Alaska. The nearest city, Fairbanks. has a population of 30,000 and is about twenty-five miles away. The base generates its own power, treats its own sewage, and provides its own heat and water.

At a time when many bases in the continental United States are looking at cutbacks and closures, Eielson is gearing up for expansion. The base will need new equipment, hangars, and maintenance facilities to deal with all the extra aircraft expected from Cope Thunder. The base plans to double its radar emitters, and it will soon have instrumentation for a fully capable air-combat maneuvering instrumentation range.

The primary mission of Eielson's F-16 squadron, the 18th FS, is close air support. As part of the 343rd Wing, the squadron flies F-16C Block 40 aircraft equipped with LANTIRN pods. The planes often carry air-to-ground Maverick missiles. In practicing their CAS role, pilots of the 18th often coordinate their missions with forward air controllers (FACs) in OA-lOs. To this end, Eielson has its own OA-10 squadron - the 11th Tactical Air Support Squadron or TASS.

"I almost hate to say this, but we're getting to be pretty good at close air support," confessed Lt. Col. Randy Sage, who commands the 18th FS. "Our primary job up here, after all, is CAS. We are here to support the Army, specifically the 6th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright [in Fairbanks]. We are the first F-16 active-duty USAF unit to have CAS as a primary job. It helps tremendously that we have our own FAC OA-10 pilots on the base. The TASS and my fighter squadron work together every day.

"Traditionally, 'fighter pilots' do not drop bombs," Sage elaborated. "And stereotypically, CAS is not a fighter pilot's favorite mission. It is tough to do and tough to do well.

"In the last year, we have become the most proficient F-16 CAS unit in the world," Sage said confidently. "The Air National Guard group from Syracuse received a lot of press when they deployed to the Middle East. I don't want to take anything away from their achievements, but we do it every day of the year. I'm not privy to their training program, but I doubt they fly CAS as often as we do. We can do it every day because we have the Army right here at Fort Wainwright. We share the range with them. We'll have Army units on the ground, OA-10s in the air for the airborne FAC role, and the F-16s. All three components are within thirty miles of each other. And we're making the most of our proximity.

"We are also the first in the active-duty Air Force to transfer from the A-10 to the F-16," Sage added. "We have sixteen former A-10 pilots who have a vast experience in the A-10 in the CAS role. Initially, we combined this group with about eight F-16 pilots."

The squadron's recent transition from A-10s to F-16s encourages comparisons between the two planes (the 18th FS received its first F-16s in March '91). Horn, an F-16 pilot before coming to Eielson two years ago, flew the A-10 through the winter before the F-16s arrived.

"Each plane has its strengths," he said. "The A-10's is the 30mm gun. There's nothing for me to compare it with on the F-16. But I have not shot the 30mm gun pod on the F-16. And the LASTE system on the A-10 puts it into the F-16's realm for accuracy in delivering ordnance.

"The F-16s, on the other hand, can get you there a little faster," continued Horn. "And we can hold for quite a while. The F-16 doesn't have to fly 600 knots all the time. Our dumb bombs are smart because of the accuracy of the F-16's delivery system. And we can pinpoint targets much more easily from afar with the global positioning system. One thing we really appreciate up here - and it is something we have not yet fully explored - is the LANTIRN capability. The A-10s worked with night illumination flares. We can use flares, too. But we can also use the LANTIRN and the GPS to get to the target without flares - something you could not do with the A-10. The F-16C really opens up the night."

"In the A-10, you had time to enjoy the view, unless you were taking it into combat," commented Sage. "The F-16's avionics require more knowledge of aircraft systems and capabilities and how it all works. It is not as leisurely an aircraft to fly, but it is certainly a more capable aircraft in the CAS role and, of course, in the air-to-air role. The onboard radar is a tremendous asset, as is the GPS and the LANTIRN."

Like the pilots, many of the maintenance personnel at the 18th FS have come from A-10s. Schilling, who worked on A-10s for twelve years, was there for the transition. "Actually it is still a little early to tell how the two airplanes compare from a maintenance perspective," he said. "We need to go through at least two winters because the mechanical parts go through a certain amount of adjustment. The A-10 took two or three seasons before it got acclimat ed. During that time, we had to come up with new seals for the A-10's struts. We had to pull its batteries out at night. The batteries just wouldn't hold a charge at forty below. For the F-16 though, the struts weren't as much of a problem, and we didn't have much trouble with the battery. All in all, I can't say that the A-10 is any heftier than the F-16 in the arctic environment. But again, it takes at least two winters to get a real feel for it."

Larsen also hesitated in naming the better plane for handling the cold. "I think it is too difficult to compare. When I arrived here in 1985, all the A-10s had to stay outside because we didn't have the hangars for them. So there were lots of problems created by their cold-soaking."

An aircraft "cold-soaks" when it is outside in the cold long enough for its temperature to reach ambient temperature. When exposed to sudden extreme cold, the different metals in an airplane contract at different rates. The phenomenon leads to hydraulic leaks, loose fasteners, and cracked seals. These problems, once resolved, go away once the metals reach a constant temperature.

The F-16's small size has limited its exposure to routine episodes of cold-soaking. The aircraft bays at Eielson, which were designed to contain one A-10 each, can accommodate two F-16s. So, the facilities provide enough space to shelter most of the squadron's F-16s.

"We have intentionally left a couple of planes outside to cold-soak to minus forty-four degrees," Larsen explained. "Those planes have not fared any differently than the others."

Cold-soaking can't be avoided when the squadron works with live munitions, which have to be loaded away from the hangars. According to Horn, Eielson's F-16s endured a coldsoak of thirty-seven below. On an exercise with Mk-82s, six planes loaded with the bombs were assigned for a flight that required four planes. Five got off.

"We've had good luck with the F-16," Horn said. "If we had to define a break point for the airplane, a point at which the maintenance rates go up, it would he about minus fifteen. That is, if you leave the plane out overnight at that temperature, you will have a few extra problems that you would otherwise not have. One of those — a transducer on the engine that is used for indicating the position of the nozzle — was simply fixed by changing the way we wash the airplanes. We've also taken care of some problems related to the landing gear doors. While we're still having some problems with the flight control system, I feel confident that we will have those fixed very soon."

"Though the A-10 was a simpler airplane," said Larsen, "it still took a lot of work. I wouldn't say it was labor intensive, but it required more work than the F-16. It probably doesn't make any difference what airplane is up here from my experience. It takes some time for any airplane to get climatized and for us to figure out all the special things to do to the airplane to make sure that it is going to work in the cold. We went through the same process with the A-10. The F-16s might take a little longer to climatize because we don't have to leave them outside as often."

Most cold-soak problems can be avoided by preheating. About three hours before flight, critical areas of the plane are warmed up with hoses directing hot air from portable H-1 space heaters. Normally, two heaters are used for every plane. (Up to three hoses run off each heater.) Hot air is directed to critical areas, including the struts, battery, engine bay, and cockpit. The heaters also come in handy for warming the hands of maintenance personnel.

And maintenance personnel are the first to admit that the H-1 is the most important piece of equipment during the winter. Many maintenance functions are too intricate to perform with the heavy gloves needed to keep hands warm in subzero temperatures. So hot air is directed from the heaters into work areas. (One of the more creative uses of the heaters is the "bubble" — a warm see-through tent created by attaching a heater hose to a clear plastic pallet cover. Maintenance personnel use these tents to warm up on the flight line between fifteen- to twenty-minute stints of working in the extreme cold.)

The biggest surprise for those making cold comparisons with the A-10 turned out to be no surprise at all. Many at Eielson were worried about the F-16's ability to taxi on ice. Larsen counts himself as one of the most skeptical. "I had seen the airplane TDY [temporary duty] at Elmendorf and talked to people about the airplane when they came in here TDY in the early '80s," he said. "The consensus was that the airplane would not be able to taxi and operate on our icy ramps."

Schilling detailed the concerns: "We didn't think you would be able to contain the F-16 on an iced ramp. We figured that once the motor was cranked that there would be no way to hold the airplane. We thought that its small size combined with its power would send it skidding along the ground, taking the chocks with it. So we made plans to tow the airplanes to the end of the runway and crank them there."

When the taxiways at Eielson received their first glaze of ice that fall, the maintenance personnel and pilots all got a little anxious. For a short time, the squadron followed through on its contingency plans and authorized extra tow vehicles to pull the F-16s to the end of the runway. This practice proved so inefficient that the commander gave the go-ahead for the base's first F-16 Ice Capades.

"I was out there for the first two or three days watching them taxi and launch," Larsen recalled. "I never once saw an F-16 slide a tire. You can go out there today and watch the A-10s slip and slide. My personal opinion is that the airplane is actually more agile on the snow and ice than the A-10. That turned out to be our biggest surprise.

The pilots, including Horn, were equally surprised and pleased. "There isn't a former A-10 pilot here who would not tell you that the F-16 handles the ice and snow around the taxi and takeoff phases equal to or better than the A-10," said Horn. "And on landing, we've never passed the 9,000-foot turnoff with the planes during the winter."

While the winters at Eielson present a formidable challenge, they also offer some subtle advantages. Jet engines perform better in cold air. The long nights allow the squadron to fly its night missions in the afternoon. And the day-to-day rigors of surviving the cold engender a special camaraderie - a shared suffering. In other words, people seem more willing to help each other in a place where a little help on the side of the highway can mean the difference between life and death.

And summer is not immune to its own problems. Mention mosquitoes, and locals will describe some jumbo-sized insects with voracious appetites. And twenty hours of daylight create problems of overindulgence. Just try being fresh for work after finishing a round of golf at two in the morning.

But summer is what most people here live for. "You live all winter in anticipation of the summer," said Schilling. "The warm months make you realize how easy it is to work in nice weather." Schilling plans to stay after he retires. "I love it here," he admitted. "I like the climate and the people. We enjoy a more relaxed attitude and a slower pace up here."

According to Horn, many more people want to stay at the base indefinitely than want to leave immediately. "Once you get here," Horn said, "you fall in love with the place. The people who want to leave after three or four years are not angry or upset with their experience. They're just ready to do something else. They're not yelling, 'Let me out of here!' But, on the other hand, I occasionally have to twist arms to get people to leave."

"The first thing I would tell a person who was assigned up here," explained Larsen, who is also planning to retire in Alaska, "would be to disregard a lot of the things you hear about this state. We're not all running around behind dogsleds. It is not dark twenty-four hours a day. And the snow melts. If you like the outdoors, you are going to like Alaska."

And the winters are only a cold affair.