Lt. Col. Gary Kurdys’ Cell Phone Awoke Him The Morning Of 11 September. It was a call from his flight lead at Ellington Field in Houston. “Hey, I’m sitting on alert,” the lead of alert F-16s said. A part-time F-16 pilot for the Texas Air National Guard, Kurdys was sleeping in Memphis, Tennessee, after a long night of delivering cargo for Federal Express. “I’m actually sitting in the airplane,” continued the lead. “We’re on battle stations.” The alert pilot then asked Kurdys, the operations group commander for the 147th Fighter Wing, if he had seen the news. Like most everyone else in the United States, Kurdys switched on a television and watched in disbelief the destruction in New York and at the Pentagon. Minutes later, the flight lead and his wingman were scrambled. The Southeast Air Defense Sector of NORAD, called SEADS, vectored the fighters to a target over the panhandle of Florida. When the lead asked for further instructions, he was informed: “You’ll know what to do when you get there.”

The target was easily recognizable: a blue 747 known as Air Force One. The F-16s joined the president’s airplane and escorted it to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. They would later escort the 747 to Offut AFB, Nebraska, and then to Washington, DC. The day’s events overshadowed the historical irony of the mission: President George W. Bush was being escorted by his former ANG unit. Bush, a Guard pilot in the early 1970s, flew F-102s with the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the 147th.

Kurdys made his way back to his Houston unit where, for the first week after 11 September, he and his fellow F-16 pilots flew combat air patrols twenty-four hours a day over several cities in the Gulf Coast region. Coverage was reduced somewhat when the FAA allowed airliners to fly again. The Houston unit, like more than thirty other fighter units across the United States, still maintains random patrols over many cities.

An alert mission is nothing new to the 147th. Ellington, in fact, is the only F-16 operating location that maintained an active alert mission before 11 September. Other F-16 units deploy aircraft for alert assignments. Duluth, for example, has provided alert detachments at Tyndall AFB in Florida for several years. Likewise, Fresno has maintained alert detachments on the West Coast for years. Both units still maintain these detachments.

“Our mission here is to provide the air defense forces for the Gulf Coast region and for the Houston petrochemical base here and to project that force anywhere else in the world,” explains Col. Steve Jones, the commander of the 147th. “But we can support combat air patrol missions over any city in the United States. And we can respond to additional tasking in a matter of hours. We perform air sovereignty and air defense missions. We can also perform air-to-ground missions.”

F-16 units across the United States are dealing with the expanded responsibilities that accompany round-the-clock alert assignments. Ellington, however, dealt with the additional tasking several years ago when it went from a pure air defense unit to its current dual-role status (flying both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions while maintaining an alert mission). Jones says Ellington’s alert experience has served as a resource for several F-16 units new to the mission.

“People who aren’t used to flying alert missions may be a little tense about it,” notes Jones. “They can be in such a hurry that they forget something that delays them. They can get bogged down by command and control functions if their units don’t have the infrastructure to support an alert mission. They can get bogged down in the notification procedures as well.”

Jones says most of the questions the 147th is getting from other units concern long-term issues. The units want to know how to schedule pilots for alert assignments. How to deal with crew rest requirements. How to define an interruption to crew rest. How to determine the number of times pilots can be scrambled in a day before they have to be relieved. How to perform maintenance on the aircraft placed on alert status. How to handle crew chiefs associated with alert jets. And how to protect aircraft and personnel on alert status. Units new to the mission have to generate a lot of these procedures and facilities.

“The issues become much larger than a couple of pilots running out to their aircraft and taking off on short notice,” continues Jones. “The flying procedures for air-to-air intercepts are pretty generic, but the rules of engagement depend on the situation. We have to be prepared for anything from a drug smuggler, to a defector, to a doctor who forgot to file a flight plan. We intercept a lot of helicopters. Several thousand of them take off every day in petrochemical operations over the Gulf of Mexico.”

Before 11 September, the 147th had special maintenance crews assigned to the alert mission. Given the extra tasking, maintenance personnel now take alert shifts that run twelve hours on weekends, twenty-four hours on weekdays, and two-day breaks between shifts. “We make sure the airplane is ready to go,” explains MSgt. Manny Salomon, an F-16 crew chief at Ellington. “The pilot climbs into the cockpit. We get the ladder off the airplane. The pilot straps in, cranks the engine, and performs a flight control system check. I get underneath the airplane, arm the missiles, check the emergency power unit, and pull the chocks. The airplane taxis and takes off—all within a matter of minutes of the alert.”

“The media focuses on the sensational parts of this mission—pilots running to airplanes and taking off in full afterburner on short notice,” Kurdys adds. “They don’t cover the boring parts. Guys sit for eight to ten hours and then, boom, the horn blows and off they go to the airplanes. A lot of activity takes place behind the scenes before that can happen. What the media are portraying is accurate, but not complete. The pilot is at the end of a long chain of people who make this mission possible.”

Working around jets configured for alert missions is a little more dangerous than working around jets configured for training missions. “On a regular training mission, our F-16s carry one dummy missile on the wingtip,” says Salomon. “On an alert mission, our Block 25 F-16s carry as many as six live missiles. We have to be more careful with these alert aircraft. We have to watch where we walk around these airplanes because the fins on live missiles are sharp. We have to pull the pins to arm the missiles when the engines crank. We have to be more aware of the jets in general because they carry live bullets as well.”

The 147th performs the same basic tasks on its alert jets today as it did before 11 September, but members of the unit say they have a greater sense of urgency. Aside from the alert assignments, maintenance personnel are regularly prepping jets with live missiles for combat air patrol missions. “We’ve been practicing all these years,” says Salomon. “Now it’s time to play ball. We’re pumped.”

The word routine rarely comes up when pilots discuss alert missions and combat air patrols even though the unit had been flying both missions for more than two months at the time of Code One’s visit to Houston. “The sense of urgency is still there months later, but the circumstances are different than they were the first few days after 11 September,” says Maj. Pat Bertlshofer, a pilot who has been with the 147th for about a year. “The intensity level remains high, but we have gotten accustomed to it. We know what to expect. Flying alert missions and combat air patrols has become similar to flying combat operations over Iraq for Operations Northern and Southern Watch.

“When I fly combat air patrols for Noble Eagle, I am always thinking about what I may have to do,” Bertlshofer continues. “I flew F-16s in Desert Storm. I have flown combat missions over Iraq. Every once in a while, the thought pops into my head: Hey, I’m flying combat air patrol over the United States. This is not supposed to be happening. Flying circles over Iraq for Northern or Southern Watch is one thing. The folks on the ground want to harm me. Flying circles over Houston is another. Here, they want to harm me and my family. That’s a different story.”

Like several other pilots at the 147th, Bertlshofer was a part-time Guard pilot before 11 September. He was activated by the Guard to full-time status as a direct result of the attacks. He was furloughed from his full-time job as a commercial airline pilot as an indirect result of the attacks. “Before 9-11, half of our pilots were part-time and half were full-time,” he explains. “With the call-up, we are now almost all full-time. Before, we were coming and going so much that we might not see each other on duty for a few months. Now almost everyone is here every day. It’s like being back in an active Air Force unit.”

Full-time pilots at the 147th normally sit alert for twenty-four hours about ten times every month. The unit covers the city of Houston and the Gulf Coast. Pilots have also flown CAPs over Crawford, Texas. They covered Crawford during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to President Bush’s ranch last November. They also cover some of the larger sporting events in the Southeast. Their tasking comes from NORAD.

Like many other pilots in the 147th, Lt. Col. Kurdys was activated shortly after 11 September. He left his job at FedEx, returned to Houston, and became the commander for Noble Eagle operations for the unit. “Typically, a whole unit is activated when it is called up,” Kurdys explains. “When we’re activated, we work for the president. Until we get activated, we work for the governor. Only part of our unit was activated for Noble Eagle. We have people tasked for operation, but about half of our personnel are still under the authority of the governor. So we have a state chain of command and a federal chain of command within a single unit.”

Alert pilots and maintenance personnel fall under the federal chain of command, namely NORAD. Kurdys reports to CONAR, the Continental United States Region of NORAD. The commander of CONAR is one of the people who can authorize the use of force. The Southeast Air Defense sector of NORAD tracks air traffic. When radar operators in the sector can’t correlate a radar return with a known flight plan, they call the FAA and try to match the flight path with a known flight. If they can’t match the aircraft with a flight plan, they coordinate with US Customs and the Drug Enforcement Agency, which may already be working the flight.

“The duty officer at SEADS calls us on a secure communications link,” Kurdys explains. “Our command post receives the call and authenticates the scramble order. This process takes seconds. They sound the scramble horn. That’s when we run to our airplanes, jump in, and take off.

“The biggest change since 11 September is that we are looking inward. We’re scrutinizing flights over land areas much more than we would have even considered before. We’ve escorted airplanes over land before, but they always originated over the Gulf of Mexico. Now we’re escorting as many aircraft that originated over land as originated over the Gulf.”

Kurdys is on a leave of absence from Federal Express; his absence could last a year or longer. “FedEx has been great,” he says. “My seniority isn’t affected by my absence. If I’m called up for a year, I will still accrue a year of seniority. And I keep my healthcare so my wife and kids don’t have to find a new doctor.

“Employer support is crucial,” he continues. “Every company is a little different. Some give their employees full salary. Others cover the difference between what the employee earns for Guard duty and what they earn at their normal salary. The call-up can devastate a small business. We go to great lengths not to activate those folks. But signing up for the Guard is a risk. For twenty years we haven’t had to activate folks. Now, we’ve activated thousands. Still, everyone in the Guard has a sense of public service. You can’t pay people enough money to put on a gas mask and chemical gear in 100-degree Texas weather. These people want to serve their country. As the Noble Eagle commander here, I haven’t received one complaint from one company. I have received calls telling us that we’re doing a great job. I don’t think the positive sentiment will change much. Most people view our mission as very important.”

“Our lives didn’t change that much after 11 September, but our schedules did,” adds Jones, who assumed command of the 147th just after the attacks. “Very few people in our part of the world were affected directly by anyone’s death. Many people in other parts of the country were affected more significantly. Our perceptions have changed a little and our schedules have changed a lot. The freedoms we enjoy have not been infringed upon that much. We stopped going to baseball games for a few days, but now the games are back on schedule. Life is back to normal for most. Part of our job has been to alleviate some of the fears to make people more comfortable.

“We are attuned to watching for morale problems,” Jones continues. “We don’t want to get complacent. With only a couple of months into Noble Eagle missions, we are certain to be performing these missions well into 2002—if not longer. We want to keep people focused. We want to keep people on our side. These people include our employers, our Guardsmen, and the citizens of Houston. We have to keep everyone focused on the fact that Noble Eagle is an important mission.”

Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One