|
Record Force
We had ten aircraft, and the other six units each brought six, for a total of forty-six. We had the largest contingent of C-130s at one location in the history of the Air Force. We all worked together. If, for instance, the guys from St. Joe needed a part, they got it. Maintenance was an all-inclusive organization. We organized to take care of all the aircraft. An aircraft landed every fifteen minutes around the clock.
— Maj. John Church
Built For War
High over Iraq, you notice that that country was built to go to war. Revetments and bunkers are everywhere, especially near Baghdad.
— Maj. Jerome Dyck
Happy Birthday To Me
I arrived at Base X at 2 a.m. on my birthday. My present was a cot and a sleeping bag. I immediately started working twelve-hour days, sometimes sixteen hours. I didn't get one day off for the entire 102 days I was there.
— MSgt. Stephen Wells
 Passing Information
We reported to the battle group. We did everything we could to find the enemy. We passed the information off to the ground forces directly or through JSTARS, AWACS, and the fighters and bombers.
— Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Louden
Niche Capability
We were handed the mission in October 2002. The F-16 Block 30 had developed a niche capability with the targeting pod and the datalink, which was critical for working with ground forces. The SCU 5 upgrade allowed us to drop JDAMs. The software came on board after we were deployed. The only hardware change involved the 1760 pylons. Everything else was software.
— Col. John Mooney
 Orions Everywhere
Most of the missions we flew in the P-3 before the war were all over water. We flew a racetrack pattern between Kuwait and Iraq and looked as far north as we could. We flew missions up the Straits of Hormuz. We flew escort missions around our carrier battle group. We flew missions down to the Horn of Africa.
— Lt. (j.g.) Samantha Poteete
Life Near The Front
Al Jaber is a completely different world, definitely more of a war zone. Everyone walks around in their Kevlar and carries chem gear. About once a day they go Alarm Red. We experienced that firsthand about three hours after we diverted to the base. The sirens wailed and everyone ran for cover as they donned their gear. We had none, much to our chagrin, and it felt pretty awkward experiencing my first real-world Scud attack without the gear we train with. Fortunately the alert lasted about four minutes. We bedded down for the night. At about 0230, waves of jets launched for CAS sorties. The launch was motivating in spite of losing a little sleep as a result
— From the journal of Capt. Kris Padilla
|
