Aircraft Make Powerful Statement

[Jack Ray]

Cool article (sorry, not warship related)!

Aircraft Make Powerful Statement
Flights from busy base back efforts against Taliban
By Chuck Crumbo
Columbia (SC) State
August 12, 2007
Pg. B9


BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- As the sleek U.S. fighter streaked through the pitch-black night, an American soldier on the ground radioed for help.

"It's in the mountains, and he's breathing really hard," said Capt. John Williams, piloting an F-15 Strike Eagle loaded with the latest precision-guided weapons.

The soldier didn't call for an air strike.

"He just wanted us to make some noise," Williams recalled afterward.

Williams and his F-15's weapons system officer, Capt. Tim Morris, obliged, and the roar of their Strike Eagle's two engines was enough to scare off the Taliban insurgents harrying the American soldier.

"He was so happy that he was laughing," Williams said. "We didn't drop anything, but just the fact that we were there made a huge difference."

So it goes in the Afghan war.

U.S. technology and firepower are so vastly superior to that of Afghan insurgents that, sometimes, all a fighter pilot has to do to help coalition troops is be in the neighborhood.

Williams, of Marfa, Texas, and Morris, of Greenville, are stationed at Bagram with the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing.

Their F-15 is just part of a fleet of some 30 Air Force planes at Bagram that also includes A-10 Thunderbolt ground-attack aircraft and C-130 Hercules transport planes.

The Army has transport and attack helicopters here as well. Charleston-based C-17 transport planes come through Bagram frequently, but the aircraft are stationed at another base in Southwest Asia.

About 3,500 airmen from the ranks of the active-duty Air Force, Reserve and Air National Guard are in Afghanistan. Half of them - including a handful of South Carolinians - are at Bagram.

The Palmetto State's ties reach to the very top here. The 455th is commanded by Brig. Gen. Bill Hyatt, the former boss of the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base who calls Sumter home.

Bagram, a former Soviet base that U.S. forces seized from the Taliban in 2001, is a work in progress. Last December, work was completed on a new $68 million runway that can handle anything in the Air Force inventory - from small, nimble fighters to huge, lumbering C-5A transport aircraft. Now, an expansion project to double the base's size is under way.

The airfield, which also handles commercial air cargo carriers, is a busy place, averaging a takeoff or landing once every four minutes.

Morris, whose home base is Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath near Suffolk, England, is on his first combat deployment.

"It's a very beautiful country from up there," Morris said, pointing to the sky, where he works. "You see the valleys and the mountains that still have snow on the peaks."

Flying in Afghanistan can be challenging, particularly when navigating mountain ranges where peaks soar to more than 26,000 feet. But the toughest part is flying at night, Morris said.

Most of Afghanistan doesn't have electricity. That means that pilots flying at night find few lights on the ground to offer a point of reference.

"You'll look down and maybe see one light on the ground," Morris said. "Then, you'll look through your night-vision goggles and see a whole village around that one light."

"It's surrealistic," added Williams, whose home base also is Lakenheath.

While the air crews fly the planes, a large contingent of airmen at Bagram maintains and services the aircraft. Another group provides an assortment of support services, including housing, security and logistics.

Airman 1st Class Richard Padgett, of Greenville, is among those who work on the ground. He's a weapons loader and marked his 20th birthday shortly after arriving here in April.

Padgett, who has been in the Air Force for a year, said he looked forward to serving in Afghanistan.

"I'll be able to say I fought in a war for my country," said Padgett, whose home base is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

The workload - 12 hours a day, six days a week - isn't much different from what he had at Davis-Monthan, Padgett said.

"I was used to it," said Padgett, just 14 when the Afghan war started in 2001. "I don't mind the long hours."

For Airman 1st Class Matthew Turner, being at Bagram is a chance to do what he loves - work on A-10 attack aircraft.

"I love it. I love everything about it," said Turner, who also hails from Greenville. "It's a great plane."

What Turner and other A-10 enthusiasts like about the plane is its durability. It's built to fly slow and low over battlefields and survive heavy groundfire.

The A-10 endears itself to fans like Turner because it's plain ugly. The plane, nicknamed the "Warthog," was designed around its gun - a seven-barrel Gatling that fires up to 3,900 rounds a minute and sticks out of the plane's nose.

"I love getting my hands dirty working on the plane," said Turner, also based at Davis-Monthan. "I couldn't be happier in my job."

Two other South Carolinians, Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Garren and Senior Airman Ryan Meeks, are just as passionate about their jobs.

Both are crew chiefs based at RAF Lakenheath who work on F-15 fighters. The $50 million plane is one of the fastest ever built, capable of reaching 2� times the speed of sound, or nearly 1,900 miles per hour.

In Afghanistan, the fighter's two-member crew uses precision-guided bombs and missiles to provide close-air support to ground troops battling the Taliban.

"It's a worthy cause," said Garren, a 17-year Air Force veteran from Traveler's Rest. "This is what I've trained for, and I'm proud to do it."

Still, the job comes with plenty of pressure.

"We can't afford to be complacent because lives depend on it," Garren said.

"When you're here, you know you're making a difference," said Meeks, of Seneca, a 14-year veteran.

"We need to be here until we're finished with the job."

Afghan air war by the numbers

3,500: U.S. airmen in the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing, stationed in Afghanistan

1,200: Airmen at Bagram Airfield, headquarters of the 455th Wing

$68 million: Amount spent on a new runway at Bagram, completed in December

30: Approximate number of U.S. Air Force planes at Bagram, including F-15 Strike Eagles, A-10 Thunderbolts and C-130 Hercules transports

5,000 feet: Airfield's elevation above sea level

26,000 feet: Tallest peak in Hindu Kush Mountains, which surround Bagram