Depot Art and Science

October 2014/$10

International Partnerships Red Flag Reboots Hostage’s Warning

October 2014, Vol. 97, No. 10

FEATURES 4 Editorial: A Moment of Truth in Europe By Adam J. Hebert Putin will not stop until he is made to stop.

26 The Guard Partnerships By Amy McCullough Low-key partnership programs between US states and foreign nations have paid big dividends.

32 Depot Redirection By Autumn A. Arnett The Warner Robins Air Logistics Com- plex is working to make its repair work less art and more science.

36 Speed Kills By Marc V. Schanz Future operations will require quick decisions and rapid effects.

42 Red Flag for the Future By John A. Tirpak The realistic combat training exercise must constantly evolve to replicate 26 real-world threats. 50 Hostage’s Warning By John A. Tirpak Mike Hostage laid out the Air Force’s past and future readiness problems in no uncertain terms.

54 Survival and Tragedy in Alaska By John Lowery The commander of Alaskan Command and his pilot died in a tragic ﬁ shing trip mishap.

58 Not Just Night Witches By Reina Pennington In World War II, Soviet women were air combat pioneers.

64 The Long Retreat By John T. Correll The United States gave up on Vietnam in 1968. Getting out was harder than getting in.

70 Escaping the Continent About the cover: An F-15 undergoes By Rebecca Grant tests by mechanics and test-ﬂ ight pilots American airmen shot down over at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, Europe had a sophisticated web of Ga. See “Depot Redirection,” p. 32. USAF supporters for attempts to avoid Nazis photo by Sue Sapp. and reach freedom. 36

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 1 64

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Publisher: Craig R. McKinley DEPARTMENTS Editor in Chief: Adam J. Hebert 6 Letters Managing Editor: Juliette Kelsey Chagnon 12 Aperture: Bipartisan consternation; Special Content Director: Michael C. Sirak Our own worst enemy; Don’t forget Editorial Director: John A. Tirpak the nukes; Points for realism .... News Editor: Amy McCullough 14 Verbatim Senior Editor: Marc V. Schanz Senior Designer: Heather Lewis 16 Air Force World Special Projects Manager: Gideon Grudo 22 Index to Advertisers Designer: Kristina Parrill Assistant Managing Editor: Frances McKenney 22 Senior Staff Changes Associate Editors: Autumn A. Arnett, Aaron M. U. Church, June L. Kim 24 Keeper: The “Iron Curtain” Speech Production Manager: Eric Chang Lee Photo Editor: Zaur Eylanbekov 63 Flashback: Dove of War Media Research Editor: Chequita Wood 76 AFA National Report

Senior Correspondent: Otto Kreisher 79 Reunions 80 Airpower Classics: Ju 52 Contributors: Walter J. Boyne, John T. Correll, Robert S. Dudney, Rebecca Grant, John Lowery, Reina Pennington

Advertising: Andrea Guarnero, Mohanna Sales Representative (214) 291-3660 [email protected] 1501 Lee Highway Arlington, VA 22209-1198 Tel: (703) 247-5800 Telefax: (703) 247-5855 [email protected]

AIR FORCE Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) October 2014 (Vol. 97, No. 10) is published monthly by the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Phone (703) 247-5800. Perodical postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing ofﬁ ces. Membership Rate: $45 per year; $30 e-Membership; $110 for three-year membership. Life Membership (nonrefundable): $600 single payment, $630 extended payments. Subscription Rate: $45 per year; $29 per year additional for postage to foreign addresses (except Canada and Mexico, which are $10 per year additional). Regular issues $10 each. USAF Almanac issue $20 each. Change of address requires four weeks’ notice. Please include mailing label. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Trademark registered by Air Force Association. Copyright 2014 by Air Force Association.

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y early September, the Free World’s and take over the post office,” which of the Alliance. If the trust is broken, Bresponse to Russia’s assault on was “key to their success, because they the Alliance is gone. So if you send Ukraine appeared impotent. Economic were supposed to send a telegraph to your road circus into a NATO country, sanctions and declarations that Russia’s Moscow asking in the name of the newly just a small border area, [and] create actions were illegal did nothing to alter formed government,” for Russia to send confusion” with little green men who the status quo. Russian forces poured troops. “Sounds quite familiar, doesn’t are supposedly locals or responding to into Ukraine—cementing their hold on it?” Tarien asked. a request for help, will NATO respond? Crimea while making additional inroads Russian-speaking Estonians “are “I’m not saying Estonia is next. But in eastern Ukraine. citizens of Europe, and they want to stay I think all of us need to be on alert This troubled the allies that once that way, they don’t want to be citizens while … the bear there is staring down fell under the domination of the Soviet of Russia, but it’s irrelevant because to the West on the border, looking for a Union. Led by Vladimir Putin, Russia has Mr. Putin it doesn’t matter,” Tarien said. weakness to exploit.” repeatedly assaulted nearby nations. If Putin wants to “assist somebody, he Putin will continue attacking his This was through cyber attacks, as in neighbors, supposedly defending Estonia in 2007, which Russia blamed Russian interests, until he is made on patriots it could not control. Putin will not stop until he to stop. Ukraine may face a lengthy It was military, as in the case of the is made to stop. Russian occupation. assault on Georgia in 2008. But for those fortunate enough to And it is happening in Ukraine—where be NATO members, Article 5 “is crystal Russian forces seized Crimea and pro- is deciding who to assist, where is the clear. An attack on one is an attack on Russian “separatists” are supposedly next protest, and where … the little all,” Obama stated. “So if, in such a acting on their own in the east. green men go.” moment, you ever ask again who will Other nations along Russia’s NATO asked Putin about the come to help, you’ll know the answer: periphery were legitimately concerned “separatists” in Ukraine, “Are you sure the NATO Alliance, including the armed they could be next, so President they are not yours? I mean, they wear forces of the United States of America, Obama on Sept. 3 laid out America’s your latest issue army uniform that not right here, present, now.” commitment to the Baltic NATO states all your regular units even have yet. This is unequivocal. There can of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the Their weapons are the specs that only be no backing down from America’s clearest possible terms. “The defense your special forces and the airborne commitment to its NATO partners. of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just units have. And, oh, their personal After years of assumed affinity, it as important as the defense of Berlin communication system … is the very is now clear that Putin is no friend to and Paris and London,” Obama said in newest edition that only your elite the West and Russia is no European Tallinn, the Estonian capital. special forces have. Are you sure they partner. “I think the largest changes Two weeks later, Col. Jaak Tarien, are not your guys?” Putin’s ludicrous to NATO in the history of NATO will head of the Estonian Air Force, stirringly response, Tarien said, was in essence: take effect [over] the next year-and- explained the importance of such “No, they bought it all in [a] military store. a-half to two years,” said Air Force assurances. “I know there are some Not our guys.” Gen. Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied places in the world where American Putin has called the collapse of the Commander, Europe, also on Sept.17. troops are not welcomed, probably Soviet Union the biggest geopolitical This is a tall order for an Alliance that those nations have not lived without disaster of the 20th century, and outlived the Warsaw Pact, expanded their freedom recently,” he said at the “it’s quite clear, quite evident that into former Soviet territory, and Air Force Association’s Air & Space he is on a mission to restore the Evil recently began out-of-area operations Conference in National Harbor, Md. Empire [to] its former glory. Now, I in Afghanistan and elsewhere. “In Estonia, you are very much may be the youngest air chief in NATO Until now, the Alliance has avoided welcomed. We know that persistent but I’m old enough to have gone to stationing forces in Eastern Europe, for presence of allies on our soil is the school in Soviet-occupied Estonia. fear of offending Russia. “We believe best deterrent and the best security I remember the Soviet rhetoric that that there needs to be a forward guarantee for our region. Now, when the biggest threat to the world peace element of NATO forces in these I talk about deterrence and security, is [the] American imperialist,” Tarien nations that are most threatened,” I would be avoiding talking about the explained. What Putin seeks is “Europe Breedlove said. 800-pound bear in the corner if I didn’t without America, Europe which he can This is critical. No matter how clear talk about Russia, so I will go there.” dominate.” the pronouncements from Obama In 1924, the Soviet Union “sent How could Putin decouple the or military leaders, Putin has to be infiltrators to our young republic, US from NATO? “I can see only one willing to listen. NATO men and women they tried to rally local people to theoretical way: if you prove that stationed near the front in Estonia, demonstrate” against the government, Article 5 doesn’t work,” Tarien said, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland would the colonel explained. The Russians referring to NATO’s collective defense send a message of deterrence that not tried to seize “governmental buildings provision. “Article 5 is the bonding glue even Putin could ignore. J

4 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014

Letters [email protected] Air Force Association 1501 Lee Highway • Arlington, VA 22209-1198 Telephone: (703) 247-5800 Toll-free: (800) 727-3337 If you know your party’s extension enter it or: Press 1 to enter their last name. Press 2 for Membership. Press 3 for the Air Force Memorial Foundation Or, stay on the line for the operator About That Flight Suit ... attack on Khobar Towers and its Fax: (703) 247-5853 I was disappointed that you printed political aftermath. Even so, 18 years James Cheney’s letter critiquing after the attack, I was surprised to Internet: http://www.afa.org/ CSAF for wearing a flight suit during see another Khobar Towers article his meeting with the Chief of the (“Keeper File: Khobar Towers, Before Email Addresses Chinese Air Force [“Letters: Flight the Scapegoating”) in your August Suit,” September, p. 12]. There are issue [p. 33]. Events...... [email protected] many legitimate reasons for General In response, I’d like to shed Field Services ...... fi [email protected] Welsh to be in a flight suit. Did you additional light on Secretary Perry’s Government Relations ...... [email protected] check with his office for comment? statement—particularly his lament Did you consider withholding the letter about “prescribed” security measures Industry Relations ...... [email protected] until you knew the facts surrounding not taken at the time of the attack. Insurance...... [email protected] the uniform chosen for the meeting? After admitting that I had taken an Printing a comment from CSAF’s office “extensive set of security measures Member Benefi ts...... [email protected] would have boosted your credibility. As … [that] undoubtedly saved dozens, if Membership ...... [email protected] it is, you look more like the Air Force not hundreds, of lives,” the SECDEF Communications (news media)...... Times than the professional journal of declared, “It is also undoubtedly true ...... [email protected] the Air Force Association. that significantly fewer casualties Jerry Allen would have occurred if all of the CyberPatriot...... [email protected] San Antonio prescribed security measures had been Air Force Memorial Foundation...... [email protected] implemented by the time of the attack.” The person in that photo with me isn’t Nuts. Magazine the Chief of the Chinese Air Force. It’s Fourteen days after the Khobar Advertising ...... [email protected] Major General Li, my escort officer in attack, Perry rushed to a damning China. In Mr. Cheney’s letter he writes, judgment even before his own AFA National Report...... [email protected] “I doubt that General Welsh just stepped investigation team had shown up Editorial Offi ces ...... [email protected] out of his cockpit prior to the meeting.” at Khobar Towers. The actual facts Actually, I had just stepped off the were these. Only three “prescribed” Letters to Editor Column...... [email protected] airplane we flew to China—General recommendations not been completed Li met me at the bottom of the ladder at the time of the attack. They were Change of Address and we walked into their DV reception three of 39 recommendations in an OSI area at the airport, which is where the vulnerability assessment triggered by Requires four weeks’ notice. Please mail your photo was taken. By the way, we had a car bombing in Riyadh (200 miles magazine label and fi rst and last name to the Membership Department at 1501 Lee High- previously notified Major General Li away) seven months before. The other way, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. You may also through the defense attaché office 36—along with nearly 100 others that update this information under the Members that I would be in a flight suit when we my wing had alone initiated—had been Only area of our website at www.afa.org, by arrived. He had also planned to wear completed. calling our Membership Department at 1-800- one, but was held up in a meeting and 727-3337, or emailing [email protected]. ended up not having time to change before he came to the airport. We’d AFA’s Mission been traveling for about 15 hours at Do you have a comment about a that point, and been on the ground current article in the magazine? Our mission is to promote a dominant United in China for about 10 minutes. Mr. States Air Force and a strong national defense Write to “Letters,” Air Force Mag- and to honor airmen and our Air Force heri- Cheney would be happy to know that a zine, 1501 Lee Highway, Ar- tage. To accomplish this, we: when I actually did meet the Chinese lington, VA 22209-1198. (Email: Air Chief, and everyone else we met [email protected].) Letters should Educate the public on the critical need for in China, I was wearing service dress. be concise and timely. We cannot unmatched aerospace power and a techni- acknowledge receipt of letters. cally superior workforce to ensure US national Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, security. Chief of Staff, USAF We reserve the right to condense Washington, D.C. letters. Letters without name and Advocate for aerospace power and STEM city/base and state are not accept- education. Knock Off the Hand-wringing able. Photographs can not be used Support the Total Air Force family and promote I have appreciated Air Force or returned.—THE EDITORS aerospace education. Magazine’s efforts over the years to keep attention on the 1996 terrorist

6 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 To help your readers consider the and negated a promotion the President courageously to get people away from validity of Secretary Perry’s “if only had approved, and the Senate had the area. they had” lament—and the stage it confirmed, over two years earlier. Pentagon, Washington, D.C., 9:37 a.m., set—I’ll describe each of the three open Another useful comparison when 11 September 2001. With significantly recommendations—and my humble considering SECDEF Perry’s “if only greater surveillance capability and area assessment of their potential impact they had” lament—and the punitive control authority, Pentagon leadership on our actual casualty numbers. action taken by his successor knew for well over an hour that something The first recommended that I against me 13 months later—is the was awry outside their perimeter. Thirty- disperse key personnel throughout effectiveness of our respective security four minutes before the attack, they the compound. Key personnel dispersal measures at the time of attack. watched on cable news the second had begun before the attack occurred, Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, 9:30 hijacked airliner hit the second WTC but was not finished. I assess that p.m., 25 June 1996. From the time we tower. Eleven minutes before (and completion of this recommendation knew something was awry outside our aware there were other hijacked aircraft would have had no impact on our perimeter, we had three to five minutes airborne), they ordered all military bases casualty numbers. to respond. The only reason we had in the United States to increase threat The second recommended that any response time at all was because conditions to Delta status. Five minutes I install a fire detection system in of a security measure (rooftop lookouts) before (the max time I had to respond at all of our Khobar buildings. Built of we alone had initiated four months Khobar), a Dulles Airport radar approach concrete years before the attack by prior. Our lookouts acted quickly and controller reported a hijacked aircraft and for the Saudis, our 33 high-rise buildings had not been so equipped. Since the 4404th Wing’s “provisional” (temporary) designation meant we had no budget to manage, I built a Five- Year Facility Plan (to include installing the fire detection system) and sent it to CENTAF to work the funding. GAME CHANGER Although the 13th wing commander, I was the first to put together such a Maximum Clearance, Twice the Range plan. Had a fire alarm sounded the night of the attack, I am doubtful it would have mitigated the casualties. On the contrary, reacting to a fire alarm could have further endangered airmen unknowingly rushing toward the impending explosion. The third recommended that I install Mylar on the windows. While I also included Mylar in my Five-Year Facility Plan, this recommendation, if completed the night of the attack, could have had an impact on the casualty numbers. In considering that impact, I offer two references: First, the room I was in at the time of the attack was about 800 feet away from the bomb site. The explosion blew away my room’s windows and their frames, suggesting that Mylar would have resulted in fewer—but larger— pieces of shrapnel flying through the air. Second, and perhaps reflecting the SECDEF’s own perception of Mylar’s impact, the Pentagon hadn’t completed FLIR Systems continues to redefi ne what’s Mylar installation on their own windows possible with the new Star SAFIRE™ 380HDc. five years later when the 9/11 attack Unmatched multi-spectral HD imaging in a occurred. light, compact, low profi le system designed All other “recommended” or “prescribed” security measures had for your mission. Star SAFIRE® 380-HDc been completed at the time of the Long-Range Performance Khobar attack. No other military unit in in a Compact System theater had gone to the extent we had (rooftop lookouts, defense-in-depth entry points, double and triple Jersey barriers on our perimeters, etc.) trying to protect its people. For more information Regardless, on 31 July 1997, visit www.fl ir.com/380hdc The World’s Sixth Sense SECDEF Cohen accused me of failing to adequately assess the implications / fl i r h q @ fl i r of a terrorist attack at my perimeter

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 7 AirForce_hpIsl 2014.indd 1 6/24/14 5:00 PM Letters

(Flight 77) was heading eastbound a decade’s-long record (only recently Capt. Joe Kittinger sat in the open toward Washington, D.C., at a high rate broken) when he descended to Earth gondola of a helium balloon 19.5 miles of speed. In all that time, as evidenced by by parachute from the gondola of a above the New Mexico desert, looking people still sitting at their outer-ring desks helium-filled balloon almost 20 miles at a vista only a handful of humans had when the airliner struck the building, up. So far, so good. ever seen.” I would really like to know security measures taken by Pentagon Your Mr. Grier goes off the rails and who that “handful of humans” were. The leadership (to include the SECDEF) into the deep muddy, however, when he Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin did not did effectively nothing to protect those tries to equate the little-bodies-with big- make it into space until April 12, 1961. working in their own headquarters. heads said by witnesses to have been Maj. Vern J. Pall, Stoked by his predecessor’s rush- recovered from the Roswell UFO crash USAF (Ret.) to-judgment lament on 9 July 1996, with a Project Excelsior balloon accident Tucson, Ariz. Secretary Cohen’s action against me in 1959 involving Captain Kittinger and a the following summer proved to be a fellow high-altitude, balloon passenger, Your story on Joe Kittinger is great. He craven endgame, indeed. one Captain Dan Fulgham. Instead of is the greatest! However, something is T. J. Schwalier parachuting, this time they tried to land missing. As a former GIB (guy in back), Knoxville, Tenn. the balloon with the gondola they were in am I the only one who wondered what on the desert floor just north of the town happened to WSO William Reich? More Than a Simple Hunter-Killer of Roswell, N.M. In doing so, however, Maj. Paul Giguere, When I receive Air Force Magazine the gondola rolled over and landed on USAF (Ret.) the first article I read is your “Airpower Captain Fulgham’s head causing it to Manchester, Conn. Classics.” This month’s [August, p. 88] swell. The red-headed Joe Kittinger article about the Lockheed P-3C Orion and the hapless Dan Fulgham were I was the information (now public is excellent. However, you did leave out then transported to the base hospital affairs) officer for the 48th Tactical Fighter that the P-3 is not only an outstanding at Walker Air Force Base (formerly Wing at RAF Lakenheath when Col. Joe hunter-killer, it also has several other Roswell Army Air Field) just south of Kittinger was vice wing commander. roles. Just a few examples: Some have Roswell for treatment. Using the Air In those post-Vietnam War days the been modified into P-3 AEWCs, various Force’s account of this incident in its Air Force was investing a lot of time and electronic surveillance models, and some discredited publication, “The Roswell effort into improving race relations. So have been converted by Evergreen Report: Case Closed,” 1997, Grier early in 1977 when I read the security as aerial tankers for fire fighting. The repeats the tome’s suggestion that police morning report and saw that a list goes on but a lot are still classified Fulgham was the “alien” reported seen cross had been burned in front of a projects. walking on its own into the hospital, and barracks, I was very concerned and MSgt. Levi Exline, Kittinger was the “nasty red-headed started thinking about what our public USAF (Ret.) officer” threatening a Roswell mortician and command information responses Simi Valley, Calif. that day. It is here that Mr. Grier commits should be. But someone else was way the unthinkable—a fraud upon the ahead of me. Joe Kittinger Is Not an Alien readers of Air Force Magazine when At that very moment, Colonel Kittinger, May I suggest that your magazine, to he stated the following: “Capt. Joseph acting in the wing commander’s absence, which I am a longtime subscriber, stay W. Kittinger Jr.’s high-altitude balloon strode into my office. He handed me a out of the “UFO explanation business”? flights probably fueled false rumors piece of paper and told me, “You will run Three years ago, John Correll authored that space aliens in unidentified flying this statement on page one of the ‘Jet a long piece regarding UFOs [“USAF and objects crash-landed [i.e., the Roswell 48’ (base newspaper) this Friday.” He the UFOs,” June, 2011, p. 68], which crash] in the New Mexico desert in the turned and left. Our editor tore up the unfortunately included a discussion late 1950s.” How true, perhaps, but for front page and displayed Colonel K’s of the famous “Roswell Incident.” I one small detail. Not once does Mr. Grier statement very prominently. say “unfortunately” because, by simply mention to the readers that the alleged That statement, under his byline, parroting the thoroughly discredited Roswell UFO crash occurred in the was just what the doctor ordered. It Air Force’s Project Mogul “balloon year 1947—not 12 years later in 1959 condemned the act, showed how it risked explanation” (see “The Roswell Report: when the Kittinger-Fulgham incident the wing mission by endangering good Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico occurred! Air Force Magazine can do order and discipline, and concluded, Desert,” 1995), he embarrassed himself better than this. “Those who did this will be found, and as a researcher/writer as well as your Thomas J. Carey they will be punished.” otherwise worthy publication. At the Huntingdon Valley, Pa. Shortly after the newspaper was time, I immediately got an email off to distributed, two security policemen your “Letters” department pointing out The Air Force’s “The Roswell Report: turned themselves in. Apparently they’d where Correll had gone astray, but you Case Closed” concluded: “Air Force intended the cross burning as a prank. have apparently paid no mind to it and research revealed that the witness made Regardless, the incident quickly was have continued on the same pathway. serious errors in his recollections of the picked up by the British news media, Now, I have your August 2014 issue events. When his account was compared including the sensational London featuring an article about the high-diving with offical records of the actual events he tabloids. (in a parachute) Air Force captain, Joe is believed to have described, extensive A court-martial would surely recharge Kittinger (“Kittinger” by Peter Grier, p. 62). inaccuracies were indicated including a press interest, so I coordinated an initial As a prelude to manned space ventures likely error in the date by as much as 12 media attendance plan with our staff and potential ejections from high-flying years.”—the editors judge advocate. I PCS’d before the trial, aircraft, Project Excelsior was set up in leaving my successor the remaining can the late 1950s to solve the problems In the August issue, writer Peter Grier of worms. Then-Capt. Mike Gallagher, associated with such eventualities. As in the opening paragraph of his article later CJCS Gen. John Shalikashvili’s the project’s “go-to guy,” Kittinger set on Kittinger says that on “Aug. 16, 1960, PAO as a colonel and now a San Antonio

8 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 city council member, had to impose a be taken to school in the next major first combat air drop by parachutists limited media pool on a large bunch escalation. Expensive toys and all. In in a military action. of frustrated British reporters because any event, please assign a security detail The first airborne “attack” was 12 the base courtroom was so small and to Mr. LaPlante for the remainder of his March 1938 when German paratroopers probably never again would be so full. tenure: He just demonstrated his value seized and captured an airfield at All this was bad enough but it would as a critical resource to the Air Force’s Wagram, Austria, during the takeover have been even worse had more-timid future viability. of Austria. souls tried to cover up the incident. Lt. Col. Judge Bourque, Phillip R. Earles Colonel Kittinger’s prompt initiative and USAF (Ret.) Princeton, Ind. positive leadership stopped any such Stone Ridge, Va. tendency in its tracks. Enemies for Hire Colonel Kittinger also PCS’d before Early Jumpers I’d like to drop a footnote to Walter the trial, and I was proud to salute him as According to your article “Billy Boyne’s fascinating article, “Enemies he strapped in to one of our last F-4Ds Mitchell’s Parachute Plan,” by Phillip for Hire” (June, p. 42), about the for a true fi ghter pilot’s return to CONUS. S. Meilinger, p. 58 of the August issue rise of commercial fighter vs. fighter He signed his departure Hometown News of Air Force Magazine, the drop by enterprises conducting dissimilar air Release form with me on the crew ladder German parachutists at Sola Airfield, combat tactics (DACT) training for our holding the clipboard. A great guy. His Stavanger, Norway, April 1940 was the fi ghter aircrews. At about midway, Boyne adventurous postretirement career is just what I’d expect. Lt. Col. Mark R. Foutch, USAF (Ret.) Olympia, Wash. BETTER HEARING Cover LaPlante STARTS WITH YOUR Kudos to our chief of acquisition, Mr. William LaPlante [“Staying Stealthy,” August, p. 29]. His comments are the MEMBER DISCOUNT first in recent history from the highest offices in the Air Force which actually ON QUALITY acknowledge—even if only slightly— the battlespace beyond the iron and HEARING AIDS the data that we’ve come to love so much: the electromagnetic spectrum. Multispectral low observability (i.e., As a member of the Air Force Association, you “stealth”) is itself an application of spectrum warfare, undeveloped as are entitled to the following AHB benefits: such for decades and unrecognized � Discountsontoday’slatesttechnology, by some among us still. Anti-access,area-denial environments includinghearingaids,tinnitustreatment themselves actually begin as spectrum andhearingprotectionproducts contests, although the prevailing To learn more or to schedule corporate narrative embraces a reality � FREEannualhearingconsultations your FREE consultation wherein iron and data will save the foryouandyourfamily day on their own without warfi ghting call us today! consideration of the EMS and wherein � Accesstoanationwidenetworkof stealth is something other than spectrum 3,000+hearinglocations 1.888.899.3880 warfare (“electronic protection,” in published doctrine). Just about any � FREEone-yearsupplyofbatteries 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST AF-trained EWO should probably tell (40cellsperhearingaidpurchased) you that any TTP or capability that’s not Monday - Friday dynamic is probably not one you should � OneyearofFREEofficevisits(limitof6) www.americanhearingbenefits.com/ base an entire campaign on. So as with partners/afa the current state of stealth (“static EP”), � 60-daytrialperiod* here we are. Activation Code: CLOUD Mr. LaPlante indicates a nuanced � FREEDeluxeWarrantyPlan,including * Professional service fees may apply realization that we must win the spectrum lossanddamage* domain fi rst, deliberately and reliably, before we are entitled to depend on � Financingplansavailable(subjectto data-centric anything. The continuing creditapproval) free fall of Air Force investment in meaningful spectrum warfare materiel and operational expertise (!) has demonstrated decreasing awareness of that realization. Instead we opt for a cozy swim in its data packets and enclaves. Frankly, data should pay the spectrum rent. You don’t get to own CALL TODAY! — 1.888.899.3880 American Owned & Operated anything shared that you’re not planning © 2014 American Hearing Benefits. All Rights Reserved. to defend and I suspect we’re going to 6/14 TJAD2630-00-EE-HB

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 9 Letters mentions that “Convair F-106s” were versions have deleted much of the imported several thousand police to used by the Navy in its early DACT content. help ease the transition (“one on every programs. Although covering a different subject, corner”). I wonder if Boyne acquired this tidbit the information was every bit as The first choice of the local populace of F-106 lore from a DACT program that controversial as the broadcast Lindbergh at the time was overwhelmingly for was the subject of an Air Force Magazine made from Madison Square Garden independence, followed by remaining feature article in the late 1970s about in 1940. The speech was carried live under US control; “reverting” to Langley-based 48th Fighter Interceptor on WOR New York. Because it was Japanese control was a very distant Squadron (FIS) F-106s starting up a Lindbergh talking, this kid was very third choice. regular DACT program with NAS Oceana- interested. As that fateful day approached, the based VF 101 F-4Js from across the John Ewing local shops started putting two prices river. What distinguished this particular Yuma, Ariz. on all of their merchandise—one in program was that in 1969 it was the first dollars that they’d used since World ever regularized Air Force-Navy DACT Lost Opportunity War I and one in the “new” incoming program—preceding establishment As a Vietnam era C-130E pilot I read currency—Japanese yen (which, by the of both Navy Top Gun and Air Force with interest Colonel Broughton’s article way, was about double the US price at Aggressors. “The Vietnam War That Wasn’t” [August, the then going rate of Y300 = $1). I know about this because I was p. 68]. During the early 1970s, I fully It’s interesting that the last part of involved as the 48th FIS point person, expected to receive orders to Southeast reversion, switching from driving on working under the direction of my ops Asia but was concerned that during such the right side of the road (US style) to officer, then-Maj. John Wotring. Together an assignment my potential contribution the left side (Japanese style), didn’t with my VF 101 counterpart, Lt. Cmdr. would have been severely limited by the actually occur until five years later—31 Jack Ready, we assembled the F-106-F4J Administration’s micromanagement of the July 1978. For several months ahead DACT syllabus and flew the first missions air campaign. I recall many discussions of that date, all of us on the island over Virginia’s Albemarle Sound in a among my squadron compatriots (military and civilian alike) had to go program that lasted for many years. We about the limitations that those flying through an additional traffic course and liked to think that we helped to start up in Southeast Asia were experiencing. get the back of our 3rd Air Force driver’s modern-day DACT. These limitations were confirmed by licenses stamped (“Cope Switch”—I Lt. Col. R. D. Truitt, returning crew members. still have mine). Meanwhile, the local USAF (Ret.) While on the one hand it was road construction workers were busy Little Silver, N.J. enlightening to read Colonel Broughton’s installing a new road sign abeam each article about the Joint Chiefs option to and every existing one—but on the left Here We Go Again more effectively utilize airpower, and side of the road! When these were Just read your editorial from the July potentially shorten the war, I was also installed, they were covered with a issue [“This War Isn’t Over,” p. 4]. “We saddened. It was a real tragedy that so canvas sack, with a drawstring on the may have to fight again to stabilize Iraq many lives were lost that could have bottom to keep them from blowing away. and protect Americans that remain there.” been spared had the Administration not Then, at midnight Sunday evening, 31 You were dead on target. adopted the philosophy of gradualism. The July, all the roads on the entire island That didn’t take very long, did it? lost opportunity to shorten the Vietnam were closed to all but emergency/ I am sickened by the inaction of the War, because of micromanagement, will official traffic, and the road crews Administration both in dealing with ISIS forever resonate in my mind. went throughout the island, moving the and the Ukraine. Col. Jon S. Meyer, canvas bags from the sign on the left James Malecki USAF (Ret.) to its twin on the right. Then, at 0600 Pompano Beach, Fla. Baltimore on Monday morning, the roads were reopened, but with everyone driving on Fast Study Left Side Right the left instead of the right (and using From a very early age I had read Thank you for your excellent the newly installed signage). everything written by Lindbergh [“The publication! As a Life Member of AFA, And again, of course, with one of the Cloud Over Lindbergh,” August, p. 76]. In I’ve been privileged to enjoy it for many several thousand imported mainland 1970, ’71, and ’72 I was managing a years—well done! Japanese police on each and every drone contract for 1st Test Squadron, I would like to comment, however, on corner to help ease the transition/help 13th Air Force. Our launch site was the superb article “The US, Japan, ... and enforce the new traffic regulations. Wallace Air Station, more than 100 China,” in the June 2014 edition [p. 32]. But it worked! As a matter of fact, we miles north of Clark AFB, Republic of On p. 33, the author states that “Japan learned so well that, when we PCS’d to the Philippines. We were assembling, annexed the [Ryukyu] islands in 1879 ... Vance Air Force Base in 1980, and the testing, launching, tracking, controlling, [and] retained control of the islands after main gate was entered by turning left, recovering, and refurbishing BQM-34A World War II ended in 1945.” my wife quickly earned a reputation with drones. Having spent a number of years the local gate guards—“Oh, yes, here’s About once a month I went to Clark Air flying tankers out of Kadena Air Base the lady from Kadena who always turns Force Base to review our performance in Okinawa in the ’70s, I would like to into the left (outgoing lane!) instead of with 1st Test Squadron. On one of make a minor historical correction to the right (incoming) one! these trips I heard that the Clark Library that statement. The US actually took Thank you for letting an old retired had received a copy of a Lindbergh control of the Ryukyus after World War II; guy ramble on with his war stories about handwritten diary. I spent many hours President Nixon gave them back to Japan a minor historical correction to one of reading this document. The content was (at the time the technical term that was your outstanding articles. very controversial. Since then the only bandied about was reversion) on 5 May Maj. Howard Deunk, existing copies I have found are printed 1973. It was not a popular decision with USAF (Ret.) and very sanitized. These shortened the Ryukyuans—the mainland Japanese Vance AFB, Okla.

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Bipartisan consternation; Our own worst enemy; Don’t forget the nukes; Points for realism ....

Because the scenarios that might involve the US in a new PANEL: SEQUESTRATION IS A “CRISIS” major war are multiplying rapidly, the group insisted there be no delay in getting the US military back up to speed. Soon after the Pentagon released its 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review earlier this year, a dissatisfied Congress asked a bipartisan panel of experts to look it over and give TWO WARS, NO WAITING a second opinion. The panel has reported back, with a blunt conclusion: The US military isn’t big enough to do the stated Since the early 1990s and the end of the Cold War, the US job, and the Budget Control Act, which inflicts deep defense has used the so-called “two-war” scenario as both an ersatz cuts through sequestration, must be repealed. Now. strategy and force-sizing device. It calls for the US to have Sequestration has imposed a “readi enough forces to prevail rapidly in ness crisis,” and Congress should ap one major regional war while being propriate funds to reverse it “on an emer able to deter or stop an aggressor in gency basis,” according to the 10-member another region until the first conflict National Defense Panel, co-chaired by is resolved—at which point the full former Defense Secretary William J. force can be brought to bear and Perry and retired Army Gen. John P. obtain victory in the second war. Abizaid. Sequestration constitutes a “seri In recent years, the idea has been ous strategic misstep” that is “ultimately summarized as “win-hold-win.” self-defeating” and will put the US in The NDP said it finds “the logic grave danger for years to come, the panel of the two-war construct to be as said in its report, “Ensuring a Strong US powerful as ever” but that it needs Defense for the Future.” some fine-tuning. The forces called for in the QDR It nominated its own take on the “clearly exceed” those resulting from se two-war construct, as follows: “The quester-level spending, the panel pointed United States armed forces should out, making the national military strategy be sized and shaped to deter and impossible to execute. The members also defeat large-scale aggression in flatly rejected the Pentagon’s underlying one theater, preferably in concert notion that expected funding should play with regional allies and partners, a big role in determining strategy. while simultaneously and decisively The “QDR is not the long-term planning deterring or thwarting opportunistic document envisioned by Congress,” the aggression in multiple other theaters panel said, “because it was dominated by denying adversaries’ objectives by the shifting constraints of various pos or punishing them with unacceptable sible budget levels.” The panelists said costs, all while defending the US they believe “national defense needs homeland and maintaining missions should drive national defense budgets, not the opposite,” such as active global counterterrorism operations.” and recommended that Congress ask the Pentagon for a The two-war model was useful in the early ’90s and re plan to build needed forces “without undue emphasis on mains so, but since then, “the international security environ budgetary constraints.” ment has deteriorated,” while the size of the US military has Explaining the QDR at its release, defense leaders said declined, the NDP said, urging a return to force levels of the it’s pointless to identify needs that won’t be funded, insisting early post-Cold War period. the document has to be “realistic.” Today, the US “could plausibly be called upon to deter or A review of defense requirements not driven by dollars fight in any number of regions in overlapping time frames— will likely conclude that the US “must prepare for what will on the Korean peninsula, in the East or South China Sea, almost certainly be a much more challenging future” in South Asia, in the Middle East, the Trans-Sahel, Sub-Saharan national security, the panel said. Africa, in Europe, and possibly elsewhere.” It’s a more In addition, the NDP urged expansion of the Navy and dangerous world than it was when the two-war construct Air Force and said the planned drawdown in Army end was new and requires more capacity as well as capability, strength “goes too far.” The Air Force, the NDP pointed the panelists said. out, “now fields the smallest and oldest force of combat Everything that can be done to save money should be aircraft in its history” and will shrink even further “to ap done, the NDP said, noting there’s certainly more efficiency proximately 50 percent of the current inventory by 2019” to be found in defense management, reducing acquisition if sequester continues. The Navy is headed toward a fleet costs, and cutting the Pentagon’s in-house health care of “260 ships or less” but needs between 323 and 346 expenses, now nearing $60 billion a year. to meet its obligations, the panel said. All of these force Moreover, “the panel believes that the costs of maintaining a levels are “unacceptable,” it said. quality all-volunteer force need to be reduced” to avoid cutting

12 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 force structure, readiness, or modernization further. The NDP Frank Kendall, Pentagon weapons czar, said at the applauded the formation of the Military Compensation and COMDEF 2014 conference in Washington, D.C., that the Retirement Modernization Commission, expressing its hope services submitted their program objective memoranda that the other panel will find a way to “be fair” to taxpayers, proposals just after Labor Day, and only the Air Force’s serving and retired personnel alike. appears to be “reasonably balanced.” Given USAF’s moves Likewise, the NDP called on Congress to act responsibly to shrink its size, both in people and aircraft, Kendall said he and allow another base realignment and closure, or BRAC, sees no reason why the service can’t afford the F-35 fighter, process “as soon as possible” because DOD has 20 percent Long-Range Strike Bomber, the KC-46 tanker, a replacement more infrastructure than it needs. “Delay is wasteful,” the for the E-8 Joint STARS, and the T-X trainer. panelists said. That impressive list is “still affordable,” at the budget The US should up its presence in South Asian waters levels proposed by President Obama, Kendall said, but and the Middle East, to reassure allies “of our capability if sequestration goes back into force, it will have to be and our resolve.” Specifically, the NDP said the US military rethought. must “deter Iran” and present a counterweight to “the rising “There’s the problem, of course, with ... Congress agreeing tide of violence in Iraq and Syria.” to anything ... we want to do [that] will save money,” he said. The Defense Department has asked Congress to accept “reductions in the growth rate of compensation,” as well as RUSSIA, TECHNOLOGY, AND NUKES a BRAC, to “lay-up some cruisers,” retire the A-10 fleet, and realign Army aviation. The NDP didn’t criticize the Obama Administration’s so- However, “the answer to all of these, so far, seems to be, called “pivot” to the Pacific, but said that Russian adventurism basically, ‘No.’ ” That will present the Pentagon with unsavory makes it all the more important that NATO “bolster the choices, Kendall said. Without the shifts to new equipment security of its own frontline states, especially in the Baltics and research and development, “I’m deeply concerned and across southern Europe, but also in Poland, lest they about the fact that we are at risk of losing our technological be subject to intimidation and subversion.” The US “must superiority in certain areas of warfare.” lead the alliance in this regard,” and the NDP suggested The Air Force’s sister branches haven’t stepped up yet that Europe is a “net producer of security.” to the unhappy task of shrinking in some areas to pay for The NDP also wants “targeted reinvestment in research needed modernization, Kendall said. and development” so the US can maintain or regain a lead “The other services, I think, are trying to preserve different in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, “space parts of their force structure, and they’re not quite as in architecture, cyber, … joint and coalition command and balance, perhaps,” as the Air Force, Kendall observed. control, air superiority, long-range and precision-strike The Army “has made a decision to emphasize end capability, undersea and surface naval warfare, electric strength,” but has “very little left in terms of modernization.” and directed energy weapons, strategic lift, and logistical The Navy is making an effort toward striking a balance, but sustainment.” is too focused on shipbuilding, Kendall added. Meanwhile, While it wasn’t in the NDP’s purview to review US nuclear USAF has made the “difficult trade-offs” necessary to have strategy or capability, the members did say that they “are quite a robust modernization plan. concerned about the aging of [US] nuclear forces,” and the Kendall said he’s concerned that certain programs that fact that some elements of it “are approaching obsolescence.” don’t represent a major platform but are “very important to Fixing that “would be a substantial cost on top of the already the department,” such as electronic warfare, missile systems, costly increase in general purpose forces recommended in wide-area surveillance systems, and communications, may this report.” The NDP recommended a successor panel to not be getting all the attention they deserve. review the modernization of nuclear arsenal, in search of a The submission of the POMs marks the beginning of the “sustainable program plan” free of the “neglect and political season of budget horse trading, in which Kendall’s shop whiplash it has endured since the end of the Cold War.” looks at the service proposals and suggests things AT&L The nation certainly does have to get its “fiscal house in believes “should be in the service budgets but aren’t there.” order,” but fixing it by slashing defense—especially given that Kendall said he’s got grave concerns about research and defense had already given up almost a half-trillion in projected development. The defensewide R&D budget has plummeted spending before the Budget Control Act was enacted—is the from $80 billion to $60 billion, he said—a “major cut.” wrong thing to do, the panelists said. “That’s a lot of engineers who’ve lost their jobs,” he said. “American military forces will be at high risk to accomplish Consequently, Kendall is pushing for “tailored” R&D that the nation’s defense strategy in the near future unless will focus on what the Pentagon believes will be the game recommendations of the kind we make in this report are changers of the future. speedily adopted.” The department’s new deputy secretary, Robert O. Besides Perry and Abizaid, NDP members included Work, is “looking for what he calls the ‘technology offset retired Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright; Ambassador strategy,’ ” Kendall reported. In the 1950s, that meant Eric S. Edelman, former undersecretary of defense for policy; tactical nuclear weapons, and in the 1980s to 2000s, it Michèle D. Flournoy, also a former USD for policy; retired Army was “precision weapons, stealth, networked forces, and Lt. Gen. Francis H. Kearney; retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. wide-area surveillance systems, … the capabilities we Maples; former Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.); retired Air Force demonstrated [in] the first Gulf War … and that we’ve Gen. Gregory S. Martin; and former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.). continued to rely on in the operations that we’ve done over the … 20 years since then.” Without giving away all the new technology pushes, THE AIR FORCE ADDS UP Kendall suggested they will be in the areas of “things that allow us to act from longer range” as well as unmanned Alone among the armed forces, the Air Force’s preliminary systems and “autonomy.” budget submission to the defense leadership—which includes There will also be a new shift away from “the reliance a daunting list of new gear—seems well-balanced and paid on small numbers of very expensive objects.” In space, for for with offsets, the Pentagon’s acquisition, technology, and example, “we need to start looking at how to get quantity logistics chief said in September. into the mix at a reasonable cost.” J

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 13 Verbatim [email protected] By Robert S. Dudney

Things Fall Apart C. Zinni, referring to ISIS murders of any potential adversary, our future “In the 1930s, when things began journalists James W. Foley and Steven J. superiority is not a given.”—Secretary to go bad, they went very bad very Sotloff, Tampa Tribune, Sept. 3. of Defense Chuck Hagel, address to a quickly. Japan’s invasion of Manchuria defense industry conference, Newport, in 1931 exposed the hollow shell that Paradise Lost R.I., Sept. 3. was the League of Nations—a lesson “We have lost the electromagnetic acted upon by Hitler and Mussolini spectrum. That’s a huge deal when you Welsh on the Force Mix in the four years that followed. Then think about fielding advanced systems “The intent is to figure out how to Germany’s military successes in Europe that can be [countered] by a very, very quit doing things that stand in the way emboldened Japan to make its move in cheap digital jammer. ... We have got to, of doing things with common sense. East Asia. ... The successive assaults in my opinion, regain some dominance in ... If we can become more efficient as of the illiberal aggressors, and the the electromagnetic spectrum, or at least an Air Force without losing operational successive failures of the liberal powers, parity, so things that we buy continue to capability, by putting more things in the thus led to a cascade of disasters. ... operate as we intended them to. ... Air Guard and Reserve component, Let us hope that those who urge calm People are able to create very agile, then why wouldn’t we?”—Gen. Mark A. are right, but it is hard to avoid the capable systems for very little money, Welsh III, USAF Chief of Staff, speech to impression that we have already had and those agile, capable systems ... can the National Guard Association of the our 1931. As we head deeper into our impact the performance of some of our United States, Aug. 24. version of the 1930s, we may be quite high-end platforms.”—Alan Shaffer, DOD shocked, just as our forebears were, at research and engineering chief, quoted in Again, Der Führer how quickly things fall apart.”—Robert breakingdefense.com, Sept. 3. “Putin is ... more talented and Kagan, Brookings Institution, Wall Street dangerous than either Nikita Journal, Sept. 5. Revenge of the Little Guys Khrushchev or Leonid Brezhnev. “While we face a multitude of Their truculence was not fueled by McCarthy’s SITREP threats and sources of instability in the fury. Putin’s essence is anger. It is a “We have a problem because world, I am greatly concerned that our smoldering amalgam of resentment (of America’s not leading. We need a very military’s technological superiority is Russia’s diminishment because of the clear, concise foreign policy doctrine being challenged in ways we’ve never Soviet Union’s collapse), revanchist for America. Currently, our friends experienced before. As the United ambitions (regarding formerly Soviet don’t trust us, and our enemies don’t States emerges from more than 13 territories and spheres of influence), fear us.”—House Majority Leader Kevin years of grinding warfare and large- cultural loathing (for the pluralism of McCarthy (R-Calif.), interview on Hugh scale counterinsurgency operations, open societies), and ethnic chauvinism Hewitt radio program, Sept. 4. we’re seeing firsthand that the rest of that presages ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the world has not stood still. Disruptive non-Russians from portions of Putin’s No Strategy Yet technologies and destructive weapons, expanding Russia. This is more than “I don’t want to put the cart before once solely possessed by only merely the fascist mind; its ethnic-cum- the horse. We don’t have a strategy advanced nations, have proliferated racial component makes it Hitlerian. yet.”—President Barack Obama, on how widely and are being sought or acquired Hence Putin is ‘unpredictable’ only the US will deal with ISIS, White House by unsophisticated militaries and to those unfamiliar with the 1930s.”— news conference, Aug. 28. terrorist groups. Meanwhile, China Syndicated columnist George F. Will, and Russia have been trying to close Washington Post, Sept. 3. Now We Have One the technology gap by pursuing and “Tonight, with a new Iraqi government funding long-term, comprehensive Dissatisfaction Abounds in place, and following consultations with military modernization programs. They “I see our veterans as American allies abroad and Congress at home, I are also developing anti-ship, anti-air, heroes—not as cartoon characters. can announce that America will lead a counterspace, cyber, electronic warfare, ...The VA is a broken system, and broad coalition to roll back this terrorist and special operations capabilities that this is yet another example of the threat. ... “Our objective is clear: we will appear designed to counter traditional failure of VA executives to provide degrade, and ultimately destroy, [ISIS] US military advantages—in particular, veterans the respect and quality service through a comprehensive and sustained our ability to project power to any region they deserve. ... I am calling on the counterterrorism strategy.”—President across the globe by surging aircraft, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert Obama, address to the nation, Sept. 10. ships, troops, and supplies. All this McDonald, to publicly apologize and suggests that we are entering an era deal with executives responsible for Zinni’s Question where American dominance on the this offensive training guide.”—Rep. “My God, we are the most powerful seas, in the skies, and in space—not Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.), on the VA nation in the world. This is a moment to mention cyberspace—can no longer training guide depicting a dissatisfied we have to act. How many Americans be taken for granted. And while the veteran as “Sesame Street” character getting their throats cut on TV can we United States currently has a decisive Oscar the Grouch, statement issued stand?”—Retired USMC Gen. Anthony military and technological edge over Aug. 28.

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Air National Guard Pilot Killed in F-15C Crash Kadena Rescue Airman Awarded DFC An F-15C pilot from the Massachusetts Air National Guard SSgt. Zachary C. Hoeh, a pararescueman with the 31st was killed when his F-15C crashed Aug. 27 in the mountains Rescue Squadron at Kadena AB, Japan, was awarded the of western Virginia. Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device on Aug. 1 for Lt. Col. Morris Fontenot Jr., a 1996 Air Force Academy his heroism retrieving a wounded soldier from a mine-laden graduate, was a full-time Air Guardsman with the 104th ambush site in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2011. Fighter Wing at Barnes Arpt., Mass. Fontenot, who was On May 26, 2011, Hoeh was sent on a “harrowing res- serving as wing inspector general and as an F-15 instruc- cue mission into the Shorbak district, Kandahar province, tor pilot, had more than 2,300 fl ight hours, the Air Guard where a squad of United States Army Pathfinders had been said. A graduate of the USAF Weapons School, he served decimated by multiple improvised explosive device attacks,” as a squadron commander at multiple locations and was a decorated combat veteran. Fontenot’s F-15 Eagle was on a solo fl ight to Naval Air Station New Orleans for an aircraft upgrade. He reported a mechanical problem shortly before radio communications were lost. Search parties that reached the wreckage determined screenshot that Fontenot did not successfully eject before the crash. “The 104th Fighter Wing is extremely grateful for the out- pouring of support demonstrated by our local community, and [the] nearly 30 agencies in the Virginia area that spent more than 30 hours scouring over dangerous terrain, committed to fi nding our fallen airman and to bring him home,” said Col. James Keefe, 104th Fighter Wing commander, in an Aug. 29 news release.

Eighty-three F-16Ds Grounded for Structural Cracks The Air Force grounded 83 of its two-seat F-16D Fighting Falcons due to structural cracks discovered on the canopy sill between the front and rear pilot seats. Cracks found on one aircraft during a routine postfl ight check led to an immediate action time compliance technical order to inspect all 157 F-16Ds. The inspections found cracks in the canopy sill longeron in 83 aircraft. The remaining D models were restored to fl ight status as of Aug. 18. Air Force F-16 Systems Program Offi ce and Lockheed Martin engineers were still analyzing the F-16 structures and developing repair procedures in late August to allow a limited return to fl ight by the affected aircraft until a permanent fi x can be made. The F-16Ds are used primarily for fl ight training by Air Education and Training Command and the Air National Guard. Air Force offi cials are working with the operational units to mitigate the impact of the grounding.

AFSOC Airman Awarded Silver Star TSgt. Matthew McKenna, a combat controller with the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron at JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., was awarded the Silver Star, the third highest award for valor, for his bravery during a 13-hour fi refi ght with Afghan insurgents in 2013. Supporting ground troops during the battle, McKenna called in air strikes and two aerial resupply drops to replenish ammunition. He then exposed himself to heavy enemy fi re to coordinate danger-close air strikes to counter an intense assault. McKenna was awarded a Bronze Star, as well, for other missions supporting ground troops in Afghanistan. At the same ceremony, Lt. Gen. Bradley A. Heithold, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, presented the Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device to combat controller SSgt. James Sparks, who also is assigned to the 22nd STS.

16 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 reads his DFC citation. At the time, Hoeh was serving with Shelton is retiring from the Air Force after more than the 46th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron. three-and-a-half years as AFSPC’s leader and a career of Guardian Angels in the lead HH-60 successfully rescued 38 years in uniform. two patients before the aircraft lost power, causing the helicopter to rapidly descend and “narrowly escape crash- First Female Bomb Wing Commander ing to the desert floor.” Hoeh “immediately volunteered” to Col. Kristin E. Goodwin took command of the 2nd Bomb recover the remaining casualty. Wing at Barksdale AFB, La., on Aug. 1, becoming the ﬁ rst Surrounded by mines and explosives, he was hoisted woman to command an Air Force bomber wing, according to down to the ambush site, secured the patient, and signaled an Air Force Global Strike Command news release. for extraction in less than 15 seconds, according to the cita- Goodwin is a command pilot with nearly 2,900 hours in tion. Once onboard, Hoeh helped to evaluate and treat the the EC-130 Compass Call, B-2 stealth bomber, and other soldier as the flight returned to Kandahar Airfield. aircraft. Goodwin, who previously served as vice commander of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., is now re- Hyten Takes Charge of Space Command sponsible for providing B-52H Stratofortress aircraft, aircrew, Gen. John E. Hyten became the 16th commander of Air and associated support personnel and resources to conduct Force Space Command, succeeding Gen. William L. Shelton, global bomber taskings. in an Aug. 15 ceremony at Peterson AFB, Colo. “Make no mistake, Kristin knows airpower. She has ad- Hyten, who had been AFSPC’s vice commander since vocated long-range combat airpower in many circles. There May 2012, received his fourth star prior to taking charge. is no doubt the B-52 will see the results of those efforts in He now oversees the Air Force’s space and cyber forces, coming years,” said Maj. Gen. Scott A. Vander Hamm, 8th some 42,000 airmen and civilians worldwide. Air Force commander, during the ceremony.

09.04.2014 C-17 Globemaster IIIs are prepared to be loaded with 2nd Cavalry Regiment Stryker armored vehicles during Steadfast Javelin II at Ramstein AB, Germany. The NATO exercise took place across Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. USAF photo by SrA. Damon Kasberg Damon SrA. by photo USAF

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 17 Air Force World USAF photo by TSgt. Regina Young Regina TSgt. by photo USAF

The command change came on the 20th anniversary of You’re Supposed to Zipper Merge: Airmen maneuver an the 47-hour globe-circling flight by two 2nd BW B-52s that F-15 through trafﬁ c on a road near the City Hall in Warner were the first ever to drop bombs—over Kuwait’s Udairi Robins, Ga. The aircraft was loaned to the city by the Georgia Bomb Range—during a circumnavigation mission. Air National Guard to serve as a static display for a new veteran’s memorial. New Boss at 24th Air Force Maj. Gen. Burke E. “Ed” Wilson assumed command of AFB, Kan., will begin receiving aircraft in 2016, and the 24th Air Force at JBSA-Lackland, Texas, during a July 31 first KC-46As are scheduled to arrive at Pease beginning change-of-command ceremony. in Fiscal 2018. Wilson, who previously served as director of space operations in Washington, D.C., replaced Maj. Gen. James K. Eielson Preferred for PACOM’S First F-35As “Kevin” McLaughlin, who led the numbered air force since The Air Force has selected Eielson AFB, Alaska, as the June 2013, according to a release. McLaughlin was promoted preferred alternative to host the first F-35A Lightning II to lieutenant general and has become deputy commander squadrons in the Pacific area of responsibility, the service of US Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Md. announced Aug. 7. The 24th Air Force is the Air Force’s cyber unit. The air base, located near Fairbanks, was selected due to its ability to support the mission, economic factors, and Pease Named First KC-46A ANG Main Operating Base environmental considerations, officials said in a press release. Pease Intl. Tradeport ANGS, N.H., will be the first Air National Guard-led main operating base for the KC-46A Pegasus, the Air Force announced Aug. 6. Pease, which was named as the preferred alternative in May 2013, was selected as a main Guard operating base By the Numbers after officials analyzed operational considerations, installation attributes, economic, and environmental factors. It was chosen because of its highly successful Active Duty association, which would lead to a lower Active Duty man- power requirement, and its location in a region of high air refueling demand. 848 The number of airmen Air Force Global Strike The KC-46A “remains one of our top acquisition priori- Command will add to its missile and bomber ties. Making a final basing decision is an important step in wings beginning this fall, in an effort to improve the recapitalizing the tanker fleet,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said. culture and mission effectiveness of the nuclear The formal Pegasus training unit at Altus AFB, Okla., and force. the first Active Duty-led main operating base at McConnell

18 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 “Basing the F-35s at Eielson will allow the Air Force the capability of using the Joint Pacifi c Alaska Range Complex Flight Restrictions on Test F-35As Eased for large force exercises using a multitude of ranges and maneuver airspace in Alaska,” Air Force Secretary Deborah The Pentagon in mid-August relaxed some fl ight Lee James said. “This, combined with the largest airspace restrictions on the test fl eet of F-35 strike fi ghters in the Air Force, ensures realistic combat training.” following a June engine fi re at Eglin AFB, Fla. Under The F-35A basing decision will become fi nal on successful the restrictions, the 20 test aircraft can fl y six hours completion of the required environmental impact assessment. between mandatory engine inspections, instead of the The Air Force expects the fi rst of 48 F-35As to begin arriving three-hour limit still imposed on the 79 other Air Force, at Eielson in 2019. The service still must decide where to base Navy and Marine Corps F-35s. the 18th Aggressor Squadron’s F-16s, currently at Eielson. Program offi cials said the older F-35s are considered less likely to have the engine problem because Operations Group Formed for AFGSC Helicopters they are already “broken in,” and engineers think if the Air Force Global Strike Command formed a provisional problem were to occur on those jet aircraft, it would helicopter operations group that will provide a more focused command chain for the three helicopter squadrons in 20th have happened already. Air Force. Program Executive Offi cer Lt. Gen. Christopher C. The operational group, established at F. E. Warren AFB, Bogdan said Sept. 3 the natural “fl ex” of the mishap Wyo., will work to “identify, prioritize, and create the facility, engine under high-G conditions caused fan blades to personnel, communication, and process infrastructure re- “rub” and “dig too deep” in the rubber-like seal around quired” to take control of the three squadrons at the end of the power plant. its provisional period, said Col. Dave Smith, the helicopter From 138 possible causes, “we’ve narrowed it down operations group commander, in a July 31 news release. to four” and the root cause could be some combination The group was recommended by the Force Improvement of them all, Bogdan said. Program, said Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, 20th Air Force com- Steps to address the issue are underway, including mander. a “burn in” technique requiring two sorties per engine Look Out Below: Maj. Zensaku Munn relays drop clear- that could prevent the problem on other jets. ance to an inbound C-130 over Shimoda bay, Japan, during Bogdan expects a permanent fi x in late October, the Shizuoka Comprehensive Disaster Drill, an exercise but “I need 21 test airplanes” back to full capability honing tactical air delivery of low-cost, low-altitude bundles “by the end of the month or else there will” be delays containing disaster relief. US airmen and marines cooper- to the fl ight test program. ated with Japanese military members in three disaster relief managment exercises in the region over a three-day period —Otto Kreisher and John A. Tirpak in August. USAF photo by Osakabe Yasuo Osakabe by photo USAF

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 19 Air Force World

Sometime next year, the new group will assume control of addition, another 50 silos already were destroyed at F. E. the 37th, 40th, and 54th Helicopter Squadrons and a newly Warren AFB, Wyo., leaving only three ICBM test silos at formed operations support squadron tailored for the three Vandenberg AFB, Calif., yet to be destroyed before the US helicopter units. meets the New START mandate. The treaty, which became effective Feb. 5, 2011, limits Installation and Mission Support Center Activated both countries to 1,550 nuclear warheads deployed on The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center 700 ICBMs, sea-launched ballistic missiles, and nuclear- was activated on Aug. 8 at its temporary headquarters at JB capable bombers. Andrews, Md. Maj. Gen. Theresa C. Carter was named provisional com- Aggressor Unit Inactivating mander of the center, which is intended to consolidate major Budget cuts and service “right-sizing” are claiming one command-level installation and mission support activities of the Air Force’s two Aggressor units based at Nellis AFB, into a single location. Nev., according to Air Combat Command. The center will also “become the parent organization for The 65th Aggressor Squadron, which flies 18 older model several existing field operating agencies,” including “Air Force F-15Cs, stood down on Sept. 26. Six of the F-15s—painted Security Forces Center, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, to look like Russian-made Flankers—plus a spare airplane, Air Force Installation Contracting Agency, the services as well as nine pilots and 90 maintainers, will temporarily directorate of the Air Force Personnel Center, and other transfer to Nellis’ 64th Aggressor Squadron. The aircraft will FOAs,” states the Aug. 7 press release. later shift to other units or retire to the Air Force’s aircraft The center was established in response to a 2013 Defense “Boneyard.” The F-15Cs not going to the 64th will be retired Department mandate to identify ways to reduce overhead in September. and redundancies and consolidate staffs. There was a Nellis ceremony to inactivate the unit in September. Asked if the move will affect the quality of Red 50 More Former ICBM Sites Destroyed Under New START Flag and other exercises at Nellis, ACC spokesman Capt. The last of 50 deactivated Minuteman III intercontinental Andrew Schrag told Air Force Magazine on Aug. 11, “We are ballistic missile launch facilities once operated by the 564th confident the quality of training … will remain world-class.” Missile Squadron at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., was demolished Schrag said, “Details of future training presentations are Aug. 5, another step toward US compliance with the New being discussed and evaluated.” Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, signed with Russia in 2010. Contractors used heavy equipment to bury the site’s Dusty Reapers: Airmen with the 451st Expeditionary Aircraft 110-ton launcher closure door and fill the launch tube with Maintenance Squadron pass by MQ-9 Reapers at Kandahar dirt, eliminating it as a usable missile launch silo. Airﬁ eld, Afghanistan, in August. The Reapers at Kandahar are The removal of the 564th ICBM sites now leaves the 341st launched, recovered, and maintained at the facility, in addition Missile Wing with 150 Minuteman III missiles on alert. In to being remotely operated by pilots in the US. USAF photo by SSgt. Evelyn Chavez Evelyn SSgt. by photo USAF

20 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 The War on Terrorism

Operation Enduring Freedom

Casualties “Our impact [on] Operation Enduring Freedom has been By Sept. 17, a total of 2,344 Americans had died in Op- huge,” said Capt. Justin Shultz, the flight’s executive of- eration Enduring Freedom. The total includes 2,341 troops ficer. “Because of our abilities and technical expertise, I and three Department of Defense civilians. Of these deaths, feel like we have become one of the frontline EOD units in 1,835 were killed in action with the enemy while 508 died in Afghanistan,” he said. noncombat incidents. In addition to Kandahar Airfield, the flight operated from There have been 19,987 troops wounded in action during six forward bases. “Our unit responded to any explosive OEF. hazard on and off base, such as unexploded ordnances, improvised explosive devices, and post-blasts,” said Shultz. US Army General Killed in Insider Attack in Kabul Army Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene was killed Aug. 5 after a Liberty Mission Coming to End in Afghanistan man believed to be a uniformed Afghan army soldier opened The 361st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron at fire on coalition forces during a routine “site visit” at the Marshal Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, is winding down for its re- Fahim National Defense University in Kabul, officials said. turn to the United States after four years of ISR missions in Greene was the highest-ranking service member to die in southern Afghanistan. The squadron flew more than 25,000 the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. air tasking order sorties in the MC-12W Liberty, racking up “Our thoughts and prayers are with Maj. Gen. Harold J. 115,000 combat flight hours, according to a Kandahar news Greene’s family and the families of our soldiers who were injured release. today in the tragic events that took place in Afghanistan,” said “A lot of sacrifice and commitment has gone into this Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno Aug. 5, adding, [mission],” said 361st ERS commander Lt. Col. James Man- “These soldiers were professionals, committed to the mission. sard. The squadron “eliminated 450 insurgents, … provided It is their service and sacrifice that define us as an Army.” overwatch for more than 50,000 friendly forces, and scanned Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said that [more than 8,000 miles] of roads supporting ground forces despite measures put in place to mitigate insider attacks outside the wire,” states the release. since 2012, Afghanistan is still at war and insider threats are NATO forces will remain at Kandahar to continue the “pernicious” and “difficult to always ascertain.” The shooter mission. was killed shortly after the attack. Campbell Takes Command of US, Coalition Troops A joint ISAF-Afghan investigation is underway. Army Gen. John F. Campbell assumed command of NATO’s Air Force EOD Presence Ending in Afghanistan International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US Forces The 466th EOD Operating Location Bravo Flight, the last in Afghanistan on Aug. 26, relieving Marine Gen. Joseph Air Force explosive ordnance disposal unit operating in Af- F. Dunford Jr., who held the joint command for 18 months. ghanistan, completed its final mission Aug. 19. Campbell will be the last ISAF commander as NATO will Since its initial assignment to Afghanistan in 2004, the shift to an advise and assist mission with a sharply reduced flight’s airmen—more than 600 explosive ordnance disposal force next year. technicians—have completed 20 rotations of more than Campbell is starting his third tour in Afghanistan. 10,000 missions. Dunford is slated to become the next Marine Corps Com- The unit lost eight airmen during this time. mandant in October, relieving Gen. James F. Amos.

AWACS Block 40/45 Upgrade Declared Operational spacelifts. USAF is seeking a domestic alternative to the Air Force E-3 AWACS aircraft equipped with new Block Russian RD-180 engine to ensure continued access to space. 40/45 hardware and software are ready for real-world op- According to the request for information notice, the new erations, according to an Aug. 15 news release. domestic solution may be a near carbon copy with “similar Air Combat Command chief Gen. Gilmary Michael Hostage performance characteristics to currently used engines,” or III declared initial operational capability for the new E-3G it can consist of different configurations (such as a multiple Block 40/45 configuration on July 28. engine configuration) that provide similar functionality. Use “This modification represents the most significant upgrade of completely different launch vehicles also is a possibility. in the 35-plus year history of the E-3 AWACS and greatly enhances our crew members’ ability to execute the com- Moody Selected as Afghan A-29 Training Site mand and control mission while providing a building block The Air Force has selected Moody AFB, Ga., to be the for future upgrades,” said Col. Jay R. Bickley, commander US training location for the Afghan Air Force’s A-29 pilots of the 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker AFB, Okla. and maintainers. The wing has taken delivery of six E-3Gs, two of which The service recently completed the assessment of the have deployed to support counterdrug operations, said environmental impact of establishing the mission at the Gordon Fitzgerald, the 552nd ACW’s requirements director. Georgia base, clearing the way for the final basing decision, The entire AWACS fleet is scheduled to receive the Block according to an Aug. 22 press release. 40/45 upgrade by Fiscal 2020, he said. Over the next four years, Moody will be the site for 20 A-29s, 17 Air Force instructor pilots, 24 maintenance and Space Command Seeks Info on New Rocket Engine support personnel, and 30 Afghan pilots and 90 maintainers. Air Force Space Command has asked industry to pro- Training is expected to begin in February 2015. vide information on a potential new booster propulsion and The Air Force opted for Moody “because of the avail- launch system for evolved expendable launch vehicle-class ability of the airfield, airspace, and suitable facilities,” said

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 21 Air Force World

Senior Staff Changes Bernard F. Fisher, 1927-2014 NOMINATIONS: To be Major General: Veralinn Jamieson. To be Retired Col. Bernard ANG Brigadier General: Dennis D. Grunstad II. F. “Bernie” Fisher, the first recipient of the Air CHANGES: Brig. Gen. Paul H. Guemmer, from Dept. Dir., Strategy, Force-designed Medal Capabilities, Policy, & Log, TRANSCOM, Scott AFB, Ill., to Cmdr., of Honor, died Aug. 16 Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions & Citizen Dev., AETC, Maxwell AFB, Ala. ... Lt. Gen. Tod D. Wolters, from Cmdr. at his home in Idaho, 12th AF, ACC, Davis Monthan AFB, Ariz., to DCS, Ops, Plans, & at age 87. Rqmts., Pentagon. Then-Major Fisher received the Medal of SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE CHANGES: Miranda A. A. Honor from President Ballentine, to Asst. SECAF, Instal, Env., & Log, Pentagon ... Gordon Lyndon B. Johnson for O. Tanner, to General Counsel, Office of the SECAF, Pentagon. n action on March 10, 1966, in South Viet- nam. Assigned to the Timothy K. Bridges, the service’s deputy assistant secretary 1st Air Commando for installations. Squadron at Pleiku, Fisher was leading a Sweeping Changes Proposed for Officer Training two-ship of A-1E Skyraiders to the A Shau Valley on a Air Education and Training Command headquarters and the Air close air support mission when his wingman, Maj. D. Staff are reviewing proposals from the Officer Training School that W. Myers, was hit by enemy fire. would make dramatic changes to the way the Air Force prepares Myers bellied in on a nearby Special Forces airstrip, its new officers. The proposal would merge OTS’s three separate fled the aircraft, and hid on the edge of the strip. Fisher officer programs into a single course combining Active Duty, Air began coordinating a rescue, but as the enemy was Force Reserve, and Air National Guard officer candidates and closing in on Myers and a helicopter rescue was at least new officers with direct commissions as judge advocates, medical 30 minutes away, Fisher elected to act alone. He landed professionals, and chaplains. on the strip under heavy fire, taxied to Myers’ position, OTS, based at Maxwell AFB, Ala., currently runs the Basic then helped him into Fisher’s own A-1E. Fisher was able Officer Training School for prospective Active Duty and Reserve to safely take off and return to base, despite numerous officers, the Academy of Military Science for ANG officer candidates, shell and bullet hits on his aircraft. Fisher had earned and the Commissioned Officers School for direct-commissioned a Silver Star flying CAS the previous day in the same non-line officers. battle. He also is the recipient of the Distinguished Flying “We want to change that,” Lt. Col. Ryan J. Aerni, commander Cross and Bronze Star Medal among others. of the 24th Training Squadron, said. “We want a common officer President Johnson presented the Medal of Honor to training experience” to give Total Force officers a shared foundation. Fisher on Jan. 19, 1967, for “personal action above and beyond the call of duty.” The Beagles Are Back Fisher started his military career in the Navy and spent The renowned World War II American Beagle Squadron was time in the Idaho Air National Guard before receiving reactivated during an Aug. 22 ceremony at Tyndall AFB, Fla. his Air Force commission in June 1951. In addition to During the ceremony, the 325th Operations Group Adversary Air the hundreds of CAS missions flown in the A-1E “Spad” program became the 2nd Fighter Training Squadron. in Vietnam, Fisher also flew the F-80, F-86, and the The squadron flies T-38 Talons against the base’s F-22 Raptor F-101. He retired from the Air Force in 1974 and was in flight training, taking some of the pressure off the F-22 fleet a Republican candidate for governor of Idaho in 1981. and helping cut costs, according to a press release. Two parks, a portion of a Utah highway, and a Mili- “The Air Force is not getting any more F-22s,” said Lt. Col. Derek tary Sealift Command vessel, Maj. Bernard F. Fisher Wyler, squadron commander. “Every hour we fly on that airplane (T-AK-4396), are named for him. The A-1E he flew is an hour that we never get back. If we can save all those hours during the Myers rescue was restored and is displayed for mission training, it preserves the lifespan of those airplanes.” at the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio. Index to Advertisers Al Qaeda Cites Air Force Academy as Possible Target American Hearing Benefits...... 9 An English-language online publication produced by Boeing...... 3, 11 al Qaeda has cited the Air Force Academy as a possible FLIR...... 7 target for a terrorist attack, among an array of American Lockheed Martin...... 5 and international facilities and institutions, reported The Northrop Grumman...... Cover II, IV Metlife...... 15 Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs, Colo. USAA...... Cover III USAFA officials said they are aware the academy “is mentioned in a recent online publication. We remain vigilant and maintain all appropriate protocols of a military instal- AFA Corporate Members...... 23 lation to include force protection and being cognizant of AFA Hangar Store ...... 77 AFA Member Benefits Reference ...... 53 existing and emerging threats.” AFA Shopping Benefits...... 78 Other US targets listed by the terrorist publication include Air Warfare Symposium...... 57, 75 casinos and night clubs in Las Vegas, the Georgia Military Combined Federal Campaign...... 25 College, Times Square in New York City, the General Atomics Thunderbird Society...... 75 headquarters in San Diego, oil tankers, and trains. J

22 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 CORPORATE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT The AFA Corporate Membership Program recognizes companies that support the Air Force Association’s mission, people, and events. These businesses play a vital role in making AFA the most powerful advocate for every member of the Air Force family. This month we highlight select Corporate tier members. For more information on the Corporate Membership Program, please visit www.afa.org/CM.

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In early 1946, Winston Churchill was at loose ends, having failed in a bid for re-election. Britain’s former (and future) Prime “The Sinews of Peace” Minister was asked by Westminster College, in Fulton, Mo., to come and speak. Churchill didn’t disappoint. He delivered a Winston Churchill stern warning about Soviet aggressiveness and used a memo- Address to Westminster College rable phrase: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, Fulton, Mo. an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” It wasn’t March 5, 1946 the first use of the term “iron curtain.” For decades, it had been a metaphor for Russia’s secretiveness. Even Churchill had Find the full text on the used it before. Still, the Fulton speech gave the phrase wide Air Force Magazine’s website circulation. “Iron Curtain” became a near synonym for the Cold www.airforcemag.com War, symbolizing the ideological conflict and physical division of “Keeper File” Europe into Communist east and free west.

shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied miles upon a front of nearly 400 miles, in order to allow our Russian Avictory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist allies to occupy this vast expanse of territory which the Western international organization intends to do in the immediate future, democracies had conquered. or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing If now the Soviet government tries, by separate action, to build tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant up a pro-Communist Germany in their areas, this will cause new Russian people. ... It is my duty, however, for I am sure you would serious difficulties in the British and American zones, and will give wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you the defeated Germans the power of putting themselves up to auc- certain facts about the present position in Europe. tion between the Soviets and the Western democracies. Whatever From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has conclusions may be drawn from these facts—and facts they are—this descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals is certainly not the liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, one which contains the essentials of permanent peace. Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these The safety of the world requires a new unity in Europe, from famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call which no nation should be permanently outcast. ... Twice in our own the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only lifetime we have seen the United States, against their wishes and to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increas- their traditions, against arguments, the force of which it is impossible ing measure of control from Moscow. ... The Russian-dominated not to comprehend, drawn by irresistible forces into these wars in Polish government has been encouraged to make enormous and time to secure the victory of the good cause but only after frightful wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions slaughter and devastation had occurred. Twice the United States of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking has had to send several millions of its young men across the Atlantic place. The Communist parties, which were very small in all these to find the war; but now war can find any nation, wherever it may Eastern states of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and dwell between dusk and dawn. ... power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during obtain totalitarian control. Police governments are prevailing in nearly the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much every case, and so far, except in as strength, and there is nothing for Czechoslovakia, there is no true which they have less respect than democracy. for weakness, especially military Turkey and Persia are both weakness. For that reason the profoundly alarmed and dis- old doctrine of a balance of power turbed at the claims which are is unsound. We cannot afford, if being made upon them and at we can help it, to work on narrow the pressure being exerted by margins, offering temptations to the Moscow government. An a trial of strength. If the Western

attempt is being made by the Photo via National Churchill Museum democracies stand together in Russians in Berlin to build up a strict adherence to the principles quasi-Communist Party in their of the United Nations charter, zone of Occupied Germany by their influence for furthering those showing special favors to groups principles will be immense and of left-wing German leaders. At no one is likely to molest them. the end of the fighting last June, If however they become divided the American and British armies or falter in their duty and if these withdrew westwards, in accor- all-important years are allowed to dance with an earlier agreement, slip away, then indeed catastrophe to a depth at some points of 150 may overwhelm us all. J

24 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 CFC# 11953 www.airforcememorial.org

AIR FORCE MEMORIAL Honoring Airmen, Preserving Heritage

SUPPORT THROUGH THE COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

AIR FORCE ASSOCIATION Promoting Air Force Airpower

CFC# 12214 www.afa.org Low-key partnership programs between US states and foreign nations have paid big dividends. The Guard

PartnershipsBy Amy McCullough, News Editor

he California National Guard’s Ukraine’s border earlier this year, said The California Guard, as a result, state partnership with Ukraine Siepmann. is taking a deep look at Ukraine’s re- began in 1993, just two years after “Our perspective wasn’t in question quirements and using them as a basis the collapse of the Soviet Union. with them. That meant we could continue for determining future engagements, he Although Ukraine is not a NATO down the path of what to do next because said. “I don’t know what the next fi scal member,T the partnership has always they’re approaching it ... without the year is going to look like for us. It will been critical because of the country’s skepticism you might have if you were be interesting for sure. I suspect we’ll infl uence in Eastern Europe and its doing something for the fi rst time,” he have signifi cant engagements, but we’ll strategic location along Russia’s border said. have to wait and see how the process and the Black Sea. The Army National Guard and Air comes out.” Though strong now, there was initial National Guard have partnered with The California Guard’s relationship concern, “maybe even skepticism, up front Ukraine on fi ve to 10 exchanges each year. with Ukraine is just one example of about what to expect from one another,” The activities ranged from small-scale many the National Guard has built across said Lt. Col. Jon Siepmann, one of the swapping of legal or chaplain personnel the globe through its State Partnership California Guard’s State Partnership to larger exercises such as Safe Skies Program. Program directors. Those serving in 2011, where seven F-16s and more than The National Guard Bureau allocates the military in the late 1980s vividly 40 support personnel from fi ve states took just $14 million a year for the SPP, remembered training for a potential the lead in a multinational air superiority supporting 65 partnerships in more confl ict against the Soviet Union “and exercise. Nearly 200 Ukrainian airmen than 74 nations (several states are then next thing you know you’re in participated. partnered with more than one nation). former Soviet territory working with a Safe Skies featured more than 60 Although the bureau is not the sole new partner,” said Siepmann. mock air intercepts using Ukrainian funding source for SPP events, the For more than two decades now Su-27s and MiG-29s, as well as US and program is often touted on Capitol California Guardsmen have worked with Polish F-16s, according to the California Hill and in the Department of Defense Ukrainians to build up trust, enhance National Guard website. The exercise as a cost-effective way to provide cooperation, and further develop the took two years to plan and is still the consistent engagement with countries country’s military and civil capabilities. largest exchange in the partnership’s around the world. Thanks to this long-term partnership, history. SPP launched in 1993, just after Ukrainians “immediately knew they But the engagement plan for 2014 was the end of the Cold War, when many could come to us,” when Russia started put on hold earlier this year due to ongoing militaries wanted to retool and reform. bolstering its military forces along security concerns, said Siepmann. The Latvian government, which wanted

USAF MSgt. John M. Oliver (left), a tactical air control party specialist, and 1st Sgt. Modris Circenis, a TACP with the Latvian National Armed Forces, communicate with another team during a reconnaissance mission in Operation Northern Strike at the Grayling Air Gunnery Range, Mich. The National Guard-led, multistate, multinational exercise lasted three weeks in August.

26 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 USAF photo by SSgt. Lealan Buehrer

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 27 to step away from its former Soviet-style spectively, offi cially began the program Air National Guard Col. Pierre B. Oury military, sought US help as it looked to in 1993. Since then, SPP has grown said in an interview in Latvia in June. move toward a citizen-soldier model, signifi cantly and continues to evolve to Oury serves as the Air National Guard similar to the US National Guard. meet national security demands. advisor to the commander of US Air At the same time, the US government In Fiscal 2013, the National Guard Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa. also was looking for a way to expand conducted 739 SPP events, including “That’s priceless,” he said. “It’s the military-to-military cooperation with 233 in US Southern Command, 229 marriage between the two states. You former Soviet bloc countries in central in US European Command, and 115 don’t just divorce them.” and Eastern Europe without threatening in US Africa Command, as well as the new Russian Federation. The National events in US Central Command, US MICHIGAN LEADS Guard seemed like the obvious choice, Pacifi c Command, and US Northern Latvian defense chief Lt. Gen. Rai- Air National Guard Lt. Col. Andrew J. Command. monds Graube said his country’s state Roberts, then bilateral affairs offi cer in Since SPP’s beginnings, these events partnership with Michigan was a vital the Offi ce of Defense Cooperation at have included a range of activities, such part of the rebuilding process once Latvia the US Embassy in Riga, Latvia, told as training in disaster preparedness, gained its independence in 1991, follow- Air Force Magazine in June. Roberts is humanitarian assistance, and cyber de- ing 50 years of Soviet rule. now commander of the Alpena Combat fense, to the stand-up of a US certifi ed “We started [our] defense system Readiness Training Center in Michigan. joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) from scratch. I mean from very scratch,” unit in Latvia. From 2003 to 2013, 28 Graube told Air Force Magazine in June LONGEVITY, STABILITY SPP partners participated in Operation during an interview in Riga. “Our goal The Guard was also a logical choice Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring was to turn toward a Western-type of ap- because the US was able to match states Freedom, including 16 that deployed proach [to defense] and Michigan played with countries of a similar size. Another alongside their state partners, according a role in that from the very beginning.” benefi t was that guardsmen typically to the Fiscal 2013 SPP annual report. Graube said the partnership was a “cru- stay in the same unit longer than Active During that same time period, the co- cial start,” and exchanges covered the full Duty service members, a model similar deployed forces participated in a total of “spectrum of defense matters,” including to some European assignment systems. 87 troop rotations, ranging from NATO personnel, planning, and training. Over This enabled the same forces to train military assistance teams to embedded the years, however, the partnership has together for years, said Roberts. support teams. “become more sophisticated and more A proposal to pair National Guard “Sometimes a country falls off the selective.” units from Michigan, Maryland, and priority list, but we still engage with The highlight of the 22-year partner- Pennsylvania with the Baltic countries them. When things ramp up, we are ship, he said, is the stand-up and certifi - of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, re- able to engage at an even faster pace,” cation of Latvia’s joint terminal attack

Maintainers from the Alabama and California Air National Guard replace an air data controller on an F-16 while in Ukraine for Safe Skies 2011, a military-to-military exchange between California, Ukraine, and Poland.

USAF photo by TSgt. Chalres Vaughn

28 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 USAF photo by SSgt. Lealan Buehrer

Illinois Guardsmen and Polish airmen— including Lt. Przemyslaw Milinski (crouching)—coordinate unloading a C-130 in August at Greater Peoria Arpt., Ill. The Illinois Air National Guard has teamed with Poland’s air force since 1993.

controller program. In 2007, the NATO Force. So, the US team first set up a Guardsmen helped him through the International Security Assistance Force “precourse” to familiarize interested initial JTAC qualification process. in Afghanistan was looking for more JTAC candidates with the close air “Then I went to Afghanistan,” he said. countries to get involved in operations. support world, said Latvian tactical The Latvian program received its full Latvia wanted to help fill that role, air control party commander Maj. certification in 2010 thanks to the help “but there were certain skills they Dans Jansons. of Michigan Guardsmen assigned to didn’t have,” said Roberts, an ANG After the walk-through, the US team the Alpena Combat Readiness Training pilot who was serving as commander selected the first two Latvians to travel Center. Today there are about a dozen of the Grayling Air Gunnery Range in to the US for further training. “fully accredited, up-and-running, Michigan at the time. Jansons said he attended a two-week full-time, self-sustainable” Latvian A year later, the National Guard academic course at the Naval Strike and JTACs, said Jansons. The goal is to Bureau endorsed a proposal, initiated Air Warfare Center at NAS Fallon, Nev. eventually grow the program to 16 by the Latvians, to send a joint team From there, he went to the Grayling JTACs, though Jansons said that is of Michigan National Guard members Air Gunnery Range, where Michigan dependent on future funding sources. and Latvian soldiers to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Free- dom. They would become the first SPP partners to deploy as an operational and mentoring team, according to a 2013 DOD release about the program’s 20-year anniversary. But first, Latvia needed to develop JTAC capabilities so it could effectively direct close air support and indirect fire downrange. That was a fairly tall order for a country that doesn’t have its own Air

Latvian tactical air control party commander Maj. Dans Jansons (r) works with Estonian joint terminal attack controllers during a partnership mission. USAF photo by TSgt. Charles Vaughn

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 29 TRUE FRIENDSHIP at Combat Outpost Bari Alai in Kunar Heroes wall at the Joint Force Headquarters The Latvian JTAC program is often province on May 1, 2009. It was the in Lansing, Mich., alongside those of 21 referred to as one of the great SPP suc- fi rst joint deployment for Michigan Michigan Army Guardsmen who died in cess stories, but it came at a signifi cant and Latvia. The bond between the Lat- Iraq and Afghanistan. price. Two Latvian soldiers, including vian soldiers and Michigan Guards- In mid-June, Roberts stood in the the fi rst to be selected for the JTAC men is strong, however. The two fallen pouring rain at Camp Adazi, Latvia, training program, died during a battle soldiers’ pictures hang on the Hall of reminiscing about the fi rst time he met

South Carolina Air National Guard F-16s ﬂ y alongside a Colombian air force Kﬁ r during a combined air cooperation engagement in Colombia in August.

USAF photo by Maj. Matthew Booth

30 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 USAF photo by Maj. Matthew T. Mutti

Ukrainian Lt. Gen. Vasyl Nikiforov (left) and USAF Maj. Gen. Donald Ralph (right) prepare for a Safe Skies mission in a Ukrainian Su-27 at Mirgorod AB, Ukraine, in 2011. California and Ukraine have been state partners since 1993.

Jansons back in February 2008. It was developed over the years. Some states within Pacifi c Command dating back to clear the mentoring relationship also has even provide scholarships or free tuition Guam’s and Hawaii’s partnership with led to a true friendship. for residents of their partnership nation the Philippines in 2000 and including “He’s been to my house in Michigan states. “It’s a two-way street,” said Oury. the newly formed partnership between six times. … That’s the piece of the State He noted that North Carolina wanted Nevada and Tonga this year. Partnership Program that you don’t see to build a wine industry, so it looked AFRICOM Commander Army Gen. with a normal engagement on any other to Moldova, its SPP partner, for help. David M. Rodriquez “wants fi ve more level,” said Roberts. “You see teams come Some of the more mature partnerships, partnerships this year,” said Oury. “He’s in, … they go away, and they never come like California and Ukraine, have taken banging on the table calling [National back to Latvia. With this program you see on second partnerships, typically on the Guard Bureau Chief Army Gen. Frank six, 10, 20 years later, guys who know African continent. California has also J. Grass] saying, ‘You need to help me.’ each other and are still working together been partnered with Nigeria since 2006. But we can’t work that fast. There is a and building capability and capacity.” point where states can only do so much Graube has a similar story of how BANG FOR THE BUCK because they still have to maintain their the SPP has shaped his family life. Oury said the idea came from senior own missions.” Graube was a young lieutenant when the leader engagements. The goal was to Oury said the Guard does still have partnership fi rst formed. Now a lieutenant take the capabilities and capacities the capacity to take on more partner- general, his career has often run parallel gained over the last two decades and ships, but it’s going to take time. In the to that of his US counterparts. Some 10 train someone else at little extra cost. meantime, partner nations themselves years ago, both his sons went to Michigan “The fundamental tenets of the part- are looking to share their knowledge and stayed with a colonel he had met nership program are the same,” said with other countries. For example, through the SPP. They attended high Siepmann. “It bleeds over. From a the second accredited Latvian JTAC school in Michigan for one year and then California perspective, the partnership is is now running an accredited JTAC came back to Latvia where they are now broad. It’s not just about SPP. It’s about schoolhouse in Poland. Jansons said it “extremely successful” businessmen, any and all engagements we do.” “is another great achievement [done] said Roberts. Oury said Pacific Command and with the help of the Michigan Air Na- “That infl uence from the US, you can’t Africa Command are “big SPP areas tional Guard.” buy that. It’s real. It’s tangible. He feels of growth.” There are 10 partnerships Oury said that development is proof it. He gets it. That’s what this program within AFRICOM. The oldest, each the State Partnership Program “gives really kind of gets for you in a lot of formed in 2003, were built between you the greatest bang for the buck” ways,” said Roberts. New York and South Africa and Utah when it comes to security cooperation. There are other residual “side effects” and Morocco. North Dakota, which “The [combatant commands] have really of the SPP as well, said Oury. For partnered with both Togo and Benin spoken up about the value of the program. example, civilian medical library, youth, this year, represents the newest partner- The Guard Bureau also fi nds it is a huge and academic exchange programs have ship. There also are eight partnerships training opportunity.” ✪ AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 31 Depot Redirection By Autumn A. Arnett, Associate Editor

The Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex is working to make its repair work less art and more science.

fter years of instability led to a “Our own processes are our biggest With the shift in attitudes, a concerted severe backup on the nation’s time hindrance,” said Doug Keene, the effort was made at all three Air Force sole F-15 depot line, things are chief civilian overseeing the depot and depots (the Ogden ALC at Hill AFB, ﬁ nally coming together at the special assistant to the ALC’s then-boss, Utah; the Oklahoma City ALC at Tinker Warner Robins Air Logistics Brig. Gen. Cedric D. George. AFB, Okla.; and Warner Robins) to ComplexA at Robins AFB, Ga. The depot was instructed to imple- depart from personality-driven mainte- Up until recently, the complex’s ap- ment a new, more disciplined, scientific nance to a process-driven, sustainable proach to depot maintenance was to treat approach to workload maintenance in activity-based style of maintenance. it as an art form. Restoring an aircraft was 2012 when an Air Force Sustainment Sustainment Center officials refer to a delicate art, and each artist—or worker Center reorganization occurred. The this as the “AFSC Way.” or crew chief—had an individualized goal was to find ways to deliver cost- According to an April white paper approach to the process. This approach effective readiness across the entire Air on cost-effective readiness released by made the process (and the results) very Force. Lt. Gen. Bruce A. Litchfield, AFSC, the new way would be based personality-driven and ensured that any commander of the Air Force Sustain- on a shared leadership model empha- movement in personnel could disrupt ment Center at Tinker AFB, Okla., has sizing speed, safety, quality, and cost- the entire operation. Something had to touted a scientific, data-driven decision- effectiveness. Based on the Theory of give. All too often that was the F-15 making processes to achieve the best Constraints—focusing on identifying repair schedule. cost benefit across the entire service. hindrances to productivity and restructur- 32 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 An F-15 undergoes disassembly in the ﬁ rst stage of depot maintenance at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex on Robins AFB, Ga.

The results he saw on the KC-135 budget maladies trickled down to affect line, though, really made him a believer. base operations that were already moving All of the KC-135 depot work is done slowly. Just as the new approach to depot Staff Staff photo Arnett A. Autumn by at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Com- maintenance was being implemented, plex. None of the work is farmed out to the sequestration hit. Voluntary early retire- private sector, an approach George said is ments, separations, and furloughs further much less expensive. The KC-135 depot knocked back productivity. “Throughput team was the fi rst unit to really take hold was not where we wanted it, actually, go- of the AFSC Way’s system and make it ing into the furlough, and then … as we their own—going from 400 days on an went into the furlough, we realized why aircraft to less than 100 during a depot [we aren’t] getting the throughput,” why cycle. “When I saw that, I said, ‘I’m all it was disturbed, and that it was “because in,’ ” said George. we didn’t have the process discipline,” The focus began shifting to a format George said. that established a “right” way to do air- With roughly 7,500 civilians working craft maintenance. “There’s a science to on depot operations at Warner Robins, fi xing an aircraft,” Keene said. “If we all the overtime bans before sequestration apply the same science, we get common made it diffi cult for teams to work off a outputs.” The foundation of the AFSC Way backload of aircraft, and the mandatory is process discipline, a scientifi c way of furloughs of sequestration set the teams doing business, and “throughput’s a key even further behind. “We ended up having part of that,” George said. “All of our an additional 18 to 22 aircraft just basically production operations are assessed using clogged here,” George said. “You could a mathematical approach for how we do not work any overtime, you could not do maintenance. It’s not just a gut feel.” anything to just move those machines.” “If you were an aircraft [maintenance] FURLOUGH EFFECT squadron that was in trouble before the But as with any change, this shift is furlough, the furlough killed you,” said taking time to be fully embraced. Imple- 561st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron ing the approach to get around them—the menting the AFSC Way is not just about director Mike Arnold. He said that due AFSC Way systematically identifi es waste changing one or two things in the existing to “lots and lots of ‘nobody can come and constraints to productivity to create process. It is about completely changing out here and work’ time,” the squadron a more effi cient process. the culture at Warner Robins. Personnel “gained nearly 25 days on every airplane It was a process George himself had who actually regarded themselves as just during that six-week furlough.” Depot Redirection to go through during his time as com- masters of their craft have to be taught Not only that, he said, 20 percent of the mander of the 76th Maintenance Wing to remove themselves from the process squadron’s workforce was eliminated at Tinker. He said in the second year of and focus on the science of new methods. because of separations and scale-backs. implementing the then-trial system at Though it was initially introduced as a Despite the impact to the workload, Tinker, it started to take hold of him and concept in 2012, it was not until December the staff at Warner Robins grasped that show him that increased effi ciency was 2013 that the base was able to take hold depot maintenance was a logical place possible under the new approach. of the new way of doing things. Federal to make cutbacks. “The Air Force very While he acknowledged that the new system of dividing duties, analyzing breakdown and hindrances to productivity, pinpointing specifi c problems, and identifying ways to solve each problem individually should make logical sense, he said it is not necessarily a no-brainer to believe the system will work—especially when they’d been doing it completely Horton Tommie by photo USAF differently for years. “It’s very easy to [say], ‘We’re doing alright. Don’t change it,’ ” said George. It takes much more gumption to decide to overhaul an entire system and get the team to buy into a whole new way.

Jerome Estell, a 560th Aircraft Mainte- nance Squadron mechanic, cleans and inspects an aircraft part at WRALC.

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 33 deliberately made sure that the dollars that were going to the folks who were in harm’s way” were not interrupted, Keene said. “If you’re going to make cuts, while it’s painful and it degraded the mission some to have us go on a six-day furlough, Sapp Sue by photo USAF you certainly wouldn’t want to cause mission failure out there in the fi eld. … You wouldn’t want a guy or a girl out on the front line not getting food every day or weapons or the types of things they need, information they need.” But with a large civilian workforce, it is sometimes hard to matter-of-factly make that call. George made it plain: When Warner Robins’ 7,500 civilians stop working, the depot shuts down. For George, it is the “devastating effect” on the people he commands that he thinks about most. “Many people made the mistake … of thinking it was just one civilian, but we had civilians married to civilians, so it was families,” George said. Cuts had an “impact ... across entire families, and so it had a huge Above left: Brig. Gen. Cedric George, then-WRALC commander, said, “We’ve got to effect and we are still restoring the trust get those aircraft out of here and ensure touch time ... gets down to 115 days.” To of our civilians.” reach this goal, the depot is applying what is known as the AFSC Way. It identifi es Beyond mandated time off from the constraints on productivity and creates more effi ciencies. Above right: Finished aircraft, time that may have otherwise been with the repair stage, F-15s wait to enter build-up. spent repairing airplanes was redirected. Trying to deal with ensuring the personal Starting with the Bipartisan Budget we want to have here,” George said. Of welfare of the employees who were the Act of 2013, which ended the furloughs those aircraft, most are F-15s. heart and soul of the depot operations and authorized pay raises for civilian If the aircraft are sitting in the depot, was a necessary process, but it took effort staff on base, George and the staff at they are not available for training or away from the job at hand. Warner Robins said they have begun to combat purposes, he noted. “What really hurt us here in that time restore the trust of the workforce and Because of a previous emphasis on is [that] the focus came off the mission,” get the mission back on track. meeting the target date, Arnold said the Keene said. “The focus came on to Keene said staffers “don’t want to be staff had cut a lot of corners that ended managing through the furlough. We were focused on scary things, like a furlough up damaging the process and the overall very concerned about our employees. We and the possible loss of days.” He said, results heading into the sequestration. were making sure that they were given “In the last few months, the focus has “We were focusing on one method, one every opportunity off base to seek fi nancial really come back to the mission and goal, and that was: The airplane had to counseling,” Keene said. the process.” leave here on time. If you leave here on time, in a lot of ways, you cut corners. MINDS TOGETHER ... We broke a lot of basic maintenance Around the end of 2013, George and processes along the way to get that his staff were able to set in motion a really good performance,” Arnold said. mandate to properly implement the “There’re a couple ways you can AFSC Way. But while the easing of get that done: You can just get your sequestration has allowed the team giddy-up on. And that’s not the way we to move expeditiously to work off do it, because that’s not sustainable,” Staff Staff photo Arnett A. Autumn by the Fiscal 2013 backlog, there was a said George. snowball effect that first put them further The right way, George said, is behind where they’d like to be this year. understanding “what the constraints “If you work off last year’s aircraft, are in the machine, [using] science that impacts this year’s aircraft, so to make sure you understand it, then we have some 40 aircraft here in the [applying] our outstanding people to station that we need to work off, … 18 that well-thought out and disciplined additional aircraft above the number that approach to the process.” The leadership team is still working Mike Arnold, the 561st Aircraft Mainte- to assess the full impact of sequestration nance Squadron director, meets with his crew chiefs weekly to discuss ways on base operations, but George knows to improve the maintenance line. one thing for sure: “We don’t ever want to go back to a furlough.” 34 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 Staff Staff photo Arnett A. Autumn by

“We need to make sure that we capture “The customer sends us an airplane, pays problems and move forward,” he said. “For fully the intended and unintended us to fi x it, and we say, ‘Your oil change me, it makes my job a whole lot easier. consequences of [sequestration],” George will be done in 30 minutes.’ Instead, it’s Everyone’s not standing around looking said. done in three days,” Arnold said. at me for what the easiest solution’s going Part of the consequences, said Arnold, He said the answer is to employ a to be, because I’m probably not going to was not having all the tools to do the collaborative approach to problem solving. have it anyway.” job. “We got through the big problem “We’re trying to get all of those smart minds in February and March of not having and everybody’s perspective in the room. NEW OPPORTUNITIES the basic parts and resources” needed to They’ve got to arm wrestle it out and let The depot has started to recover and its properly maintain the airplanes. Once everybody throw their piece out there on workforce has refocused on its mission. But that issue was solved, the team in May the table,” he said. Then, with a number despite gains made, it is not enough. George “started getting smoother about how of perspectives on the same data, they are says the Warner Robins Air Logistics we’re doing this. In eight weeks, we able to reach applicable solutions that may Complex, like other depots at Hill and have reduced the number of days that it improve effi ciency. The team identifi es one Tinker, must deliver the same readiness takes us to get airplanes through here by problem to target at a time, and everyone at less cost. And that means in less time. about 41 days.” mobilizes to improve that area so that they “We’ve got to get those aircraft out of George said the crews are making can, as a group, move on to solving the here and ensure the touch time on those progress, but he wants to continue to push next problem. gets down to 115 days” from the time they his team to be more effi cient, constantly In one July meeting, all of the crew arrive on base to the time they are out the striving to eliminate any clogs that arise in chiefs and engineers sat around a table door, said George. “If we’re doing 200 the system. Many aircraft lines are fl owing and analyzed each individual depot station. days on an F-15, we want to get that lower now, but “we are in no way satisfi ed with What were the strengths, weaknesses, and and lower, ... and the way we do it is that the fact that we just unclogged them,” he challenges to effi ciency, and how could each scientifi c way.” said, adding that he wants to speed up the individual step of the process be improved “The problem is, we are way behind,” fl ow to get caught up. to create a smoother overall process, they Little said. “Forty-one days, yeah, that’s In October and November, Keene asked. After deliberating for some time, really good, but what have you done for said, the squadron was producing three they decided that actually consolidating me lately? You’ve got to get more. That’s airplanes per month. As of July, they were two work stations into one would make the really what we’re trying to do.” up to nearly six, but the target is eight. process more effi cient. Instead of breaking George is confi dent that the depot The depot gets two types of aircraft: an airplane down and separately charting staff has everything it needs to reach those needing regular depot maintenance what needed repairing or maintenance, they the goal set if they keep plugging away overhaul and those coming in for rewiring. could evaluate the aircraft as they broke it at the process. “I believe we are back in They get 48 airplanes coming in for down. By doing so, they could eliminate stride. It took some time to get back in our regular maintenance per year, and they several days from the process and save full stride and get them fully engaged,” are supposed to be at the depot no more themselves some effort backtracking. They he said. “We need them focused on than 125 days. In July, they were at 236 would not have been able to reach that producing aircraft and making sure that days—111 more than the standard. On conclusion independently, if each chief our warfi ghters, our sons and daughters in the rewire side, the standard is 185 days, were working in isolation, said Arnold. harm’s way, have the necessary capability but the depot was still exceeding that by “The key is throwing all those minds that this depot provides. And that’s what 90 days and holding airplanes for 275. together. That helps us actually solve we’re back to.” ✪ AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 35 he Air Force is working to execute its core missions faster. Modern threats and long distances demand that USAF develop faster tools for future missions. Greater speed is needed Future operations will acrossT the “kill chain”—the process that covers the time that includes information require quick decisions gathering, decision-making, and action and rapid effects. against targets. “Our most challenging scenario is in increasingly contested environments where gaining and maintaining air and space superiority will be our toughest mission—and our highest priority,” Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy said when asked about Air Staff planning assumptions about future threats. To meet these needs, USAF is restruc- turing some organizations, encouraging tactical and operational experimentation, and putting valuable dollars into research and development. Funding for next generation adaptive aircraft engines, hypersonic weapons, and nanotechnology are not just science projects. They are critical aspects of future USAF dominance, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III has said. “The big picture for me is: Speed compresses kill chains. Real speed really compresses kill chains and reduces the enemy’s decision time. For our warfi ght-

The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works- designed hypersonic aircraft concept in this illustration would conduct missions at speeds up to Mach 6. USAF wants more speed across the entire kill chain.

Speed Kills By Marc V. Schanz, Senior Editor

Lockheed Martin illustration

36 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 ing force, that’s an important concept,” from remotely piloted aircraft in a staff, it has announced the realignment Welsh said in July, as he unveiled the counterinsurgency campaign, to one of the Air Force ISR Agency to become service’s new strategic plan. It touts that refocuses on ISR as a mission in the service’s newest numbered air force broad USAF investment in technology and of itself. Intelligence is not a mere this fall—25th Air Force. The NAF and tactical experimentation within its support function, and USAF must work provides a single command structure missions. to get useful information where it is for USAF’s ISR airmen, bringing a Anything the Air Force can do to needed—quickly. wide range of units and organizations speed up the effects it wants to create under its authority, from the Air Force is a good thing, Welsh said, “whatever ISR ASCENDANT Cryptologic Offi ce at Fort Meade, domain we operate in.” The problem is particularly acute, Md., to the Air Force Technical Ap- Faster execution begins with infor- USAF’s senior ISR airman said, be- plications Center at Patrick AFB, Fla. mation, and its wide portfolio of ISR cause it is adapting to prosecute ISR Along with processing, exploitation tools drives the Air Force’s decision- in confl icts far different from the last and dissemination, targeting and other making process. The Air Force needs decade. ISR is at a “strategic turning AOC-level skill sets now under 25th to capitalize and build on its strengths point,” Lt. Gen. Robert P. “Bob” Otto Air Force, aircraft wings are now also in this area, as it is vital to fast, agile said in June. The Air Staff is updating under the organization. These include global operations. plans for how it will receive and transmit the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Speaking at the Air Force Associa- ISR in contested and anti-access, area- AFB, Calif., and the 55th Wing at Offutt tion’s Air Warfare Symposium this past denial (A2/AD) environments. AFB, Neb. (home of USAF’s RC-135 February, Welsh pointed out that in the Linking assets that can operate in fl eet), among others. aftermath of the fi rst Gulf War, “no- these environments—such as the B-2, By standing up 25th Air Force, USAF body knew what ISR was.” Since then, F-22, and F-35—with older aircraft is is seeking to “normalize the ISR mis- USAF has built and adapted a global crucial to future operations. Distributed sion into the combat air forces,” Air network of sensors, aircraft, and air and networks, to help valuable ISR data Combat Command boss Gen. Gilmary space operations centers to expand its and targeting information pass back Michael Hostage III said in July. The global ISR operations. The Air Force and forth rapidly and reliably, are vital new structure better unifi es tactical, has largely led the charge to build a to success. regional, and national ISR capabilities, global ISR enterprise to move data and “We need to get data to places where streamlining decision-making regarding information “all over the world at the we can make sense of it,” Otto said. That requirements. “Combatant command- speed of light,” he noted. will allow both pilots and operators and ers and other mission partners count But the question today is how the commanders to tighten their decision- USAF must link fi fth generation assets, service adapts a system oriented to a making cycles even further. such as this F-35, with older systems sprawling ISR enterprise supporting This need is why, at a time when USAF to successfully exchange ISR data in tactical soda straw ISR operations is slashing command and headquarters contested environments.

Lockheed Martin photo by Darin Russell

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 37 on Air Force ISR capabilities every a fi ght against an enemy with advanced scientifi c data, it is a costly enterprise. day,” he said, noting that the mission is air defenses. While the Air Force pursues these ca- “fundamental” to the combat Air Force. pabilities, it also needs “to do the right Airmen will be able to more quickly NUCLEAR OPTION kind of investment in propulsion tech- produce standardized ISR products for The Long-Range Standoff weapon, nologies that allow us to save money,” commanders and operators, seeking a proposed follow-on to the AGM-86 Welsh said. Though research has not more comprehensive capabilities such nuclear cruise missile, is needed to yet reached the “long-awaited goal of as analysis, imagery, and targeting. maintain the potency of the nation’s practical application,” the service’s new In addition to streamlining some bombers, the head of US Strategic strategy document states, the advantage organizations, Welsh and Secretary of Command, Adm. Cecil D. Haney, said such a capability would yield warrants the Air Force Deborah Lee James spoke in June during a Capitol Hill speech. USAF’s continued focus. in July about fi nding “pivot points” in Proliferating A2/AD defenses require But USAF is betting the investment USAF programs where key technolo- a range of response beyond just rely- will pay off soon, introducing propulsion gies can be introduced, to ensure the ing on stealth, be it in the form of a systems that could send both weapons service’s capabilities do not become B-2 with gravity bombs or a follow-on and aircraft around the world at speeds mired in obsolescence. Long-Range Strike Bomber, and speed exceeding Mach 5—some 3,800 mph. For example, hypersonic technology and reach cannot be separated from Maj. Gen. David W. Allvin, the Air is critical for the future relevance of this equation. Staff’s director of strategic plans, said USAF’s nonpenetrating B-52 and B-1B While testing of hypersonic capabili- with this kind of speed “you get surviv- bombers, as standoff hypersonic weap- ties such as the X-51 WaveRider has ability aspects you haven’t seen before,” ons could make these aircraft useful in provided the Air Force with a trove of as targets previously out of reach could

Hypersonic standoff weapons could keep the B-52 and B-1 useful against advanced air defenses. A future bomber—one concept shown here in illustration—will require speed and reach.

Photo illustration by Erik Simonsen

38 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 Air Force Academy cadet Justin Niquette (foreground) works on a cyberdefense competition problem. A variety of ISR airmen will now come under 25th Air Force authority, and USAF sees this mission as a growth area.

USAF photo by Wayne Amann Wayne by photo USAF David E. Walker told Senate appropria- tors in May. In 2012, the Air Force marked some $213 million for a new Adap- tive Engine Technology Development (AETD) research effort, aiming to develop a new class of aircraft engines that demonstrate variable cycle propulsion, enabling sharp reductions in both fuel costs and raising performance. Since then, senior USAF science and technology officials, such as Air Force Chief Scientist Mica R. Endsley, have vigorously defended the effort, argu- ing if the service succeeds in these efforts, a host of multimission aircraft now be held at risk wherever they are located. This is why USAF has moved to increase funding for hypersonic research in its Fiscal 2015 budget request. Sequestration forced the cancellation and rescheduling of more than 100 re- Reft Peter SrA. by photo USAF search and development contracts, but now the 2015 budget request includes $2.3 billion for science and technology. This focuses mostly on three core technology areas USAF believes will be vital to speed and reach of future operations: hypersonic and autonomous ﬂ ight research, nanotechnology, and directed energy. “I ﬁ rmly believe maintaining and even expanding our technological advantage is vital to assuring our assured access and freedom of action in the air, space, and cyberspace,” USAF’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology

Above: SSgt. Michael Jones loads a JDAM onto a lift truck during a Rapid Raptor drill in Alaska. During the USAF photo USAF exercise, F-22s like the one at left tested the idea of sending Raptors into combat quickly.

will improve range, persistence, and performance. Engine research is also a platform to explore nanotechnology also prioritized by USAF in its research funding. “Nanotech reduces weight. When you re-engineer things at the molecular level, it enhances speed and range,” affecting everything from how much it could cost to get spacecraft on orbit to building survivability of assets in a contested environment, Allvin said. AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 39 Another technology crucial to F-22 Raptor and its speed, reach, and Faster and more effi cient engine tech- USAF efforts to speed up the kill stealth. But, he added, its “magazine nologies are not the only approach to the chain is directed energy. While long depth”—the amount of munitions an pursuit for greater speed. The Air Force considered by some in the military as aircraft can carry at one time—limits is also adapting existing systems and a far-fetched science project, senior the fi ghter’s effectiveness. methods to increase operational tempo, USAF leaders have increasingly touted basing and support options, and to give its potential value across missions. SMALL MAGAZINES commanders broader tactical leeway and From aerial weapons to logistics, “One of my great frustrations with increase their decision-making time. directed energy applications would our weapon systems today is the limited These ideas, the Air Force believes, give the Air Force the ability to magazine,” Hostage said. “I’ve got a will not come from headquarters most operate in contested environments platform now in the Raptor that can times. “Those who operate … systems where traditional weapons may have go into heinous territory at great risk, in the fi eld continue to discover uses limited utility. More importantly, but I can only whack eight bad guys in that designers never imagined,” the directed energy breakthroughs would the process,” he said, referring to the service’s new strategy document states. fundamentally change the logistics internal carriage for air-to-air missiles USAF should move to “rapidly validate of combat airpower by changing the on the F-22. “I’ve got to come back, operating concepts developed in the fi eld dynamics of munitions themselves. get more, and go back. I’d like to go and disseminate them force-wide.” This In a July talk, ACC chief Hostage over there and whack a whole bunch of will foster a “climate for innovation” to extolled the virtues of the fi fth generation them before I come back.” push new tactics into the force quickly.

Speeding up the kill chain could involve directed energy. In this artist’s conception, an RPA ﬁ res a laser at a ground target.

Photo illustration by Erik Simonsen

40 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 USAF photo by SSgt. Jason Truskowski

Two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems are loaded onto a C-17 after an exercise. Airmen and soldiers practiced rapid deployment and redeployment of the ground- based weapon.

“Let’s be willing to use them—and smaller formations of fighters and vehicles to return to McChord. Mobility make mistakes and learn from them,” airlift that can move quickly together airmen, working with soldiers, deployed Allvin said. and operate from unexpected locations” HIMARS vehicles on dirt runways and Some innovations are already paying Sutterfi ed said last October. Now, “you at night. For airmen, it was a chance off. In summer 2013, a small team of can move airplanes to different locations to think creatively about speeding up F-22 pilots and weapon offi cers tested a and not leave them at a fi xed location for unconventional mobility operations to concept of operations in joint exercises a long period of time. There are a lot of carry out a new and unique scenario. in Alaska to quickly deploy and send the airfi elds out there,” PACAF commander “You won’t always have publications fi ghters into combat if necessary. The Gen. Herbert J. “Hawk” Carlisle told Air stating how to tie down every piece of “Rapid Raptor” concept started off as a Force Magazine in September 2013. The equipment,” said SrA. Ashton Taylor, white paper written by a veteran Reserve concept also supports “passive defense,” a 7th Airlift Squadron loadmaster. “It pilot and was briefed to Welsh during the dispersing and rapid movement comes down to fundamentals that we an offi cial visit to Alaska that August. of critical capabilities, like the F-22, learn in tech school.” The November Rather than endorsing a faster engine which affects an adversary’s targeting drill was the second joint HIMARS or weapon, the concept radically re- analysis in the event of a confl ict. An exercise performed in 2013, helping imagined the deployment template for adversary may know Raptors are there, broaden joint planning between air F-22s in a crisis. but “by the time he wants to do anything mobility airmen and soldiers. The Unlike a large-footprint Theater Se- about it, you won’t be there anymore,” scenario served to prepare airmen for curity Package involving 12 jet aircraft Carlisle said. the “full spectrum of C-17 operations and accompanying personnel and sup- New innovations and concept devel- with an emphasis on command and port equipment, Lt. Col. Kevin Sut- opment at the unit level are also taking control during wartime,” said Capt. terfi eld—working with pilots from the place in mobility, to enable rapid aerial Paul Tucker, the 7th Airlift Squadron USAF Weapons School at Nellis AFB, deployments even in austere and chal- exercise lead. Nev., and the CSAF’s Strategic Studies lenged conditions—and to carry out Taken together, USAF is hoping these Group—started with a small footprint. some innovative joint operations with various efforts will allow it to react and Using a fl exible combination of four tighter command and control loops. respond faster to a full range of contin- F-22s and one C-17 equipped with key Last November, Air Force and Army gencies. With fi fth generation aircraft materials, munitions, and maintainers, units at JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., linked to ISR networks, resilient space the Rapid Raptor concept was born. worked for a month to develop a unique assets, and new cyber weapons systems These small cells can land, refuel, deployment of ground-based rocket that can penetrate adversary networks, rearm, and redeploy again in as little artillery. Airmen with the 62nd Airlift new solutions can be brought to bear even as 24 hours, throwing open planning Wing, working with US Army soldiers more quickly. Allvin pointed out, “You and deployment options to combatant from the 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artil- have the opportunity to leverage all three commanders seeking to maximize as- lery, carried out Operation Guy Fawkes domains”: air, space, and cyberspace. surance and deterrence, and deployment at multiple locations in Washington USAF is the world leader in estab- speed—and to minimize vulnerability. state and California. In the operation, lishing air superiority, but capabilities From Wake Island in the Pacifi c to four C-17s left McChord carrying seven are rapidly changing and USAF needs simulated strikes on targets near the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System to keep pace. North Pole, several exercises tested (HIMARS) vehicles, with about 100 “If it’s the ‘Enter’ button on the the concept before it was certifi ed for personnel. keyboard that makes all the adversaries regular operations. Over the next two days the C-17s fall into the ground, I’m OK with that,” “This concept emphasizes the deployed to three separate airfi elds, Hostage said. “My job is to produce fundamental tenets of airpower: speed, unloaded the vehicles, performed a fi ring air superiority, air supremacy, and I’m fl exibility, and surprise by pairing simulation, and then rapidly reloaded the agnostic as to how I do that.” ✪ AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 41 By John A. Tirpak, Editorial Director

The realistic combat training exercise must constantly evolve to replicate real-world threats.

An F-15 and an F-16 Aggressor ﬂ y a sortie just before sunset during a Red Flag exercise at Nellis Photo by Jim Haseltine AFB, Nev.

42 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 ed Flag, coming up on its 40th War—where US airmen achieved only By the end of the exercise, Blue Air year as the world’s premiere air a two-to-one victory ratio over enemy would not only be combat experienced, combat wargame, has always pilots—Red Flag began as a way to give but the rookie combat pilots had valuable adapted to changing threats and aircrews a better chance to survive in the immersion in countering the specifi c technology. The Nellis AFB, air combat arena, marked by increasingly threats they were likely to face. Nev.-basedR exercise—and its Alaska lethal air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles. As time went on, Red Flag grew, adding counterpart—is now transforming into a The idea was to give Air Force pilots more players and more capabilities. To new kind of training event. the equivalent experience of 10 combat dogfi ghting were added bomber missions, In recent years, Red Flag Nellis has missions without the peril of learning suppression of enemy air defenses, rescue grown from a live-fl y exercise—teaching under real fi re. operations, and more. USAF, other service, and allied pilots the Green Flag, for example, was once a advanced skills of fi ghting an operational- WHY WE NEED IT separate exercise aimed at testing USAF’s level air war—to include a constructive Statistics showed that if pilots survived electronic warfare specialists. Since EW digital environment that expands the real- the fi rst 10 missions, chances were they became so integral to air combat, it was world 3.1 million-acre arena by hundreds of would survive to the end of the war. combined with Red Flag, and Green Flag miles, populated with computer-generated Red Flag was the Air Force’s means to now denotes a close air support drill fl own players and out-of-area assets. provide those critical fi rst 10 missions in conjunction with Army and Marine Next year, Red Flag will also include in a controlled, peacetime environment. Corps ground units. growing numbers of virtual aircraft and Untested combat pilots were thrown As now incarnated, Red Flag replicates other assets operated from simulators. against seasoned experts who played “the operational level of war,” according Moreover, these simulation-enhanced the Aggressor force. “Red Air” was to its commander, Col. Jeff Weed, head exercises will be the exclusive means for equipped with nimble F-5E fi ghters of the 414th Combat Training Squadron. trying out and practicing tactics unique to that approximated the performance of In just the past three years, Red Flag fi fth generation aircraft and technologies Russian MiG-21s serving in dozens planners have integrated command and that Air Combat Command wants to keep of world air forces. Tweaking the control functions at the theater level, hidden from watchful adversaries. capabilities of their jet aircraft and space and cyber operations, the Nellis As a percentage of the overall wargame, immersing themselves in Soviet-style Air Operations Center, and constructed the live-fl y portion of Red Flag will dimin- tactics, the Aggressors usually started out environments. These expand the fi ght in ish, though USAF experts predict that no the exercise by giving “Blue Air” visitors a “scenario that plays itself out … from matter how good simulation gets, the need a dogfi ght thrashing. By replaying the about Eugene, Oregon, down to Phoenix for live-fl y will never go away completely. recorded aerial engagements afterward, [Arizona], out to the Gulf Coast of Texas Conceived in the 1970s as a way to young pilots could see and learn from and off the West Coast,” Weed said in a reverse the kill ratios of the Vietnam their mistakes. July interview.

An E-3 AWACS takes off on a Red Flag-Alaska mission in 2011. Units ﬂ ying such limited in number but crucial warﬁ ghting assets participate in the wargames at a higher rate than most others.

USAF photo by SrA. Cynthia Spalding

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 43 The air tasking order for Red Flag Belgium, Denmark, and the United to train and go to war but our partners’ typically comprises some 500 sorties, he Arab Emirates—participated. “We don’t ability to train and go to war.” said, but only 60 to 80 of those “are tak- mix the formations” of different nation The Air Force has reduced the number ing place on the Nellis ranges.” Many of F-16s, Weed said, but “they’re all on the of Red Flags it has run annually since the aircraft on the ATO are phantoms in range all at the same time.” 2001. The demands of the wars in the wargame digital construct. The push Which countries will partici- Afghanistan and Iraq took their toll on is now on to integrate simulated aircraft pate is a decision made at the highest the budget and on the simple availability being fl own by real pilots, as if they were levels of the Air Force, and there is no of people and equipment—since so much actually fl ying with the real airplanes typical role for partner nations, Weed of the Air Force was either preparing to over Nevada. said. It’s a function of what strengths deploy to war, deployed, or recovering The blending of intelligence, their air forces have—from fi ghters to from a deployment. There wasn’t much surveillance, and reconnaissance, bomb-droppers to electronic warfare time or money available to practice for command and control, cyber, and space to airlift. a major war against a near-peer enemy are some of the more subtle changes “It really depends on … what that na- when the top Pentagon leadership wanted in Red Flag over the last decade, said tion plans to do with its own air force” the real-world fight to take priority. Weed, while the introduction of stealthy in wartime, Weed said. “We roll them in Force structure was also cut, as were F-22 fi ghters and B-2 bombers are some just like any other US units, into those flying hours and other training events. of the most obvious. roles and missions.” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee There’s also been an increase in the James said in July that all these factors number of foreign participants in Red INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS have led to serious concerns about Flag. In the last few years, the wargame For many international participants, USAF readiness, and she repeated her has included Eurofighter Typhoons, Red Flag is their sole opportunity to drop frequent request that Congress not cut French Rafales, and Russian-designed live ordnance or fly to the edges of their readiness accounts further. An ACC Su-27s (flown by India), although machines’ performance, he said. Many spokesman said the Air Force spends partner participation doesn’t always can’t do that anywhere else because of “approximately $35 million annually” mean fighters. In Red Flag 14-3, the flight restrictions in many countries. on Red Flag exercises. which played out in July, France sent Weed said he was assigned to US Four Red Flags were scheduled last C-130s and commandos to practice Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa year, but only three took place because special operations. In addition to its when the 2013 sequester caused USAF of sequestration. Three were scheduled F-15SGs, Singapore sent CH-47 to cancel a Red Flag, and he saw some of for this year, but USAF wants to add the transport helicopters. the international fallout of that decision. fourth one back, because three a year In Red Flag 14-2, F-16s from four When a Red Flag is called off, he is too infrequent to give everyone the international air forces—including observed, “it not only degrades our ability needed training.

Belgian airmen run to a USAF HH-60G Pave Hawk during a combat search and rescue exercise for Red Flag on March 11, 2014, at the Nellis AFB, Nev., training range. Belgium was one of four international air forces to participate in that Red Flag exercise.

44 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 “Let’s say your average time at a base is “I can’t turn on every bell and whistle the kinesthetic awareness” and sensory 28 to 30 months,” Weed explained. “When on my new fi fth gen platforms because a) inputs a pilot can get in a real airplane, we do three per year, that unit comes back they’re too destructive and b) I don’t want “then I think we’ve reached that point every 39 to 40 months,” so some air and the bad guys to know what I’m able to do.” where I can now simulate everything that ground crews might completely miss their Potential adversaries watch Red Flags [the pilot] would need to see in a combat unit’s participation in Red Flag. “When closely, Hostage said, and ACC in turn environment.” we get back to four a year,” he said, watches the watchers to gauge what USAF The Air Force is working on building “that number comes back to something capabilities worry them most. that environment, he said, but there are … more like [every] 24 months. … So For the future, Hostage sees the increas- challenges, both technical and policy- that we should cover people during an ing fi delity of simulators as “reversing the driven. The ability to protect the networks assignment cycle.” training paradigm.” “that would run such a thing” is a concern. The notion of a “live constructive virtual Still, the simulated battlespace will KEEPING SECRETS arena … I think will provide us the path to resolve one of the toughest limitations Red That said, “there are some units”— the future.” While today’s live-fl y Red Flag Flag has always faced, Hostage said: the fl ying F-22s, conducting suppression of is the “pinnacle event” in training combat fact that, with “100 airplanes up over the enemy air defenses, E-3 AWACS, RC-135 air forces, Hostage said for fi fth generation Nellis range … nobody blows up when you Rivet Joints, and other ISR platforms— forces, “the live virtual constructive arena take them out of the fi ght.” Adding that “that will always have to come back at a will be the pinnacle event, ... the highest- realism will, he thinks, “fundamentally” higher rate” because they are limited in end training.” change the dynamics of the air battle. “It number but crucial to the wargame and He continued, “I will still do Red Flags. looks different. You react differently.” in wartime. I will still do live training in live platforms, Hostage recounted how as a young of- Of four annual Red Flags, two are done but the place where I’ll be able to take all fi cer, he would participate with the Army’s at “higher classifi cation levels,” Weed said. the gloves off, turn on all the bells and National Training Center ground battle Gen. Gilmary Michael Hostage III, ACC whistles and get full capability” will be exercises. Airpower would be allowed to commander, recently said the F-22, and in the virtual constructive arena. make a few passes at the enemy formation, soon the F-35, introduces complications It’s not a pipe dream, Hostage said, but then were “shooed away.” to the Red Flag model. noting that the computer game industry Had the airpower been allowed to Fifth generation technology—which is “rapidly approaching the point at which continue working over the enemy, there he defi ned as principally about stealth and you can’t tell if you’re in a simulated, would have been little left for the ground sensor fusion—“has brought us capabilities … or [virtual], environment, unless you units to do, and they would have missed and lethalities that are straining my ability peek under the fl ap on the canopy … out on the training they needed. Airpower’s at Red Flag to produce that same realistic to see if you’re in a simulator or ... an decisiveness can be a curse when training environment.” Hostage said. airplane.” Once simulation can “replicate is involved.

USAF photo by A1C Thomas Spangler

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 45 USAF photo by A1C Joshua Kleinholz

SrA. Oren Hemphill, an F-15E crew chief, runs a preﬂ ight check on a Strike Eagle before it heads out for a night training mission for Red Flag at Nellis in January. F-15s were ﬂ own not only by the US, but by Singapore as well.

USAF photo by SrA. Peter Reft

Here: A1C Ian Postler secures a computer control group to a GBU-12 bomb at Eielson AFB, Alaska, during the August 2014 Red Flag-Alaska. For many partner nations, Red Flag is their only chance to train with live munitions. Below: Air and Space Operations Center personnel provide operational command and control during Red Flag at Nellis in July.

USAF photo by SSgt. Siuta B. Ika

46 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 Something similar is happening at Red hoping to save money that it can put into occasionally been tailored to “some Flag now, he said. recapitalizing the already limited fl eet low-end stuff—things like Predators, “We bring the cyber guys and the space with new aircraft that will be easier to MC-12s, a lot of intensive ISR over guys in—and they play—but then we have maintain. This fi nancial reality will drive that urban fight.” to say, ‘All right, go to the bar and have a one of the fi rst forays into simulation at Some target villages were set up on Mountain Dew, because you guys make Red Flag, Weed said. the southern end of the Nellis range, he it too damn dangerous.’” Among the things “on track to happen said, “so people could run in and out of That, he said, is a “very hopeful sign” next year” is to pipe data about the real buildings and you could have to deal with because “we have some capabilities that Red Flag battlefi eld to a JSTARS simulator, collateral damage and the diffi culty of are astounding, and the way they leverage and “pump the [communications] of the fi nding targets in a slightly more urban [off] our airpower is very positive.” real fi ght to the sim and back” so the E-8 terrain.” In a virtual constructive arena, he said, can “play” in the game without pulling a Recently, however, the focus has shifted cyber and other shadowy elements can be real asset from a real-world mission, Weed to more “core mission sets” at the high turned loose. “I will have real-time kill explained. This move will both enhance the end of the threat, which “we just didn’t removal [and] … not hurt anybody,” and exercise, provide training for new opera- spend as much time on over the last 10 participants will know the full capability tors, and avoid having to take a real E-8 years,” Weed said. of their hardware, so they can fully exploit from real-world missions for an exercise. Red Flag typically doesn’t start with the it in real combat, he said. worst Weed can throw at the Blue Forces. ACC’s 2014 Strategic Plan, released HIGH-LOW MIX “I let them, in a building-block ap- in June, said that “our ability to hide our By the fourth Red Flag of next year, proach, learn to fi ght together, because countertactics from our adversaries is also “Virtual Flag,” traditionally a separate frankly, [for] a lot of them, … this is the more diffi cult in the live-fl y arena,” and event, will become part of the live-fl y fi rst time they’ve been to a Flag. ... It’s a this is one more reason to “fl ip the realistic wargame. huge number of airplanes” and they have training paradigm.” “It will be the fi rst time at the Flag that to learn to work with each other. According to the ACC document, “phys- we’ll have live, virtual, and constructive A typical week’s worth of Red Flag ical aircraft and live-fl ying continue to be happening all at the same time,” Weed said. starts on a weekend. Participants arrive important, but can no longer be the primary While a Red Flag of this year is 20 percent and Weed briefs them, explaining that, training environment for the high-end fi ght. live and 80 percent constructive, “during right away, “Fight’s on.” There are “info The aircraft, and other hands-on training, Red Flag 15-4, I expect it to be 20 percent aggressors” already at work trying to gain will continue to provide basic ‘blocking live, 40 percent constructive, and 40 per- access to work spaces, the fl ight line, and and tackling’ skills” but the virtual and cent virtual through sims. ... The virtual materials they’re not supposed to be able constructive environment “will become sims will be fl ying a constructive adversary to reach—trying to compromise the Blue the primary method for advanced training at the same time the live-fl y is going on.” Force. Cyber aggressors are also trying to in all aircraft, not just our fi fth generation “We have never lost our core of exploit the Blue Force networks. assets.” The command said it will explore doing the high-end fight, but there are “They’re the people that the Blue similar approaches “across all career also days and times ... where it’s not Forces love to hate while they’re here,” fi elds” to avoid wasting resources. the high-end,” Weed said. Particularly he said. The info aggressors “exploit The Air Force is reducing its fl eet at the height of the conflicts in weaknesses in [operational security] and of E-8C JSTARS ground-radar aircraft, Iraq and Afghanistan, Red Flag has hold it against them.”

SrA. Daniel Yager (cockpit) and SSgt. Adrian Navarro (right) conduct a test of the hydraulics system on an F-15. Aggressor aircraft like this one must be kept sharp and tuned up to offer the most effective training for Blue Forces.

USAF photo by A1C Timothy Young

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 47 USAF photo by A1C Timothy Young The info aggressors will try to disrupt Blue operations “and it’s up to them to protect their resources. … It’s time to put their games faces on, just like they’re going to war.” The first big air operation at a Red Flag is usually the establishment of a notional “no-fly zone,” focusing on air- to-air threats. The second day progresses to a global strike scenario, a traditional anti-access, area-denial, kick-down-the- door, take out the operating SAMs, adding the surface-to-air threat to a worsening air-to-air threat. The next night, strikers are tasked to take out the tactical ballistic missiles in the Red Country adversary. The targets are often mobile, “fleeting in nature,” and can be visually identified from the cockpit. The air defense threats persist. This training is meant to break pilots out of a decade-long habit of having to “call and ask permission first” to destroy an obvious target, Weed said. However, the subsequent tasking is to find a particular “high-value target or high-value individual” that can’t be identified just from the cockpit. Protocols for getting target confirmation through command and control and ISR resources are rehearsed before clearance to shoot. The game usually wraps up with air interdiction missions coupled with a combat search and rescue operation “in Above: Two B-52s taxi out to the runway before a higher-threat environment.” The Blue a Red Flag mission at Nellis, with the Las Vegas Force must work as a team to get the skyline as a backdrop. The original Red Flags CSAR assets in and out of enemy territory. didn’t host bombing operations, but now bomb droppers are a big part of the exercise. Below: RAF Typhoon ﬁ ghters on the ﬂ ight line at Nellis DEGRADING THE ENVIRONMENT in January. In recent years, Hostage has been adamant that Red Flag compel the Blue Force to operate without all the support it usually gets from space, ISR, and other assets. Weed said this is called CDO, or

USAF photo by Lorenz Crespo

48 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 Photo by Jim Haseltine

The front of the 414th Combat Training Squadron building at Nellis sports the Red Flag logo and models of both current Aggressor aircraft, an F-15 and an F-16. a contested, degraded, and operationally He said much of this comes into Conference discusses areas of interest or limited environment. play when “I tell the Aggressors concern that have been relayed to ACC Some of the degrading happens by itself, they have a particular area they by regional combatant commanders. he said. “During every fi ght, there’s always must defend” because they have Those issues “get whittled down … somebody who can’t get on the right net tactical ballistic missiles or some to about three to fi ve topics that get or get on the right radio.” other asset the Red Country discussed in great detail” over the two The Aggressor Forces also “have the values highly. Then, the Aggressors weeks of the conference. ability” to jam or interfere with signals will do “everything they can … to “ACC allows us to see all of those or degrade Link 16 communications degrade” the Blue Force capabilities, issues, and we try to roll as many of data links, he said. Although this part including “electronic jamming, space those into Red Flag for the next year of the training Hostage has described jamming, [and] navigation warfare as possible,” Weed explained. as a day without space, Weed said, issues. They’ll try to make it as difficult Although China and Russia are “I don’t think we ever get to the [as possible] for the Blue team.” developing fi fth generation fi ghters point where … we fl ick it ‘off.’ It’s a Planning Red Flag starts a year of their own, there’s no plan yet to more graceful degradation and more in advance. In January, the Combat simulate fifth gen capabilities in targeted to specifi c areas.” Air Forces Weapons and Tactics the hands of Red Air, he said. Red Flag seeks to exercise the “most proliferated threats” in the world and stay current, and those fi fth gen AGGRESSORS fighters are not yet operationally available to anyone. In 10 years, Weed predicted, Red In August, the Air Force announced it would inactivate the 65th Flag will still have “a signifi cant live Aggressor Squadron—one of two at Nellis AFB, Nev., that perform portion.” That will be true if only the role of Red Air at Red Flag. Of the squadron’s 18 F-15s—painted in because foreign partners will need Russian Flanker colors—12 are set to be retired by the end of September, to train in integrating with the US, and some of them “can’t afford or won’t the rest by next March. Nellis’ other Aggressor unit—the 64th, flying get on the virtual networks” necessary F-16s—is expected to continue operating. to join in a strictly digital exercise. Col. Jeff Weed, commander of Red Flag, said the Aggressors are vital Ten years out, if the F-35 delivers at to Red Flag. the anticipated rate, most of USAF’s “I couldn’t do it without them,” he said in an interview. fi ghter force “will be fi fth gen,” Weed noted, and “that will create some “They establish … [and] monitor the training rules, they have experience changes to how we do business at on the ranges, … they run the debriefs at the end of the night to say, the tactical end.” He said Red Flag is ‘This is what happened in the … fight.’ So they are the arbitrators.” “vitally important” for the Air Force, The Red Air chairman integrates the myriad threats that “provide an no matter how the exercise changes, adversary for all of the people who show up at Flag,” Weed said. because it’s still the only way USAF The Aggressors, of course, are the physical enemies for the Blue Forces, can faithfully replicate all the pieces necessary to pull together an air war flying their fighters in a manner similar to that of various countries. before those skills are needed in the Aggressors must be conversant in a wide variety of potential enemy real world—especially for partner weapons, radar modes, and other capabilities to present as realistic an nations that “have consistently, when encounter as possible. the chips are down,” gone to war “The fact that we have people who do this full time means I don’t alongside the US. Weed said, “I think there are some have to pull in an operational squadron” to play the enemy, Weed said. things our Air Force must do, and I think A pilot in an average squadron “does not practice” simulating a threat this level of training, no matter what the and would be less effective in the role than full-time Aggressors. bill is, is one of those things.” ✪ AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 49 play out again next year. sequestration-based disasterwillsurely prepared for unexpected wars. cash tokeep asmallerforcefully service desperately tried to save enough request to shrink even more, as the air forces. That debacle drove USAF’s according to the head of the combat in case of a new international crisis, L 50 terms. readiness problem innouncertain Mike HostagelaidouttheAir Force’s pastand future And withoutCongress’ help,thesame of jet aircraft were ready grounded andonlyahandful that a third of its fl eet was so crippled the Air Force ast year’s budget sequester Hostage’s continental USthatweren’t either eight combat ready airplanes” in the three monthsandaweek—wehad the damage is still reverberating. Air Force Association-sponsored event, Hostage III. Command chief Gen. Gilmary Michael readiness state,accordingto Air Combat depth and left the Air Force in a fragile combat operations that shortchanged was preceded by years of here-and-now badly timed as could be imagined. It “By theendofgroundingperiod— And, as he said in a July speech at an Last summer’s stand-down was as Warning Air Force Association. Air sequestration at a monthly breakfast sponsored by the Gen. Mike Hostage slammed politics, parochialism, and

USAF photo by SSgt. Candice Page again, and he’s made a commitment to down. Sucha“debacle”mustn’t happen units ready while others he simply shut below BMC, he elected to keep some in bad weather, but aren’t combat ready. meaning that aircrew are safe to fly, and below ... basic military capability rate,” choice. There’s “no defi nition for fl ying bad,” Hostage said, but he had little ground units because “that would look over ACC. Herbert J. “Hawk” Carlisle is set to take fall, and Pacifi c Air Forces chief Gen. do to me.” this point, there’s not much they can I’m going to tell the truth ... because at what I want. I don’t care who hears me. “my successor’s been named,” so “I say and USAFoffi cials—by notingthat industry, media,foreignairattachés with less” and won’t do it anymore. limits of asking his people to “do more tion does to us. We have to stop this.” explain “the reality of what sequestra- past summer on Capitol Hill trying to how bad it got.” He said he spent this Syria, Iran, North Korea. ... That was force, were a contingency to pop up—a area or getting ready to go. already forward deployed to a combat By JohnA.Tirpak, Editorial Director Rather thantake hiswhole force The commandfaced “pressure”notto Hostage isexpected toretirethis He started his speech—attended by Hostage saidhe’s reachedthepractical “In other words, I had no reservoir AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 his airmen, saying, “I will not send you than the Air Force has already reduced of infrastructure,” he asserted. This into combat unless you are organized, over the last eight years. “baggage” is “having a serious impact trained, and equipped to do what we’re on our ability to produce maximum going to ask you to do. I will get fired WHAT WE OWE YOUNG AIRMEN combat power.” Hostage’s before I send somebody who’s not As ACC commander, Hostage said Hostage now tells commanders he ready to go.” his role is not to “whine” about what he won’t ask them to try to do more with How did USAF get in this mess? doesn’t have, but to “produce as much less. Instead, “I tell [them] … work The Pentagon knew sequester was combat power as I can possibly produce to the maximum amount of combat coming for the first half of last year, but for whatever the nation allots to me to capability you can produce. When you until the law actually kicked in, spending do that.” And the way to achieve that, he hit a limitation, tell me what that is. wasn’t seriously constrained. said, is for USAF to get smaller—“not Don’t push past it. … Don’t cut corners. “We had already been overspending able to go as many places at once” but Don’t do the things you’re tempted to do because of the Continuing Resolution. with enough proper equipment and because you don’t want to report failure.” Then, oh, by the way, [Congress decided training that “wherever we go, we will Instead, Hostage wants commanders not to] … reimburse” war spending. dominate.” to “tell me what your limit is, stop at that “We had to absorb all that in six To achieve that, USAF must have point, and I will either fix that limit or months. When we did the math, that the flexibility to manage, he said, and we’ll deal with it until the time comes would mean … flying the aviators once politics “is not letting us make those that we can remove [it].” He said, “We or twice a month. So I said, that can’t hard choices.” owe it to those young airmen” not to ask happen. So we figured out who we The “horrific” budget options include them to do more than they are trained could keep fully operational and who cutting A-10s, KC-10s, and U-2s, he noted. and equipped to do. we had to stop.” “I have need for those While he believed airmen would ac- capabilities. I just don’t cept grounding as a one-time fix to fiscal have the resources,” he problems, “I don’t think they can accept explained. Hostage would “By the end of the grounding it if I go back to them, year after year, like to retain a force of 250 period … I had no reservoir and say, … ‘This year, we’re going to A-10s, but, he said, the ground you.’ I think we would run into funds won’t be there, and force, were a contingency a morale issue pretty quickly.” frankly, “it really pisses to pop up—a Syria, Iran, It was only because of the Murray- me off” when people say Ryan bipartisan budget deal that there the Air Force wants to cut North Korea. … That was was relief from sequester in Fiscal 2014. these airplanes. how bad it got.” ACC has “clawed [its] way back out of “I’m only losing the that hole” by getting its pilots and crews U-2 because I was directed requalified, but “it was a long struggle,” [by Congress] to buy the Hostage related, and depot maintenance Global Hawk and the only way I could The effects of the sequestration will is still backlogged. The three months buy the Global Hawk is to get rid of U-2s. linger for some time. One entire class of grounding required six months of I can’t afford both.” In a “perfect world,” of the USAF Weapons School was rebuilding proficiency. Then, there was a he’d have both, because “right now” the canceled, and “we can never recover 10-day government shutdown, requiring unmanned Global Hawk doesn’t have from that because time moves on.” The a further three weeks “on the recovery.” “the same awareness” of a U-2 pilot. potential future service leaders who Before the budget deal, Hostage said, “So don’t tell me I cut the U-2. I missed that class “will not get the chance he was contemplating “several months” didn’t. I’m sacrificing the U-2 to pay to go [back], and if they do, they’ll bump of keeping units at BMC in Fiscal 2014, for something I’m told I have to buy.” somebody else.” The result will be a then working them back up to combat The aircraft the Air Force is con- years-long deficit in elite operational mission readiness, to avoid grounding. solidating around, he said, will let ACC weapon experts that will only heal when However, he’s decided that just won’t “produce combat power across the range that year group finally ages out of the work. In fact, he fully expects that of military options that we have to be Air Force. sequestration will return, and “we’re prepared for.” The service has just 17 E-8 JSTARS going to hit the same spot at the bottom However, “I don’t think we’re going to aircraft used to track and target ground of the cliff.” be allowed” to make those hard choices. vehicles. USAF will be taking some of He sees no sign that the nation is The Air Force of 30 years ago was them out of service to free up funds to confronting its fiscal problems, the big enough to ride out political and develop—“out of hide”— a replacement sequester being simply a “by-product.” economic “perturbations,” but it’s too for the type. While an E-8 replacement “Based on that, I’m telling my force small for that now, Hostage said. isn’t in the “top three” of USAF buying we have to be ready to deal with a “We don’t have the latitude anymore to priorities—the F-35, the KC-46 tanker, sequestered budget for the duration of hang onto the amount of force structure and the Long-Range Strike Bomber the law.” It expires in 2023. we have or the infrastructure.” are—the JSTARS would be fourth, The only reasonable path, he said, USAF has for years begged Congress he said. is to make “painful decisions” like the to let the service close bases. It doesn’t Having fewer E-8 JSTARS available personnel cuts and aircraft retirements have enough airplanes to spread around involves taking some risk. Consequently USAF has requested in its Fiscal 2015 them all. Hostage told the industry representatives budget. Those amount to some 27,000 “I could close one in three bases in the audience that “what’s critical people and hundreds more airplanes across my command and still have plenty about this program is speed. I need to AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 51 put renewed capability on the ramp as “staring eye on the battlefield, 24/7” and of B-52s [and] a rapidly aging fleet of soon as possible because I’m taking risk that’s “not going to happen in a contested B-1s,” both “excluded” from operating in the interim.” environment,” Hostage warned. in or near denied airspace, because they ACC is uninterested in “new stuff,” but lack the stealth to survive. They can “get simply needs a sustainable replacement FIGHT COMPLACENCY close” to contested space, with the help for the capability already in the JSTARS. The answer isn’t a stealthy new RPA. of fifth generation fighters, “but they (Air Force leaders have said they expect “We’re working to build … the capability” can’t conduct deep strike in the way the solution to be a heavily tricked-out, to deliver that expected ISR product, the B-2 can.” The stealthy B-2 fleet, at off-the-shelf, business-class jet aircraft.) though not necessarily with an aircraft,” 20 airplanes, however, is “just way too ACC is also trying to work more he said. “There’s a love affair out there in small to be our sole capability” against closely with industry to identify the the nonaviation world with the concept of heavily defended targets deep within an technologies that will make a real the unmanned platform, but I really need enemy’s territory. USAF must preserve difference in preserving the nation’s the human tightly in that loop.” So-called the ability to deny “sanctuary” to any military edge, he said. Independent “nontraditional ISR”—in the form of a target, he asserted. research and development has two fighter with sensors in the thick of the While Hostage is thrilled with the functions: to produce “the stuff I actually action—will still be essential. capability delivered by the fifth generation need to go to war” and to keep adversaries “The day will come” when pilots F-22 and F-35, they have a shared second-guessing. flying an aircraft remotely will have all shortcoming: magazine depth. That’s why the “kinesthetic” awareness he’s hopeful that research into directed of what’s going around the energy weapons will bear fruit and that Hostage would like to airplane, and when that day lasers may even be “retrofittable” onto comes, “I’m happy to stop older generation fighters to keep them retain a force of 250 A-10s, flying manned airplanes. But relevant. but the funds, he said, that day is not here, yet.” While He could not say whether directed Hostage doesn’t think “we’ve energy will “define” a future sixth won’t be there, and frankly, seen the birth of the last human generation fighter and even conceded “it really pisses me off aviator,” he said, “I believe it that air dominance after the F-22 may will happen someday.” not even be an aerial platform. In the when people say the Air Hostage said the effort to near-term, however, Hostage warned that Force wants to cut these second-guess potential enemies the US must not be complacent about its and have the right mix of ability to win air wars. The surface-to-air airplanes.” capabilities on hand for any missile threat is large and proliferating contingency is an ongoing battle and making it tough to engage even a of wits, and it’s getting harder medium-size nation such as Syria with “What I really want to do is make to think out loud about that particular good weapons. [adversaries] … spend whole bunches cat-and-mouse game. “I could not send an A-10 into Syria of money to defend themselves against An Air Force “Red Team” looks right now,” he said. “They’d never come something that I don’t spend very much constantly “at what potential adversaries back. I would have to conduct three weeks on. … I want them to spend a million are capable of, what their methodologies of very significant [integrated air defense bucks to defend against my five-dollar are. We look very carefully at what they system] degradation before I could think weapon. I can’t afford to be on the think of us. We watch how they train, about sending a fourth gen platform, and opposite side of that.” because how they train indicates what I sure as heck wouldn’t send an A-10 in One of those asymetric imbalances they think we’re capable of.” He said, because the rate of fire that would come he mentioned as being in the Air Force’s “We think we know what our strengths in at low altitude would be unsustainable.” favor was directed energy, including both and weaknesses are, and we look for Good as it has been, Hostage said, the high-powered lasers and high-powered disconnects” in the comparison. A-10 no longer represents a survivable microwaves. Times have changed, though, and system in well-defended airspace. Not all of USAF’s troubles are due to thinking openly about the challenges has When “I talk ‘contested/denied space,’ shortages. In remotely piloted aircraft, become precarious. I’m talking about the South China Sea,” the Air Force has too many. Twenty-five years ago, “there was no Hostage said, as well as “dozens” of ACC’s fleet of RPAs is “overweighted” possibility that all your secrets could other places where small, mobile, or with machines good “at fighting in a disappear just because somebody plugged shoulder-fired threats are proliferating permissive environment,” he said. “I need a thumb drive into your computer,” he to create contested airspace. Simply to resize and reapportion that fleet.” It said. “So we’re far more circumspect now put, the environment USAF has to fight would be “foolish” to get rid of all the about talking and writing and publishing in is changing. existing RPAs, as the MQ-9 Reapers and putting out there those kinds of Hostage said people have to understand “still have some applicability on the thoughts.” Hostage said, “We live in a USAF is “no longer a requirements force edges of a contested fight, but only on world where, when I tell you something, [where] you tell me what the requirement the edges,” Hostage observed. “I need … the next day it’s known around the is, I build the force.” The Air Force has the ability to produce [intelligence, world,” and “some very smart people” become a capabilities force: “I’ve got this surveillance, and reconnaissance] in a decide, “ ‘Let’s go steal what they’re much capability, you’ve got this much contested environment.” doing.’ ” requirement. You tell me where you want The other services that depend on Hostage pushed for the new bomber, to use it, but when you use this much, USAF for ISR have come to expect a explaining that “we have an ancient fleet we’re done,” he said. J 52 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME

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Survival and Tragedy in Ala ska By John Lowery

Staff illustration by Zaur Eylanbekov

54 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 ith high clouds to Normally, when rough water condi- the west and a light tions exist, for both passenger comfort breeze stirring the and safety, pilots look for an area shel- water’s surface, tered from the wind. To Miller’s credit, the fl oat-equipped he did just that. “The fi rst takeoff was deW Havilland Beaver—designated a aborted because the pilot encountered U-6A—lifted off Naknek Lake, home of a crosswind and rough water prior to King Salmon Air Force Station, located attaining liftoff speed,” USAF’s offi cial on the upper Alaskan Peninsula. As the accident report of the incident stated. aircraft became airborne the blast of the This was an entirely prudent decision. 450 horsepower Pratt & Whitney Wasp But the mission wasn’t over yet. Junior engine echoed loudly across the Winds that day were apparently highly water’s surface. variable. “The second takeoff was started It was 6 a.m. on June 3, 1967, and the into the wind. As the aircraft approached party of four was off to enjoy some of the shore of the lake, a left turn was Alaska’s renowned fi shing. The group made to parallel the shoreline. The included Lt. Gen. Glen R. Birchard, com- aircraft again encountered rough water mander of Alaskan Command, Maj. Gen. and continued through a series of hard Joseph A. Cunningham, the 22nd Air bounces and turns,” the accident report Force commander, ALCOM’s conserva- stated. According to the USAF investigation offi cer Edward A. Bellringer, and tion, the turns and bounces eventually Birchard’s pilot, Maj. Norman C. Miller. placed the aircraft “in its fi nal takeoff The fi ckle Alaskan weather seemed to path with a quartering tailwind.” Yet be cooperating and it promised to be a instead of aborting due to the rough beautiful day. bounces, this time Miller continued at full power. INTO THE WIND Despite being downwind “the aircraft An hour later they landed on Upper bounced high into the air several times, Ugashik Lake. The party beached the but did not have suffi cient airspeed to aircraft and promptly began fi shing. remain airborne,” the report stated. The As advertised, the action was superb; Beaver fi nally crashed when the fl oats after fi ve hours of landing silver salmon contacted the water with tremendous it was time for lunch. They reboarded force after the fi nal bounce. The fl oat the aircraft to return to King Salmon’s and strut assemblies collapsed, and the Naknek Lake camp. aircraft nosed down into the water. Unfortunately, gale-force winds were Birchard, Cunningham, Bellringer, now churning the open water, producing and Miller were uninjured and suc- four- to seven-foot waves. Although cessfully escaped as the aircraft rolled surface wind velocity data was not readily over and sank. available in the Alaskan outback, fl oat- All four were dutifully wearing life equipped civil aircraft, such as Cessnas preservers that, once out of the aircraft, and Super Cubs typically stopped fl ying they quickly infl ated. Initially the group once wind velocity reached 18 to 20 stayed together, but Birchard seemed to mph. Winds at that speed create rough be having trouble in the cold water. At water—given away by whitecaps topping that time of year, the water temperature waves on the lake’s surface. was most likely in the range of 50 to 60 Based on the reported four- to seven- degrees Fahrenheit, and unprotected foot waves, Miller faced a close judg- people can only be expected to survive ment call, and as an Air Force general’s an hour or two in those conditions. personal pilot, he was unlikely to have Meanwhile, strong winds were now had extensive fl oatplane experience. blowing against the survivors, about Landing a fl oatplane is a far different two miles out from shore. Survival and task from landing on a runway. Taking Recognizing the danger of their slow off or landing in rough water pounds a progress, Cunningham struck out alone fl oatplane’s structure—subjecting the and managed to reach the shore, but pontoon attach points, struts, and engine was exhausted. Bellringer stayed with mounts to possible failure. On a windy Birchard and Miller until they were day in Alaska it was not uncommon to within 200 yards of the shore. After an Tragedy in Ala ska see a fl oatplane taxi in with the engine estimated hour-and-a-half in the cold By John Lowery drooping and the propeller slicing the water, and when it looked like the two fl oats, because the upper engine mounts offi cers could make it to shore, Bellringer failed. The U-6A Beaver could handle separated from them and swam ashore. somewhat rough conditions, but it still For some reason Birchard and Miller had limits. failed to follow. AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 55 Photos via John Lowery

As they lingered, the cold water down at extreme angles, and with the The aircraft’s fl oats and struts slowly sapped their strength and pontoons heavily pounding the aircraft collapsed as the aircraft bounced on the turbulent surface of the water, consciousness. Birchard and Miller each time they dropped off the crest of sending it down into the icy lake. each tipped over face down in the cold a wave and hit the next swell, he stayed water, one after another, and drowned. at full power and failed to abort. A question remains as to why Miller, The change in direction to a cross- the youngest member of the group, TOO LATE tailwind heading in the extremely rough failed to save himself when Birchard An hour later, the Rescue water only adds to the incredibility of was unable to finish the swim to Coordination Center at Elmendorf the scene. It is unclear why Miller’s shore. The findings of a 1960s safety AFB, Alaska, reported Birchard and initial good judgment to terminate study may apply. In studying fighter his party as overdue and immediately the takeoff because of the wind and pilot fatalities occurring due to tardy launched a rescue team from King water conditions was followed by an ejections in pilot-induced loss of control Salmon Air Force Station. When the apparent dogged effort to press on accidents, safety officials found that rescue team reached the area, helicopter through incredibly rough water on his if the loss of control was due to an pilot Capt. Stuart J. Silvers reported second attempt. obvious error by the pilot—such as high winds and limited visibility. As for the two deaths from an accidental spin—he tended to stick The team members immediately hypothermia and drowning, both with the aircraft too long in an attempt spotted the bodies of Birchard and men would have survived had they to salvage the situation. Miller, floating face down in the been wearing cold water immersion In the case of the Alaskan incident, turbulent water. After first retrieving suits. Although not addressed in the there could have been little doubt in Bellringer and Cunningham, Silvers accident report, at the time Air Force Miller’s mind that he was responsible returned to the bodies and hovered. personnel flying over water 50 degrees for the accident. As the general’s pilot Then, using the helicopter’s winch, the Fahrenheit or colder were required to and aide he undoubtedly felt loyalty to helicopter crew members laboriously wear immersion suits. These insulated Birchard. Thus, both his culpability reeled the deceased officers aboard. rubber suits were developed for aircrew and loyalty may have kept him by the Several of the decisions that ultimately late in the Korean War, to protect those general’s side until hypothermia caught led to this accident were made under forced to ditch or bail out into the sea up with him. borderline conditions. The four- to during winter. In this case the crew was The result was that the Air Force lost seven-foot waves were clearly a no- not far from land and were on leave. two very competent officers. ✪ go situation, but to his credit Miller’s Nevertheless, they were flying in a initial takeoff attempt was apparently USAF aircraft. John Lowery is a veteran Air Force started from a sheltered area. Then, The life vests were only a part of fi ghter pilot and freelance writer. He is author of fi ve books on aircraft upon encountering the immense waves the survival equation. Because of the performance and aviation safety. and strong crosswind, he wisely aborted cold water, oil companies operating on His most recent article for Air Force the attempt. Four- to seven-foot waves Alaska’s North Slope require immersion Magazine, “Lady Be Good,” appeared are intimidating to any seaplane pilot. suits for all employees who transit the in the February issue. This article is But on his second attempt, with the lake country via helicopter or who work adapted from his book Life in the Wild nose of the aircraft bobbing up and on rigs in the Arctic Ocean. Blue Yonder.

The ﬂ oat-equipped USAF U-6 de Havilland Beaver had no published rough water limitations in the pilot’s manual.

56 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 AIR FORCE ASSOCIATION’S

CONFERENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EXPOSITION 2 0 1 5

SEPTEMBER 14-16, 2015 NATIONAL HARBOR, MD GAYLORD NATIONAL HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER In World War II, Soviet women were air combat pioneers.

Not Just By Reina Pennington Night Witc hes 58 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 ho was the fi rst aircraft, because her location in the nose woman to fl y in was hazardous in a forced landing, then combat? Until endured 10 days in a Siberian forest before 1993, American being rescued. Raskova’s subsequent women were memoir made her a Soviet celebrity on barred from fl ying a par with Amelia Earhart in the West. Wcombat missions. Army pilot Maj. Marie At least two women fl ew bombers in the T. Rossi, however, fl ew support missions Russo-Finnish War in 1939-40, including in Desert Storm and was killed in 1991 one who fl ew well into her pregnancy. when her CH-47 helicopter crashed. Her Women made their real mark in Soviet headstone in Arlington National Cemetery aviation during World War II, though. In reads, “First Female Combat Commander what Russians call the Great Patriotic War, To Fly Into Battle.” more than 1,000 women served as pilots, Then-Lt. Col. Martha E. McSally, an Air navigators, and ground crew, a small but Force A-10 pilot and later the fi rst woman important part of the 800,000 women in to command a USAF fi ghter squadron, the Red Army. Training began in October fl ew combat patrols over Iraq and Kuwait 1941 for three all-female combat units: in early 1995 and is often described as the 586th Fighter Regiment, the 587th the fi rst woman to fl y combat missions. Dive Bomber Regiment, and the 588th Col. Jeannie M. Leavitt became USAF’s Night Bomber Regiment. fi rst female fi ghter pilot in 1993, as a fi rst lieutenant, and was later the fi rst woman WHY THEY FOUGHT to graduate from the Air Force Weapons Major Raskova began fi ghting for the School and the fi rst female fi ghter wing creation of women’s units from the day commander. She fl ew combat missions the Germans invaded Russia in June 1941. during Operation Southern Watch in 1996. Like Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love But America is a latecomer when it in the US, Raskova was a tireless proponent comes to employing women in combat for tapping the skills of female pilots to aviation. help the military in its time of need. Un- Many sources list Turkish pilot Sabiha like the Americans, Raskova advocated Gökçen, the adopted daughter of Mustafa women for combat roles. While British Kemal Atatürk, with becoming the world’s and American women pilots freed men to fi rst female fi ghter pilot in 1936 and with fi ght by taking over ferry duties on the fl ying combat missions in 1937. However, home front, Soviet women fought on the Gökçen was not the fi rst female fi ghter pilot front lines. or even the fi rst woman to fl y in combat. Raskova made the rounds at VVS Russian women pilots were the fi rst in headquarters with a petition and a suitcase fi ghters, the fi rst in combat, and the fi rst full of letters from women who wanted to be honored with their nation’s highest to fl y and fi ght. In September 1941, she military honors. got permission to form three all-female Russian women fi rst fl ew reconnais- regiments, including aircrews, ground sance missions in World War I—two as crews, and support staff. civilian pilots and another whose male Many think the Soviets allowed women disguise was discovered when she was to fi ght out of desperation, but this doesn’t wounded—making them the fi rst women explain the decision. Germany had de- pilots in combat. stroyed thousands of Soviet aircraft during In 1925, Zinaida Kokorina was heralded Operation Barbarossa, but most of those as the Soviet Union’s fi rst female military aircraft were destroyed on the ground, pilot—the fi rst woman in the world to hold and most of the pilots survived. In the L-r: Russian pilots Lt. Galina Burdina, both military rank and fl y military aircraft. autumn of 1941, when the women’s avia- Lt. Tamara Pamiatnykh, Lt. Valeriya Thousands of young women learned tion units were being formed, there was Homyakova, and Lt. Valentina Lisitsina to fly in the 1930s in paramilitary no shortage of pilots. Some men in the discuss a recent sortie in front of one of the Osoaviakhim clubs that also taught VVS resented the idea that untried women 586th Fighter Wing’s Yak-1 aircraft. parachute jumping and marksmanship would be given late-model aircraft, while skills. Some of these women entered the experienced male pilots had to wait for Soviet air force (Voenno-Vozdushnye production to catch up. Not Just By Reina Pennington Sily, or VVS). In 1938, three female By mid-October 1941, Raskova’s team aviators received the Hero of the Soviet had interviewed and selected a thou- Union medal from Stalin himself for their sand volunteers. As the Germans shelled achievements in a long-distance fl ight Moscow, the group boarded a train for a they made from Moscow to Komsomolsk- training base 500 miles to the southeast. on-Amur. The recruits were mainly university One, VVS navigator Lt. Marina M. students in their late teens and early 20s. Night Witc hes Raskova, had bailed out of their iced-up Some had thousands of hours of fl ight AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 59 The “Night Witches” “Night witches” has become a popular moniker for all Soviet female pilots of World War II, but is properly applied only to the women who fl ew night bombers. Germans reportedly came up with the name, but how would German troops have known that women were fl ying the Po-2s that bombed them? Only one of the dozens of Soviet night bomber regiments was staffed solely by women; the rest were primarily male. Moreover, only one group of women fl ew night bombers, while the rest were in other kinds of aviation. But the term has caught on, possibly because of the 1981 book Night Witches by Bruce Myles. Public interest was renewed in 2013 when Nadezhda V. Popova, a prominent political fi gure in the former Soviet Union and the former deputy regimental commander of the 46th Guards, died, prompting a number of newspaper and magazine articles. “Night Witches” is used in the title of many Web pages, graphic novels, role-playing games, and various TV and fi lm projects. time: instructor pilots, air show pilots, and air defense forces (PVO) in mostly civil aviation pilots, and some already in male units; these included female pilots, the VVS. Others had only Osoaviakhim navigators, and gunners who flew in A lineup of “Night Witches” from the 46th Guards. training. There was such a large number transports, fi ghters, and the Il-2 Shturmovik. that many had to settle for navigator slots. Some people mistakenly refer to all these carry 500 pounds of bombs and a machine Of the three regiments formed by women as “Night Witches,” but fewer gun. Crews didn’t start wearing parachutes Raskova, only one remained all-female than a third of the women served in night until late 1944, because parachutes were throughout the war: the 588th Night bomber units. in short supply in the early years, they Bomber Aviation Regiment, later redes- The 46th Guards fl ew more than 24,000 added weight, and every pound counted. ignated the 46th Guards—the so-called combat missions. The regiment was con- “Night Witches.” tinuously in combat from May 1942 until GETTING HIT An undetermined number of women May 1945 and fl ew at Stalingrad, near the A typical mission lasted 30 to 50 served scattered throughout the VVS Black Sea, in Byelorussia, and at Warsaw minutes, and crews fl ew as many as 14 and Berlin. or more missions a night. They fl ew The 46th Guards fl ew the Polikarpov single-ship; nighttime formations were U-2, an outdated, open-cockpit two-seat dangerous. However, they often fl ew biplane. The resourceful Soviets turned in sequence, with aircraft three to fi ve plowshares into swords by converting minutes apart, ingressing at some 3,000 Photo via Reina Pennington Reina via Photo biplane crop dusters into bombers. The feet, and bombing at 1,300 feet or higher, Po-2 (as the U-2 was renamed in 1944) throwing out a few fl ares to light up the was a ubiquitous trainer and short-distance target, then egressing at very low altitudes. transport—at least 30,000 were built—but When possible, crews would cut their poorly suited for combat. engines and bomb from a glide, to improve The 46th Guards was just one of many surprise and survivability. When enemy night bomber regiments. These were cre- searchlights came on, the next aircraft in ated during the defense of Moscow in 1941, line would try to take them out. with Osoaviakhim graduates fl ying various In late 1942, pilot Nina Raspopova and kinds of converted trainers to harass enemy her navigator Larisa Radchikova, while troops and attack targets near the front fl ying a night bombing sortie against a lines. If they didn’t hit much, at least they German bridgehead on the Terek River, caused the enemy to lose sleep. were hit by anti-aircraft fi re. Raspopova Due to their short range, these aircraft had recalled, “My left foot slipped down into to be based close to the front, often at the an empty space below me; the bottom roughest fi elds. The wood-frame Po-2 was of the cockpit had been shot away. I felt fragile and practically defenseless against something hot streaming down my left attack, so it was fl own primarily under arm and leg—I was wounded.” Raspopova cover of darkness. Slow, with a top speed managed to get the airplane down. Both of some 90 mph, they were retrofi tted to women were injured—Raspopova was peppered with wooden shards from the shot-up aircraft—but got back to friendly Marina Raskova in 1938. She lines. After a few weeks of recuperation, fought tirelessly—and ultimately successfully—to put women pilots they were fl ying again. in the cockpits of Russian bombers After initial recruitment by Raskova during World War II. in 1941, the VVS didn’t create a pipeline 60 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 later designated as the 125th Guards, is Raskova was replaced by a man, and Mar- the least known of the three units. The kov, recently recovered from war wounds, 125th Guards completed 1,134 combat wasn’t happy about his new assignment. missions. The unit fl ew at Stalingrad, on He warned the women, “There will be no the Don Front, and in the North Cauca- sort of allowances made because you are sus, Byelorussia, Lithuania, and Poland. women, so don’t expect them.” But he Twenty-two fl ying personnel died during became a respected leader, and soon the the war. women started calling him batya, or “dad.” The 125th Guards become operational Markov later noted, “During the war in January 1943, seven months after the there was no difference between this regi- fi rst two units. The delay resulted from ment and any male regiments. We lived an upgrade from the Su-2 to the more in dugouts, as did the other regiments, sophisticated Pe-2 bomber, regarded as and fl ew on the same missions, no more one of the best dive bombers of the war. or less dangerous.” He concluded, “If I The twin-engine Pe-2 was tricky to fl y, compare my experience of commanding however, and required an additional crew male and female regiments, to some extent member over the Su-2. Training time was at the end of the war it was easier for me extended and Raskova had to scramble to to command this female regiment. They get gunners and additional support per- had the strong spirit of a collective unit.” sonnel. To speed things up, she agreed to The 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment accept male personnel for most of these was the fi rst group to begin combat op- new slots. erations, but it was sent to air defense A lineup of “Night Witches” from the 46th Guards. Raskova herself took command of the (PVO) rather than to the VVS. Its fi ghter 125th Guards. The unit was ordered to pilots, fl ying Yak-series aircraft, were to bring more women into aviation. The Stalingrad in December of 1942, but winter assigned to patrol rear areas rather than innovative 46th, however, remained all- storms caused two of its squadrons to split frontline battles. When the unit grew from female by creating its own pilot-training up along the way. In early January 1943, two squadrons to three, the 586th was program. 46th Guards chief of staff Irina Raskova tried to take a three-ship formation assigned male pilots to make up the dif- Rakobolskaia explained, “We turned navi- to its new base, but the weather quickly ference. The regiment fl ew in Russia and gators into pilots, trained new navigators turned bad. While the other two aircraft Ukraine and ended the war in Hungary. from among the mechanics, and made successfully crash-landed, Raskova’s air- The 586th completed 4,419 combat mis- armorers of the girl-volunteers who were plane crashed, killing her and three others sions and destroyed 38 enemy aircraft in just arriving at the front. ... The regiment on board. Her death devastated not just 125 air battles. fl ew combat missions at night, and the the 125th, but the women she had trained. While relations within the 46th were training groups worked during the day.” Stalin published a tribute to Raskova, generally harmonious, there were confl icts Several pilots and navigators in the 46th and her remains were interred at the and controversies in the 586th. The fi rst Guards completed more than 800 combat Kremlin. commander, Maj. Tamara Kazarinova, sorties during the war. The 125th Guards regrouped and began wasn’t well respected. The 586th had The 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, combat operations in late January. A new been given the cream of the crop—the commander was brought in: Maj. Valentin best aerobatic pilots and more of the Markov, who had already commanded experienced pilots than the other units. a bomber regiment. The transition was These experienced pilots complained rocky; many of the women resented that about being assigned a commander who

What Happened to Liliia Litviak? Smart, attractive, charismatic, and missing in action—it’s no wonder that Liliia V. Litviak has become the source of so much speculation. Born Lidiia Litviak, she preferred to call herself “Liliia” and is called the top female ace of all time. She became the focus of popular books and websites in several languages. Litviak was shot down in air combat on Aug. 1, 1943, three weeks before her 22nd birthday. Because her crash site and body were not found during the war, she was listed as missing in action. After extensive searches, in 1979 the body of an unidentifi ed female pilot who had crash-landed on the right date in the right area was located. Based on the physical attributes of the remains and by cross-referencing with personnel records the body was identifi ed as Litviak’s. In 1988 her offi cial records were changed to “killed in action,” and in 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev awarded her Hero of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, stories abound speculating that Litviak was not killed in the war but defected to the Germans and ended up living in Switzerland. There is little substance to these stories.

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 61 after Stalingrad and were transferred fi rst to the 9th Guards, then the 73rd Guards regiment. These units were in intense combat in 1942-43. Budanova was killed in July 1943. Litviak too became a casualty of war on Aug. 1, 1943, when she was shot down during an intense air battle. Her remains were identifi ed decades later, and she was fi nally awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Litviak racked up as many as 12 personal kills (including an artillery spotting balloon) and three shared kills, making her the top-scoring female ace of all time. Budanova attained at least six personal Night Witches Rufi na Gasheva (l) and Natalia Meklin, both awarded Heroes of the and four shared kills and was named a Hero Soviet Union, near a Po-2 bomber. Gasheva made 848 sorties as copilot, Meklin of the Russian Federation in 1993. Litviak's fl ew 980 combat sorties. achievements, and even her death, have become the subject of much speculation wouldn’t or couldn’t fl y the unit’s aircraft circumstances. Except for those who and controversy. and petitioned the division commander to remained in the VVS after the Stalingrad There were many other noteworthy replace her. deployment, all the pilots who had Soviet female pilots who didn’t fl y in In September 1942, Kazarinova petitioned for Kazarinova’s dismissal “Raskova’s regiments.” Ekaterina I. effectively silenced the complainers, were dead within a year. We may never Zelenko, a veteran of the Russo-Finnish transferring eight pilots to duty with units know the truth about whether these deaths War, was killed when she rammed a German at Stalingrad. were engineered by Kazarinova or simply fi ghter in 1941. Valentina S. Grizodubova, Soon after, pilot Lt. Valeriia the toll of war. PVO headquarters assigned who fl ew with Raskova on that 1938 long- Khomiakova—another of those who them unnecessary missions in dangerous distance fl ight, commanded the 31st Guards complained about Kazarinova’s weather conditions that caused the death Bomber Aviation Regiment, which fl ew leadership—became the fi rst woman in of at least one pilot, and another was killed thousands of partisan resupply missions. the world to shoot down an enemy aircraft while test-fl ying a defectively repaired Anna Timofeeva-Egorova fl ew the Il-2 at night. aircraft, according to Gridnev. Shturmovik ground attack aircraft. She On Sept. 24, 1942, she destroyed a Ju-88 The 586th was nominated to receive was shot down and badly wounded and bomber, the fi rst kill credited to the 586th. Guards designation, but after photos, survived being a POW. Less than two weeks later, Khomiakova fi lms, and documents were prepared, and Women aviators in the Soviet Union fl ew died in a night takeoff under questionable commissions made their recommendations, the same missions as men, in the same kinds conditions. Many blamed Kazarinova, the documents disappeared and the unit of aircraft. Although they encountered who was removed from command and never got the title. Kazarinova was one some discrimination, on the whole they reassigned to PVO headquarters, where of the PVO staffers who had access to were well-accepted and respected by their some believe she made it her mission to those fi les. Gridnev believes she simply peers. There was little difference in the exact revenge on the 586th. destroyed them. performance or morale of integrated units Kazarinova was then replaced by a male No pilots in the 586th achieved ace compared to all-female units. commander, Maj. Aleksandr Gridnev, who status—fi ve enemy aircraft shot down—but Despite their achievements, most women was also controversial. He’d been arrested several who left the unit for the VVS did. were discharged from the Red Army for political reasons. Returned to duty, his The fi rst women to shoot down enemy after the war, including the aviators. “punishment” was to take command of the aircraft were Liliia V. Litviak and Raisa A few female pilots kept fl ying but the 586th. However, like Markov, Gridnev V. Beliaeva, who scored kills on Sept. VVS did not continue to recruit and train quickly gained the respect and affection 13, 1942, at Stalingrad—11 days before women. Although some books and memoirs of his subordinates. Khomiakova achieved her night shootdown. appeared, the experiences of the “Night The 586th pilots weren’t in the thick Litviak and Beliaeva were among the eight Witches” and other female pilots were of things, but achieved some notable female pilots transferred from the 586th, largely forgotten in the Soviet Union and victories. Raisa Surnachevskaia and Tamara along with their ground crews, and assigned are little-known in modern Russia. Pamiatnykh were scrambled against a to two different VVS regiments. Few women fl y in the Russian air force group of 42 German bombers and shot Litviak and Katia Budanova are the most today. The Soviet Union was the pathfi nder down four. The 586th regularly escorted famous of the female fi ghter pilots. Both in the 20th century, but the United States important transport fl ights, including one preferred frontline fl ying to air defense. has set the standard for women in military taking political offi cer Nikita Khrushchev They petitioned to stay with the VVS aviation in the early 21st century. ✪ to inspect a POW camp at Stalingrad. Reina Pennington teaches military and Russian history at Norwich University in WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM Vermont. She is a former Air Force intelligence offi cer and Soviet analyst. This article Several more of the most skilled was adapted from her 2001 book, Wings, Women, and War. Her last article for Air pilots in the 586th died under mysterious Force Magazine, “Another Look at the Soviet Pilot,” appeared in the April 1985 issue. 62 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 Flashback [email protected] Dove of War

It had a unique, highly memorable design. It anger. The Taube was flown by the Austro- was the first airplane to engage in an act of Hungarian and Ottoman empires. It was most war. It was Germany’s first mass-produced prominent in Germany, which used it as fighter, military aircraft. All of these describe the bomber, spotter, and trainer. In the first months Images, clockwise from top left: “Taube,” German for “dove,” a pre-World War of the Great War, German Taubes dropped Parisians in 1915 gawk at a captured I monoplane. The Taube was conceived by bomblets on Paris, dispensed propaganda Taube in Les Invalides complex; Austrian designer Igo Etrich in 1910. He licensed leaflets, and tracked Russian movements at the designer Igo Etrich; German it to Edmund Rumpler in Germany, but Rumpler Battle of Tannenberg. However, the slow-turning manufacturer Edmund Rumpler; and a reneged on royalties and Etrich abandoned Taube proved vulnerable to more-agile Allied German Taube in flight. the patent, generating broad production. Italy aircraft and it was relegated to the trainer role. became a big user. In 1911, the pilot of an Italian Many future German aces learned to fly on the Taube dropped the first bomb—grenades—in graceful Rumpler Taube.

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 63 merican involvement in Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong Lyndon B. Johnson announced a unilateral Vietnam split sharply into struck at more than 100 locations all bombing halt in Vietnam and said he two parts. Up to 1968, over South Vietnam, including the US would not run for re-election. He said the the United States was Embassy in Saigon. The offensive was US was “prepared to move immediately trying to win the war soundly defeated but the political damage toward peace through negotiations.” andA believed that it could do so. After was overwhelming. Richard M. Nixon inherited the 1968, the driving objective was to get out. Tet revealed the untruth of assurances commitment when he took offi ce in The withdrawal stretched out for an- by the White House and Military January 1969. “We were clearly on the other five years. Active US involvement Assistance Command Vietnam that the way out of Vietnam by negotiation if finally ended with the Linebacker II war was almost won. Two months possible, by unilateral withdrawal if “Christmas bombing” of North Vietnam previously, MACV commander Gen. necessary,” said Nixon’s national security in December 1972, which led to the William C. Westmoreland said in a advisor, Henry Kissinger. Paris Peace Accords and a cease-fire in speech at the National Press Club that Nixon refused to simply cut and run. January 1973. More than a third of the the enemy was “certainly losing” and That would dishonor the sacrifi ce of US 58,000 US war dead in Vietnam were that their hopes were “bankrupt.” casualties in Vietnam and undermine killed after 1968. Now Westmoreland wanted 206,756 the credibility of the United States as a The turning point was Tet. On the night more troops (in addition to almost 500,000 superpower. “The fi rst defeat in our na- of Jan. 30-31, 1968, at the beginning of he had already) and another 17 fi ghter tion’s history would result in a collapse the Lunar New Year holiday, the North squadrons. On March 31, President of confi dence in American leadership, not

The Long retreat By John T. Correll The United States gave up on Vietnam in 1968. Getting out was harder than getting in.

64 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 only in Asia but throughout the world,” Lewis Sorely—a leading exponent of the creep. It started as training and advice Nixon said. theory that the war could have been won but slipped into counterinsurgency and Instead, the United States would pre- with a better strategy and approach—as- then into conventional war. pare the South Vietnamese to take over signs the principal blame for the defeat Operation Rolling Thunder, the air in a process called “Vietnamization.” US to Westmoreland. In Westmoreland: The campaign against North Vietnam, began force levels peaked at 543,000 in April General Who Lost Vietnam, Sorley accuses in a half-hearted way in March 1965. 1969 and troop withdrawals began in July. Westmoreland of failing in strategy and Ambassador Maxwell D. Taylor warned US participation shifted steadily toward leadership and neglecting the development that the North Vietnamese would not be airpower. of South Vietnamese military capabilities. impressed by one mission a week against After the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, That puts too much of the responsibil- minor targets. “I fear that to date, Rolling Nixon said the US had achieved “peace ity on Westmoreland. Any prospect of Thunder in their eyes has been merely with honor.” In actuality, it was a barely victory had been foreclosed by earlier a few isolated thunderclaps,” he said in concealed defeat for the United States, decisions. The broader question is whether a message to Washington. and even worse for the South Vietnamese. the Vietnam War was ever America’s to A month later, Secretary of Defense Without US help, they could not withstand win or lose. Robert S. McNamara decided that Roll- a main force invasion by North Vietnam. ing Thunder was not working and shifted Saigon fell in 1975. THE STRATEGY THAT FAILED the strategy and emphasis to a ground All sorts of explanations are offered The US experience in Vietnam was war in the south. McNamara’s view was for what happened. Military historian a classic case of unplanned mission “that the place to destroy the enemy was USAF photo USAF retreat

B-52s await bomb loading before a mission over Vietnam. Response to Hanoi’s Easter offensive made it clear that North Vietnam could not successfully invade the south so long as it was defended by US airpower. AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 65 AP photo by Michael Lipchitz Michael by photo AP LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto Yoichi by photo Library LBJ

Clockwise from above: A month after Rolling Thunder began, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (at right, with President Johnson at the White House) decided it was not working and switched to a ground war strategy in the south; Le Duc Tho (l) and Henry Kissinger, the chief negotiators, in Paris during the peace talks of 1973; Johnson (l) visits MACV commander Gen.

William Westmoreland at Cam Ranh Bay in Okamoto Yoichi by photo Library LBJ South Vietnam in 1967. They considered the war almost won. Tet demonstrated that it was not so.

in South Vietnam,” said Gen. William W. Momyer, commander of 7th Air Force. “According to his strategy, the mission of in-country support took priority over all other missions in Laos or North Vietnam.” “This fateful decision contributed to our ultimate loss of South Vietnam as much as any other action we took during our involvement,” said Adm. U. S. Grant Sharp Jr., commander of US Pacifi c Command. Two Marine Corps battalions had been sent to Da Nang in March to protect the air base there. In July, the White House agreed to Westmoreland’s request for 44 ground force battalions, about 194,000 troops. Westmoreland, focused fully on South Vietnam, adopted a strategy of at- trition and “search-and-destroy” missions into the countryside. The United States had stumbled into a land war in Asia. There were several things wrong with this, the main one being that the war was instigated, commanded, and sustained by the infi ltration of troops, equipment, and supplies from North Vietnam. The United States and South Vietnam could not win it with operations in the south. Nevertheless, 66 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 fearful of drawing the Soviet Union and other than total victory, including the un- mission of our forces in South Vietnam China actively into the war, the Johnson conditional withdrawal of all US forces continues to be to insure the success of Administration ruled out a combined arms and the overthrow of the Saigon political Vietnamization.” offensive against North Vietnam. structure,” Kissinger said. The problem, a classifi ed USAF report Rolling Thunder continued for another Although the United States did not said, was that “the South Vietnamese were three years but with crippling constraints fully understand it yet, North Vietnamese not improving as fast as the US forces and prohibitions. US troop levels rose to- policy had been directed for some time by were withdrawing.” They could not hope ward half a million and the United States Le Duan, fi rst secretary of the Communist to match the capabilities and range of effectively took over the ground war from Party, who had marginalized both the high-performance US fi ghter-bombers and the South Vietnamese. aging legendary leader Ho Chi Minh and B-52s. Some South Vietnamese generals After Tet, the predictions of imminent army chief Vo Nguyen Giap. Tet, which were good leaders but others were chosen victory lost all credibility, especially had been a military failure even though for their political reliability instead of their when the New York Times discovered it rebounded to Hanoi’s political success, military talents. and reported Westmoreland’s request for had been Le Duan’s doing. Le Duc Tho Abrams and the South Vietnamese 206,000 additional troops. Johnson halted was Le Duan’s right-hand man. armed forces made considerable progress the bombing north of the 20th parallel, “We have ruled out attempting to with pacification. Sorley—the harsh then moved the line to the 19th parallel, impose a purely military solution on the critic of Westmoreland and a great ad- and in November stopped the bombing of battlefi eld,” Nixon said. “We have also mirer of Abrams—notes that by 1970, North Vietnam altogether. ruled out either a one-sided withdrawal “the South Vietnamese countryside had from Vietnam, or the acceptance in Paris been widely pacified” and that about BOGGED DOWN IN PARIS of terms that would amount to a disguised 90 percent of the population was under Negotiations with North Vietnam began American retreat.” government control. in Paris in May 1968 with longtime “The fi ghting wasn’t over, but the war Democratic Party stalwart Averell VIETNAMIZATION was won,” Sorely said. Others thought so, Harriman leading the US delegation. In The centerpiece of Nixon’s plan was too. In later years, Mackubin T. Owens, a the fi rst of many concessions, the United “Vietnamization,” a term coined by Sec- prolifi c author and analyst who had been States agreed to admit the Viet Cong— retary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, who a Marine Corps platoon commander in which had been created by the North also became its foremost advocate. The Vietnam, had a bumper sticker on his car Vietnamese—to the peace talks if Hanoi South Vietnamese would be trained and that read, “When I left, we were winning.” would permit the government of South equipped to take over the war, followed This notion of a victory ignored is still Vietnam to be there as well. The Viet Cong by a complete withdrawal of US combat popular today. However, like McNamara’s took their seat in Paris as the “Provisional forces. strategy decision in 1965, that proposition Revolutionary Government,” which was In August 1969, Gen. Creighton W. hangs on defi ning the war as an indigenous likewise invented in Hanoi. Abrams Jr., who replaced Westmoreland ground confl ict in the south. As would be According to Harriman, there was at MACV, got new orders and a new demonstrated yet again when an invasion an “understanding” that if the bombing mission statement. The emphasis for the force from North Vietnam captured Saigon stopped, Hanoi would not “take advantage” United States, Kissinger said, changed in 1975, the critical challenge was always of it by increasing its attacks and infi ltration to “providing ‘maximum assistance’ to from the north. of the south. Such an understanding existed the South Vietnamese to strengthen their only in Harriman’s wishful thinking, based forces, supporting pacifi cation efforts, and US NEGOTIATING WITH ITSELF on North Vietnamese “assent by silence” reducing the fl ow of supplies to the enemy.” North Vietnam did not wait in 1969 to to American statements. Abrams dumped Westmoreland’s see what the new Nixon Administration Harriman stuck to his story. In May search-and-destroy strategy in favor of would do. Four weeks after Nixon took 1969, he lectured the Nixon Administration “clear and hold”—clearing an area of offi ce, the communists launched a new that “50,000 American troops should be the enemy and keeping it clear. Abrams offensive in the south, attacking 110 pulled out at once. It would be a signal “abandoned the large-scale offensive targets, including Saigon. to Saigon that they’ve got to get together operations against the Communist main Nixon felt he had to retaliate in some politically. It would be a sign to Hanoi forces and concentrated on protecting the way to preserve any chance of negotiating the President means what he says about population,” Kissinger said. “American from a position of strength and ordered seeking peace. It won’t be taken as a sign troops were deployed for defense in depth the bombing of North Vietnamese and Viet of weakness. ... If we take some steps to around major cities.” Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia. reduce the violence, if we take the lead, The South Vietnamese air force doubled The United States had been bombing the I’m satisfi ed that they will follow.” in size and received its fi rst jet fi ghters, Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Laotian panhandle Nixon appointed Henry Cabot Lodge, Northrop F-5s and Cessna A-37 attack since 1965, but the southern extension a former ambassador to South Vietnam, aircraft. These new airplanes, along with through Cambodia had not been struck to replace Harriman in Paris, but the propeller-driven A-1s, AC-119 gunships, before. Cambodia was supposedly neutral real negotiations were carried on behind and helicopters, were a signifi cant force and North Vietnam denied being there. closed doors by Kissinger and Le Duc but they did not give South Vietnam a The Cambodian leader, Prince Norodom Tho, a member of the North Vietnamese capability to attack North Vietnam or ef- Sihanouk, had invited a US attack on the politburo. Nixon and Kissinger hoped fectively interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail. North Vietnamese invaders but was not that the private sessions might break the Laird told the service secretaries to willing to do so publicly. The bombing public deadlock, but that did not happen. guard against “pressures and temptations operations in Cambodia, which began in “Hanoi was not prepared then or for the to hold onto the reins” in Southeast Asia March 1969, were kept secret—at least four years afterward to settle for anything and issued a reminder that “the chief for a while—both because of Sihanouk’s AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 67 USAF photo USAF

Above: A B-52 drops bombs on North Vietnam. Linebacker II convinced the North Vietnamese that their best option was to negotiate seriously. Right: Early in his presidency, Nixon ordered the bombing of sanctuaries for North Vietnamese soldiers in neighboring Cambodia. He announced it to the American people in a speech in the April 1970.

sensitivities and to avoid an uproar of protest in the United States. Concurrently, Nixon proposed a mutual withdrawal of US and North Vietnamese forces from South Vietnam. Hanoi refused. The ﬁ rst increment of US troops was pulled out unilaterally in June, which fatally undercut the whole concept of mutual withdrawal. In the spring of 1970, the nominally neutral Sihanouk was ousted by a pro- Western coup headed by Premier Lon Nol. To shore up Lon Nol’s government

and to complete the destruction of Photo via Nixon Presidential Library & Museum the sanctuaries, a combined force of 15,000 US and South Vietnamese entered home anyway, did not fi gure in it. North power had been reduced as well, but Cambodia, setting off a massive wave Vietnam refused. not by as much, and was carrying the of protest by politicians, students, and In December, an amendment to the main US part of the effort. The North the press in the United States. defense appropriations bill prohibited Vietnamese had built warehouses in In October 1970, Nixon offered a the use of US ground forces in Laos or the demilitarized zone and petroleum deeper concession, a “cease-fi re in place.” Cambodia. “Hanoi stood at the sidelines, pipelines into Laos. They had also based Unlike the previous proposal for mutual coldly observing how America was MiG fighters and other aircraft at bases withdrawal, this would allow the North negotiating not with its adversary but near the DMZ, from which they could Vietnamese forces already in the south to with itself,” Kissinger said. be across the border in minutes. stay there while a political settlement was By early 1972, most of the US ground Le Duan, originator of the Tet attacks explored. US forces, which were going forces were gone from Vietnam. Air- in 1968, was ready to try again. On March 68 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 30, 1972, in what became known as “the the war, abort all negotiations, and at the THE PEACE THAT WASN’T Easter Invasion,” the North Vietnamese last moment seek unconditional victory The cease-fi re went into effect Jan. 28, launched a three-pronged attack across once again,” Kissinger said. 1973. The fi rst American POWs returned the DMZ and eastward out of Laos and Feb. 12, and the last American troops left Cambodia. THE WEIGHT OF LINEBACKER Vietnam on March 29. The South Vietnamese fought well, The prospect for extricating the United Nixon announced that “we have but the critical factor in stopping the States from the war was at a standstill, prevented the imposition of a communist invasion was US airpower, which was and Nixon was infuriated. When Con- government by force on South Vietnam.” rapidly augmented by additional fi ghters gress convened in January, it might well That overstated it by a long shot, but and bombers. Abrams at MACV wanted impose new restrictions making it more Vietnam had been given a chance. all of the available airpower targeted on difficult to get a favorable settlement. Its armed forces had been built up battles in South Vietnam, but an appre- Seeking to break the impasse, Nixon considerably. The air force had over ciable portion was allocated to Operation ordered a bombing campaign, Linebacker 1,000 aircraft. US economic and military Linebacker I, which began in May and II, heavier than anything North Vietnam aid continued, and Nixon had guaranteed bombed the logistics infrastructure in had ever seen before, centered on Hanoi Thieu that if Hanoi failed to abide by North Vietnam. and Haiphong but with many targets the agreement, it was his intention for By June, Le Duan’s venture had failed elsewhere, including railroads, power the United States “to take swift and and the message was clear: North Vietnam plants, supply depots, ports, and the retaliatory action.” could not successfully invade the south so principal military air bases. However, Nixon would not be there to long as it was defended by US airpower. Between Dec. 18 and Dec. 29, Line- see it through. In May, the Senate began Hanoi had sustained huge losses in the backer II pounded North Vietnam with hearings on the Watergate scandal that losing effort and its attitude was changing 729 sorties by B-52 bombers and 769 by would eventually drive Nixon from office. toward a negotiated settlement. Air Force and Navy fighters, destroying Well before that, Congress reneged on Nixon’s Democratic Party opponent much of the remaining industrial and the assurances given to South Vietnam. in the upcoming presidential election, military infrastructure. Chinese Premier An amendment to the defense Sen. George McGovern, took a peace- Zhou Enlai advised Hanoi to return to appropriations bill in July 1973 cut off at-any-price position. The New York bargaining and “let the Americans leave funding to fi nance “directly or indirectly” Times reported that, “if elected, Mr. as quickly as possible.” combat operations by US forces “in or over McGovern has said, he will order a Linebacker II had achieved its pur- or from off the shores of” North Vietnam, cease-fi re on Inauguration Day, remove pose. On Dec. 26, North Vietnam agreed South Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia. all troops from Indochina within three to resume the talks. Furthermore, Congress radically months, withdraw support from the South The agreement reached in Paris in reduced aid to South Vietnam from Vietnamese government, and remove January was similar to the one Hanoi had $2.27 billion in 1973 to $700 million for American forces from Cambodia and backed away from earlier, but this time 1975. In his memoirs, Nixon denounced Laos. He says he fully expects the North North Vietnam promised to recognize and the “tragic and irresponsible action” by Vietnamese to release American prisoners respect the DMZ. The political future of Congress, which “denied, first to me, of war once these various steps are taken.” South Vietnam would be decided in free and then to President Ford, the means The North Vietnamese fi gured that elections under international supervision. to enforce the Paris agreement.” McGovern would lose and that they might Neither side would use Laos and Cambodia By the beginning of 1975, North get better terms from Nixon before his for military purposes. US forces would Vietnam was ready to try again. Its army, re-election rather than after. In September, withdraw. The agreement said nothing built up with Soviet assistance, was Le Duc Tho told Kissinger that North about the 160,000 North Vietnamese troops now the fi fth largest in the world. There Vietnam would agree to a cease-fi re in left in place in the South. was no more pretense of a home-grown place and release of the American POWs. Nixon notified Thieu that he had insurgency by the South Vietnamese. Nor Hanoi would drop its previous demand “irrevocably decided” to sign the Paris was there any need to infi ltrate indirectly for the ouster of President Nguyen Van agreement. “I will do so, if necessary, by way of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Thieu in South Vietnam as a precondition. alone,” Nixon said. “In that case, I Twenty North Vietnamese divisions This incorporated most of the elements shall have to explain publicly that came directly across the DMZ and joined of previous proposals by the US and your government obstructs peace. The other combat forces already in the south. South Vietnam. result will be inevitable and immediate The invasion force included tanks and Kissinger, in a burst of exuberance, termination of US economic and military was supported by modern air defense announced in October that “peace is at assistance which cannot be forestalled systems that substantially weakened the hand.” That, however, reckoned without by a change of personnel in your ability of the South Vietnamese to resist. Thieu, who balked. He had gone along government.” Saigon fell April 30. The Provisional with previous US proposals only because Thieu had little choice but to accept, Revolutionary Government was he thought there was no chance of Hanoi and the deal was done. The accords were dissolved—without consulting the accepting them. Faced with the stark real- signed by the United States, North and PRG—by party leaders in the North. ity that the Americans might actually leave South Vietnam, and “the Provisional South Vietnam ceased to exist. There Vietnam, he rejected the breakthrough in Revolutionary Government of the Re- was only one Vietnam, and its capital negotiations. public of South Vietnam.” was Hanoi. ✪ North Vietnam, seeing that Nixon was in a bind, back-pedaled on its offer and John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is now hardened its demands. “Hanoi had in ef- a contributor. His most recent article, “Chasing Pancho Villa,” appeared in the fect made a strategic decision to prolong September issue. AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 69 USAF photo emember: Do Nothing. Say Nothing. Write Nothing Which “ Could Betray Our Friends.” This notice, posted for American airmen shot down over aircrew during World War II, Rreminded them of a reassuring secret: Europe had a sophisticated web of If they were shot down over France, Resistance networks were ready and eager supporters for attempts to avoid the to hide them from the Germans. Nazis and reach freedom. There was good reason to be optimistic. The Resistance enabled more than 3,000 Allied airmen to disguise their identities and walk out of German-occupied Western Europe. Airmen shot down in France and Belgium had especially good chances of making it out. Future American ace and test pilot legend Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager was shot down by Focke-Wulf 190s on a mission over France on March 5, 1944. “Before I had gone 200 feet, half a dozen Frenchmen ran up to me,” Yeager later reported. They brought him a change of clothes and hid him in a barn. Under the care of the Resistance, Yeager was transported to southern France, hiked into Spain on March 28, reached the British fortress at Gibraltar on May 15, and was in England by May 21, 1944. Yeager’s speedy trip was made possible by years of effort to build networks for moving airmen from the moment they landed in their parachutes to the moment they reached friendly or neutral territory. The evading airman’s journey always began with immediate concealment. Then they sheltered with families, often in several locations. Next they traveled in cars and trucks, bicycled, and even rode

A B-24 crash-lands near Eindhoven, Holland. Resistance networks in Nazi-occupied countries helped downed Allied airmen traverse hundreds of miles to safety.

Escaping By Rebecca Grant

70 the ContinentAIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 A local Michigan newspaper announces SSgt. Harry Eastman to be missing in action in Europe, but by then the French Resistance had saved him from being captured.

Four crew members bailed out, leaving six on board for the crash landing. Harrison told the crew to scatter, pushed the destruction buttons in the cockpit, and ran to the nearby woods. “During the fi ve hours I lay hidden in the [woods], I could hear the Germans searching,” he later recalled in his escape and evasion report. Those who evaded capture often found quick help from the Resistance movements. French peasants spotted Harrison and soon a young boy approached him, offering food and clothing. The boy led Harrison home only to fi nd German troops surrounding the house. The boy guided him to another house four miles away, where the pilot hid for six days. A crew member from another airplane in the Le Bourget raid, a B-17 nicknamed Good Time Cholly II, also found sanctuary in the woods. SSgt. Harry L. Eastman, age 34, was the left waist gunner on the bomber. Focke-Wulfs and Me 109s in lines of six abreast came in “right after” Spitfi re escorts turned back, recalled Eastman. He parachuted into a wheat fi eld. Then he saw a man on a bicycle wave him toward the woods. Four Frenchmen were waiting for him there, but Eastman gestured that his back was injured and he could go no farther. A Frenchman moved him from the trains through Paris right under the eyes of bomb bay, holding a fi re extinguisher on ditch where he had hidden under a thorn German soldiers. Sometimes they moved the blue fl ames moving from the engine hedge into a nearby wood. Other Resis- alone, but just as often the Resistance toward the wing of his B-24. tance members brought SSgt. Richard S. linked them into small groups at major This attack left the “No. 3 engine out, Davitt, the top turret gunner, to join him. assembly points such as Liège, Belgium. aileron control shot away, [and] fi re in Five days later, they drove the two airmen [the] bomb bay and on [the] command to a safe house. BAIL OUT deck,” according to the B-24’s pilot, 1st Statistically, these airmen were now For evaders the saga usually began Lt. Joseph Pavelka. missing in action, and their families back with a struggle, often onboard a burning Next came the parachute descent. home received telegrams giving that status. B-24 or B-17. Typically it was a German Evading capture sometimes depended fi ghter that shot down the bomber over on landing near cover. Airmen who could WELL-PREPARED France or Belgium. manage it waited to pull the ripcord be- The US Army Air Forces equipped avia- Through 1943, many of the bombers cause having no open parachute canopy tors with special supplies and equipment fell victim to the German tactic of nose- made them less visible targets for German in case they crash-landed or had to bail on attacks, introduced by Oberleutnant forces. On this B-24, four of the crew fell out. All this was the work of the Military (1st Lt.) Egon Mayer. Skilled German into German hands and became POWs. Intelligence Service-X or MIS-X. fi ghter pilots used the tactic to break up The others evaded capture. Silk maps were standard issue. Aviators formation accuracy during a bomb run. Sometimes pilots stayed with the also typically fl ew with a money purse. Red Frontal attacks at this time were “the chief airplane to crash-land it after the crew purses contained maps of France, Holland, defensive problem of the Eighth Air Force,” bailed out. Capt. Kee H. Harrison’s B-17 Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. found World War II historians Wesley F. of the 94th Bomb Group lost two engines Tucked inside were 2,000 French francs, Craven and James L. Cate. to fi ghter attack near Le Bourget airfi eld worth about $50—a signifi cant amount Then-TSgt. Chester B. Hincewicz was outside Paris on July 14, 1943. A 20 mm at a time when average monthly rent was a top-turret gunner in a B-24 shot down shell explosion set the cockpit on fi re. $40. Records indicate a total of 103,126 after bombing Germany on April 12, 1944. With a full bomb load, the aircraft was red money purses were distributed to US He remembered hanging over an open hopelessly dropping behind the formation. airmen through June of 1945. Yellow AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 71 money purses combined his money purse down on French francs with Belgian the fl oor of the burning francs and Dutch guilders. B-24 in a fi t of anger when How was the money spent? he realized they couldn’t Pavelka told debriefers he control the spreading fi re spent his mix of francs and enough to make it back to guilders for “black market England. tobacco and train and bus Passport photographs fare” before leaving the were perhaps the most surplus “as a gift for [the] valuable item carried. family who helped us last.” Typically, each aviator Each aircrew member had three or four small carried an aid box. These head shots to be used contained a chocolate or for creating new identity peanut bar, milk in a tube, papers. Hoverkamp was Benzedrine tablets to counter unlucky; he had four fatigue, halazone tablets photographs, but they were to purify water, matches, cut to the wrong size and adhesive tape, chewing gum, worthless. For the most a water bottle, compass, and part, the photographs were Horlicks tablets, a malted the crucial link enabling wheat candy thought to Resistance members to stave off hunger. Some create new identity cards of the American evaders and work permits so that wryly observed that the the airmen could move chewing gum was best for through occupied territory. taking away the taste of the Uniforms conferred Horlicks. some protection if caught. Benzedrine was popular. Masquerading as civilians “Very necessary,” reported put airmen at special risk. Capt. Douglas K. Hoverkamp “By donning civilian of Staten Island, N.Y. “Used clothing,” stated Air Force to keep awake and keep historians, airmen lost their walking for three days while on way Geneva Convention rights and ran the to Switzerland.” Despite this, it was risk of “being shot as spies if captured.” all too easy for aviator and supplies to become separated. Harrison lost his ROUTES HOME money purse and supply box on Day The men, women, and children who One of his evasion. Others lost them made contact with the downed fl iers during the bail out. Hincewicz threw were highly networked and organized. A special arm of British Intelligence, designated MI9, started work in late 1939 with the sole mission of feeding information to Resistance networks in occupied Europe. Returning downed airmen—and the intelligence they sometimes brought—was one of the main jobs of the Resistance movements. Transporting the airmen out of occupied Europe involved hundreds of miles of travel. Three main routes, or lines, shepherded the airmen out. USAF images The Comet Line started in Brussels Clockwise from top: A map shows the and moved airmen through Paris and three major lines of escape through into Spain where they exited through Western Europe. The Comet Line alone moved some 800 people to safety. A Gibraltar or Portugal. The name was placard warns of the consequences a translation of the French phrase “Le facing helpers who were betrayed. Réseau Comète,” or Comet Network. The Albert-Marie Edmond Guérisse, aka route was the brainchild of a 24-year- “Patrick O’Leary,” organized the Pat old Belgian woman named Andrée E. Line. Betrayed in 1943, he endured Gestapo torture and a concentration A. de Jongh. Her line moved some 800 camp without revealing his comrades. people, many of them airmen of several He survived the war. nationalities, to safety. 72 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 Dissard of Toulouse, who ran summer of 1944, partisan leader Draza the line from March 1943 until Mihailovich and his Chetnik army had the liberation of France. Several collected hundreds of airmen. The US times, small cutters sailed from Offi ce of Strategic Services—predecessor the coast of France to return to the CIA—eventually arranged a mass handfuls of airmen to England. airlift, with C-47s fl ying into rough-hewn For many, the goal was airstrips. A total of 512 aviators were Spain. The Comet Line favored rescued by the time Operation Halyard an arduous western Pyrénées ceased in December 1944. route, and for the evaders Some exited Nazi territory by crossing making their way home this into Switzerland. Hoverkamp landed in a way, success was a major pine tree in Belgium and walked along a victory. They climbed peaks deserted cart trail. Then, across the fi eld, to 15,000 feet on a journey he saw someone run and sit down under that lasted about a week. “The a tree. It was TSgt. Orvin V. Taylor, the weather changes as if someone radio operator from his crew. Soon the has hit a fast-forward button,” two aviators met an old man who hid reported a BBC correspondent them in a corn crib. Later he gave them who hiked the path in 2011 civilian clothes, a blanket, and dinner in a with a commemorative group. house before moving the pair to a lean-to “We experienced dank drizzle, in the woods. boiling heat, freezing mists, They then received assistance from snow underfoot, and then more Belgium’s “White Brigade,” another heat in quick succession.” Resistance group. Hoverkamp and Taylor Harrison arrived in Spain spent seven days there, wet with snow on the ground. Then their benefactors moved them USAF photo to a farmhouse where they Above: A poster reminds aircrews to found 1st Lt. Frank Paisano, bring their escape and evasion kits the bombardier from his with them on missions and what might crew, and other airmen from happen to them if they didn’t. Right: the 379th Bomb Group. Four With this fake passport supplied by the Resistance, US airman TSgt. Chester of them were next hidden Hincewicz became a Polish journalist. under a bridge, then jumped onto a railroad baggage car where another White The Pat Line was known for the Brigade Resistance man code name of its organizer. He was a guided them on. The train Belgian cavalry doctor named Albert- took them to Liège, where Marie Edmond Guérisse, alias Patrick Hoverkamp estimated Albert O’Leary. Guérisse was evacuated there were no less than 30 at Dunkirk then returned to special Americans. operations work as a British naval offi cer. For Hoverkamp the He took over the Marseille route after Image courtesy of the Dillsburg Banner moment of crisis came as its originator Ian Garrow was caught he boarded a bus to head by the Gestapo. The Pat Line’s “great on Aug. 28, 1943. His route, named the east. The “Germans asked for my [identity] strength came from the fact that the Bourgogne Line, moved across the central card and luggage. I had no luggage, [the people who formed its guiding core all Pyrénées. Harrison made it to Gibraltar German] spoke very bad French and had to knew, liked, and trusted each other. They on Sept. 13 and was back in the UK by have a woman interpret, so the guide told understood each other quickly, without Sept. 16, 1943. Eastman also escaped via [the German] I only spoke Flemish,” he long explanations; they were all well the Bourgogne Line. said in his MIS-X report. Another woman aware of the risks they ran, individually Not all downed airmen made a quick on the bus “started an argument, which and in common,” wrote the authors of return to Britain. TSgt. Dale G. Hulsey, completely distracted” the German and MI9: The British Secret Service That a radio operator-gunner, spent 319 days got Hoverkamp off the hook. Fostered Escape and Evasion. “Pat” with a band of partisans in German- By then, it was snowing hard, but himself fell into German hands, too, but occupied Yugoslavia after being shot down guides pointed out the mountain route to survived imprisonment at the Dachau during the famous B-24 raid on Ploesti, Switzerland. However, the trail ended and, concentration camp. Romania, on Aug. 1, 1943. Hulsey’s B-24, uncertain of the next step, a disagreement The Shelburne Line was an MI9 venture nicknamed The Witch, was part of the 98th fl ared. Two other evaders “thought they especially active in early 1944. In addition, Bomb Group, based in Benghazi, Libya. knew better and left us,” Hoverkamp numerous small lines and one-time He wasn’t alone. The raids on Ploesti stated in his escape and evasion report. operations also shepherded the airmen. in 1943 through 1944 saw hundreds Hoverkamp and his crew mate broke into Yeager came home via the Françoise of airmen bail out or crash-land in the a garage to rest. By now Hoverkamp had Line, named for Marie-Louise “Françoise” Serbian provinces of Yugoslavia. By the just two Benzedrine tablets left. He split AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 73 them in half and saw that each man forces, assistance from Resistance had some before they set off at 2 and so on. Evaders could share no a.m. Hours later they approached details, even with other fl ying units. an illuminated farmhouse that “Information about your escape turned out to be the Swiss frontier or your evasion from capture would post. “We were given food and be useful to the enemy and a danger [a] lot [of] chocolate,” recalled to your friends. It is therefore Hoverkamp. secret,” said the standard form they signed during the war. Today, ON THE MOVE thousands of the declassifi ed reports The bomber offensive remain on fi le with the National intensifi ed in 1944 as the planned Archives in Washington, D.C. date for the invasion of Normandy Aviators also commented approached. on how well their escape and That’s when Hincewicz bailed evasion lectures both Stateside out over occupied Europe. “I kept and in theater had prepared them. my walking shoes, my GI shoes, Harrison reported there was no tied to my parachute harness,” he point in hiding in fi elds during the told a Pennsylvania newspaper, daytime, because the Germans used the Dillsburg Banner, in a 2009 USAF photo slow-fl ying airplanes to search for Mademoiselle Sainson, a Resistance interview. Unsure whether he was still helper, took two Americans for a walk. downed aviators. “Do not hide in woods over Germany, Hincewicz did not open When they ran into Italian soldiers, at night because Germans use dogs,” the parachute until he was in cloud cover she asked them to pose for pictures Harrison also said. and near the ground. He was in Belgium. with the group. They did, assuming the Protecting the Resistance networks He landed near two women drawing water Americans were French. was paramount. Intense secrecy was at a well. “One of them pulled up a bucket traveling Polish journalist, according to necessary to preserve the escape routes of water from the well and started washing his forged passport. German troops were enabled by thousands of French, Belgian, the blood off me,” he said. The women suddenly on high alert. Hincewicz had Dutch, Spanish, Greek, and other men and gave him old clothes and gestured for been with one Belgian family for several women who guided the airmen through him to move away. Hincewicz found a weeks. Then he was moved every few Nazi-occupied Europe. wayside chapel overgrown with weeds and days by the Resistance. One of the last Even so, those civilians were often hid there. Hours later he heard noises. A stops was a stately manor house where caught. Comet Line organizer de Jongh teenager and three or four other children on the Resistance was hiding other downed was arrested in January 1943 and sent to bicycles had come to fetch him—bringing airmen. Hincewicz bunked in the stables Ravensbrück concentration camp. She a spare bicycle. with three young enlisted men. was liberated in April 1945. According to Far worse was the situation of 1st Lt. “One morning I was awakened by Britain’s Independent newpaper, “Of the Henry C. Woodrum, who bailed out over noise—a lot of shouting. I glanced out the Comet Line helpers who fell into German Paris on May 28, 1944. door and there was a German military unit hands, 23 were executed, while another Woodrum was fl ying his 35th mission as that was in the process of routing out the 133 died in concentration camps or as a pilot of a B-26 Marauder. His mission was Americans. The three kids looked at me result of their incarceration.” part of the last crucial step before D-Day: and I told them to follow. Those kids stayed Yet their success was impressive. More destroying Seine River bridges to prevent with me and then the shooting started.” than 3,000 US and UK airmen were the Germans from easily reinforcing the The Germans were part of a retreating returned from occupied Europe alone. Normandy beachhead areas. Confi dent of unit. Hincewicz and the three men managed Although aircrew that had been helped by their precision bombing, the USAAF held to escape and rejoin the underground the Resistance were usually taken off fl ying off on these last attacks for the days leading Resistance. Hincewicz fi nally made his status—if they were shot down again and up to the invasion in order to deprive the way to British lines and then onward to captured, the Germans could exploit their Germans of time to rebuild. However, American lines. Soon he was in newly knowledge of the escape network—some, executing the attacks demanded low-level liberated Paris. like Yeager, went on to fi ght again. bomb runs for the accuracy required to Hincewicz rejoined the Air Force in drop the bridges. Woodrum’s B-26 was DEBRIEFS 1948, serving on B-29s and then in hit by anti-aircraft fi re. Returning aviators were debriefed intelligence until retiring in 1970. Decades Woodrum parachuted onto the roof by an attaché who met them. Evaders later, he summed up the experience in a of a house in Paris. German soldiers often brought back fi rsthand sightings of letter to Richard Hansen, a gunner on the began a door-to-door search for him, but Germans, their vehicles, and installations. same B-24. he posed as a house painter and eluded In Britain, returning aircrew were under “The next six months were stressful, them. Fortunately, he was then sheltered orders to report to locations such as the but I learned a lot, which helped me in my by the Resistance. Woodrum avoided US Special Reception Center, then at 63 personal and professional life,” Hincewicz capture until the Allies liberated Paris on Brook Street in downtown London. They wrote. “I still owe a lot to the people in Aug. 25, 1944. fi lled out lengthy forms describing how the underground, which I was never able Meanwhile, conditions for the they used their aid boxes, reports on enemy to repay.” ✪ evaders changed as Resistance members anticipated the June 6, 1944, invasion. Rebecca Grant is president of IRIS Independent Research. Her most recent article Hincewicz became Pawel Hinewie, for Air Force Magazine was "The Reagan Buildup" in the September issue. 74 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 INSPIRE. You’ve dedicated your life to fighting for freedom and an Air Force that’s second to none.

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AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2104 75 AFA National Report [email protected]

By Frances McKenney, Assistant Managing Editor

Did You Serve in the Korean War? Genesee Valley Chapter member Betty Perkins-Carpenter might have a photo of you. A few years ago, a veterans organization in upstate New York received some 150 photos taken by DOD photogra- phers during the Korean War. The photos were turned over to Perkins-Carpenter, who served as an Air Force sergeant in the war and understood their historical significance. She wanted to identify the service members in the photos and Alaris Screen grab courtesy of Kodak give them copies of the images, so she appeared on WUHF, a Fox television station in Rochester, and showed some of them to viewers. Rochester city employee Tiana Stephens saw the TV segment and thought she recognized her late grandfather, Crawford Flynn, in one of the 8-by-10 black and white photos. She eventually visited Perkins-Carpenter and on seeing the original image knew right away that it was indeed her grandfather, shown doling out soft drinks to troops. By the caption in back of the photo, she learned that it had been Genesee Valley Chapter member Betty Perkins-Carpenter taken in August 1950, making her grandfather only 16 years (left) and Tiana Stephens read the caption for a Korean War- old at the time. Stephens told Perkins-Carpenter that the era photo of Stephens’ grandfather. Perkins-Carpenter wants to identify people in 158 Korean War photos that have been images needed to be posted on the web if she wanted to posted on the web. identify others in them. Kodak Alaris, a document imaging company in Rochester, on a Thursday evening. A charity golf tournament took place took on the task of reproducing the photos with a Picture the next afternoon, to raise money for AFA scholarships. That Saver Scanning System. It scanned—and enhanced—the Friday evening, conventioneers gathered at a country club images, taking about a second for each one. It also captured for a tri-tip beef sirloin dinner. the caption a ditto machine had printed on the back of some During Saturday’s business sessions, conventioneers photos. elected Goddard Chapter President Juan E. Cruz as Cali - The Democrat and Chronicle, a Gannett-owned Rochester fornia State President; Martin W. Ledwitz of the Gen. B. A. newspaper, placed all the photos on their website, entitling Schriever Los Angeles Chapter as VP; Rhoda E. Weiss the project “Snapshots From the Korean War.” The website of the General Doolittle Los Angeles Area Chapter, as shows the captions as well. secretary; and Nancy J. Driscoll of the Bob Hope Chapter The photos depict action among all services, but at least and Leigh Kelly of the William J. “Pete” Knight Chapter 20 of them—not counting bird’s eye views—have a clear as co-treasurers. Air Force tie. Col. Max Lantz, commander of the 381st Training Group Identifying the people in the wartime photos “can bring at Vandenberg, was guest speaker for the AFA Awards families together to learn things they never discussed be- Luncheon that day. fore,” Perkins-Carpenter told the TV show hosts in a return CMSgt. Christopher L. Barnby, command chief for the appearance this past August. “We are all in our 80s,so time AFRC 403rd Wing at Keesler AFB, Miss., addressed the is of essence.” convention’s culmination Saturday night Military Awards See the photos at: http://koreanwar.democratandchronicle. Banquet. The chief is the brother of Lee Barnby, the state’s com/. immediate past president. At the banquet, more than two dozen awards went Convention in the Golden State to Total Force members, plus cadets and teachers of The Robert H. Goddard Chapter in California received the year. Chapter of the Year honors at the California State Conven - tion, centered around Vandenberg Air Force Base. Wounded Airman Program Outreach in South Carolina Aside from hosting the very convention where it collected The Swamp Fox Chapter’s July meeting in Sumter, S.C., the honor, the chapter’s achievements include producing AFA featured Paula Roy, the Air Force Association Airmen and state leaders this year: TSgt. Timothy J. Tichawa who served Family Programs director, who spoke about AFA’s Wounded as aerospace education VP and MSgt. Jill Higgins who has Airman Program. been state secretary. It also carried out successful chapter “An Air Force wounded airman is any seriously or very activities, such as cohosting an awards reception where seriously wounded, ill, or injured airman identified on a some 100 extra guests showed up (See “Party Crashers,” casualty report or recommended by the medical com- in “AFA National Report,” June, p. 72.). munity as having complex medical conditions,” Roy told The Golden State’s AFA convention brought together leaders the audience. from 13 chapters. Events kicked off with a casual icebreaker Continued on p. 78

76 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 How to Involve the Chapter Newcomers Many hands make light work, as the saying goes. In organizing and carrying out the California State Convention, the Robert H. Goddard Chapter made sure some of the help came from its ranks of newcomers. Chapter President Juan E. Cruz listed how they were involved: n Mentored as future leaders. In the photo at right, chapter member TSgt. Timothy J. Tichawa (at left) chats with SSgt. Timothy Lombardi before the Military Awards Banquet. Tichawa helped new member Lombardi write the script for the evening. Cruz said they hope to “grow” Lombardi into a leadership position. n Tapped as talent. Chapter VP Norman A. Marous found A1C Leo Lanier, shown below left, through the

local Air Force Sergeants Association group. Lanier Photos by Juan E. Cruz played the keyboard for both the AFA Awards Luncheon, as well as the Military Awards Banquet. That’s six hours of performing, Cruz pointed out. He secured an AFA membership for Lanier in September. n Matched to the job. For the convention’s guest relations task, “we needed someone who gets along easily with people, is hard working, and is always looking for a challenge,” stated Cruz. MSgt. Craig Rispoli fit the bill. He went to work, ironing out base access and billeting for the convention-goers. At far right, new member Rispoli listens to longtime member Martin W. Ledwitz, the state’s Area 3 president. Involving new and potential members in this way can pay off: Tichawa didn’t even belong to AFA when his commander asked him to help plan a state convention a few years ago. Tichawa went on to become an AFA Emerging Leader in 2013.

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AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 77 AFA National Report

In Colorado, a Wounded Airman athlete pours on the barbecue sauce, while Sijan Chapter members serve the

side dishes. Left to Z. Przybyla Photo by P. right: Chapter VP Linda Aldrich, Lynn Dibben, and Kyle Shiller. Be- low: On the bleachers and on the gym ﬂ oor, athletes and Wounded Airman Program staff members consider their next moves in training sessions.

In its coverage of Roy’s address AFA Airman and Family Programs Di- to the chapter, the 20th Fighter Wing rector Paula Roy checks her notes as public affairs offi ce at Shaw AFB, S.C., she speaks to the Swamp Fox Chapter reported that USAF has more than 3,300 in South Carolina. wounded airmen. Established in 2011, the AFA program Center and the Air Force Academy in receives requests to fi ll in gaps other Colorado Springs, Colo. Roy told the sources can’t cover, helping wounded AFA chapter that the Wounded Airman USAF members by providing adapted Program estimates donating $20,000 to equipment, lifestyle and accessibil- the sports event, this year, to be used ity items, fi nancial aid, and caregiver for team and family support. support. One focus of the Wounded Air- Airmen Athletes Prep in Colorado man Program is the Warrior Games. Wounded Airman Program competi- This week-long sports competition tors descended on Colorado Springs in for wounded military personnel was August to train for this fall’s competi- scheduled to take place Sept. 28 to tions, and the Lance P. Sijan Chapter Oct. 4 at the US Olympic Training helped host the athletes.

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7878 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 In Vermont, Green Mountain Chapter President Ray Tanguay, ANG Brig. Gen. Joel Clark, wife Chris Clark, Chapter VP Dick Lorenz, and Secretary John Roach (left to right) were among the half-dozen chapter members attending the promotion ceremony for the new general in July. Clark is a former USAF photo by SrA. Kentavist P. Brackin USAF photo by SrA. Kentavist P. chapter president and was VP until recently.

Representing the Chuck Yeager Chapter in West Virginia, Paul Hamrick (far right) presented a Civil Air Patrol Outstanding Squadron Cadet of the Year award to Jonah Lopez. At left is Daphne Nelson displays her Mike Gerald Wedemeyer, commander and Gail Donley Spouse Scholarship. of Lopez’s CAP unit, the Clarks- The wife of a 1st Special Operations burg Composite Squadron. Security Forces Squadron member, Nelson is studying nursing. Formerly called the AFA Spouse Scholarship, the $2,500 award was renamed a year ago for the 22nd Air Force Secretary and his wife. Twelve scholarships were awarded in July. Hurlburt Chap- ter President Fred Gross made this compilation of images shows the stu- the Year, but it focused specifically on presentation at Hurlburt Field, Fla. dents at physical training, undergoing his chapter aerospace education work. inspection, and during classroom in- The newspaper said Friedauer most The airmen first attended a reception struction. Another video shows them enjoys AFA’s outreach to teachers, host- and dinner at the Antler’s Hotel, where heading to their dorm—flight after flight ing workshops, and arranging tours of chapter leaders gathered to welcome of cadets from 19 high schools, marching Hurlburt Field. them, said Chapter VP Linda S. Aldrich. in formation, paced by cadence calls “They take that back to the classroom, She reported that John Register was and jody songs. Another video shows and they are just so excited,” he told the evening’s motivational speaker. the youngsters practicing for their the reporter. J Register had been a member of the graduation ceremony’s pass-in-review. Army’s World Class Athlete Program At the Saturday graduation,cadet Ja- Have AFA Chapter News? as a hurdler and long jumper until a cob Newman from Hixson High School Email “AFA National Report” at: natrep@ training injury led to amputation of in Tennessee took home the overall afa.org. Email digital images at highest his left leg. He went on to become a Outstanding Cadet trophy. resolution, as separate jpg attachments, not Paralympic sprinter and silver medalist MCOLS got its start in 2001, orga- embedded in other documents. in the long jump. nized by David F. Slaughter, then the The Sijan Chapter later hosted a chapter’s aerospace education VP and [email protected] lunch at the academy during a training now a member of the Gen. Bruce K. break for the athletes. Aldrich said the Holloway Chapter (Tenn). Some 40 Reunions chance to mingle with the wounded cadets attended that inaugural session. airmen was “a wonderful opportunity.” Retired Col. Randall Cantrell, then of USAF Military Training Instructor North Carolina’s Tarheel Chapter, and Assn. Oct. 20-24 at Lackland AFB, TX. West Virginia’s Leadership School retired Lt. Col. Steven H. Boyd, a Ro- Contact: John Pavey (828-226-2409) Chuck Yeager Chapter and other anoake Chapter (Va.) member, have ([email protected]). AFA leaders always come away im- served in turn as MCOLS commandants. 2nd RSM (USAF Security Svc). March pressed after watching the graduation This year retired Col. Catherine Bacon 2015 in Houston and Caribbean Cruise ceremonies for the annual Mountaineer of the Donald W. Steele Sr. Memorial with precruise ground tour. Contact: Cadet Officer Leadership School, held Chapter (Va.) led the school. Richard Campbell (281-245-4927) at Concord University in Athens, W.Va. ([email protected]). And it’s not just because the chapter The Difference: Friedauer in Florida provides so many trophies and plaques In August, the Northwest Florida Daily Super Sabre Society. April 9-12, 2015, for the outstanding AFJROTC cadets. News highlighted Hurlburt Chapter’s at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dayton, OH. Search “MCOLS 2014” on YouTube Community Partner director as part of Contact: Bob Hopkins (540-460-4718) to see why the students make even its series on “people who make a dif- ([email protected]). casual observers proud. A trio of videos ference in their communities.” on that website document how more The short profile on E. Max Friedauer Email reunion notices four months ahead than 250 AFJROTC cadets from six included his background as a retired of time to [email protected], or mail notices states, including South Dakota, worked lieutenant colonel and recent recogni- to “Reunions,” Air Force Magazine, 1501 on leadership skills during a week of tion as AFA Florida State Member of Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. We training this past June. One YouTube the Year and also Chapter Member of reserve the right to condense notices.

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 79 Ju 52

The German Luftwaffe Ju 52 was one of World War more control effectiveness if an engine were shut II’s most prominent combat aircraft. It served with down. It combined flaps and ailerons to create Axis military forces on every major front and in a virtual “second wing” along the trailing edge. many different roles, flying mostly as a transport Over the years, it was outfitted with wheel, ski, but also, briefly, as a medium bomber. Before and pontoon landing gear. and after the war, this Junkers airplane also was in wide commercial use, flown by many airlines. The Ju 52 was in combat before the September The Ju 52 is indelibly associated with Adolf Hitler. 1939 outbreak of World War II. In the early and He used one for transport in his 1932 campaign mid-1930s, it flew in two wars in Latin America, and, after election as German Chancellor, as his ferried Francoist troops from North Africa to personal aircraft. Spain, and participated in the notorious bombing of Guernica. In World War II, Ju 52s participated The Ju 52 design sprang from the Junkers J.1 of in the invasion of Poland, bombed Warsaw, and 1915. It had a rugged, easy-to-maintain-and-repair dropped parachute troops into Denmark, Norway, corrugated aluminum structure and one engine. The Holland, and Crete. It was highly vulnerable to Allied single-engine type was underpowered, however, fighters and flak, however, and suffered horrendous and lasted for seven models. Junkers switched to losses over North Africa, the Mediterranean, and a three-engine design. In the trimotor configura- Soviet Union. tion, the two wing engines were angled to provide —Walter J. Boyne

This aircraft: German Luftwaffe Ju 52/3M—Serial #1Z+LL—as it looked in spring 1941 when assigned to Unit 3./KGzbV 1 and operated from several Balkan countries.

In Brief Designed by Junkers e built by Junkers in Germany and by others in Spain, France e first flight Oct. 13, 1930 (single engine) and March 7, 1932 (three engines) e number built 4,845 e crew of two or three (one to two pilots, plus radio operator). Specific to Ju 52/3M: three BMW nine-cylinder radial engines e armament up to five machine guns e load 1,000 lbs of bombs or 17 passengers e max speed 178 mph e cruise speed 130 mph e max range 683 mi e weight (loaded) 24,500 lb e span 95 ft 11 in length 62 ft height 18 ft.

Photo via Deutsches Bundesarchiv e e Famous Fliers Notables: Hans Bauer, Carl August Gablenz, Ulrich Grauert, Robert Ritter von Greim, Albert Kesselring, Erhard Milch, Erwin Rommel, Ernst Udet, Kurt Student. Dictators: Francisco Franco, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.

Interesting Facts Logged 13,000 hours for Condor Legion in Spanish Civil War e transported 10,000 Moorish troops from Morocco to fight for Franco in Spain e nicknamed “Iron Annie” and “Auntie Ju” by Germans and “Turkey” by Spanish e used in 1932 in support of Colombia in war with Peru e flown in Bolivia’s Gran Chaco War, 1932-35 e deployed by Lufthansa on Berlin-Rome and Berlin-London routes e used by a total of 29 airlines for commercial flights e fitted with wide variety of cargo doors suited to specific missions e flew with French forces in Vietnam 1949-50 e carried mail in China e hauled lumber in remote A Luftwaffe Ju 52 being serviced in Crete in 1943. parts of Canada.

80 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014