Air Force One-Star to Lead Pakistan Border Probe
November 29th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Markeshia Ricks
Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark of Air Force Special Operations Command has been tapped to get to the bottom of a NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Nov. 26.
Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, appointed the rated command pilot as the investigating officer who will lead the probe and deliver a report by Dec. 23, according to the Pentagon.
Clark has been in the Air Force for about 25 years and previously served as the commander for the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon Air Force Base, according to his service biography. He is currently serving at AFSOC headquarters at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
Clark will be responsible for determining which U.S., NATO International Security Assistance Forces, Afghan and Pakistan units were involved; which units did or did not cross the border and under what conditions and authorities; what coordination was conducted, what battle damage occurred and the cause of deaths and injuries; and recommendations for improving near-border operations, according to the Pentagon.
Tags: afghanistan, AFSOC, Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark, Gen. James N. Mattis, ISAF, nato, Pakistan, U.S. Central Command
Top honor for combat controller?
September 27th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Columbist Robert F. Dorr wrote last week about Staff Sgt. Robert Gutierrez, the combat controller who stared down death to call in airstrikes and save his Special Forces A-team.
Dorr, who knows a thing or two about the Air Force, was unequivocal in his writing: “His heroism was unrelenting; his dedication to his service and his country, indisputable.
For his actions, Gutierrez is nominated for an Air Force Cross, the service’s second highest valor award. He should, however, receive the Medal of Honor.
Only the nation’s highest distinction is appropriate for the combat controller, who lost half his blood from a bullet wound yet never stopped fighting, calling in one airstrike after another.”
Part of Dorr’s column (no link available, but a similar column is here) is a plea for more “balance” among the services in the awarding of the Medal of Honor.
We want to hear from you: Do you think the Air Force is being short-changed? Should Gutierrez receive the Medal of Honor? Feel free to add your comments below.
Tags: afghanistan, AFSOC, air force, combat controller, medal of honor
Scenes from a Kabul firefight
September 13th, 2011 | Afghanistan Politics | Posted by David Larter
NATO uploaded footage of today’s firefight outside the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was the second major attack this week. On Sunday, insurgents set off a truck bomb that injured nearly 80 U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan.
See video of today’s attack below:
Tags: afghanistan, American embassy, firefight, Kabul
Royal watchers rejoice, Harry is coming to America
August 25th, 2011 | Afghanistan Air Force Airframes | Posted by David Larter
Capt. Henry Charles Albert David Windsor, better known as Great Britain’s Prince Harry, may be coming to an Air Force Base near you. You don’t have to be teenage girl to get excited about this heartthrob — although, ladies, he is single — because he’s not just another pretty face. He’s among world’s the most famous veterans of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. And he’s heading back.
The Telegraph reported earlier this summer that the prince, a captain in the British Army Air Corps, is heading back to the ‘Stan as an Apache attack helicopter pilot — no easy job. But not, the AP reports today, before he comes to the U.S. for training.
[A spokeswoman for Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.] confirmed that the prince is taking part in the Apache Conversion to Role course in the United Kingdom. That course continues in Exercise Crimson Eagle in Arizona and California.
Exercise Crimson Eagle has been held previously at the Barry M. Goldwater U.S. Air Force Range in southwestern Arizona.
If you need to be reminded, the Apache is a total badass of a helicopter. It often acts in a direct support role for troops in contact downrange. See this classic video of insurgents placing IEDs for proof:
Tags: afghanistan, Apache, British Army Air Corps, ISAF, Prince Harry
The high price of a good time
June 30th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Next time you’re sitting at the DFAC in Balad, sipping a Rip It, scarfing a cheeseburger served by a Sri Lankan, relaxing in the air conditioning and avoiding walking into the blast furnace that is the Iraqi climate, just keep this in mind: You’re the reason there are no more Space Shuttle flights.
Well, maybe.
The former chief logistician in Iraq told National Public Radio that the military spends more than $20 billion annually on air conditioning for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. That cost, the network notes, is larger than NASA’s budget.
Of course, cool air alone doesn’t really cost $20 billion. From the story:
“When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we’re talking over $20 billion,” Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. He’s a retired brigadier general who served as chief logistician for Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq. He’s now in the private sector, selling technologies branded as energy-efficient to the Defense Department.
Now it’s important to note that wrapped up in Anderson’s $20 billion figure are all kind of other expenditures – for instance, the cost of building and maintaining roads in Afghanistan, securing those roads, managing the security operations for those roads. That all costs a lot of money and is part of the overall war effort in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon shot down those calculations. But the overall point of the story — that it makes sense for the military to go greener — is pretty dang interesting.
Tags: afghanistan, energy, iraq
$1 trillion and counting
June 22nd, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Everywhere senior military officials speak, one topic tends to keep coming up again and again: money.
Everyone expects the Defense Department’s budget to shrink in the coming years. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already unveiled a plan to slow the rate of growth in the Pentagon budget. Lawmakers in Washington argue over how to best cut the deficit and reduce the debt.
For the Air Force, this will almost certainly mean doing more with less. Fewer aircraft. Less people. Older equipment.
With that in mind, Bloomberg had a good reminder of where a lot of the money has been going the past decade. The news service reported yesterday that defense spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as money to defend the U.S. homeland, has exceeded $1 trillion.
For fun, here’s a list of Air Force-related (and other fun stuff) gear that $1 trillion could purchase, all at their official costs:
■ 4,950 C-17s
■ 4.5 million Joint Direct Attack Munitions
■ 20,000 launches of a Minotaur IV
■ A force of 10,982,400 active-duty airmen for one year
■ 18,993,352 years at Harvard
■ 75,757,575 Ford Fiestas
■ 3.03 trillion packages of Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup
■ 152,207 years in the royal suite at the Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai
Tags: afghanistan, air force, dod, iraq, military
Delaware to Bagram, via the North Pole
June 13th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Think of it as the scenic route to Afghanistan – and one that can save you a few days at home.
A C-5M flying from the Delaware to Bagram Air Base flew nonstop in a route that took the Super Galaxy over the U.S., Canada, the Arctic, Russia and Kyrgystan – the first time in Air Force history such a route has been used, according to the service.
(This is the part where usually someone would make a joke about a C-5A breaking down halfway through the mission, stranding its crew somewhere near the North Pole.)
The mission was a proof-of-concept flight that helps Air Force brass examine new ways to deliver crucial supplies to Afghanistan. The flight left Dover Air Force Base on June 5 and landed in Bagram more than 15 hours later. A KC-135R from the New Hampshire Air National Guard refueled the Super Galaxy over northern Canada.
The flight represents “just the beginning of understanding new ways to strengthen the northern corridor,” according to an Air Force release. Future flights could take off from the western U.S. and might not require an aerial refueling.
And the route could mean quicker flights for deploying troops, meaning fewer stops – and more days at home with your loved ones.
The mission took months of diplomatic and operational planning. It required coordination between the Air Force, State Department, U.S. Transportation Command, regional combatant commands, Air Mobility Command, the Tanker Airlift Control Center and other units.
“This partnership was especially important in coordinating transit agreements with Russia and Kazakhstan,” said Maj. John Major Rozsnyai, a planner at U.S. Transportation Command, “While civilian airlines have been using the airspace, this was the first time an AMC plane took this direct delivery route.”
Tags: afghanistan, air force, air mobility command, arctic, bagram, c-5, c-5m, delaware, dover, russia