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Show Aug. 12, 1993 Hilltop Times 7 (6) Having a blast at Eagle Range I by Frances Kosakowsky Times Hilltop staff tower at Eagle Range, four women Atop a scan hundreds of square miles of desert landscape. 65-fo- ot They are a unique team. They are the only range control unit in the Air Force. Jane See, Dorothy Jo Ellis, Judy Weaver and Penny Rydalch agree on a number of things: They have the best jobs in the world, they love working at the range, and no two days or two flights are ever the same. Since all of them have been on the job for more than seven years, it is surprising to hear such unanimity. These people love their jobs. veteran at Eagle Range, said, Weaver, a 1 2 "I'm having a ball!" Chuckling, she said, "I tell people I get bombed and stay high all day," meaning, of course, that her job is to help pilots practice their bombing skills and she's sitting in a high tower while e, all-civili- an Vi-ye- ar the missions take rr 4 j -.- - xSi r Sfci. ) "Vt. - West desert landmarks place. All the women love the desert environment. "The scenery is beautiful," said Ellis. "The sunrises and sunsets are wonderful. When the desert is blooming it's lovely, and when it's dry it's still lovely. Different, but lovely." However, since their jobs are not to admire the scenery, but to work with pilots using the range to practice munitions and bombing accuracy, their nature appreciation comes in short snatches. The reason for the range's existence is to allow pilots to practice flying and using armaments they are exfrom bombs to mispected to use in warfighting siles to firing their guns onstrafing runs. To maintain fighter qualification, this must be done at regular intervals. All of the fighter pilots at Hill practice at Eagle Range, where there is extensive capability to support training requirements. To keep track of a pilot's performance it takes all five team members working together: one on the spotting scope watching the points of contact on the range and calling out the numbers; one plotting the points of contact using coordinates supplied by the main tower and another tower a half mile away; another person records the data; and whoever is performing the range control officer duties is watching the plane and talking to the pilot. The whole process is carefully choreographed, and all participants must understand every function being performed. Outside the tower there are seven more people involved in the spotting and scoring. That takes teamwork.' "We all started out basically as a spotterplotter recorder. Being an RCO takes years of experience to acquire. It's not something you can learn from a book," Weaver said. "That's why we say every day is a challenge," . ce hung on posts mark the strafing range for pilots. (Left) View from the air shows tower complex located in center of the range. The strafing range is shown at the top (Top) Tires of the photo. (Left) Tower crew (left to right) Jane See, Dorothy Jo Ellis, Penny Rydalch and r , Judy Weaver look south at the target range. (Bottom) An example of a very successful --- --- mission. to it," See said. "So we did." Safety is the primary concern of everyone at the range. "Each bombing and strafing event has certain safety parameters. If a pilot does not comply with those requirements, he is fouled. Two fouls during any one mission means that the pilot is sent home for safety reasons," said Duane Dickman, range operations officer. "These practice sessions have to be run under strict control for everyone's sake," he said. There have been accidents in the past at the range, but everything possible is done to minimize the pos- sibility of one happening. One of the team's major safety concerns is night exercises. "One of the most frightening aspects of the job is night exercises," Weaver said. "They're doing lots of missions at night with the LANTIRN e navigation targeting infrared for night) g because and they're pretty system you can't see the mountains and your perspective is a lot different than during daylight hours." "Like right now (in daylight), you can see the Ellis said. mountains and you can see how high off the ground The team tracks from one to a maximum of four they are, but at night you lose all that," said Ellis. aircraft per half-hou- r segment and averages 16 seg- "And spotting the aircraft is completely different. ments a day, five days a week. It's hard to tell the difference between an aircraft's "We're more flexible than the electronically monstrobe light and a twinkling star." itored ranges because they have to be preproDickman said that until last year the job of range grammed," said See. "If there's a change in the control officer had belonged strictly to pilots who weather or wind, the pilots can't deviate from what's did the job on a rotational basis. The air munitions been programmed." scorer's job was to assist the pilot. "It took six years, but last year I finally got apCommenting on the simplicity of the equipment too in the tower, See said, "If things get complicatproval to qualify my experienced air munitions scorers for the range control officer jobs," Dickman ed, you lose flexibility." r train"We've been complimented many times because said. The women had to agree to a of our willingness to do what the customer wants ing program and a temporary downgrade to a GS--5 until they have completed the required training in in a matter of minutes," Weaver said. The women said they had personally measured the 1994, at which time they will be "The reason I wanted to do this is because the bomb impact to check their spotting accuracy. "Our one meter than rate is less off," wings had to send a pilot TDY out here and error fighter accuracy Weaver said. "That exceeds the accuracy of the then the tower personnel had to train him," Dickman said. "Now the fighter wings are happy because electronically monitored ranges." to "They handed us a survey kit and told us go it saves them TDY money and they can keep the pi(low-altitud- nerve-wrackin- two-yea- GS-301-9- s. ... 4Z m t lot on base for other things. It's working real well." The four RCOs work shifts, five days a week. Dickman said the compressed work schedule works well for the range since everyone has to drive at least an hour and a half to get to work from their homes in Grantsville and Tooele. The range crew's shifts are contingent upon the kind of flying scheduled for that day. If night flying is scheduled, their shifts are rearranged so they arrive in the early afternoon and work until 10 or 11 p.m. "The RCOs have the most critical jobs on the range," Dickman said. "Their jobs are critical for the safety of the pilot and the people on the ground. "They control the aircraft. They tell a pilot when he can drop a bomb and when he cannot. They control him in the pattern and they make sure there are no ground parties in the area," he said. "They also coordinate with Clover Control Squadron radar at Hill to verify that the air space is clear. "The other ranges don't have the scoring capability we have," Dickman said. "Within five seconds from the time the pilot drops a bomb, he knows his score." Only inert ordnance is used at Eagle Range. Aug. 7 marked Eagle Range's 20th anniversary. It is located at the Utah Test and Training Range, which consists of 1.8 million acres of restricted land area and almost 13,000 square nautical miles of air space west of the Great Salt Lake. UTTR is managed by the 501st Range Squadron. 10-ho- |