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Show O Hilltop Times March 25. 2004 Hill AFB weather outlook 5-d- ay www.airfleld-op- s. hlll.af.miloswweather P 'J "' If" Mostly sunny Airman 1st Class Desery Jenkins, above, prepares to guard the perimeter wire at Kirkuk AB. Left, Kirkuk residents gather around a 1 patrolling Humvee. Airmen routinely patrol outside the perimeter wire of their air base. 1 Security forces return from protecting Kirkuk by Gary Boyle 67 High 38 Low Hilltop Times staff Mostly cloudy with chance of PM rain showers Far from home, surrounded by fences and barbed wire, Hill's 75th Security Forces are protecting American service mem- bers and military resources while trying to bring stability to a place that has known only a dictator's rule for more than 30 years. Donning desert DCUs, 75th SFS airmen deployed as members of the 506th Expeditionary SFS. Leaving Utah in November for the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, about 150 miles north of Baghdad, Hill's airmen provide American air base security. "I liked Kirkuk, it was beautiful there," said Senior Airman James Vanliew, who will return to his 75th SFS duties at the end of this month. "It snowed while we were there and after- J; :J 55 High 34 Low Mostly cloudy with isolated rain showers v wards everything started to grow and the grass was turning green." Many Iraqis are struggling in the turmoil of Saddam Hussein's fall. After coalition forces liberated the nation from its despotic rule there was dancing in the streets as the image of the deposed Iraqi president was defaced across the nation. More than a year later, Mr. Hussein's henchmen and foreign 58 High 35 Low Partly cloudy terrorists have spread fear through random acts of mass murder in an effort to keep Iraq unstable. Iraq is not a nation of one people, instead groups of Turks, Kurds and Arabs live in communities where flags hang from homes identifying the inhabitants' background ethnicity. Strife was visum' beneath the surface but the fallen regime mixed its racial groups with an iron fist. There was a lot of racial strife. There are large oil deposits 60 High 37 Low worth billions and each group wants to control those," said Senior Airman Chad Wheat, who returned to Utah in early March. "Therewasafirefight between Kurdish and Turkish police units at the town's train station. All we could do was wait it out and go pick up the pieces when it was over." Gunfire is sometimes the communication method of choice. When President Hussein was Partly cloudy Test focuses on hiring process 1 sonnel thus eliminating rework of a requisition." AFPC anticipates the test will further improve the civilian fill upfront approval process by going from an average flow time of 41 days to three days. If approved, the PRO concept will be used Air Force-wid- e starting Oct. 1. Other bases involved in the test are Tinker AFB, Okla. (depot maintenance); Scott Davis-Month- tenance and Regeneration Center. . anything because we'd be back 500 meters from the wire. One night there was activity on the wire It didn't v v ; work ... and somebody was trying to find a weak spot. We had four machine guns on the area and they lost nothing got through Staff Sgt. Warren Taylor that wall of lead. The "' next day we didn't find a thing," said '. Airman Wheat. "Other times we'd get fired at with machine guns, rockets or rocket Where there once were tents, there are now dormitories for airmen as living conditions at Kirkuk AB continue to improve. , pro- pelled grenades and the Army would go out and look for whoever did it. There were times we could see who was doing it but they'd be just out of range. Other times they'd fire a rocket from pretty close. There are no stand-ufights, they just shoot and run." Explosives are buried along the countryside waiting for a careless kick or curious touch to trigger detonation. Town patrols can safely pass along roads that may explode later from a concealed detonation p - - v device. "A guy put a bomb in a cow and tried to walk it through the 0 v gate. It didn't work but that shows the imagination some of these people have,"said Staff Sgt Warren Taylor, who helped locate 2,500 pieces of d ordnance. They hide that stuff everywhere mud puddles, bricks in the walls, dead animals. Just hope it doesn't blow us up there's no real way to stop it." Adjusting to constant danger is a mindset the airmen had to achieve quickly. "When you get shot at or hear a mortar coming in, or a rocket land nearby, you feel a little threatened, kind of antsy. You have to put yourself in the mindset that if ifs your time, it's your time, or you will worry yourself to death," said Airman ' J. unex-plode- mortars, bullets, rocket fire they stood their ground," said Sergeant Taylor. A departing unit helped Hill's security forces get used to the area, and they returned the favor for the next group. On one occasion, Sergeant Taylor worked in cooperation with a newly arrived Army Ranger unit on patrol. Kirkuk's citizens live in the cradle of civilization but years of political corruption, environmental ignorance and a suspicion of technology as western corruption, have left them liv- Not all attacks were random. Kirkuk AB is approximately the same size as Hill AFB with large areas concealed in darkness at night Air Force secu v A guy put a bomb in a cow and tried to walk it through the gate. automatic weapons, uncon- away." an routinely share that responsibility in deployed positions with the Army. "It's hard to see Wheat cerned with gravity's effect on the deadly projectiles. "I got shot at while I was at the gate and an Iraqi policeman thought he was being shot at so he went into this housing area and shot off five pistol rounds at the buildings," said Airman Vanliew. "There are gunshots everyday, usually not at us but in the distance far I a rity forces are solely responsible for security of the forward base, a unique circumstance since they captured, his countrymen spilled into the streets firing live tracer ammunition into the sky from Additional benefits are less touch time, fewer handoffs and the elimination of rework. AFB, 111.; Minot AFB, N.D.; Randolph AFB, Texas; Eglin AFB, Fla., (depot maintenance); and AFB, Ariz., Aerospace Main- V: ii 73 High 50 Low from page ii :J lv Courtesy photos Airman Wayne Vouvalis, above left, takes time to show Robin Williams his Iraqi home. Mr. Williams and other celebrities went to Kirkuk AB to entertain American service members. Left, Senior Airman Chad Wheat keeps it high and tight as he receives an official Kirkuk cut, all off the side and little left on top. "I never saw an airman run. No matter what came at them ing whhoutaviable infrastructure I Mi while controlling a large amount of one of the world's econom- ically wealthy resources. There are women wearing burkas and women wearing jeans and as ages and cultures begin to openly mix. The airmen described Kirkuk as a rough part of a large city in the states, but that there was little to compare between where they came from and where they were. Kirkuk AB itself improved during their stay, going from a tent city to a trailer park providing the campground conveniences of home to what most back home think of as an arid desert Nature provided a lesson in preconceptions when rain turned the ground to bottomless mud capable of halting a Humvee. t "I think we did the right thing by going over there. Our commander in chief made the right can," said Airman Wheat They don't have to hate each other, or run around killing each other they can karn to live together. But if they support terrorism, well be back." Td like to go back in 10 years," Airman Vanliew said, "just to see how things turned out" |