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Show -419th Fightef WingSupplement to the Hilltop Times Hill AFB, Utah 84056-5410 Volume 20 Number 2, February 17, 2005 Air Force: Fleet Experiencing Pains of Age by Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service Members of the 419th Fighter Wing prepare to conduct another F-16 training mission from Naval Air Station Key West, Fla. The stateside deployment Is always popular among Utah's reservists for Its temperate climate and wide variety of tourist attractions. (U.S. Air Force photos by Master Sgt. James Byrd) Footprints in the sand ting and environment, that helps them to learn what they need to do. It kind of breaks you into that kind of AEF mode," said Chief Robbins. Chief Robbins said that taking people out of their normal workspace forces maintainers to think about what they need on a deployment and prepare for the different kinds of problems,, f by Senior Airman Nate Greer they might encounter. And trips like this one are prime training^; 419th FW Public Affairs Office experiences. " ' ^-^ ^ ^-^'N* "Instead taking a guy and dropping him in an AEF rotation^ Each winter, a number of people pack up and head south. you can do it on a smaller scale and in a more pleasant location, These "snowbirds" went to California, Arizona, Texas and other and that helps to kind of familiarize the guy with what he's places. But the folks headed down to Florida had some unusual going to be up against when he goes in a harsher environment," company this year- about 240 members of the 419th FW and Chief Robbins said. eight F-16's. Of course, Key West, Florida is a pretty nice place to be For the month of January, airmen from the wing here were deployed for two weeks or a month. sent to Key West, Florida. "You look for a place that meets all your needs, its good "The purpose of the Key West deployment was to allow some weather; it's got the ranges you're looking for," said Capt. members the opportunity to perform annual tour while also Ferrario. "But you could probably pick two or three places that deploying out of here [Hill, AFB] in January, which is tradition- meet that. When you're selecting from those to places you also ally a month when we lose a number of sorties due to bad weath- look for a place that, with an AEF coming up in the winter, gives er," Capt. Michael Ferrario, 466th Fighter Squadron pilot said. people a good deal and someplace that people like to go in the According to Captain Ferrario, the bad weather was worse this winter. And Key West meets that bill more than anyplace as past January than most, causing the cancellation of most schedwell. People have a good time down there, there's nice weather, uled sorties the first half of the month and almost all sorties for fishing, snorkeling, and scuba diving." the last half. A great location, unique training opportunities for pilots and "We only lost one go [in Florida] because of weather," he said. maintainers, good preparation for the upcoming AEF, made the Weather aside, Key West was an ideal location for training. whole trip a sucess. "It was great to have the support of the wing "The Navy has a big ramp there that accommodates a lot of leadership to go ahead and do this," said Chief Robbins. It seems different kinds of aircraft; both Navy and Air Force go in there that everyone came out on top. to do their training. There's a lot of opportunities to go in there Even the F-16's got new tires. and fly with dissimilar assets from all over the country.'1 Captain r Ferrario said. "Normally we just fight ourselves, but when we go down there, we fight with [Missouri-based] F-15's, Canadian F-18's, Flying with those guys you get a lot of different kinds of training opportunities," he said. "It's important for us to fight dissimilar adversaries, not F-16's, because we're all used to what F-16's can do. Even though we'll never fight F-18's and F-15's, fighting a different kind of aircraft 'cages* our eyes to what they look like, it teaches us to think about a different kind of fight than we're used to. The Key West flying range itself has a variety of advantages, its size, and low airline traffic are appealing factors, and it's an instrumented range that helps with debriefing. "It's got all the training aids that we're looking for," said Captain Ferrario. The trip was good for the aircraft maintainers as well, said Chief Master Sgt. Kerry Robbins, Maintenance Squadron Superintendent. "A maintainer's job is easier when the weather is better. When it's cold, it's difficult. It takes twice as long to perform any maintenance on the airplanes. When you're in a warmer climate you can get a lot more work done," he said. "Our goal was to provide good airplanes, good maintenance, and as many sorties as we were capable of for the duration of the deployment." Both Chief Robbins and Captain Ferrario were impressed with how smoothly the deployment went. "Lots of stuff was planned ahead of time which made the whole trip go quite smoothly," Captain Ferrario said. Planning was a big part of making the trip a success, and planELEVATION ning was quite an undertaking. Coordinating with the Navy, arranging billeting, food, transportation for people and equipment, and switching out most of the personnel halfway through the month was a big task. "It takes a lot of effort and a lot of work from a lot of people," said Chief Robbins. According to Chief Robbins and Captain Ferrario, this kind of The air traffic control tower is one of the first landmarks visiting service a deployment is good preparation for the AEF coming up in the members see upon their arrival to this south Florida base. By its own fall. admission, Naval Air Station Key West is the Navy's premiere air combat "Anytime you deploy and you put somebody in a different set- training facility. Florida base offers warm weather, opportunity to fill training squares 6 WASHINGTON — Today's Air Force is a deployed force, the service chief of staff told the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 10. Gen. John Jumper told the committee that the Air Force has 30,000 airmen deployed around the world. In the U.S. Central Command area, the service has 14 bases that are still open and active. Airmen continue to patrol American skies as part of Operation Noble Eagle. General Jumper said the service continues to mature the air expeditionary force concept begun in 1997. "We now have 270,000 out of 360,000 active duty members in the AEF deployment cycle," he said. "As a matter of fact, we have about a hundred people from the air staff in the Pentagon deployed today, taking advantage of their skills." The Air Force is also helping on the ground in Iraq. There are about 2,000 airmen on convoy duty with the U.S. Army today. They are "driving trucks with the Army through some of the most dangerous regions and dealing with the [improvised explosive devices] right alongside their Army colleagues." General Jumper said that while airmen are doing well, the operations tempo is putting stress on the force. "The Air Force is putting the full weight of its air mobility, its special operations, its close-air support, its surveillance activity ... in support of our grand operations in Iraq and in Afghanistan," he said. At the same time, aircraft based in other areas of the world help assure stability. The Air Force reserve components are playing huge roles in the worldwide operations. "About 55 percent of our 170,000 airlift sorties and our 36,000 air refueling sorties last year — more than half of those were flown by Air Force — are Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve," he said.:*** : -•-. •* ;#*?.. >;., Air Eorce'mobility forces showed their capability during relief;? operations in the aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami in South Asia. The Air Force is also looking to the future. General Jumper said unmanned aerial vehicles, the FA-22 Raptor and the Joint Strike Fighter are all systems needed to maintain aerial dominance in the years to come. Developing better worldwide command and control systems and integrating information and intelligence seamlessly across the command spectrum is also part of the Air Force mission, he said. ,., • The Air Force has the oldest fleet aerial fleet ever. The average age of the aircraft in the service is 23 years, according to most recent statistics. Some aircraft - such as the B-52 bombers and the KC-135 tankers - average more than 40 years old. The F-15 fighter fleet - today's air superiority fighter - is more than 18 years old. The F-16 fighter fleet averages more than 12 years. Even the F-117 Stealth fighter fleet is more than 17 years old. "The need to begin recapitalization on some of these assets to us is very important and we will continue to pursue that ... as we look out toward the future," General Jumper said. The general said that recruiting and retention on the active duty side "is right where we want it to be." The service actually ended fiscal 2004 over its end- strength numbers. "When stop-loss came off, people did not leave at the rates that we had expected," he said. Air Force recruiting figures are high. "We've actually shut down recruiting for the first three months of this year so that we can stabilize at the proper end strength by the end of this fiscal year," he said. "On the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve side, right now they are about 2 percent below their targets in both the officer and enlisted." However, General Jumper expects to make recruiting and retention goals in those important components with no problem.. ,. Newsline • No Shows Can be Recalled Wing commanders may recall, for up to 45 days, Reservists who have not fulfilled their military service obligation. Based on a directive from Air Force Reserve Command, discharge packages for unsatisfactory participation for Reservists with Reserve Service Commitments need to state a reason the commander did not use the recall procedure, The package also needs to state the benefits the member received so recoupment can be addressed. For more information, contact the 419th Legal Office at 777-4365. ' • Civilian Employment Data Required Members of the 419th Fighter Wing who have not already provided the unit with civilian employment data are asked to do so now. The Civilian Employment Information Program is a mandatory initiative put forth by the Department of Defense. Members can provide information on employers through the Guard and Reserve web portal (h tips :IIwww. dmdc. osd.m il/appj/esgr/inde.x.jsp). Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are U.S. Air Force photos. Advertisements contained herein do not constitute an endorsement by the Department of Defense, the Department of the Air Force or Hill AFB, Utah. Everything advertised is available without regard to race, color, religion, sex or other nonmerit factors of the purchase, user or patron. |