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U.S. Sending 3,000 Troops To Gulf
Scott AFB TACC Planned Airlift For A Week
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The following Belleville News Democrat article is timeless. The numbers may change, the destinations will vary, but the forward-looking, continuous efforts of the men and women of the TACC remain constant. Here's Rod Hafemeister's brief, but excellent, insight to an area few get to see.
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SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE (February 10, 1998) -- The order this weekend to move 3,000 troops to Kuwait was not a surprise to the people at the Tanker Airlift Control Center - they had been planning for more than a week.
Derik Holtmann Photo
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And as they began executing their plans Monday, the Air Force allowed local and Pentagon reporters a glimpse inside the normally secret control center, located in the Air Mobility Command headquarters at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.
Brigadier General Duncan McNabb, who commands the center, said he could not be too specific because of security concerns.
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But he could say that the airlift, dubbed "Phoenix Scorpion II," would require the equivalent of 38 giant C-5 Galaxy cargo planes and 72 KC-135 refueling tankers.
That's less than half the lift required for Phoenix Scorpion I, the deployment of bombers and, fighters to the Persian Gulf region in November. "Those loads are going on even as we speak. We've got 21 missions that are in some stage of execution and the others begin as the loads go on," McNabb said. "We've basically been up, ready to go, for about 10 days. When the secretary of defense made the decision to deploy forces on Saturday, we were ready."
The 684 men and women assigned to the control center never touch an aircraft, but they plan and direct virtually every airlift and refueling mission anywhere in the world. The airlift to Iraq would occupy only about 10 percent of their operations, McNabb said.
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About two weeks ago, as tensions grew with Iraq and it became obvious that more troops would be going to the gulf, a special team was activated. Commanded by Colonel Ron Peck, the team normally plans the special flying missions required for training exercises.
But the team's other job is "contingencies," such as moving stuff to Iraq. At times like this, Peck's team of 86 full-timers and 37 reservists pulls 12 to 14 hour days, seven days a week, planning the lifts and finding and scheduling the aircraft needed to do them.
What we try to do is get ahead of it as much as we can," McNabb said. "If we know what's going on, we can tailor the flow. If we don't have good guidance, we have to plan for the worst. This time, we've had good guidance, so it hasn't been too bad."
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UPDATE: 500 Missions Directed From Scott
SCOTT AFB (March 4, 1998) -- Air Mobility Command units flew about 500 missions in the past month supporting the build-up of U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf, commanders announced Tuesday.
In the process, they hauled 10,000 passengers and 11,000 tons of cargo to the desert, including moving a mechanized infantry brigade from Fort Stewart, GA, to SW Asia in a matter of days.
Virtually all of the more than 300 airlift and almost 200 air refueling missions were planned, scheduled, and managed from the TACC.
General Walter Kross, AMC commander, called the operation "the finest demonstration of air mobility in this command's history."
"In Brief" Article
© Belleville News-Democrat |
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
Rod Hafemeister article
Derik Holtmann Photo
© Belleville News-Democrat
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