The White Falcon - 22.10.2003, Síða 4

(Left) Staff Sgt. Harry Paulus removes bolts from a panel before doing maintenance
on an F-16. (Photo by J02 Travis D. Eisele)
Maj. Bradley Frazier examines a missile while conducting his pre-flight inspection
before a training flight. All of the participants were scheduled to fly 18 training mis-
sions with half of them focusing on Combat Search and Rescue missions and the
other half concentrating on Dissimiliar Air Combat Training. (Photo by J02 Travis
D. Eisele)
Training, from pg. 1
Naval Air Station Keflavik’s 932nd Air
Control Squadron, 85th Group Operations
Squadron, and 56th Rescue Squadron have
practiced this combat search-and-rescue
scenario for two weeks with the visiting
51 Oth Fighter Squadron from Aviano, Italy.
While here, the 510th has also participated
in Dissimilar Air Combat Training
(DACT) missions by facing off against the
F-15’s of the 493rd Fighter Squadron
deployed to the 85th Operations Squadron
from Lakenheath, England.
The squadrons involved all agree on the
excellence of Keflavik as a training envi-
ronment.
“Training here is unique because of all
the assets that are available,” said Lt. Col.
Mike Fantini, Commanding Officer of the
510th Fighter Squadron. “We have the
helicopters, tankers, and fighter protection
platforms we’d be working with in a real
situation all together here in one place.”
Lt. Col. (ret.) Byron Hukee a combat
CSAR veteran with more than 3,100 hours
flying fighter aircraft accompanied the
510th Fighter Squadron to Keflavik.
Hukee was an A-l Skyraider pilot in
Vietnam where he flew as a “Sandy”
ground support rescue pilot. Hukee also
flew the F-16 Viper later in his career, so
he is uniquely qualified to enhance the
training experience of the “Sandy” pilots
from the 51 Oth.
Hukee said, "Despite the fact that it is
more than 30 years since I flew my mis-
sions in Vietnam, the challenges faced by
today's F-16 “Sandy” pilots are largely the
same as I faced in Vietnam. We had to first
locate the survivor, determine the threat to
friendly forces, then effect his recovery. By
sharing some of my mission experiences
withe F-16 pilots, I have added to their
overal knowledge that will hopefully allow
them to be successful.”
Capt. David Mineau, the Commander of
the 85th Operations Squadron’s Fighter
Flight, said that the tempo of their mis-
sions have not increased during the exer-
cise, but the training potential has
increased due to the number of different
platforms and aircraft involved.
"We're flying the same number of sorties
as we normally would," said Mineau. "But
because we have all these different types of
aircraft available, the complexity of the
scenarios has increased. When you can
involve all of these different components
together you get more realistic and chal-
lenging training."
He added that having the F-16's visiting
also helped them with their air-to-air train-
ing during the DACT missions.
"We try to train to a large threat," said
Mineau. "With the F-16's here we were
able to train to a higher level because we
weren't as limited as usual by the numbers
of aircraft available. Plus the pilots already
know the capabilities of their own aircraft
so when they are fighting against other F-
15's they know exactly what they can and
can't do. When they are fighting against F-
16's the pilots may not know the strengths
or weaknesses of their adversaries as
well."
Capt. Aaron Gibney, the Chief of
Weapons and Tactics of the 932nd Air
Control Squadron said that the weapons
controllers at the 932nd also gained some
valuable experience during the exercise.
“Our main goal was to teach our airmen
something they hadn’t really seen or
worked with before,” said Gibney. “Most
of the time they are only dealing with the
aircraft from the 85th Operations
Squadron and the 56th Rescue Squadron
so this exercise gave them an opportunity
to see another platform in action and learn
it’s capabilities and what expectations the
pilots might have. They also got to learn
some of the complexities of CSAR opera-
tions by experiencing them rather than
reading about them in manuals.”
Fantini said that the environment here is
wonderful for training opportunities.
“This was just perfect,” said Fantini.
“We had the platforms available that we’d
normally work with and the airspace was a
huge advantage because we had the room
available for whatever scenario we wanted
to perform. Another benefit was it was
with units we might have to work with in
the future and we’ll have had that face-to-
face contact with the guy on the other end.
That’s always a huge advantage.”
Page 4
The White Falcon
October 22, 2003