[Peace] deployment

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Deployments leave Aviano near-empty

By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, September 3, 2002



AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy — Aviano’s flock of F-16s is flying south for the 
winter ... sort of.

Due partly to the closure of the runway and partly because of the 31st 
Fighter Wing’s commitment to Operation Southern Watch, there won’t be much 
“air” in “air base” during the month of October.

The 510th Fighter Squadron will take its F-16s with them to Saudi Arabia. 
Another big part of the base’s operations group — the 603rd Air Control 
Squadron — already has left.

All told, almost one-third of the base’s active-duty population will be on 
temporary duty during the next few months.

The 510th and 603rd will be getting plenty of sun and sand while taking part 
in the regularly scheduled rotation under the Aerospace Expeditionary Force 
plan.

The 555th Fighter Squadron will get the sun, but not as much sand, at 
Decimomannu Air Base in Sardinia.

“We’re going to be working hard,” said Maj. Tim Coger, project officer for 
the Sardinia mission. “We’ve got an aggressive flight schedule. It’s not 
lying on the beach.”

Decimomannu is accustomed to housing Americans, although it hasn’t done so 
lately.

United States airmen flew missions regularly out of the base as recently as 
the late 1980s. And when Aviano’s runway was shut down for a month in 1999, 
some planes were deployed there then.

But, “they didn’t take as many planes and they didn’t stay as long,” Coger 
said.

Moving 27 aircraft, supplies and the support personnel about 400 miles across 
the country isn’t an easy task, he said.

And it isn’t cheap. 

Coger said the mission is expected to cost the military about $5.2 million.

“We started planning this in March,” he said. “Every unit on the base has 
been involved in one way or another.”

Many of those units will be sending at least a few personnel to support the 
mission.

Col. William Becker, the operations group commander, will be the detachment 
commander.

He said the mission would allow American pilots to maintain their combat 
status while practicing with Italian and German counterparts stationed on 
base, meet hourly flying requirements and engage in activities they can’t at 
Aviano, including dropping “dummy” bombs.

“That’s something we don’t get a lot of opportunities to do here,” Coger 
said.

Other than the few differences, Becker said he’s expecting airmen to carry on 
like they normally do.

“We are expeditionary,” Becker said. “There should be minimal difference 
between Sardinia and Aviano due to the outstanding planning accomplished by 
our wing personnel. The only difference will be in the environment, both on 
the air and ground.”

The work environment on the ground will need some repairs.

The United States has been given space in abandoned Royal Air Force 
facilities that haven’t been used regularly since the British pulled out in 
the late 1990s. So civil engineer personnel will shore up the buildings.

More than 70 truckloads of supplies will be sent south before the mission is 
over, supplemented by a handful of C-130 flights. Mission personnel will 
travel in four groupings. The first left this week.

Those involved in Operation Southern Watch will stay away from Aviano longer 
than those in Sardinia, although many personnel traditionally don’t stay the 
full six-month rotation.

Regardless, the lines at the post office, cash registers and gate entrances 
around the Aviano base should be shorter. And the skies will be a lot quieter 
— until the F-16s come back to roost again.