Plenty Of Firsts

The most recent deployment for the 107th Fighter Squadron was one of firsts, according to the unit's commander.

Lt. Col. Glenn Schmidt said the Air National Guard unit became the first F-16 Fighting Falcon squadron to be based in Iraq when it established its base in Kirkuk in February. It also was the first F-16 unit to use the Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System as well as the first to use the Laser Infrared Targeting and Navigation advanced targeting pod, he said.

TARS collects intelligence information from the battlefield's second echelon and beyond, in adverse weather and all light conditions. Litening gives tactical aircraft 24-hour precision-strike capability against both land and sea-based targets.

Weapons officer Lt. Col. Nate Dickman, pilots Lt. Col. Leonard Isabelle and Maj. Brian Bracken and maintenance operations officer Maj. David Spehar joined Colonel Schmidt at the Pentagon to discuss the firsts and their mission in Iraq.

When the squadron -- based at Selfridge Air National Guard Base (MI) -- got word it was being sent to Iraq, it was in the middle of close-air support training. The squadron flies mostly CAS and reconnaissance missions.

The combination of TARS and Litening allowed the group to be flexible in its mission. Not only could the F-16 pilots help ground troops out of sticky situations, they could do reconnaissance at the same time, the officers said.

For example, if the unit was called upon to hit a target, the TARS pod on one F-16 would take "before" and "after" images to document exactly what kind and how much damage was done, Major Bracken said. Images taken while flying CAS missions were also used to update maps used for planning flight routes.

The images were processed within 30 minutes of landing. TARS will have data-link capability for real-time imaging sometime next year, Colonel Schmidt said.

The squadron did not have planned targets, Colonel Schmidt said. Missions were driven by need and were mostly reactive in nature.

"We quickly became (the ground troops') No. 1 go-to squadron for support," he said. "They would ask for us by name."

When squadron officials were told it was being sent to Iraq, the call for volunteers went out. Colonel Schmidt said there were more volunteers than spots to be filled, and there was no need to mobilize anyone. It deployed with 280 people and 10 aircraft.

"I didn't want to take additional people and put them in harm's way," Colonel Schmidt said.

The group racked up around 3,000 flight hours in more than 800 sorties.

During the three-month deployment, about a year's worth of flying was logged, Major Spehar said. This required heavy maintenance while deployed in a war zone.

To keep the sand from doing more damage than the repairs were doing good, the maintainers used hardened aircraft shelters, Major Spehar said. Selfridge and an Air National Guard unit based in Richmond (VA) -- the only other Air Guard unit to have the TARS pods -- are constantly writing and rewriting guidelines for field maintenance, he said.

Besides their close-air support and reconnaissance successes in Iraq, officials said one fact made the squadron's largest deployment since the Korean War especially successful: Everyone came home.

(ANN salutes Samantha L. Quigley, American Forces Press Service)

FMI: www.af.mil