Air War Iraq
From Al Asad Air Base, portraits of U.S. aircraft and crews in the fourth year of fighting.
- By the Editors
- Air & Space magazine, November 2007
From A UH-1N Huey helicopter, Corporal Andy Vistrand, a "Gunrunner" in Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 269, scans the countryside of Anbar province from behind a .50-caliber machine gun.
Ed Darack
LAST SPRING FREELANCE JOURNALIST ED DARACK embedded with the Second Marine Air Wing, based in Al Asad Air Base, which sprawls across 19 square miles of Anbar province, in the northern Iraqi desert. Roughly 17,000 U.S. military personnel and support staff work at the base and are responsible for dominating airspace the size of South Carolina. Daily flights have taxed the Marine aircraft and crews, with some aircraft flying at five times the rate of other services’ aircraft in theater, according to AV-8B Harrier pilot Captain Ryan Hough. “There are always aircraft flying or on standby to handle the logistical, combat, and intelligence needs of the Marines on the ground,” he says. Aviators told Darack that the missions these days were more likely to be reconnaissance and shows of force. “Our forces have made a tremendous amount of progress with the Iraqi people, so releasing ordnance is a last resort,” says Harrier pilot Major Kain Anderson. Darack had access to virtually all the kinds of aircraft currently flown by the U.S. Marine Corps—the V-22 Osprey will be joining the Corps in the fall—and an attached Army medical helicopter unit, at work from their improvised home at Al Asad.
Comments (1)
Great stuff on the war planes. But why nothing with flesh and blood. The high-tech killing of third world people is great sport. Why, here and in the newspapers, on TV, now shots of these fabulous machines swooping in on some Iraqi neighborhood, raining down destruction while the people on the ground run for their lives. That's what it's all about, isn't it -- killing from the air, unopposed, riding high, untouched, blowing up the rag-head imps. Go for it, go for some "realism."
Posted by stan jorgensen on December 6,2008 | 04:08 PM