Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
April 13, 2007
Air forces from around the globe are converging at Eielson as part of an international training event
By Margaret Friedenauer, Staff Writer
Gray, soupy clouds hung low over Eielson Air Force Base on Thursday. Snow, rain and sleet pelted airmen as they readied aircraft on the flightline. The pewter-colored aircraft taking off from the runway quickly vanished into the leaden sky.
For the visitors from Texas, France, Nevada and elsewhere, the temperature was anything but spring-like. And no one was happier with the weather than Col. Jeffry Smith.
“The weather gives a great deal of trouble and that’s actually a very good thing,” said Smith, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. “It provides a tactical scenario we couldn’t fake anywhere else.”
Smith also is the air expeditionary wing commander for the Red Flag-Alaska exercise. The multinational combat exercise for air forces from around the United States and the world brought about 1,300 coalition and U.S. pilots, air crews and support personnel to Alaska for the event, taking place through April 21. The current exercise includes forces from across the United States, France and Australia.
Until Thursday, the weather had been mostly clear in the Interior, allowing participants to take full advantage of the 67,000 square miles of airspace over Alaska, the major draw of the exercise for most of participants.
Smith’s bomb wing regularly participates in the Red Flag exercises at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. But he said the Alaska version of the event has three distinct advantages over its Nevada counterpart: larger airspace, diverse terrain and variable weather.
The amount of airspace was a big draw for the more than 300 French Air Force participants, said commander Lt. Col. Eric Bometon, whose forces took pit stops in Europe, the U.S. and Canada to reach Alaska in four days. France has forces stationed in Afghanistan and Djibouti, Dakar and Chad in North Africa. Bometon said Red Flag realistically portrays how the coalition forces collaborate during deployments. He said U.S. and French forces work in much the same way in combat, search and rescue and other operations.
“We have the same standards,” Bometon said, speaking in English. “We work the same way with the same objectives.”
Red Flag-Alaska exercises are becoming more popular for international coalition forces. The current exercise is the first of four scheduled for this year.
Red Flag exercises replaced the former Cope Thunder and Cooperative Cope Thunder exercises at Eielson.
Now, instead of the international Cooperative Cope Thunder that took place about once a year, each Red Flag exercise will include international coalition forces. Upcoming exercises this year will include forces from Turkey, Spain, Mongolia and Germany, among others.
At any one time during the morning and afternoon exercises, there could be up to 50 aircraft in the skies over the state — even if those on the ground can’t see them among the cloudy and rainy spring weather.
“Quite frankly, from my perspective, the worse the weather and the worse declining weather we have, the better it is for our training,” Smith said.
April 13, 2007
Air forces from around the globe are converging at Eielson as part of an international training event
By Margaret Friedenauer, Staff Writer
Gray, soupy clouds hung low over Eielson Air Force Base on Thursday. Snow, rain and sleet pelted airmen as they readied aircraft on the flightline. The pewter-colored aircraft taking off from the runway quickly vanished into the leaden sky.
For the visitors from Texas, France, Nevada and elsewhere, the temperature was anything but spring-like. And no one was happier with the weather than Col. Jeffry Smith.
“The weather gives a great deal of trouble and that’s actually a very good thing,” said Smith, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. “It provides a tactical scenario we couldn’t fake anywhere else.”
Smith also is the air expeditionary wing commander for the Red Flag-Alaska exercise. The multinational combat exercise for air forces from around the United States and the world brought about 1,300 coalition and U.S. pilots, air crews and support personnel to Alaska for the event, taking place through April 21. The current exercise includes forces from across the United States, France and Australia.
Until Thursday, the weather had been mostly clear in the Interior, allowing participants to take full advantage of the 67,000 square miles of airspace over Alaska, the major draw of the exercise for most of participants.
Smith’s bomb wing regularly participates in the Red Flag exercises at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. But he said the Alaska version of the event has three distinct advantages over its Nevada counterpart: larger airspace, diverse terrain and variable weather.
The amount of airspace was a big draw for the more than 300 French Air Force participants, said commander Lt. Col. Eric Bometon, whose forces took pit stops in Europe, the U.S. and Canada to reach Alaska in four days. France has forces stationed in Afghanistan and Djibouti, Dakar and Chad in North Africa. Bometon said Red Flag realistically portrays how the coalition forces collaborate during deployments. He said U.S. and French forces work in much the same way in combat, search and rescue and other operations.
“We have the same standards,” Bometon said, speaking in English. “We work the same way with the same objectives.”
Red Flag-Alaska exercises are becoming more popular for international coalition forces. The current exercise is the first of four scheduled for this year.
Red Flag exercises replaced the former Cope Thunder and Cooperative Cope Thunder exercises at Eielson.
Now, instead of the international Cooperative Cope Thunder that took place about once a year, each Red Flag exercise will include international coalition forces. Upcoming exercises this year will include forces from Turkey, Spain, Mongolia and Germany, among others.
At any one time during the morning and afternoon exercises, there could be up to 50 aircraft in the skies over the state — even if those on the ground can’t see them among the cloudy and rainy spring weather.
“Quite frankly, from my perspective, the worse the weather and the worse declining weather we have, the better it is for our training,” Smith said.