Lots Of Flying In 6-Month Afghanistan Tour

More than 10,000 flight hours and 2,500 sorties marked the closing stages of a six-month tour for the members of the 354th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron in Afghanistan on New Year's Day.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II squadron Airmen were able to save countless ground forces' lives because of faster reaction times as the unit is based in southern Afghanistan. "Because a lot of the focus is Regional Command-South -- towns in Helmand -- it gives you an airplane that is designed for close-air support, it does CAS better than any other airplane in the world, and it puts us much closer to the fight than if we were at Bagram (Airfield in Afghanistan)," said Lt. Col. Michael Millen, the 354th EFS commander. "We are much closer to our work, and it allows us more time actually doing the job than traveling to and from it. "Even if we're not able to employ or provide the fire power to engage the enemy, they will stop shooting while we're there. It doesn't sound like much, but if our presence enables guys to take off their body armor and eat lunch, then that's what we do."

The squadron from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AZ, which deployed in July, flew sorties while spearheading new data link communications along the way because of a combined effort between the Army and Air Force.

The situational awareness data link feeds information into the tactical awareness display in the cockpit and has the capability of geospatially finding ground units that have an Enhanced Position Location Reporting System, or a Global Positioning System-based non-terrestrial tracking system, Blue Force Trackers. Until recently, pilots could only view units on the ground or airplanes in the sky on two separate systems. Time spent flipping between the two meant time not focused on supporting guys on the ground.

SADL has been used since the A-10C was developed. Moving a step forward, Army Capt. Jared Cox, assigned to 5-2 SBCT, was catalyst in developing the combined air and ground picture, providing A-10 pilots with the ability to see nearby aircraft and ground components simultaneously. "December 26 (2009), working just 60 miles from here, I went out and began talking with the joint terminal attack controller about a convoy that he had outside the wire, and I was able to find him in a matter of seconds because they had an EPLRS-based system," Colonel Millen said. "It was a Stryker Brigade element and we found them in about 10 seconds. It would have taken us approximately 5 to 10 minutes to find them with reading back and forth coordinates and us looking for them on the roads. With the system we have in the airplane and the system they have on the Stryker, as well as the data link architecture that Captain Cox has set up, we were able to find them in seconds."

As a combat aircraft, the A-10 can employ a wide variety of conventional munitions, including general-purpose bombs, cluster bomb units, laser-guided bombs, joint direct attack munitions, wind-corrected munitions dispenser, AGM-65 Maverick and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, rockets, illumination flares, and the GAU-8/A 30mm cannon, capable of firing 3,900 rounds per minute to defeat a wide variety of targets.

From July thru December 2009, the squadron employed approximately 36,915 rounds of 30mm, 104 white-phosphorus rockets, eight MK-82's, nine GBU-12's and 78 GBU-38 JDAMs (all 500-lb. bombs), and one AGM-65E laser-guided Maverick missile. That's about $3.75 million worth of munitions.

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To the ground forces, those munitions are well worth the cost. When Combat Outpost Keating came under attack Oct. 3, 2009, the fighter squadron Airmen changed their entire schedule. While Colonel Millen slept, his "smart captains" and "smart majors" took control, realizing the weather was getting bad and A-10s would soon be needed. When the Combined Air Operations Center battle director called, they were ready to launch. "We launched four early in the day, and they maintained presence all day over Keating, and then we launched four more at sunset and flew all night. Sure, we provided firepower, but more importantly somebody to provide airborne on-scene command," he said. "There were a lot of airplanes (both Army and Air Force) dedicated to this effort and a lot of people involved and not all of them could talk to each other. Our guys spent a lot of time overhead assigning tasks, sorting out who was doing what and providing information to the ground commanders involved."

"That's the day we flew the most sorties, we had eight jets airborne at one point, with two on alert and flew 100 hours in a 24-hour period," he added. "We flew some long sorties and our maintainers never slowed down."

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When the two, six-ships flew from Tucson, AZ, to Kandahar, Afghanistan, Colonel Millen had more flight hours in the A-10 than all five of his wingmen combined, not to mention more than the entire other six-ship combined as well.

The lead pilot in the second cell only had about 500 flight hours. Colonel Millen, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, just surpassed his 3,000 flight hour-milestone Dec. 26, 2009. "It's been amazing to watch; it was a very young squadron," he said. "Guys here stepped up and I've been phenomenally impressed with the guys along the way. The maintainers have been absolutely great with any situation -- for election day, Forward Operating Base Keating, the convoy ambush -- in all those cases we walked across the hall and said, we need more jets, and every time, we've launched two more and prepared two more."

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The squadron will be returning to Tucson soon. The commander, selected for Naval War College, will relinquish command Feb. 19, after leading the squadron for 27 months. "For me personally, I hate the thought of giving up command, but I'm giving command to a fantastic guy who will do great things in the squadron," the Georgia native said. "But I'm not ready. I'd do it all again tomorrow. It's been a good ride, and commanding this squadron has been the greatest challenge, and the most rewarding thing on the planet."

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