B-52 crews gain invaluable skills at RF-A

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Shad Eidson
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Every member of the B-52 Stratofortress community, visiting from Minot Air Force Base, N. D. for RED FLAG-Alaska 10-1, seemed to have at least one valued experience from the training events here.

Accompanying four of the 23rd Bomber Squadron's B-52s, both the air and ground crews gained realistic combat training and unique experiences not available at their homestation.

"The biggest thing is how much you learn starting from day one," said 1st Lt. Michael Perry, B-52 co-pilot who has been with the 23rd Bomber Squadron for five months. "You show up day one and it's fight on basically."

He compared the training to graduate-level study with a high level of knowledge expected and a 'hit-the-ground-running' attitude, said the Summerville, S.C. native of his first Red Flag experience.

"The training is invaluable. You don't get this kind of training at home station," Lieutenant Perry said.

While at Minot, there are other day-to-day duties preventing him from focusing 100 percent on the flying mission. Between flying or planning, everyone's focus is shared with all the other duties like OPRs and annual reports.

"At Red Flag it is different, because you get to put all that effort into learning and flying," said the lieutenant who served six years enlisted working communications and navigations mechanic for C-130s and C-17s. "While Minot prepared me very well to show up, my learning curve was exponential here. In the 10 days I have been here, I have learned more than I have in the last five months."

Flying wasn't the only learning experience for the lieutenant. His aircrew was chosen for a combat search and rescue training mission where they rode out in a Chinook helicopter to be dropped off in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness for some first-hand experience.

"It was very realistic and very hands on. Every procedure was followed including when the HH-60 [Pave Hawk] showed up and we were hoisted up," said Lieutenant Perry. "That is the big thing about Red Flag. Everything has a beginning and everything has an end. From start to finish it is as real as it gets."

During Red Flag, the realism also carried over to the maintenance ground crews as well with the B-52s maintaining the same number of sorties as the squadron's back home compliment of 14 bombers - although mission lengths were shorter, said Senior Airman Chris Poulos, assistant dedicated crew chief during his first Red Flag assignment.

As the liaison between the aircrew and ground crew and the keeper of all maintenance records, the crew chiefs were busy identifying write-ups and ensuring the nearly dozen specialists areas were informed about the condition of each aircraft.

"Basically, our aircrews love us because of the high level of maintenance that we have at Minot," said the Novi, Mich. native who has three years with the 23rd BS. "Our reliability for aircraft and the general condition is high because of the dedication of the maintenance crews, the specialist and crew chiefs."

Red Flag also presented the opportunity for the unit to use the dedicated crew chief program where they are assigned to one B-52 to gain familiarity with its maintenance history. The amount of aircraft and manning at Minot makes having the program impractical as the crew chiefs typically need to work on five different aircraft each day, he said.

"We take pride in what we do. We have a 60-year old plane and we have a better mission capability rates than newer bombers," said Airman Poulos. "That shows how good our maintainers are and how well we do."

The squadron's aircraft maintenance unit is continuously handling small changes to the avionics and radar equipment to keep it up to date as a very versatile plane, he said.

"Its' reliability and flexibility are the reasons the B-52 has been kept around so long," said Airman Poulos.

The addition of the LITENING pod is one equipment modification, which has ensured the B-52 is mission-capable platform in today's Air Force. The modifications, coupled with the training during the recent Red Flag will ensure the 23rd BS is ready to carry out their mission well into the future.