Making it happen: RF-A Airfield Operations and Weather Flight

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tia Wilson
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  During RED FLAG-Alaska, Airmen from the weather operations, airfield management and control tower at Eielson Air Force Base seamlessly work together during the exercise to ensure each plane, whether they are taking off or landing, return home safely. 

RF-A is an exercise built on testing pilots and ground crews abilities in a war-like zone. In order for it to be effective and safe, the Airmen assigned to weather and airfield operations play a vital role in predicting the weather, managing the ground and controlling the skies. 

Before the decision is even made to fly, the weather has to cooperate and while weather operations can't control the weather, it's important for them to predict it as accurately as possible. 

"Red Flag-Alaska can prove to be challenging at times," said 1st Lt. Benjamin Bartos, wing weather officer, 354th Operations Support Squadron. "It's difficult not only for us, but also for the participants. Many individuals aren't used to dealing with some of the conditions that our base deals with."

Ice fog, snow storms and break-up season are a few of the challenges the weather flight deals with daily.
 
"The weather is a lot more difficult to forecast than in the lower states, but we know how crucial it is to do all we can," he said. "We have three different types of weather briefs: a mission planning brief for the next day's weather, mass briefs a few hours before the pilots fly, and wing staff briefs for the deployed forces commander. All of these are done twice a day except the wing staff brief, which is once a day. We will also do step briefs for the pilots, paper weather briefs and answer any questions."
 
The weather flight also provides up-to-date weather information for the airfield management and control tower who face their own challenges during Pacific Air Forces premier air combat exercise.
 
"Our job is 10 times faster and 10 times more intense during RF-A, but all that means to us is if need be, we will work 10 times harder," said Staff Sgt. Rachael Cazier, airfield operations supervisor, 354th OSS. "During RF-A our top priority here at airfield management is to make sure the airfield is safe for the participants who come here to train." 

Sergeant Cazier said that as owners of the airfield they are responsible for a range of duties to include coordinating projects and transient aircraft parking, traffic flow, and ensuring all personnel, to include those on temporary duty and from other countries, abide by all necessary rules.
 
"We hold a lot of things together," she said. "A lot of people call us during the exercise since we know who to call to find out the answers; we are the central hub for a number of things. Even training missions could not occur without us inputting flight plans." 

Once aircraft are finally in flight, personnel from the control tower do everything they can to keep them safe in the air. They get departures airborne and when it's time to bring the aircraft back they ensure the runway is safe as well as sequence and separate arrivals as necessary. 

"During Red Flag, it gets extremely busy here," said Mr. Vince Bowers, control tower watch supervisor, 354th OSS. "Not only are their more aircraft, but the operations tempo increases too. We are not only controlling RF-A assets but also day-to-day aircraft that fly into our base." 

Mr. Bowers said that after years of dealing with the off-base agencies they've pretty much have things the way they want and try to keep it that way for consistencies sake. They've worked with approach control and Anchorage center to streamline flight plans in an effort to simplify processes. 

"RF-A is great and we look forward to it every year," he said. "It allows us to work with a variety of aircraft that we normally don't with and work procedures that we don't always have the opportunity to do. It's busy, but we're prepared for it and we are always ready to do our part." 

The combined efforts of all three sections provides an efficient, cohesive effort to support various missions such as supporting Tanker Task Force, Alert Operations and Red Flag-Alaska. 

"OSS is the most diverse squadron on the base," said Capt. Daniel Stimpfel, airfield operations flight commander. "Each separate function has its own unique application, and these functions are fundamental to the success of Eielson's flying operations."