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I am a U.S. Naval Reserve lieutenant commander, a former F-14 pilot who is currently an aviation engineering duty officer. I am assigned as the Reserve maintenance officer to VX-30, a weapons T&E squadron out of Point Mugu, Calif., which launched subscale targets as drones in the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
CENTCOM wanted us to launch these drones from the ground (with JATO bottles) and from the air on the first night of the air campaign to assist in softening up Iraqi air defenses. The problem was: How to respond to real-world tasking to launch USAF drones from a Navy system, designed for ground launch only, off the last flyable DC-130A aircraft.
Before leaving Point Mugu, we were part of an intense, all-out effort to bring the aircraft back from Canada, where it was being overhauled, and to re-configure the USAF drones. I trained to be a drone control operator and worked : with the engineers to red-line the 20-year-old procedures to accommodate GPS and INS (inertial navigation system) checks the drone operators would need to perform in-theater. I also became responsible for ensuring this detachment had all the gear, personnel requirements and training they would need once in the war zone: chemical protective gear, field gear (helmet, flak jacket, etc.), small arms training, medical shots, etc. It was busy.
When the drones were properly configured, I was assigned as officer in charge of an advance detachment, which consisted of 12 aircrew, three ordnancemen and 25 contractors. We also brought 20,000 pounds of equipment aboard two dedicated C-5 airlifts. The detachment arrived at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, 10 March.
Ali Al Salem Air Base is 35 miles from the Iraqi border, and thus was a major jumping-off point for 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the 3rd Mechanized Division, as well as housing SOF, Brits, and various air assets. The base had swelled to 12,000 inhabitants by the time we arrived. The atmosphere there at that time must have been akin to Paris before the fall of London, before the air raids started: keen anticipation and an overriding sense of the here and now. We were there during the week-long, day-and-night volley of short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Basrah area.
My...