Fighters 'take down' mountain

  • Published
  • By Maj. Ann Peru Knabe
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  Some people move mountains, others destroy them.

On Tuesday, May 2, four 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron Airmen did just that.

Two F-15E Strike Eagle crews flew out from here on a mission in support of Operation Mountain Lion. Their assignment -- a preplanned attack to destroy caves inside a mountain north of Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

“The goal was to deny anti-coalition militia the use of caves,” said Rick, an F-15E fighter pilot with more than six years of flying experience. “Our preplanned strike instructions came from the (Combined Air Operations Center). We were tasked to destroy caves inside a mountain that the enemy used as a location to launch mortar and rocket attacks.”

The caves were dug into the side of a 7,000-foot tall, snow-capped mountain covered with jagged rocks and irregular terrain.

F-15E Pilot Nick and his Weapons Systems Officer Chris flew the first pass, dropping a laser-guided bomb into the opening of a cave.

“It’s a lot tougher than most people would think,” said Chris, who has more than five years of experience flying Strike Eagles. “It’s difficult to identify the targets because of the rocks and crevices.”

Despite the challenging terrain, the F-15E crew scored direct hits on their target; within seconds of the first bomb exploding, secondary explosions occurred as munitions, hidden in the cave, blew up.

Then F-15E Pilot Rick and his Weapons Systems Officer Wes attacked the second cave.

“We set up on final,’” said Rick, explaining how they placed the aircraft on the correct parameters before releasing the bombs

The crews flew several passes, each with accurate hits. When the dust settled, both aircraft flew battle damage assessment passes.

By mid afternoon, the mountain lacked any resemblance to its original cavernous landscape, and the crews were confident the caves, full of weapon caches, were destroyed.

“This mission was very unusual,” Nick said. “To the best of my knowledge, the 336th EFS hadn’t flown any missions like this in several years.” 

Nick said the crews take pride in their accuracy.

“Our strikes hit with precision,” he said. “This was an enormous mountain with tiny cave openings, and we successfully closed them.”

"There was literally nothing left of the caves,” Wes said. “They were spectacular to watch. Not only did they destroy the entries, they obliterated the entire caves.”

All four fighter aircrew are deployed from the 4th Fighter Wing out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

Editor's note: For security reasons, only first names are used.