Airmen control, contain, communicate at Ali Base

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Paul Dean
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  It is not easy getting on base, and that is the way it should be.

Around-the-clock missions supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom are spearheaded here thanks to the multiple layers of protection provided by the 407th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron.

Visitors to Ali Base arriving by road quickly find out that entry is not easy, regardless of who or what is in the vehicle.

These layers of protection -- the stopgaps preventing access to the enemy -- are made up of security forces Airmen who draw on training, past experience and common sense to make sure every driver and vehicle allowed on base is authorized and cleared. Their tools include persistence, attention to detail and dedication.

The security forces Airmen protecting the base are the face of America to a large part of the local population. And these same Airmen have come to respect and learn from those coming to the gate.

“I’m going to go home with a lot more patience and better people skills,” said Senior Airman Jacob Mendow of the 407th ESFS who is deployed from Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colo. “If nothing else, just the patience you have to have because of the language issue has taught me a lot.”

Airman Mendow is part of a screening team that inspects dozens of vehicles each day. The duty has exposed him to a lot of things he was not expecting from this deployment.

“A lot of what we do is the day-to-day stuff like back in the [United] States, but some of the things we see stick in your head and make this duty tough on you as a person,” Airman Mendow said.

There is a lot of poverty outside the gates of Ali Base, and it is a level far below what many Americans see, said Senior Airman Neil White who is also of the 407th ESFS and deployed from Cheyenne Mountain.

“This experience really makes me appreciate what I have at home. I know from what I’ve seen and done here that the people really want our help and appreciate what we’re doing for them,” Airman White said.

As these Airmen go about their business of security, it is not uncommon for poverty to show its face in a truck driver delivering supplies.

“A lot of the drivers coming to the base have all kinds of stuff in their trucks,” Airman White said. They live in the trucks, for some of them its all they have.