Airmen test skills on Korean peninsula

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Richard Freeland
  • 18th Communications Squadron
KWANG JU AIR BASE, South Korea (AFPN) --  More than 100 airmen, 12 F-15 Eagles and three KC-135 Stratotankers returned to Kadena Air Base, Japan, on Jan. 27 after a four-day deployment here. The mission was a test of the 18th Wing’s ability to deploy during a scheduled operational readiness exercise that began at Kadena on Jan. 24 and is scheduled to end Jan. 30.

“The opportunity for the 18th Wing to deploy to an alternate working location had many benefits,” said Lt. Col. Denis Delaney, deployment commander. One of the differences airmen stationed on the subtropical island of Okinawa experienced during the short deployment according to Colonel Delaney was, “Snow!

“Executing our war games in an alternate location and a cold-weather climate introduced new challenges such as snow removal, language barriers and base support issues,” Colonel Delaney said. “The biggest advantage to this training was that it better resembled the environment that we would actually go to war in.”

“It has only been about a year since I’ve seen snow,” said Senior Airman John Cafazzo, an F-15 crew chief. Airman Cafazzo said the weather did not have any real affect on his ability to do his job as a crew chief. He also said the deployment went well.

“It went pretty good considering the jets aren’t used to cold weather and they did well,” he said.

“We watched the weather closely and when we thought the time was right we brought the jets in,” said Maj. Mike White, mission director for the deployment. “The weather cooperated and it ended up being a good decision. Everyone would agree that becoming familiar with this base was well worth the effort.”

“It didn’t matter what the situation was, the experts were on hand,” said 1st Lt. Steven Curtis, deployed commander for the 18th Logistics Readiness Squadron. “We held true to the statement that you can’t win wars without logistics.”

One goal of the deployment for support forces was to ensure communications and control could be maintained throughout the deployment, said 1st Lt. John Barr, deployed commander for the 18th Communications Squadron.

“Communications were very basic and austere but the deployment went well,” he said. “We were able to maintain command and control throughout which was the goal.”