Airmen train with soldiers in Hawaii

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Gregory N. Ripps
  • 149th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AFPN) --  The Texas Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing added close-air support to its annual combat training here this summer with help from the Army’s 25th Infantry Division.

A week of training, called Sentry Strike, was held with the Army’s forward-air controllers. Each year, the wing’s airmen deploy to Hawaii for Sentry Aloha where they train with their counterparts from the Hawaii Air National Guard.

As part of the training, the wing’s F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots coordinated with soldiers on the ground to drop bombs on an “enemy” when friendly forces were near.

“The purpose of Sentry Aloha is to bring ‘dissimilar’ combat assets to the Islands,” said Maj. Kevin Tarrant, officer in charge of the wing’s Sentry Aloha detachment.

In previous years, wing pilots flew air-combat training missions with F-15 Eagle pilots from Hawaii ANG’s 154th Wing.

Officials from the 149th FW sent 16 pilots and eight F-16s from their home station at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Almost 100 support troops also participated in Sentry Strike.

As pilots entered the “combat zone,” the soldiers were already there.

“The first thing we do when we enter the air space is check in with fire coordination, which puts us in direct communication with a forward-air controller,” said Maj. Mike Mitchell, one of the pilots involved in the exercise. “The (controllers call) for an artillery round near the target that we can use as reference.”

The 25th ID’s artillery platoons fired live rounds, also containing white phosphorus, from their 105 mm and 155 mm howitzers to simulate “suppression of enemy defenses.” It also helped the pilots identify the location of both the targets and the friendly forces.

“The FAC also gives us coordinates and helps us make visual contact,” Mitchell said. “When the FAC gives his approval, then we put down the bombs.”

The pilots hit various-sized targets, which in reality were large, empty shipping containers or small, appliance-size metal objects.

“In a deep-interdiction mission, where our aircraft might fly far inside enemy lines, they would probably release all their bombs on a designated target,” Tarrant said. “In a close-air-support mission, the forward-air controllers might need one aircraft to drop only two bombs on a very specific target.”

The object was to drop bombs to inflict damage on enemy forces while avoiding collateral damage to friendly forces.

“Sentry Strike was valuable to us,” Tarrant said. “We learned something every day. It was also valuable to the forward-air controllers of the 25th Infantry Division, because they have no F-16s to train with in Hawaii.”