Air component commander updates troops on Operation Iraqi Freedom

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Eric M. Grill
  • 405th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (AFPN) --  Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the Operation Iraqi Freedom Combined Forces Air Component commander, visited this deployed location recently to update the troops on Operation Iraqi Freedom and to award a B-1B Lancer flight crew from the 405th Air Expeditionary Wing Distinguished Flying Crosses for their actions over Iraq on April 7.

Moseley talked about how succinct the campaign has been, taking only 22 days to topple Saddam Hussein's regime. "You knew from the beginning that this thing was going to go quick because there was no way an opponent can survive what we did to these guys," Moseley said. "From the very beginning we had a set of options of how we were going to start it. We took a year to plan it," he said.

Moseley said that everyone supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom here is part of something bigger than their individual branch of service. "You don't see Guard, reservists or active duty, you see airmen," Moseley said.

The general said that although major fighting has ended, the war with Iraq is not over.

"We're in a different phase now that is going to be a little tougher," Moseley said. "The Army has a tough job ahead of them. They've got to stabilize (Iraq) and make it livable," he said.

"I've got to tell you though, it looks a whole lot more livable then it did in the beginning of March," Moseley said. "There's people coming out into the streets; there's people coming out to the open businesses. None of that was possible before March," he said.

Referring to the 405th AEW's participation in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, Moseley said, "You guys are all a part of an operation that I think is something special on a historic context because you're part of an operation to take out two rogue regimes. Not bad work," he said.

Moseley also talked about how history was made recently using B-1B, B-52 Stratofortress and B-2 Spirit bombers in a single strike mission.

"Who'd have thought that we could have B-1s, B-52s and B-2s all in downtown Baghdad at the same time hitting multiple targets simultaneously," Moseley asked. "No other country in the world can do that," he said.

"We don't do anything without command and control," Moseley said, referring to the E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control aircraft stationed here.

"We have to have our eyes out there, we have to be able to see and analyze the information and pass that info to the [combined air operations center] and be able to make decisions based on that information," Moseley said. "That is a sizeable commitment for command and control," he said.

"No other air force in the world can maintain this type of connectivity with command and control and deliver the types of munitions that we're delivering in the conditions that we're all operating; at the ranges that we're operating from, than the U.S. Air Force with the partnership of the Navy and Marines," he said.

Operations Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, along with missions in Bosnia, have given the Air Force and Navy the most combat-experienced aerial forces in the world, Moseley said.

Moseley presented the B-1 flight crew, Lt. Col. Fred Swan, weapon systems officer; Capt. Chris Wachter, aircraft commander; Capt. Sloan Hollis, pilot; and 1st Lt. Joe Runci, offensive systems operator, Distinguished Flying Crosses for their actions to destroy a priority Baath Party leadership target on April 7. The citation accompanying the award read that the crew's actions marked the beginning of the rapid collapse of the Iraqi regime and the fall of Baghdad.