HomeNewsFeatures

Features
Air Power

FEATURES

Drop ‘em or not, pilots help ground troops

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Mark Munsey
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  The alarm went of precisely at 1:30 a.m., just as planned. Capt. Matt Bertelli scrambled out of bed and across the hall to knock on the door of his wingman, Maj. Tray Siegfried. Time to go to work in Southwest Asia.

The two F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots of the 125th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at a forward-deployed location settle into a routine hardened over many combat missions on multiple deployments. A swing by the snack bar and then over to the flight brief. Captain Bertelli will snack during the gathering, and Major Siegfried waits until the mission is complete.

After a stop at the life support section to gear up, up next is a van ride out to their aircraft and a preflight inspection with the crew chief and munitions loaders.

“Then it’s off to chase some bad guys,” Major Siegfried said.

This particular day, much like many sorties before, there was little to get their pulse pounding, Major Siegfried said.

The major event was a group of Marines who had gotten their Humvee stuck and become separated.

“We provided directions and support until they could get together and back on the road,” he said.

Another eight-hour sortie is in the books, full of ground-troop support and fighter ordnance left attached.

Unlike a few weeks earlier, when they and another set of F-16 pilots got to “sling some iron.”

Two football field-sized bunkers filled with insurgent ordnance and paraphernalia used to make explosive devices had been identified and marked for destruction, joint-direct attack munitions style.

“This mission was different in that taking out these weapons bunkers would help out the (Soldiers) and Marines on the ground,” Captain Bertelli said. “If we could hinder the production of (explosive devices), maybe this would prevent one of our bro’s on the ground from getting killed or wounded in the future.”

And they would be packing the biggest of joint-direct attack munitions, carrying 2,000 pounds of hardened steel-wrapped explosives more commonly known as “bunker busters.”

There cannot be a day of missions without a night of planning before, and that is when the real groundwork was laid, Major Siegfried said. He and Captain Bertelli knew they were dropping ordnance the next day, but not before some serious preparation.

“We did our usual ritual, hitting the books and studying the weapons and tactics for the next day’s mission.” Major Siegfried said. “Mentally, you know it’s going to happen the next day, so the pressure to perform is on.”

Walking into preflight, likely with a proverbial JDAM green light lit, meant no detail was too insignificant.

“We love discussing every possible contingency that could occur,” the major said.

They took the prepared plan and worked on it until it became the perfect plan, he said, with the pilot’s input holding even greater significance.

“After all, we’re the guys with our finger on the pickle button,” he said.

Once the F-16s were airborne, each pilot had similar thoughts.

“My heart was racing,” Major Siegfried said. “So we focused on the checklists and went through all the parameters and mental items as a flight until all four of us were on exactly the same page.”

Captain Bertelli also knew he was personally breaking new ground.

“Sure I was excited; it’s not every day you get the opportunity to drop a couple of 2,000-pound bunker busters,” he said. “I’d never even seen one, and I had been a weapons loader for more than seven years (before) going to pilot training.”

The pilots and ground troops benefit from intimately familiar topography insight provided by joint terminal attack controllers in the near vicinity.

Precise flying gave way to smooth JDAM sailing, with Captain Bertelli launching first, followed by Major Siegfried. They followed the flight of the JDAM by weapons system video camera during a descent that they said seemed to take forever, especially when keeping time in hide-and-seek time counting increments.

“I counted a lot of potatoes until we saw the big kaboom,” the major said.

The second set of F-16s had equal bunker-busting success.