ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England (AFPN) -- “In peace, we train for war and don’t you forget it,” was the inscription lettered on the base’s main gate while Col. Sam Westbrook was commander of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing here in 1986.
Times were different. The Berlin Wall separated Germany and a hammer and sickle flag flew over the Kremlin in Moscow.
Magazines rated the Galaxy Club at Royal Air Force Mildenhall as one of the top clubs in the United Kingdom. A pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, broadcast pop music from a converted ferry three miles off the coast of England to break BBC’s monopoly of the airwaves. Ronald Reagan was president and the 48th TFW flew the F-111 Aardvark.
Exercises during the Reagan-era Air Force were base-wide. The base became the exercise. During wing recalls, the giant base speakers, which normally sounded retreat, blared the William Tell overture.
Master Sgt. Terry Stayton, now with the 48th Equipment Maintenance Squadron as an aerospace ground equipment production supervisor, was stationed here in that era. The threat from the Soviet Union was real enough to cover buildings in sand bags and camouflage netting. The concern wasn’t from the ground. The fear came from the eastern sky. The era was made famous by photos of pilots running to their aircraft during “victor alerts.”
Exercises were so realistic that aircraft flew low over the base while Airmen on the ground set off ground burst simulators and smoke bombs to simulate an air-to-ground attack. Through months and years of realistic training, Airmen of the 48th TFW were prepared for anything.
“It didn’t matter if you were a personnelist or a mechanic, you still had a wartime function, whether it was manning the entry control points or assembling munitions. I was in (aerospace ground equipment), but I still knew how to arm the munitions,” Sergeant Stayton said.
“We had the mindset that it wasn’t a matter of if we would be attacked,” Sergeant Stayton said, “it was a matter of when.”
The wing finally saw action on April 14, 1986, but it wasn’t the massive Soviet offensive for which they trained. It was a quiet mission against a country in North Africa that sponsored a series of terrorist attacks against the United States.
The base went into high alert and tankers lined the airfield at RAF Mildenhall as orders filtered through the senior leaders.
“With the regular exercises, we were used to high alert. It seemed to be an exercise. Normally, Airmen loaded the aircraft with live munitions, marked it on their training log and replaced them with dummies,” Sergeant Stayton said.
“This time, however, when they loaded the live munitions, (the bomb racks) rose into the aircraft and the doors closed. The Aardvarks (taxied) to the runway and took off two at a time,” Sergeant Stayton said.
He said the first he heard about the attacks was from Radio Caroline, which reported explosions in Tripoli, Libya.
Caroline didn’t lie. The reported explosions were the destruction of military targets in Libya.
The aircraft began their seven-hour journey back to RAF Lakenheath as they made a dash for the coast under cover of Navy fighters. Twenty-four aircraft left for Libya that evening. Fourteen hours later, only 23 returned.
RAF Lakenheath recognizes the impact of this event and the sacrifices made by those who did not return home. Although the camouflage netting and sandbags are gone, memories of the Cold War era remain.
The United States began its war against terrorist actions 20 years ago with the launch of the operation known as El Dorado Canyon. Twenty years later, Libya has condemned Al Qaeda and renounced weapons of mass destruction.
Although a long, hard battle, the Air Force and the 48th Fighter Wing continue to make ground daily, wiping out terrorist capabilities with their commitment to winning the war on terrorism.