Wing commander: Anyone looking forward to war is ?wrong?

[thedrifter]

March 14, 2003

Wing commander: Anyone looking forward to war is ?wrong?

By Gordon Trowbridge
Times staff writer



AT A FORWARD AIR BASE, Persian Gulf Region ? War will be ?a horrific experience? that will test the training and resolve of every man and woman in uniform, the commander of this key base told assembled troops in what he said would likely be their last session together before a war with Iraq.
Air Force Col. Tom Jones, commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Wing, told his troops that he didn?t know when war would begin. But he said he had lost most of his optimism that Saddam would make a last-minute change of policy and satisfy the United States and Britain that he had disarmed.

?It?s going to be a horrific experience,? he told the silent Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine and British Royal Air Force troops. ?A lot of people are going to get hurt. If you?re looking forward to this, you?re wrong.?

But by relying on their training and on one another, he said, they would come through. ?You?re going to do just fine,? he said, ?because you can?t afford to fail.?

Jones? blunt words emphasized the constant threats troops in this Persian Gulf nation, which U.S. officials have asked the media not to identify, have faced for months: Saddam?s chemical and weapons arsenal and terrorist attacks.

While each has long been a concern for the U.S. military, never have they seemed so near and threatening as during the recent buildup of troops in the Gulf. Protecting troops against terror behind the lines has become so constant a concern that even moving troops between bases requires a full-blown military operation. And there is clear concern, from base commanders to the lowest enlisted troops, that Saddam?s chemical arsenal will be aimed squarely at U.S. bases in the region.

?Chemical weapons? I think he?s got ?em,? Jones told his troops. ?It?s a terror weapon. Don?t let it terrorize you and keep you from doing your mission. If he comes this way, we?ll come out and we?ll smite this guy like he?s never seen before.?

The defense here begins with two Air National Guardsmen from Atlantic City, New Jersey.

?When people get off that [transport plane] and they?re wearing that mask, you realize that this is real,? said Tech Sgt. Nino D?Ottavio.

D?Ottavio, an active-duty guardsman, and Master Sgt. Ken Sample, a mobilized guardsman who in civilian life is a casino supervisor, have issued hundreds of protective suits as troops arrived in theater. Their work area includes a display of a dozen or so suit tops and bottoms that troops have cut or torn while removing them from their vacuum packing.

Handing over a suit and mask is somehow different than delivering boots or office paper, Sample said.

?They know it?s a little more intense when you give them this equipment,? he said. ?We?re trying to do everything we can to make sure they have the equipment they need.?

Several members of congress have said they?re concerned that the supply of suits might not meet the needs of troops in the theater. But at this base, which handles supply for several nearby bases, supply has been tight but adequate.

?So far, so good,? D?Ottavio said.

After just a few days on their job, the two airmen, who as guardsmen were assigned to relatively short deployments, asked to stay longer.

?I have only 60 days, but that felt like a tease,? D?Ottavio said.

?If I don?t stay longer,? Sample said, ?I?ll feel like I?m cheating the people I?m serving and the people back home.?

The terror threat has made troops such as Master Sgt. George Stedman vitally important.

Stedman, an active-duty California guardsman based at Channel Islands Air National Guard Base, is the noncommissioned officer in charge of convoys at this forward air base, which the U.S. government has asked not be identified publicly.

As thousands of new troops have arrived in the country, Stedman and his Air Force security forces troops, augmented by Marines from units stationed at the base, have shuttled them in convoys from air transport hubs across miles of arid country to their temporary homes.

That simple drive through the desert requires mission planning reminiscent of an air strike ? timing, formation of the vehicles, options in case of attack are all managed to the smallest detail, and passed along to the troops involved in a meeting before the convoy departs.

If there was any doubt that U.S. forces are targets, an attack several weeks ago on two civilian contract employees, one of whom was killed, swept that doubt away. Convoy troops said suspicious vehicles are a common sight, tailing them along the highways.

?I brief every day that we are always under somebody?s watchful eye,? Stedman said. ?That threat of danger is always imminent.?


Sempers,

Roger