I Was Only 19

Record Setting RC-135

file photo

An interesting look into the shadowy world of aerial electronic intelligence gathering.
FROM STRATEGYPAGE.COM:

Record Setting RC-135
March 19, 2008: A U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft has set a record, spending over 50,000 hours in the air since it entered service in 1962. The main reason for all those hors in the air is that RC-135s are very good at what they do, and have been much in demand of late. The RC-135 is a flying vacuum cleaner of electronic signals. Built on the same airframe as the KC-135 tanker and Boeing 707 airliner, it carries two dozen people to operate all the electronic gear. Exactly what kind of electronic signals the RC-135 can pick up is classified, but apparently includes any electronic device the enemy in Iraq or Afghanistan is using. Costing about $4,000 an hour to operate, only 15 of them are in service.

Periodically, the air force has to remove KC-135s from service because of metal fatigue problems (usually in the wings, or with the pylons that attach each of the four engines to the wings.) All 732 KC-135s were built between 1956 and 1965. The Boeing 707 commercial transport is actually a civilian version of the original KC-135 (which itself evolved from the World War II B-29 heavy bomber.) Over the decades, the KC-135 fleet has undergone constant repair and reconstruction. New engines, and new structural components have been added, as older items wore out, or showed signs of wearing out faster than anticipated.

The problem with older aircraft is that you never know what's going to go next. The KC-135s are carefully scrutinized for metal fatigue, which is, so to speak, the "silent killer" of aircraft. Better diagnostic tools, like scanners that allow careful examination of components without tearing apart portions of the aircraft, as well as new sensors that can be installed in the aircraft itself, keep the KC-135s flying safely. With current technology, it's believed that the KC-135s and RC-135s could be kept going at until 2040. In the case of the RC-135, any similar sized aircraft would do as a replacement. And that's how the next generation RC-135 is being put together.

The RC-135s get even more attention, mainly because they have proved particularly useful over Iraq and Afghanistan. There, the RC-135s collect a wide variety of electronic signals in an area, and analyze them quickly. The analysis effort is looking for patterns. The bomb teams leave signs electronically (cell phones, walkie-talkies) or visually (images captured on surveillance cameras). Using the right math and analytical tools (software and computers) and you can quickly discover where the bad guys are coming from, and have the ground troops promptly raid the location.

This kind of work is popular with the RC-135 crews, because they are getting a chance to do, in a combat zone, what they have long trained for. Moreover, it's relatively risk free, as the aircraft fly beyond the range of machine-gun or should fired anti-aircraft missiles. In addition, the most productive work is done during night missions, when the bad guys can't even see the RC-135's high above.

But when these RC-135s land, the ground crews know what to look for, and what components may need some extra attention. With decade's worth of maintenance records, patterns emerge, and the crew chiefs get to know each RC-135 very unique "personality."

A Bit More Than Muddy Boots

Members of the 1-27 Infantry Battaltion 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division perform a low crawl as part of their daily training regiment at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii Feb. 4, 2008.

A Whole Lot More of Less

FROM STRATEGYPAGE.COM:
A Whole Lot More of Less
January 21, 2008: The coalition air forces in Iraq (mainly the U.S. Air Force, but also U.S. Navy, Marines and British Royal Air Force), dropped a lot more bombs in 2007 (over 1,500) compared to 2006 (under 200). There were two reasons for this. First, intelligence efforts have uncovered a lot more targets in remote locations. In urban fighting, when there are a lot of civilians around, soldiers and marines prefer to use missiles and portable rockets, or GPS guided artillery shells and rockets. All of these contain less explosives than the smallest air weapon (the 250 pound SDB, with 51 pounds of explosives). But out in the countryside, bigger is often better.

The second reason was more offensive operations. This was the "surge", which put five more infantry brigades in Iraq, and generally turned loose most of the twenty U.S. brigades over there. Growing numbers, and capabilities, of Iraqi security forces, freed many of the American troops from security work. Going after the Islamic terror groups meant many of the bad guys were flushed out of their safe houses and urban hide outs. When they holed up in a farmhouse somewhere, a GPS guided bomb was the easiest solution to the problem. These bombs were also used to hit known bomb workshops and weapons storage sites.

Despite the increased use of aerial bombing, civilian casualties were miniscule. By historical standards, there has never been a war this intense, that produced so few civilian casualties. Over 90 percent of Iraqi civilian deaths have been at the hands of Islamic terrorist groups, who use suicide bombers and death squads to slaughter those who disagree with them. While Vietnam saw thousands of civilians dying each month, for years on end, as "collateral damage" from aerial bombs, Iraq gets a few dozen such deaths a month, at most. Until the development of smart bombs, you had to drop a hundred or more bombs to hit one specific target. In Vietnam, over ten million bombs were dropped, that's over a million bombs a year. In Iraq, about a thousand bombs a year were dropped. It makes a difference.

THE LONGEST MORNING

Here is a true story of heroism as told by Jeff Imanuel. It shows the heroism of our fighting men against overwelming odds. Read this if you read nothing else today and be proud of these men and be glad you are an American. Photo by Paul French.
FROM JEFF EMANUEL.BLOGSPOT.COM:
"The Longest Morning": The story of Heroism, Courage, and Loss in the Face of Impossible Odds

Six weeks ago in the Iraqi city of Samarra, four paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division became the object of a pre-planned, coordinated effort by dozens of al Qaeda to kidnap and slaughter American soldiers only days before General Petraeus's internationally televised testimony to the U.S. Congress on the state of the war in Iraq. Only two survived -- but, fighting like heroes, they succeeded in preserving the honor of their nation.

This is their story.

* * * * * * * * * *
Samarra, Iraq
THE DAY OF August 26, 2007 began like any other for the soldiers of Charlie Company, 2-505 Parachute Infantry Regiment (from the 82nd Airborne Division) – with a mission in the city. Over a year into their deployment to Samarra, Iraq and now working on the three-month extension announced by Secretary of Defense Gates in the spring, the company knew the city like the back of their collective hands, and had their operational routine down to a science, whatever mission they might be tasked with.

On this morning, that mission was to establish a defensive perimeter around a block in central Samarra, so that Charlie Company’s 3rd (‘Blue’) Platoon, led by Lieutenant Scott Young, could search a shop where they had information that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were being manufactured.
READ IT ALL:

Do or die: Saving a soldier pierced by an RPG

Here is an amazing story of bravery, duty, dedication and just plain guts. This highlights why the American military is the best in the world. With this sort of young people, there is no nation or entity that can defeat us in battle. Read the whole article and be sure to view the video.
FROM AIRFORCETIMES.COM:
Do or die: Saving a soldier pierced by an RPG
For medics and a helicopter crew, there was only one choice By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 25, 2007 10:29:37 EDT
Spc. Channing Moss should be dead by all accounts. And those who saved his life did so knowing they might have died with him.
Watch the video
March 16, 2006. Southeastern Afghanistan. A fierce ambush and bloody firefight. It was over in a flash and Moss was left on the verge of death.
He was impaled through the abdomen with a rocket-propelled grenade, and an aluminum rod with one tail fin protruded from the left side of his torso.
His fellow soldiers worried: Could he blow up and take them with him? For all anyone knew, the answer was yes.
Still, over the course of the next couple of hours, his buddies, a helicopter crew and a medical team would risk their own lives to save his.
“Moss is an African-American and he’s gone to white. He’s in total shock from the loss of blood. But at the time, I really didn’t think about it. I knew [the RPG] was there but I thought, if we didn’t do it, if we didn’t get him out of there, he was going to die,” said flight medic Sgt. John Collier, 29, then a specialist.
“It was an extremely unusual set of events. He should have died three times that day,” said Maj. John Oh, 759th Forward Surgical Team general surgeon.
The 36-year-old’s surgical skill and command of his own nerves would be put to the ultimate test as, wearing helmet and body armor, he would operate to extract the ordnance from Moss’s booby-trapped body. One wrong move risked the lives of the patient, his own and those of the other members of the medical team.
He said the payoff was worth the gamble.
“For a soldier to be struck by an RPG and be flown and have surgery and survive? it’s unheard of,” said Oh. “It was a pretty remarkable experience.”
READ IT ALL:

The Enemy

I found this post by a Combat Medic at BlackFive and wanted to put it up here. This is the kind of young people who through their action show the world just how great America is. BTW, there is no one, but no one with bigger balls than a Combat Medic.

FROM FARFROMPERFECT:
The Enemy 07:51 Thursday, September 20, 2007
Army OIF Perspective

I just returned from about three days (I lose track of time here) of continuous patrols and raids, so this post will be brief. However, I thought it important to share with the handful of readers I have, and maybe a few others what our enemy is really made of. I keep reading reports and seeing news broadcasts where the anti-war movement is describing the terrorists/insurgents as freedom fighters and patriots. They liken them to our own ancestors during the Revolution, fighting for their own country against an “oppressive occupying force” determined to shove their ideology down the throats of Iraq. Well, there is a big difference between the two. Let me describe a couple of the guys we rounded up lately.
The first was a target we had been looking for. He was pretty high on the most wanted list. We rounded him up in some raids with a group of other people. He was caught wearing women’s clothes and trying to skirt out. He was acting suspicious for a woman, and I bet the big mustache didn’t help either. Anyway, why would he do this? Because he knows that coalition forces attempt to respect the Muslim culture and not search women directly if possible. We usually bring women with us to do the searches, if necessary, to avoid hurting Muslim women’s dignity. As a last resort, if necessary, we will get the husband or another Muslim woman on the premises to do the search under supervision. So he figured he would just be able to skirt out unsuspected by acting as a woman and playing to our sensitivities. Lucky for us, someone had a sharp eye.
The second man is even worse in my opinion. The IA raided his house and found several weapons, including a sniper rifle. They were initially unable to locate the man as they searched the house, but eventually found him. He was hiding under a blanket in the corner, using children as a cover and shield. The children were evacuated and the man arrested.
These are the kinds of “freedom fighters” the anti-war people are supporting. Cowards who hide behind children and dress as women to avoid capture.
Sorry if this post seems a bit rambling, but I am exhausted. I just had to get it down before I passed out.