4410 OPERATIONAL SUPPORT WING(P) CONTINGENCY HISTORICAL

File: aabgb_01.txt
Page: 01
Total Pages: 17
SUBJECT:  4410 OPERATIONAL SUPPORT WING(P) CONTINGENCY HISTORICAL
REPORT, 13 DEC 90 - 16 FEB 91, SD#74    


                  DESERT SHIELD/STORM SUPPORT DOCUMENT TO
                                 #00881355
    
    Oral Interview with
    Lt Col Steven "Bear" Emery
    F-16 Detachment Commander
    363 TFW, 33d TFS
    By: TSgt Barry L. Spink, 16 Feb 91
    Transcribed by: Faye Davis
    
    S: First of all, Sir, what prompted the detachment to be
    brought out here to KKMC [King Khalid Military City]?
    
    E: The whole concept was simply an effort to put more bombs on
    target 1n a shorter period of time. The, 363d is flying out
    of the UAE United Arab Emirates in A1 Dhafra, just outside
    of Abu Dhabi. Depending upon where you go into Iraq, it is
    a 5-hour flight to Baghdad, and it is a 3-hour round-trip
    sortie just to get to Kuwait, which means a pilot and
    airplane will fly, at most, twice a day. Usually because of
    the crew rest problem it will be once a day.
    
    What we have done is, with the mission we will get into now,
    a guy will take off in the morning out of A1 Dhafra; he will
    come in and hit a tanker, drop the first load of bombs in
    Kuwait or Eastern Iraq, land back here, get loaded with gas
    and bombs in a very short period of time, which I can
    specify later if we have to, and take off again. From here,
    our average sortie duration for the second sortie is between
    .9 or 1.1 hours. Then he will come back, recover in here a
    second time, get loaded with gas, bombs, and take off; go to
    Kuwait, drop his bombs a third time, and then hit a tanker
    before recovering back into Al Dhafra. That typically means
    you have about an 11- to 12-hour day, but he has got three
    sorties, three loads of bombs on target, as opposed to one.
    
    At the same time, doing this, knowing that he is going to be
    able to land here where he has been able to drop external