376th Air Expeditionary Wing
The 376th Air Expeditionary Wing is a newly activated unit at a forward-deployed location in Kyrgyzstan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. The Air Force's 376th Air Expeditionary Wing was been tasked with operating the facility which also houses troops from South Korea, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Norway and Spain. People from the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Services Squadron lodging section are providing a home away from home for their customers at a deployed site in Kyrgyzstan. They provide comfortable lodging for more than 1,300 coalition people supporting Operation Enduring Freedom near Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan.
The 376th Air Expeditionary Wing provides combat air support and airlift for forces in Afghanistan as well as aerial refueling of coalition aircraft.
The 376th Air Expeditionary Wing worked since 16 December 2001 to improve and expand facilities at Bishkek's airport. They built two munitions storage areas to sustain fighter operations, an aircraft- and diesel-fuel storage area, and a 40,000 sq metre (420,000 sq ft) aircraft maintenance area. Four months after Air Force and coalition forces constructed an air base in the middle of Kyrgyzstan, the first American fighter aircraft to be assigned arrived in April 2002. Six Marine FA-18D Hornet fighter aircraft and their crews arrived to attack and destroy targets remaining in Afghanistan and support ground forces as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Before the FA-18s' arrival, Air Force and coalition forces had to turn more than 200 acres of bare land into a compound of nearly 220 tents and an airfield able to accommodate air operations. Once the base was established, the 376th AEW and U.S. Marines faced the challenge of getting U.S. military aircraft and more than 160 Marines into a former Soviet Union country.
A detachment of six French Air Force Mirage 2000D fighters returned to France on 4 October after participating with French carrier-based aircraft in support of the US-led Operation 'Enduring Freedom'. French fighters conducted more than 10% of sorties over Afghanistan. The six Mirage 2000Ds had been stationed at Ganci Air Base, Manas, Kyrgyzstan, along with two C-135FR tanker aircraft.
On 1 October 2002 a tri-national detachment of 18 Danish, Netherlands and Norwegian F-16AM fighters and one Netherlands KDC-10 tanker, took the place of the Mirages. The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) leads the 440-strong unit known as the European Participating Air Forces (EPAF) detachment. It is tasked to provide day and night air support to US and coalition forces inside Afghanistan as part of Operation 'Enduring Freedom'. Furthermore, it can be called on to provide air support to International Security Assistance Force troops in and around Kabul. The unit is integrated within the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing of the US Air Force. The EPAF F-16 presence over Afghanistan is initially for six months, ending 1 April 2003.
