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506th Air Expeditionary Group

The mission of the 506th Air Expeditionary Group is to facilitate the reconstruction, operation and maintenance of Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and other USCENTCOM contingency plans. Kirkuk is a key element in the coalition effort of the reconstruction of Iraq. Kirkuk Regional Air Base also serves as a logistical hub for US Army and Special Operation Forces. In addition, the 506 AEG provides ground-based military air warning and control, and civil ATC services for all of northern Iraq.

General Order 1A prohibits 506 AEG members from:

• Possession, manufacture, importation, distribution or consumption of alcohol
• Introduction, purchase, possession, use, sale, transfer, manufacture or consumption of any controlled substances or drug paraphernalia. Prescription drugs must be accompanied by the original prescription label of the prescribing medical facility or authority
• Introduction, possession, transfer, sale, creation or display of any pornography or sexually explicit material. This includes but is not limited to photos, videotapes, movies, drawings, cartoons, books and magazines. “Sexually explicit” means depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious or lustful way. The exceptions are magazines and videotapes lawfully obtained by AAFES, AFRTS, and the MWR center.
• Purchase, possession, use or sale of privately owned firearms, explosives or ammunition.
• Gambling of any kind including sports pools, lotteries and raffles.
• Entrance into a mosque or other site of Islamic religious significance unless directed by military authorities as part of a military necessity or official tour.
• Removing, possessing, selling, defacing or destroying archaeological artifacts or national treasures
• Selling, bartering or exchanging any currency at other than official exchange rate
• Adopting mascots caring for or feeding any type of domestic or wild animals
• Proselytizing (preaching) or attempting to win converts to any religion, faith, or practice
• Taking war trophies as souvenirs (there are exceptions - see 506 AEG/JAG for details)
• Attending disciplinary ceremonies of any kind, such as public executions

Violations of General Order 1A are punishable under Article 92 of the UCMJ.

Kirkuk Air Base is a salute area for USAF and Army personnel; don’t forget your customs and courtesies. Duty uniform is the Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU) or the Desert Flight Suit Uniform (FSU). Airmen are authorized to wear the DCU cap or floppy hat. The floppy hat must be worn with the brim down – not “cowboy” or “Aussie” style. Within the residential areas, if one is wearing a uniform, they must wear a complete uniform. Body armor and helmet must be kept within 5 minutes of you at all times. Appropriate PT gear may be worn directly to/from the gyms and pool, in the cantonment area and while running on the running track only. The Floppy hat, helmet and standard DCU hat is NOT to be written on.

All 506th Air Expeditionary Group military personnel and all civilian personnel, to include contractor, AAFES, TCN and LN personnel, on Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq, are ordered to wear military identification or escort badge cards openly on the upper left arm or around the neck at all times when in civilian clothes on the installation. The entire card must be visible at all times. Exceptions to this policy will be granted by me on a case by case basis.

On 28 July 2004. in a typically hot and sunny Iraqi mid-morning Colonel Phillip Murdock took command of the 506 AEG during a change of command ceremony. Colonel Murdock assumed command from Colonel William "Bulldog" Brandt, who served as 506 AEG commander and, previous to that, vice commander of the 332 Air Expeditionary Wing. 332 AEW commander, Brig. Gen (select) Blair Hansen, presided over the change in command. Colonel Murdock, an F-16 pilot, hails from Essex Junction, Vermont, and commands the 158th Fighter Wing of the Vermont Air National Guard. A Change of Command ceremony is the public recognition of a commander's acceptance of the authority and responsibility that bind their duty to achieve the mission, with their responsibility to care for the warriors that serve under them. The symbol of the acceptance of command is a guidon, or flag, that represents the command they now lead. Flags play a large role in military lineage and honors and, today at Kirkuk, they flew in honor of a new commander, a proud command and a country worthy of both.

Laying fiber and copper, installing NiprNet and telephones, digging trenches, laying conduit and pulling wires day after day doesn’t sound much like a dog’s life. Good thing the “Cable Dawgs” are on the job. Staff Sgt Joel "Dill Dawg" Bickle, 506th Expeditionary Communications Squadron, computer networking switching systems cytological journeyman, pulls cable down inside a man hole. Sergeant Bickle is deployed from the Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, and hails from Copperas Cove, Texas. Within the 506th Expeditionary Communications Squadron the Cable Dawgs are a five-man team whose sole responsibility is to give communications support to every organization on base.

The 506th Expeditionary Civil Engineers Squadron, with the help of Services, PERSCO, and EMEDS dedicated 09 June 2004 to tearing down excess tents in an effort to reduce the overall footprint from 72 to 28 tents.

Long before travelers touch down on Kirkuk’s flight line members of the 506th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron are already in action. They’re not psychic; it’s just that they always seem to see them coming. The first and last agency people deal with on arrival to Kirkuk is the 506 EOSS. It provides the critical services needed to move people and pallets in and out of Krabtown. A traveler’s first contact with the 506 EOSS occurs with the Kirkuk Center Radar Approach Control and Control Tower air traffic controllers who safely guide hundreds of aircraft through Kirkuk's airspace weekly, many landing at Kirkuk Air Base.

Angry warriors are watching the skies over Iraq while most of Krabtown thinks they’re the local cable company. Detachment 1 of the 332nd Expeditionary Air Control Squadron, deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, plays a vital role in monitoring the air picture north of Kirkuk. The Angry Warriors serve theatre commanders as a mobile air asset providing command and control and air surveillance. The mission is to provide continuous airspace coverage and command and control at the forward edge of the battle area. They interact with other radar arrays in Iraq to give a simultaneous “big picture” of the airspace. The Precision Approach Radar used by the 332nd ECS is a good example of the squadron’s ingenuity. An Environmental Control Unit designed to cool an entire 2,000 cubic foot tent sits on the shelter’s roof. Ducts jut out from the ECU’s sides – one for the inside of the building, and the second sending cold air to the antenna boom. This reduces the temperatures not only from the heat of the sun, but from the radar’s internally generated heat as well. Besides the physical changes, the 332nd ECS has developed flexible staffing and manning procedures to keep the ATCALS up and running.