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Spirits visit Guam for Halloween

PACAF News

Release Date: 11/01/2002

By Staff Sgt. Dale Yates 36th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam - Amidst a moonless Halloween night, spirits of a high-tech kind visited the flightline here.

Two bat-like B-2 Spirits landed here about 11:30 p.m. so crews could perform engine-running crew changes before leaving again to finish a global power mission.

Global power missions consist of bomber aircraft flying from a stateside location to and from an overseas location. While this type of mission provides realistic training for long-range bomber crews, it's also a flexing of America's might.

"We want to show the world that we can go anywhere in the world within a relatively short amount of time and respond to any sort of threat," said. Maj. John Beck, 36th Operations Support Squadron director of operations. To America's friends and foes alike, "we advertise the fact that this is something we can do, we do it all the time, ... and it is the way the Air Force today does business."

Since 1995, Air Combat Command has conducted more than 150 such missions. An Air Force official said such training is invaluable to the crews of America's strategic bombers: B-52 Stratofortresses, B-2s and B-1 Lancers.

"When our nation calls us [to be] any where in the world, ... we want to be able to get there as quickly as possible and do what we are required to do. The global power mission is one of those things that practice make perfect, so we practice it," said Beck, a senior pilot who has flown a 37-hour global power mission in a B-52. "It's invaluable from the training perspective for the crews when they fly one of these missions."

En route to Guam for their engine-running crew change, each B-2 dropped inert Joint Direct Attack Munitions on the Yukon Range in Alaska. Following the ERCC, the aircraft and crews returned to their home at Whiteman AFB, Mo.

Each B-2 requires a total crew of two pilots. B-2s have an infinite range with in-air refueling, but stopping to swap crews in the middle of a global power mission is common to give long-distance flight training to more pilots.

The crew change is "not required," Beck said. "A lot of times we do things like this to enable us to train more folks. In this instance, they flew a long mission to get here and they're going to fly a long mission home -- that way we can train two sets of crews."

Each $1.2 billion B-2 stealth bomber can carry about 40,000 pounds of munitions and deliver them with laser-like precision with less chance of being detected by the enemy due to the aircraft's radar-evading technology. Such stealthy, powerful precision can prove to be invaluable to the combatant commanders of the America's unified commands, like U.S Central Command, which is currently known for bringing the war on terrorism to the Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan.

U.S. Pacific Command is the unified command controlling all military assets in the Pacific and Asian region, to include Andersen. USPACOM's area of responsibility covers half of the Earth's surface.

Beck said Andersen has a strategic role in helping USPACOM in covering that much airspace.

"Guam is a great place for any deploying aircraft to stop because of our location," Beck said. "We are this side of the Pacific Ocean within reach of a lot of places."

To prove that point, the phantoms of power departed soon after arriving to demonstrate, yet again, that within 24 hours America's Air Force can respond to any one who threatens freedom anywhere in the world. (PACAFNS)