Tucson Citizen March 25, 2003
D-M planes take 'eyes and ears from enemy'
By Larry Copenhaver and C. T. Revere
Crews from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base played a key role in the start of the war in Iraq, jamming communications between ground forces and interrupting radio and television transmissions to allow America's message to reach the Iraqi people, base officials said.
While cruise missiles and other lethal weaponry were streaking toward their targets Wednesday night, EC-130 planes from D-M were "taking the eyes and ears from the enemy," Col. Marvin Hershey, vice commander of D-M's 355th Wing, said yesterday.
The main mission of the four-engine planes is to jam enemy communications. But the aircraft, designated "Compass Call," also clear the airwaves so other Air Force cargo planes equipped with TV and radio studios can speak to soldiers and civilians on the ground, said Tech Sgt. Brian Davidson, a D-M spokesman.
"We can interrupt any kind of broadcast we want," he said.
Speaking to enemy troops and civilians is a form of psychological warfare intended to persuade and demoralize, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Pustay.
"The goal of psychological warfare is to convince the enemy to do something you want them to do," he said. "That may be to lay down their arms and quit fighting by convincing them their leaders are not worth fighting for."
Pustay, a former assistant chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the author of the Air Force doctrine on psychological warfare used during the Vietnam War.
In that war, Air Force pilots played Vietnamese funeral music as they flew over villages and dumped leaflets containing "convincing rhetoric," Pustay said. "The message there was quite clear.
"They were to do what we asked or the music they were hearing would be played in their villages."
While the technology is more advanced today, the goal is the same, Pustay said.
Hershey would not say how many EC-130s from D-M are deployed to the Middle East.
The base routinely is home to "more than 10" EC-130s, Davidson said.
GRAPHIC: CREDIT: From Globalsecurity.org
Photos of the EC-130H Rivet Fire aircraft, designated "Compass Call," can be viewed online at globalsecurity.org, military, systems, aircraft, ec-130h-pics.htm.
Copyright © 2003, Tucson Citizen
