Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Operation Northern Watch AFEM eligibility expands

Released: 23 Sep 1999

The area of eligibility now includes only the land area within Incirlik Air Base, Turkey; the total land area and air space of the countries of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the portion of the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf) that is west of 56 degrees east longitude.

To qualify for the award of the AFEM, service members must be or have been deployed on official orders to ONW, serve within the ONW AOE stated above as bona fide members of a unit or as an individual, and meet one or more of the following criteria:

-- Be in the AOE and engaged in direct support for 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days.

-- Be in the AOE and engaged in actual combat, or duty equally hazardous as combat duty with an armed opposition, regardless of time in the AOE.

-- Be in the AOE and participate as a regularly assigned crewmember of an aircraft flying into, out of, within, or over Iraq airspace in support of ONW.

Participants are entitled to only one AFEM for assignments to any of the following Iraq operations: Operations Southern Watch, Maritime Intercept Operations, Vigilent Sentinel, ONW, Desert Thunder and Desert Fox. A second award of the AFEM is only authorized to individuals for nonconsecutive and nonconcurrent assignments to separate operations awarded the AFEM (e.g. first for Somalia operations and second for one of the six listed Iraq operations), provided the participants meet the criteria for each. Multiple awards of the AFEM for assignments/rotations to the operations are not authorized (e.g. Somalia's two operations and Iraq's six operations).

Individuals must be assigned to ONW to qualify for the AFEM. Members assigned to Incirlik Air Base and permanent party during the inclusive period do not qualify for the AFEM.

Individuals should address questions/comments to their local military personnel flights or get further information from the Air Force Personnel Center Web page at http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil. (Courtesy of AFPC News Service)