Operation Northern Watch gets little press. But the troops on guard don’t mind the media snub. They know their work pays off in saving lives.
Each morning, a mighty air armada takes off from Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. Its destination: northern Iraq.
The departure — loud and impressive — is as regular as clockwork. As routine as the call for prayer that echoes from the minarets of nearby mosques.
One after another, the airplanes of this multinational force dash down the 1.8-mile long runway. They sport the American star and bars, tri-colored British roundel and red Turkish crescent.
Huge airborne warning and control system jets, with their piggyback radar, lumber into the air with a roar. Jet tankers, too. Fighters bristling with bombs and missiles streak off in their full afterburner’s glow. As do reconnaissance and radar jammer jets. And there’s the throbbing rhythm of turboprop tankers and helicopters. Their rumble makes the ground tremble. Shakes the dust off the canvas tents that are home to the airmen who launch them. And vibrates through nearby Turkish villages, waking late-risers.
The warplanes form up and head for Iraq for another Operation Northern Watch patrol. Quiet returns to the base. But some five hours later, the planes are back.
The next day, they do it again.
That’s been a daily rite at Incirlik since Jan. 1, 1997. That day, Operation Provide Comfort ended and Operation Northern Watch began. Since then, there has been a steady flow of planes and people to and from the base located near Adana, on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast.
ONW has a simple mission, said Brig. Gen. Bob DuLaney. He’s co-commanding general of the ONW joint task force. The coalition’s job is to ensure Iraq complies with the U.N. mandated no-fly zone north of Iraq’s 36th parallel. That’s so Iraqi forces don’t attack the Kurds who live there. After the Gulf War, nearly a million Kurdish refugees fled north from the Iraqi military. The Iraqis attacked and killed thousands.
“The Kurds need protection. So we’ll engage any Iraqi fighter that crosses the line,” he said.
That’s a promise, not a threat — as the Iraqis have found out. American jets shot down three Iraqi fighters that dared venture into the no-fly zone since the end of the Gulf War.
The task force also monitors Iraq to ensure it meets the U.N. resolutions directing it to dismantle weapons of mass destruction. The operation has been a success from the start, the general said. And he said it would end only if one of two things happens.
“Either our nation’s leaders announce a policy change [toward Iraq] or Saddam Hussein’s evil regime collapses,” General DuLaney said. “Until then, we’ll continue to do our job.”
Those are big ifs. And, for now, there’s no end in sight for the operation. So to keep the Iraqi military grounded, coalition pilots must fly every day to provide what he calls a protective “air power umbrella” over the Kurds.
“We’re using air power to save lives,” he said. And because of that he said the “atrocities and the killing have stopped.”
The general said the Kurds’ way of life is better now. Their economy is booming. Plus they are rebuilding their infrastructure, homes and schools. And there’s better health care.
“A lot of innocent men, women and children have the chance to work and go to school again,” he said. “We’re making a difference in their lives.”
Dodging triple-A
On the flight line, Staff Sgt. Steve Bade doesn’t get to see the impact his day-to-day ONW service has on the Kurds. He lives in a tent and goes to bed early so he can get up at “0-dark-30” to launch F-15E Strike Eagles. His girlfriend’s on his mind. But for 45 days the weapons load crew chief’s main worry is making sure the bombs and missiles he loads on the jets work.
Sergeant Bade of the 336th Fighter Squadron, Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., doesn’t have time to think of the ONW politics. But, in his mind, he knows what makes the operation successful: his weapons.
“I know we’re doing our job when an airplane takes off in the morning with bombs and comes back without them,” he said. “This is the real deal. I’d like it if we dropped more bombs.”
Fighters often return to base minus their bombs and missiles. That means the Iraqis have fired on them with antiaircraft artillery, called triple-A, or surface-to-air missile sites.
“The Iraqi’s shoot at us on just about every sortie. Mostly it’s triple-A. Sometimes missiles,” said Flight Lt. Johnny Stringer, a Jaguar GR1B pilot with the Royal Air Force. The 54th Fighter Squadron pilot flies tactical reconnaissance missions.
Coalition jets dodge the threats. They fire back when fired on — letting loose their lethal arsenal. But that’s not the ONW mission, General DuLaney said. He’d be happy if his pilots never had to drop a bomb.
“But we won’t let someone try to shoot us down without a response,” he said.
The Iraqis have fired at coalition jets some 200 times since December 1998. Saddam Hussein stopped recognizing the no-fly zone then, after the Air Force stung Iraq in Operation Desert Fox. The strike was in response to the Iraqi expulsion of U.N. inspectors from Baghdad.
So Iraqi gunners have orders to shoot down coalition jets. There’s even a reward offered to the person who shoots one down.
“Saddam has tried everything to down one of our aircraft,” the general said. He’s failed.
That’s still no excuse to let your guard down, said Lt. Col. Frank DeMartini, a Strike Eagle pilot from Seymour-Johnson. A veteran of four Operations Southern Watch and one ONW tour, he treats each mission the same:
“Like it’s the real thing. Where real people can get hurt, and there’s real blood,” he said. “So if we must fight, we fight.”
Flight Lt. Stringer is on his third ONW tour. He said, “If the bad guys shoot at you, you take them out. Or run away bravely.” Knowing when to turn tail to fight another day is a combat art, too. And there’s nothing wrong with that, he said.
“You stay focused and vigilant,” Colonel DeMartini said. “Because you know there’s somebody on the ground that doesn’t want you to be there.”
Lots of work, little fanfare
The coalition hasn’t lost an aircraft to Iraqi fire in three years of ONW and six of Provide Comfort. That’s testament to the quality of the troops who carry on the Iraq vigil, said Col. Dutch Remkes. He commands Incirlik’s host 39th Wing and the 39th Air and Space Expeditionary Wing. The latter is in charge of the ONW force.
He said that’s more notable when you consider that the ONW operations tempo and turnover rates are sky high. Some 7,000 troops a year rotate through the base.
“This is a busy place,” he said. “The days are long. So any issue that comes up has to be taken care of right now.”
The high turnover creates a continuity challenge. Each new troop must learn the mission, the challenges of working at Incirlik and get the job done. The base doesn’t have all the services of a stateside base. So quality of life is a concern. Still, ONW troops carry on.
“They work hard,” Colonel Remkes said. “But there’s a satisfaction at the end of the day you don’t find at a lot of other places. The satisfaction of doing a mission that means something.”
For Col. Maury Forsyth, the ONW combined forces air component commander, it’s hard to pinpoint the one thing that makes the operations such a success. It “takes several unrelated miracles” to make it all come together, he said.
But if he had to choose, he said the quality of the coalition troops might just top the list. The fact most people don’t hear more about the operation is proof of their professionalism. And that goes for the pilots, maintainers, bomb loaders, support troops and others.
“Each morning, you see them come alive for the mission,” he said. “We get few complaints.”
Few will hear Staff Sgt. Catarina Knipple gripe. She’s done three ONW tours, and volunteered each time. She likes the mission. The hard work. And the tempo.
“It’s quick. There’s always something to check or fix,” said Sergeant Knipple of the 552nd Equipment Maintenance Squadron, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. As noncommissioned officer in charge of the aerospace ground equipment that the airborne warning and control system jets from her base use, her team has a key job. There’s plenty of pressure to produce.
“Knowing that a mission could depend on what I do keeps me motivated,” she said.
General DuLaney said ONW troops don’t need fanfare to know they’re doing a key job. Their dedication to the containment of Iraq, he said, is heartwarming. If the job his troops do doesn’t make the headlines, it’s fine with him. And if people take them for granted, he said, that’s a compliment.
“That just means we’re doing our job right,” he said.
Sergeant Bade has two ONW tours. It has its drawbacks. For one, he doesn’t like being away from his girl. And he said tent city life can make you feel trapped on the base. He’s lost sleep. Days off are rare. And he wishes he had a car to drive and see a bit of Turkey.
But he’d volunteer to come back again.
“There are a lot of people being oppressed and murdered all over the world,” Sergeant Bade said. “At least we’re putting a stop to that [in northern Iraq]. So my job here has meaning.”
And that, he said, “is instant job satisfaction.”
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