Goonch

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WELCOME - Bagarius "goonch” Yarrelli My friends call me Goonch

Wheelus Air Base Tripoli, Libya

Sahara - The Lady Be Good

a year-round weapons training detachment was established at Wheelus for month-long squadron rotations by the Europe-based tactical fighter wings (TFWs). USAFE units from Germany (the 36th and 49th TFWs in joint operations with their Thunderchiefs and the 50th TFW with F-100s) and from the United Kingdom (the 20th and 48th TFWs with F-100Ds, and the 81st TFW) trained in air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery and delivery of conventional ordnance and nuclear "shapes" at the weapons range about 10 air miles further east of the air base. Ferry configuration for the Thunderchiefs was a 600-gallon centerline tank, along with the 450s on the wing pylons.

PROLOGUE -- After a 1969 military coup that overthrew King Idris, Libya's ruling monarch since 1951, Colonel Gadhafi's new government sought the removal of all foreign military bases in Libya. Wheelus AB was turned back to Libya and the 7272nd FTW inactivated on 11 June 1970. British military installations at Tobruk and nearby El Adem had earlier closed, in March 1970. After the USAF left, the base was reportedly worth $77 million in 1970 dollars. It became a Libyan People's Air Force installation -- "Okba Ben Nafi Air Base" -- and housed LPAF's headquarters and a large share of its major training facilities. LPAF MiG-17/19/25 fighters and Tu-22 bombers were based at Okba Ben Nafi Air Base.

Sixteen years later, at 0200 hours on 16 Apr 1986 Okba Ben Nafi AB, various Libyan government buildings, and three of 30 Libyan terrorist training camps were bombed by USAFE's 48th TFW F-111Fs, flying non-stop from RAF Lakenheath, UK, to Libya in "Operation Eldorado Canyon." The mission was in retaliation for Libyan missile attacks on US aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea and Libyan involvement in alleged terrorist attacks on US servicemen in Europe. Operation Eldorado Canyon included 18 48th TFW F-111F "Aardvark" fighter-bombers (Pave Tack-equipped), USN carrier-based F-14s and A-6Es (which struck other targets in Libya), and and five EF-111A "Sparkvarks" from the 66th ECW/42ECS at Upper Heyford, UK. The 66th ECW Sparkvarks formed up with the attack force to provide electronic defense during the attack. One 48th F-111E (70-2389, callsign "Karma 52") was lost outbound from the attack to (presumably) a SAM or AAA hit (Major Fernando Ribas-Dominici (AC) and WSO Capt. Paul Lorence were lost -- In respect for the crew, the last F-111F flown to AMARC retirement used the same callsign). The 14-hour 5,800-mile round trip to Libya required numerous in-air refuelings (over seven million pounds of fuel), because countries closer to Libya -- Spain, Italy, France, and Greece -- had refused American planes permission to fly over or from bases in their countries. Ironically, the 48th TFW had practiced for years at Wheelus (with F-100s) and later at Zaragoza AB Spain, with F4D Phantoms and the F-111s, for just such a mission...

Wheelus AB was re-activated in 1995 as a domestic airport and re-named Mitiga Airport (ICAO HLLM).

Regan Bombs Libya - " Whose dogs do they think we are?"