| Diverted by weather to a deployed base housing both airmen and soldiers, the F-16 pilots had the opportunity to see the troops they support from the air. |
| By U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Paul Dean 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs |
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ALI BASE, Iraq, Oct. 28, 2005 — The sky above Balad Air Base, Iraq, was thick with dust and sand when four F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots completed another mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They were headed to their deployment “home” in Balad when they were eventually diverted here Oct. 17.
Their mission started early that morning, but it was well past lunch when they traveled in a holding pattern above a dusty Balad. The four F-16 pilots from the 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron had aerial refueled and were waiting for the sandstorm to pass. But weather forecasters determined the storm would not break until much later in the evening, so the planes were diverted here. It was just another instance that proves there is no such thing as a routine day when you are an F-16 pilot supporting ground forces in Iraq, said U.S. Air Force Maj. Darren Censullo, a reserve pilot deployed with the 93rd Fighter Squadron, known as the “Makos,” from Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla. It was just another long day in a small cockpit, he said. Censullo and his fellow pilots were diverted to a deployed air base similar to their home station Balad where airmen and soldiers serve alongside each other. It was another opportunity for them to see the ground customers they serve from the air. |
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mission. “We have Army guys all over [Balad Air Base], so I get to know some of them and talk to them about their jobs,” But unlike relaxed conversation at the dinner table, Monteagudo also knows the tense chatter while on the job. “There’s no simulator that can teach you the feeling you get when you hear the guy on the ground yell into the radio, ‘We need help now! Take care of it.’” Monteagudo said helping the ground forces is the most gratifying part of what has been an exciting deployment. “Every day something’s happening. Every day we’re up here providing cover for [ground forces]. I really respect the job they’re doing down there, and I am glad we can help anyway we can,” the colonel said. Seeing ground combat from his vantage point in the air is an experience Monteagudo said he will never forget. |
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