Posted on 02/10/2006 5:23:46 PM PST by SandRat
2/10/2006 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Deep in the heart of Iraqi bunkers are the weapons that helped defeat Saddam Hussein. Surely the dictator would have never thought just five Airmen would track and maintain the same weapons that freed the Iraqi people from his oppression.
The mission of the 506th Air Expeditionary Group Munitions Flight is just that. The flight is responsible for Kirkuk’s base defense assets and are accountable for more than 445 line items valued at more than $1 million.
“Ammo’s mission here is basically like any other base,” said Master Sgt. Anthony Newton, flight superintendent deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. “However here it’s more like Ammo 101 -- keeping the basics going and the bomb dump in operation.”
Even though the flight doesn’t handle large weapons, such as munitions for combat aircraft, keeping up with the challenges of the location keeps them busy.
“Bio (environmental flight) has come in here to test for contaminants and, even though they didn’t find anything, we were told not to stir up any dust,” Sergeant Newton said. “Also, the storage structures here aren’t up to our standards. The earth around the structure is eroding and causing problems with how much we can put in them.”
For proper safety, each structure, or igloo, must be covered in a certain amount of dirt to contain a blast. The containment ensures other munitions within the dump aren’t affected, Sergeant Newton said.
In addition to the various stages of decay, Mother Nature has been playing her hand. The severe weather Kirkuk experienced the past week caused havoc in the few bunkers buried deep underground.
“The weather has been hindering our work,” said Senior Airman Jonathan Calhoun, deployed from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. “Now we have accountable munitions that are under water.”
Because the munitions are small arms, chances are they are still serviceable. Even if they have been affected, there will be little impact on the mission here.
“The biggest problem will be the crates the munitions are packed in. If they don’t dry out or are damaged beyond use, we’ll have to repack them in new containers in accordance with our tech data,” Sergeant Newton said.
Recovering from nature’s blow won’t put the team behind schedule because it’s all part of being deployed. Since there’s no flying mission here, it gives them a chance to do something different.
“Since we don’t have combat aircraft assigned, we don’t support a lot of operations,” said Senior Airman Johnathon Martinez, also deployed from Lackland. “We basically just hand out bullets.”
“We have a purpose here as opposed to home station,” said Senior Airman Mandi Wilkinson of Lackland. “At home we hand out bullets and get them back -- here they get used.”
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