This article was originally published in the LA Times
on November 22nd, 1990.
It is included here with permission of the author.
BERLIN AIRLIFT LEFT IN DUST BY DESERT SHIELD
By Kevin Roderick
OVER SAUDI ARABIA -- In the cockpit of an Air
Force transport passing Riyadh at 37,000 feet, the Cars
play on the intercom as pilot Robert Thomas explains
the mysterious ribbons of light streaming into the
desert darkness from the Saudi capital. "The Saudis
don't worry about wasting energy -- all their highways
are lit up," says Thomas, a 28-year-old captain from
Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino. "It's actually
easier to find your way around up here at night. In the
daylight, it's all brown and hazy."
When the glow of Riyadh slips under the right wing, a
call is placed to the Navy ships that have tracked the
C-141 since it crossed from Egypt over the Red Sea. A
lamp flutters green on the console, proof that the
jet's silhouette is being "painted" by friendly radar.
"This is a very bad place to be flying around if you're
not talking to somebody," Thomas says, stating the
obvious. On his last mission to Saudi Arabia, a
controller broke the news that an unidentified plane
was flying behind him. "It was unnerving," he says. "I
still don't know who it was."
This trip ends, uneventfully, an hour later at an
airfield in eastern Saudi Arabia. It is almost 3 a.m.,
but crews quickly unload the cargo -- more than 30,000
pounds of mail for American troops. By dawn, the empty
C-141 is back in the air, bound for Europe.
The mission was another successful delivery in the
biggest military airlift in the history of the Air
Force. More than 5,500 flights like this have brought
troops and cargo into the Persian Gulf region since
Operation Desert Shield was launched on Aug. 7. The
Military Airlift Command said it has carried 195,000
troops and delivered 189,000 tons of weapons, mess-hall
meals, mail and equipment needed to support an American
military operation in a forbidding desert. Most of the
missions have landed at this airfield swept by winds
off the gulf, not much farther from the Iraqi troops in
Kuwait than Los Angeles is from Las Vegas.
British and Kuwaiti fighter jets scream skyward as the
transports are unloaded, as many as five an hour. Crews
push to get the big planes safely off the ground as
quickly as possible. The operation has become routine,
but it still takes three hours to turn around a C-141,
most of which leave here empty.
By the sixth week of Desert Shield, the effort already
had surpassed the 1948 Berlin Airlift in intensity,
according to the Military Airlift Command. During the
Berlin Airlift, which broke a Communist blockade of
that city, planes flew 697 million ton-miles (one ton
of cargo flown for one mile). As of this week, more
than 1.5 billion ton-miles had been flown under the
aegis of Desert Shield. "We're probably doing more
airlifts over a longer period of time than ever in
history," said Col. William Taylor, who was deployed
from Travis Air Force Base near Vacaville to direct the
transport operation in and out of eastern Saudi
Arabia. After the initial wave of troops and supplies
arrived, the pace slackened for a few weeks. But now
the flight line here is busy again because of the
Thanksgiving visit by Bush and the arrival of
additional American troops from Germany and reserve
units activated in the United States. "It's picking
back up," Taylor said. "We've gone from 38 planes a day
a week ago to 68 planes today."
More than half the flights have been on the venerable
C-141, a workhorse aircraft built by Lockheed in the
1960s. But the unloading ramp here is also occupied by
giant C-5 transports, the smaller C-130 Hercules
propjet and a Federal Express 747 that is part of the
fleet of private aircraft mobilized by the Pentagon to
support the operation in Saudi Arabia. The scene on the
ramp reflects the fast pace and the speed with which
Desert Shield was launched. Many shapes of vehicles
whiz past the command post in a morning -- Saudi fuel
trucks, the military's new Humvee utility truck armed
with grenade launchers, even large Chrysler sedans and
Mercedes vans rented from local car rental agents.
"Most of my ramp guys are running around in Toyota
pickups because that's what was available," Taylor
said.
The depot here was hurriedly set up August
8th by a small crew from McGuire Air Force
Base in New Jersey and Dover Air Force Base in
Delaware. On what once was a Saudi air base they
established a semblance of an American post within
hours, then sent teams into the desert to set up
airstrips where troops could be flown to the front
lines. Lt. Col. Doug Cole, who commanded the first
contingent, says they found plenty of concrete strips
to use as desert runways, but most had to be reclaimed
from the shifting sand. "The first days, we had pilots
in the sand everywhere," Cole says.
The operation is more refined now. In a makeshift
passenger terminal set up in a hangar borrowed from the
Saudi air force, troops awaiting hops to distant points
in the gulf region sit on vinyl sofas and plastic
chairs, watching the "David Letterman Show" and buying
T-shirts and concentrated perfume oils from a
vendor.
A command post protected by sandbags looks out on the
flight line. Graffiti on the sandbags explain how some
troops feel about duty here -- slogans such as "Billy
Mac Was Stuck Here Aug. 90" and "Oggie Was Here -- Not
by Choice!" Inside, on the wall, an aluminum softball
bat is mounted under a sign that says: "Stupid Question
Answerer." The mood in the command post is strained.
Capt. John Laub, in between barking orders to pilots,
explains that he left home more than 100 days ago, on
an hour's notice, and he is feeling the pressure today.
Traffic is heavy, and things are not as going well as
they do most days. "We've got some airplanes breaking
down, and we're also making preparations for some
special visitors," Laub said, referring to the visit by
Bush and his entourage.
Outside on the flight line, an Air Force crew is
unloading a C-5 that arrived from Europe with pallets
stacked high with prepackaged meals. Also greeting the
flight was a Marine, ready to take possession of any
cargo that rightly belongs to the corps. "At the
beginning, the Army pilfered everything," said Staff
Sgt. David Gehrlein, the top noncommissioned officer
with the Marine detachment on the flight line. "Even
now, we seem to get one or two pallets that don't seem
to make it. We're here to see that the Marines get
their share."
His Marines, all from Camp Pendleton, seem especially
skillful at getting by in the desert. They have
scavenged enough wood to erect shelves and headboards
to give their tents on the airfield some comforts of
home. Their recreation tent, dubbed Club Camelot, is
stocked with cases of soft drinks and boxes of Turkish
apples. With the nights growing colder, they also have
found a way to avoid waiting in line for dinner at the
mess hall: They fill sandbags for British air crews and
other units in exchange for fodder for their makeshift
barbecue. "We swung a deal with the Brits for some
steaks tonight," Cpl. Andy Donnelly said.
Not all the materiel delivered into Saudi Arabia has
come by air. Most of the tanks and other heavy
equipment have come by ship. Beyond all the troops who
have been flown in -- mostly on civilian airliners
under military control -- the airlift also has been the
lifeline for special requests to make the days here
more livable.
"About a week after we got here, a C-141 came in filled
with toilet paper," said Capt. Bob Schwarze, weapons
officer on an F-4 fighter jet deployed in the gulf from
George Air Force Base. "It made everybody pretty
happy."
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This story was reprinted with permission of the author,
Kevin Roderick. Kevin is an author, editor and
journalist. You can email him at this link. He has
a web site at www.kevinroderick.com.
Last Updated: Friday, November 12 2004 (08:31 AM)