Red Flag at Eielson AFB, Alaska

This past Friday wrapped up our two weeks of Red Flag Alaska here at Eielson AFB. Each large formation exercise (LFE) consisted of multiple "blue" (friendly) and "red" (hostile) forces, with two each day. A typcial blue force consisted of 16 F-16s (air-to-ground, air-to-air, and SEAD), 12 F-15Cs (air-to-air), 8 A-10s (air-to-ground), 4 KC-135 tankers (air refueling), 2 B-52s (air-to-ground), an AWACS (command and control) and sometimes a C-17 (cargo drop) or helicopter (personnel recovery). The red forces consisted of between 10-14 F-16s, from the 18th Aggressors Squadron. Aggressors are full time Air Force pilots who train solely to provide blue forces in a Red Flag event with professional threat replication...or in other words, simulate aircraft the US could potentially fight against in future wars. The Aggressor aircraft are painted with a cool paint scheme of either black/grey/white or blue/light blue/white.

In a majority of the LFEs I flew in, I lead a 4-ship to the tanker, ingressed to the target area low at 500ft and 500kts through the Alaskan mountains, dropped my bombs and then egressed low as well. There isn't much better in the F-16! In couple of them, we ingressed medium altitude and then picked up an air-to-air role after expending our ordinance on the target. We would rejoin with the tanker north of the Yukon River, get our 4000lbs or so of fuel, proceed to our holding point and then push towards our targets just to the north or Mt. McKinley...about 250 miles. Flying in low to the target area has advantages and disadvantages, but overall it kept us below the air threat (the Aggressors) and make it difficult for the surface-to-air missile (SAM) site radars to track us through the mountainous terrain. The Alaskan flying airspace is some of the best in the world, and the scenery is great as well. I really enjoyed leading some of the new wingmen in their first Red Flag experience...I can still remember mine back in the summer of 2006 as young pilot (click here for that post).

It's been 4 weeks since we flew into Alaska with 1 more to go. This next week we'll continue to make use of the great airspace and bombing ranges before flying back to Korea next Saturday. Lana and I have enjoyed our time here in the far north parts of America, even though we haven't seen as much as we had wanted to. Denali National Park is closed for the winter and Anchorage is an 8 hour drive. But, we can now say we've been here and it will be a good memory for us. Until next time...

More Pictures:
Eielson AFB, Alaska

Next Assignment: Shaw AFB, South Carolina

This past Friday, Lana and I found out our next assignment will take us to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina in the city of Sumter to continue flying the F-16...block 50 this time around! Shaw if part of Air Combat Command (ACC) with a base designator on the tail of SW. God has continued to bless me at work and I'm thankful to have another flying assignment. The Air Force F-16 community is quickly drawing down to make way for the new F-35, so getting a third F-16 flying assignment is rare. We'll arrive in SC sometime around the March / April time frame and we're looking forward to being back together permanently again after my year in Korea. It'll be where our first child is born (Lana is about 8 weeks now) and a location easier for my US family to visit. Lufthansa also flies direct from Charlotte to Munich, so the location will work well to get to Germany easily.

In all my previous F-16 flying assignments, I have flown the block 40 F-16 which primarily focuses on precision strike (dropping laser and GPS guided bombs) and close air support (CAS) for the Army. Shaw flies the block 50 F-16 which primarily focuses on suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), targeting enemy radar sites, but can also do the block 40 missions. It'll be good for me to learn this mission in addition to what I have learned up to this point in the block 40. Initially I won't be an instructor in the SEAD mission, but that will come with time as I learn.

Lana and I are still here in Alaska, and will be traveling back to Korea in a couple weeks. The time in Korea has seemed long at times, but at others to go very quickly. I'll update the blog with a more specific timeline of when we'll be moving as soon as I get that info. Until then, fly safe and check six!

In Alaska...

Late last week, the 35th Fighter Squadron flew 12 F-16s across the north Pacific Ocean to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska for a TDY until late October. I was #3 of the first 6-ship which flew an 8.3 hour sortie with 9 air-to-air refuelings along the way. We departed Kunsan at 0200 on a Friday and landed around 1700 on Thursday evening in Alaska...strange to cross the international dateline and "go back" 24 hours in time (for the non-military folk, that's 2:00 AM and 5:00 PM). Our route of flight took us east across Japan, northeast across the Pacific, along the Aleutian Islands, and then on towards Fairbanks. Eielson AFB is located about 20 miles southeast of Fairbanks. Thankfully the weather along our route of flight was nice the entire way allowing for smooth tanking. I was able to use my mp3 player, read a bit and eat some food along the way to keep awake and from getting too bored in the small cockpit. As we flew in from the west towards the base, we had a nice view of Mt. McKinley which is part of Denali National Park. Other than the mountains, it was wide spread forest as far as the eye could see...perfect for flying low in the F-16.

The day after landing, we headed to the base dining facility for lunch where I ran into my cousin Cameron who was just finishing up his outprocessing from the KC-135 tanker unit at Eielson. The last I had heard he moved to Spokane, WA a month prior so it was a cool surprise to see him. Before he left, we were able to grab dinner one night and shoot some trap/skeet here at the base range over the weekend.

Our first week of flying is half way done and I've flown 3 times already. Monday's flight was a local area orientation (LAO) flight to get used to and see the layout of the local flying area. It involved a very nice low level (500ft / 500kts) out to the east of the base and then down to the southwest towards Mt. McKinley...the weather didn't allow us to fly too close to the range, but nonetheless it was an enjoyable flight. Yesterday's flight was more of the same from the previous day. Today, I led a 4-ship to a nearby bombing range to drop 2xMK-82 AIR inert bombs (inert just means they don't go "boom" on impact). The first flights of the day we cancelled due to snow and bad weather but we were able to takeoff later in the day and drop our bombs. The landscape in the course of a day has turned from yellow / brown with the leaves towards the end of their colorful season to white. The temps aren't too cold here yet, but are expected to drop quite a bit over the course of our time here.

In the beginning of October we'll be starting our Red Flag Alaska training for 2 weeks just like I did back in 2006 at Nellis AFB, Nevada. After Red Flag we'll have another week filled with dropping more bombs, so lots to look forward too. Lana will be here late next week, so it'll be great to have her here with me. I'll update more as our time goes along...

Jeju Island (제주도)

Lana and I took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend and flew to Jeju Island (제주도) with two other couples from the squadron, a large volcanic island (now dormant) just off the south coast of Korea for three days. Jeju is the "Hawaii" of Korea with the largest mountain in South Korea (Mt. Hallasan), nice beaches and many waterfalls. During our trip we stayed in the Korean Airlines Hotel (KAL) on the south coast of the island with a great view of the ocean. It was a breath of fresh air, even though we were still officially in Korea. One of the great things about this trip was flying from the Kunsan Airport, which shares the same runway we fly from with our F-16s. When ready to leave for the airport, we walked 15 min to the terminal ready for the 35 minute flight (really, 35 push it up mins) to Jeju.

By mid-morning the day after we arrived, we were on the beach enjoying a relaxing time. The water off the west coast from Kunsan is not very clean (hence, the name Yellow Sea) so it was a nice change. Later that day we hiked to a couple different waterfalls before enjoying a nice evening meal.

The second day was a hiking day. Our first stop was at a national park, in which is located some of of the largest lava tubes/caves in the world. It was impressive to make our way down under ground and then hike for a little over .5 miles through a lava tube who's ceiling at times reached probably 20-25 feet tall. After the lava tube, we made our way to a mountain crater called Seongsan Ilchulbong on the east coast of the island. The crater was left after the top of the small volcanic mountain was blown off in an irruption. We hiked the short and steep trail to the top of the crater and then our way down to a volcanic rock beach for awhile. After the day's events we were pretty hungry, so we treated ourselves to a really nice buffet dinner at the nearby Lotte Hotel.

The final day we slept in and stopped by the nicest beach we had seen on our way back to the airport. If we get the chance to see Jeju again, it'll be the main location we hang out at. The sand and water color reminded Lana and I a little big of our trip to the Philippines, and made it difficult to leave. But, it was a long weekend well spent away from the base with Lana and some of our close friends here.

The next thing on the horizon with work is Red Flag Alaska in Sep-Oct...5 weeks of flying around the Alaskan mountains! I'll fill everyone in when I return if not before then!

More Pictures:
Jeju Island

Shabu Shabu

Lana and I expanded our Korean food repertoire last weekend by eating some Shabu Shabu. It involved a pot of boiling chicken broth, lots of vegetables, thinly sliced beef and rice...overall the meal wasn't too bad. Of course, before the main portion we had plenty of kimchi to go around...still not used to kimchi after 7 months here!

As in many Asian restaurants, we all sat on the floor, which for many of us bigger guys isn't the easiest thing to do. Every now and then another person around our table would complain about a butt cheek or leg falling asleep...thank goodness for chairs! So far, my favorite Korean dish is still chicken or beef bolgogi with shabu shabu now being second. We finished the evening with a cappuccino at a nice coffe shop in town.

Before our going out for dinner with friends, we did a little exploring around the local countryside. Just north of the base is a large pier which extends out into the Yellow Sea. There's a portion with a small park and another where the Koreans have a dry dock for ship building. We did some snooping around the dry dock for awhile before we were kindly asked leave in Hangul (the Korean language) by one of the security guards...it's nice not being able to read the signs sometimes!

Well, this coming weekend is Labor Day so Lana and I are looking forward to 4 days off on Jeju Island...off the south coast of Korea. We'll update everyone and post pictures when we return.