Zaragoza, Spain

Early in January, our squadron went TDY to Zaragoza Air Base, Spain for two weeks for training with Spanish F-18s and to use Bardenas Range...their bombing range. Zaragoza was a USAFE base back in the day during the Cold War, but we have since moved out and now only Spanish military use it. I was the assistant project manager for this trip with a major in our squadron responsible to plan and coordinate all the necessary things we would need to go and maximize our training there. This included hotel rooms (for pilots and all the maintenance personnel), jet fuel, fire trucks and how many practice bombs we would need etc. There is a lot more to just flying the jets to Spain. All this coordination goes through USAFE headquarters up in Germany and they task respective units to provide the necessary equipment needed. Some of our supplies were trucked in from Aviano and the rest flown in by a few C-130s.

The flying in Zaragoza was pretty good. We were able to fly low levels a lot and get some good time at the bombing range. I had a low level/bombing range FLUG ride while there where I lead a 4-ship low level to Bardenas Range. I also had my air combat maneuvering (ACM) FLUG ride while there. ACM is where we maneuver as a 2-ship to quickly "kill" those trying to "kill" us. It was great because I was able to flying it against the Spanish F-18's. Of course, we cleaned house as expected! We were able to out turn and maneuver the 18's pretty easily and get shots off before they were able to.

In addition to the flying, there were some great sites to see in Zaragoza as it's a pretty large city. One of the main attractions is the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar. It was about the same size as the cathedral I saw in Seville, Spain on the cross-country trip but this one was much taller...very impressive. Lana was able to join me for a few days on the trip and we also saw the Aljaferia Muslim Palace in the city. Spain was controlled by Muslims in the past, and there are still historic buildings reflecting this. The architecture was cool and very different from things I've seen in Europe so far.

The trip to Zaragoza was beneficial for me in a few ways. First, it was eye opening to see how much coordination and preparation goes into making a TDY like this work. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of people needed to make it successful. Second, I was able to get through a couple FLUG rides flying in Spanish airspace and against a different fighter than I'm used to. Third, I was given a new callsign "Nuke" instead of "Durka"...I had enough money to buy a new name is basically how it went even though it's against fighter pilot tradition...didn't care much for "Durka". It has the same meaning but in stead of "doesn't understand ROEs kills all" it now stands for "no understanding kills everything." Then Fourth, I was able to spend a few weeks in a different country and different culture than my own. I had been to southern Spain passing through on the cross-countriy, but the north is different and I had more time to enjoy the Tapas (the food Spain is known for) and culture. Our next TDY will be back to Turkey like the first one I went on with the Buzzards back in 2006, but this time it's to a different location I'm unable to talk about at this point.

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Zaragoza, Spain