MEDIA CONTEST: 40th AEG: Barksdale bringing the fight

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  • News Entry 14
ACC MEDIA CONTEST --  Aircrews from Barksdale recently received the Air Force Meritorious Unit Award for their work while serving in the 40th Air Expeditionary Group.

The 40th AEG supported combat operations for Central Command by providing airpower for coalition forces. B-52 crews flew long sorties from their forward operating location into Afghanistan.

The 96th Expeditionary Bomber Squadron provided the aircrews and aircraft that accomplished the mission.

"We flew 225 combat sorties totaling over 3,700 combat hours with a 100 percent combat-mission launch," said Lt. Col. Steve Mat-son, 96th Expeditionary Bomber Squadron commander. "We dropped 120,000 lbs. of JDAMs on targets in Afghanistan with a 100 percent target destruction rate."

Dropping ordnance wasn't the only way aircrews helped troops.
"We executed 142 show of force missions in support of ground forces," said Colonel Matson.

Global airpower requires proper planning. Members from the 2d Operations Support Squadron filled the ranks of the 40th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron.
"The squadron set the pace of combat operations for the 40th AEG," said Lt. Col. Charles Patnaude, 2d OSS commander and 40th EOSS commander.

The squadron was in charge of planning the combat missions for the group. Careful planning goes into each sortie since there are many variables that need to be taken into account.

Diplomatic airspace clearances, weather forecasts, mid-air refueling and target information are just a few of the bits of the information that 40 EOSS processed in order to get jets in the air.

"The maintainers did a fantastic job in providing us aircraft," said Colonel Patnaude.
The routine 17-hour sorties flown by B-52 crews created a large workload for maintenance crews. Safety inspections and repairs take time. The maintenance squadron also set up a new multi-million dollar maintenance hangar.

The hangar allowed crews to perform high-level repairs without the need to send the aircraft stateside. All these efforts led to a bomber fleet that was mission capable and ready to fight.

The munitions squadron also played a major role for mission readiness.
Munitions Airmen were not fazed by mechanical failures. They were able to identify a bad lot of bomb fuses. If left unchecked it would have made the munitions inoperable. Quick reaction and hard work brought the bombs back to fully mission capable status in less than 12 hours.

Aircrews and deployed members were taken care of by hard working services personnel.

40th Expeditionary Services help oversee more than 260,000 meals served and also processed 25 tons of mail.

Logistics Readiness kept the airfield running smoothly. Over 5,500 aircrews were shuttled to and from their aircraft and they also moved 228 tons of baggage. Crews pumped more than 22 million gallons of jet fuel during the deployment in support of air operations.

The efforts of the aircrews and support personnel were critical in supporting the on-going efforts to build a democracy in Afghanistan.

"We are still a nation at war," said Lt. Col. Ronald L. Funk, deputy group commander for the 40th AEG.

"Regardless of whether it's Afghanistan, Iraq or in other locations throughout the world, there are members of the 2d Bomb Wing, and the U.S. military as a whole, in harms way securing the freedoms others have previously fought and died for."