Airmen destroy mountains, deny sanctuary

  • Published
  • By Maj. Ann Peru Knabe
  • 379th Expeditionary Airlift Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (ACCNS) --  Some people move mountains, others destroy them.

On Tuesday, May 2, four 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron Airmen did just that.

Two F-15E Strike Eagle crews flew out from here on a mission in support of Operation Mountain Lion. Their assignment - a preplanned attack to destroy caves inside a mountain north of Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

“The goal was to deny anti-coalition militia the use of caves,” explained “Face,” an F-15E fighter pilot with more than six years flying experience. “Our preplanned strike instructions came from the [Combined Air Operations Center]. We were tasked to destroy caves inside a mountain that the enemy used as a location to launch mortar and rocket attacks.”

The caves were dug into the side of a 7,000-foot tall, snow-capped mountain covered with jagged rocks and irregular terrain.

F-15E Pilot “Shag” and his Weapons Systems Officer “Pepe” flew the first pass, dropping a laser-guided bomb into the opening of a cave.

“It’s a lot tougher than most people would think,” said Pepe, who has more than five years experience flying Strike Eagles. “It’s difficult to identify the targets because of the rocks and crevices.”

Despite the challenging terrain, the F-15E crew scored direct hits on their target; within seconds of the first bomb exploding, secondary explosions occurred as munitions, hidden in the cave, blew up.

Then Face and his WSO, “Wrecker” attacked the second cave.

“We ‘set up on final,’” said Face, explaining how they placed the aircraft on the correct parameters prior to releasing the bombs.

The 336th EFS crews flew several passes, each with accurate hits. When the dust settled, both aircraft flew battle damage assessment passes to ascertain the level of damage.

By mid afternoon, the mountain lacked any resemblance to its original cavernous landscape, and the crews were confident the caves full of weapon caches were destroyed. 

“This mission was very unusual,” said Shag. “To the best of my knowledge, the 336th EFS hadn’t flown any missions like this in several years.”

Shag said the crews take pride in their accuracy.

“There was literally nothing left of the caves,” said Wrecker who clearly saw the impact of the bombs. “They were spectacular to watch. Not only did they destroy the entries, they obliterated the entire caves.”

“Our strikes hit with precision,” Shag said. “This was an enormous mountain with tiny cave openings, and we successfully closed them.”

Wrecker said it takes everyone working together to make historical missions like this come together.

“It was a total team effort,” said the WSO who has been flying Strike Eagles for three years. “We had tanker crews refueling us, superior [intelligence] from folks back at base and on the ground, and weapons and maintenance Airmen working around the clock to support this mission.”

All four fighter aircrew are deployed from the 4th Fighter Wing based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

Editor’s note: The story uses call signs for aircrew names for security reasons.