Behind the scenes at Ops, 6 Apr 99, 1800: We had a visit by General Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Wing Commander, BG Leaf, gives a war briefing from Aviano’s standpoint. Gen Shelton talks about how he and others back at the White House gave the "Hi Five" when they heard the Vega 31 search and rescue efforts were successful in the recovery of the F-117 pilot. Showed some video footage of the bridge bombings and other bombings. He let us know that "America and the Joint Chiefs are 100% behind you"…… "Get in, get your target, and get out"…. "Our goal is to get Melosevich back to the negotiation table as soon as possible". …"We’re trying different diplomatic methods to get the 3 American soldiers back". Ended with "keep up the outstanding job" and again thanked the A-10 guys for the successful rescue mission and gave them all coins. Afterwards, I observe the DO and a fellow pilot hammering on the flying schedule. A dedicated member of the LPA (Lieutenant Protection Association), Lt "Peanut" Cameron, is diligently putting tons of snacks away for the snack-o bar. A couple of visiting pilots from the 81st, Spangdahlem, are grubbing down some food that one of the wives brought in (must be hungry).

Behind the Scenes with Doc Klein, the Flight Surgeon, 7 Apr 99, 1700hrs:

Behind the Scenes in the town of Aviano, 17 & 18 Apr 99, 1200hrs:

Well, not an exciting, ‘bomb’em up’ war story, but this is a behind the scenes look at what’s happening while Operation ALLIED FORCE, war on Serbia, takes place. This is history, and as the SMO, Maj Stoute has just informed me, "this is the first battle to be won using airpower alone….this is indeed history", and we are a part of it.

I’ll end the "Behind the Scenes" tale with a look at the Italian community of Aviano that surrounds the base. We have a few anti-NATO persons that don’t want us Americans here, and don’t believe in war. Their main source of entertainment is to have protests down the AP Highway (the main road that leads into Aviano and the flight line gate)….and their favorite time to do this is on Saturday’s and Sunday’s, at noon, and there are about 6 to 8 thousand of them. We get our standard message "Please avoid the AP highway during the hours of 1200 – 2200 on these dates"….and of course, we do. We use the Mountain Highway, and the Roverado gate to get to the flight line. Some of the protesters are even camped outside of our flight line gate, and have been there since the war started….with their little sign that reads ‘give peace a chance’. I can’t help but to ask myself do they really know what’s going on??…do they have any idea what the Albanians would do if we did not get involved??….do they know that we’ve already waited too long to go in, while thousands of Albanians were murdered simply because of their ethnicity??….do they know that we waited and waited for peace to take hold, but it never did??.. They cannot know these things, and if they do know but still chose to protest, then they must have nothing better to do, and are getting paid $2.00 a day to sit outside our gate!! It’s enough we have to fight a war, but we must fight to get to the war!! We are, however, thankful for the Carabiniere who have successfully set up road blocks to re-direct traffic that is not mission essential to Aviano so that we no longer have to wait 50 minutes in traffic to get to work…. On the other hand, we have the Italians that love us and what we do. I approached one of our weapon’s loaders, SrA Perry McCiver for a story that he would like to tell about the war….he said the only thing he could think of, which was quite funny to him, was when he went to pick his Italian girlfriend up one day, her neighbor said that we should throw a grenade over to where the protesters are camping out. "I saw Belgrade burning when I went up with one of the pilots…that was pretty interesting. The pilots are all in good shape. Guys are on a good dedicated night or day schedule…that’s a big deal, to get pilots on a good schedule, day or night, and leave them there. 555 & 510th are doing well with this, but the TDY pilots are having a hard time. All of the pilots are in pretty good spirits…families are a different story, but no major problems. All of them have good battle biorhythm, getting good rest, and staying healthy..they’re taking care of themselves pretty well. Not a big change for the permanent party, versus the TDY… unique in that war is usually away from the family, so this is a little different in that the family is right here with the pilots as they fly off to war….we’re looking to see if there are any trends in that area." Meeting of the MOs (Maintenance Officers), Capt McCown, Maj Stoute, Lt Kavlick, and Capt Jackson—they’re discussing the maintenance and phase of jets. When to get them through phase and the less time possible to pull jets from the line. Taking care of the troops by discussing the idea of not having the troops coming in, off the line, to answer questions they might have, rather, they will go out to the line to get their answers. They say pulling guys off the line takes too much time from them being on the line, turning jets. They discussed the morale of the troops; "No decrease in morale" mentions Chase… "See tired faces and bodies, but they’re still part of the team, still producing". He tells a joke that "someone calls over the radio asking if ‘Big Daddy’ was an authorized call sign"? They all crack up laughing…I don’t get it….maybe I should use the radio more often?? They discuss a rumor that someone ‘higher up’ is sending out for manning assist crew chiefs….if that’s true, then "Hooray" for us! Hadn’t seen that happen yet though. Talked about other agencies around the base are still expecting the Buzzards to go to standard appointments, and train on this, train on that…Chase, (he’s the more vocal of the group) says "someone needs to make the call if this is standard Aviano, or are we at war?…We don’t have the time or manning for routine business…Our troops are working 12+ hours everyday, 7 days a week, no break….…Can’t afford to have guys out on training or appointments." If someone says that ‘this is standard Aviano’…I say "Bull"!!! "One of the most specialized functions of our mission here is the use of NVGs. They use them to penetrate airspace and go into the darkness of night and find targets and see their enemy, as opposed to their enemies, which can’t see them. The pilots can give you a better description of what the NVGs do, but I know that they love the "NOGs" we give them. Also, they provide a friendly atmosphere in the cockpit for the pilot. When you turn the lights on in the pit, everything is not visible with the naked eye, but with NVGs, everything is illuminated and the pilot has the ability to see where no human eye could go. Every other fighter squadron in the world desperately wants this ability to see at night. We receive calls from all over – Japan, England, Germany, and bases back in the States asking questions about ‘how do we inspect the NVGs and how can they get the equipment that we have’….they’re envious!…and that’s why we’re "The Most Combat Capable Fighter Squadron in The World"!!