Saturday, September 22, 2001
Dyess likely to send airmen,
not B-1s
By Sidney Schuhmann
Reporter-News Staff Writer
Although some Dyess Air Force Base personnel
are being deployed to the Middle East, a rotation system among
the nation’s air bases appears to be keeping Dyess B-1 bombers
out of the fray.
Some Dyess personnel received deployment
orders late Friday, but base spokesman Capt. David Honchul would
not say how many people are involved, where they are going or
what function they will perform.
Neither are military officials commenting
on why Dyess bombers aren’t headed to the Persian Gulf while
B-1s from two other bases are. Forty of the nation’s 93 B-1s
are housed at Dyess, the largest B-1 fleet in the nation.
Knowledgable military sources speculate
that it’s simply not Dyess’ turn in a complicated rotation
system that determines which planes are sent on emergency missions.
That could change.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if people
get tapped out of Dyess,” said Julie Turner Merberg, a spokeswoman
for U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Abilene. “The B-1 community
is small.”
Maj. Mike Halbig, a Pentagon spokesman,
agreed, saying that although Dyess bombers have not deployed,
that “doesn’t mean they will or will not be used in
the future.”
B-1 personnel and planes called to deploy
this week left from Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota and Mountain
Home AFB in Idaho. On Wednesday, the Air Force Secretary said
B-1 personnel would deploy from Robins AFB in Georgia, but a spokeswoman
for the 116th Bomb Wing there said Friday that’s not true.
“No one from our unit has been deployed,”
2nd Lt. Sandy Smock said. The other B-1 bases that were not asked
to deploy were Dyess and McConnell AFB in Kansas.
Dyess is not currently part of the Air Force
on-call rotation known as Expeditionary Aerospace Force. Ellsworth
and Mountain Home are part of the rotation. Robins just completed
a rotation.
Air Force units are grouped in a rotation
to provide specific war-fighting capabilities. The rotations also
allow airmen to better schedule their lives.
During a 15-month cycle, units are eligible
to deploy during a three-month window. One reason for the rotations
is to provide rapid response, such as the mass movement of military
forces this week to the Persian Gulf.
“It was built for this type of emergency
deployment,” said retired Col. Bill Ehrie, a former Dyess
commander who heads the Abilene Industrial Foundation.
Dyess B-1s could mobilize in March during
the next rotation.
Frank Puckett, chairman of Abilene’s
Military Affairs Committee, offered another possible reason for
Dyess B-1s staying home. He said Dyess might have been held back
because it must focus on training.
Dyess is the only base that trains B-1 air
crews. Ellsworth is strictly an active-duty base, so it makes
sense that its B-1s were called first, Puckett said.
“The training aspect is tantamount,
and they want to keep it going,” he said.
Ellsworth, home to 26 bombers, sent aircraft
and 325 people to Saudi Arabia last month as part of the rotation
cycle.
Mountain Home is a composite base with five
different aircraft, including seven B-1s. Mountain Home is one
of two bases that are permanently on-call and rotate with one
another. The other is Seymour-Johnson AFB in North Carolina.
Mountain Home went on-call in August for
a rotation that ends in November.
B-1s were last used in combat in spring
1999 to bomb targets in Kosovo. Those planes were from Ellsworth.
Dyess B-1s were last used in combat to bomb Iraq in December 1998,
which marked the plane’s combat debut.
Former B-1 pilot Thomas Tomaras said Dyess
pilots are probably frustrated that they haven’t been called
to action.
“It’s disheartening sometimes,”
he said. “But my thoughts and prayers are going to be with
the guys that are going.”
Dyess airmen say they’re prepared to
go.
“I have complete faith in our leaders,”
Senior Airman Jason Carter told the base’s newspaper, the
Peacemaker, “and in Dyess’ capabilities to do whatever
we’re called up to do.”
Contact military writer Sidney Schuhmann
at 676-6721 or schuhmanns@abinews.com
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©2001, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps.
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