The first unit to fly a “sustained F-15E mission” from Bagram AB, Afghanistan, are returning to their home base at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. SSgt. Craig Seals reports that the 391st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron flew more than 1,000 combat sorties during its deployment to Bagram, which normally had sustained A-10 fighter operations. (Read more in “Tiger Strike on the Taliban.”) Initially the Strike Eagle unit had no fixed facilities for its maintainers. CMSgt. Joe Livingston noted that the 391st started out with just “one clamshell tent,’ but he added, “Between the RED HORSE folks and our maintainers, we now have hardened, fully functional buildings.” (The RAF Lakenheath, Britain, F-15Es that introduced the Small Diameter Bomb to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq did not operate from Bagram.)
Dozens of fighter jets gathered at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida last week to kick off one of the service’s biggest air combat exercises despite the government shutdown. More than 50 aircraft and 500 personnel are participating in Checkered Flag 26-1.
