1 - The Black Vault

OPERATION ASSURED RESPONSE TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM
with the secretary appreciative of the skill of the
Combat Talon II crew. 171
Towards the latter part of August, the squadron
deployed six crews to Boise, Idaho, for an
airfield seizure exercise with 75th Ranger Regiment
personnel stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington.
While deployed to the Northwest, the
crews flew ECM sorties in the Sailor Creek
range. Two months later two crews deployed to
the Middle East to participate in JCS Exercises
Eastern Viper and Inherent Fury. Based out of
Ali Al Salem AB, Kuwait, the two crews flew
nine of 11 days and successfully executed exercise
missions in Qatar and Bahrain. Many of the
missions included the airdrop of host-nation personnel.
During the deployment the squadron flew
sorties into Oman, which was the first into that
country in a number of years. The squadron finished
out the year with a JRX out of Cape Ca -
naveral, Florida. The four crews executed tasked
missions in an exceptional manner. As the year
came to a close, most of the 15th SOS was back
at Hurlburt Field. 172
The 550th SOS Wins the 1999 AETC
Maintenance Effectiveness Award
At Kirtland AFB the 550th SOS continued to
train new CT II crew members in the formal
school, with the WST operational. Air refueling
missions with both KC-135 and KC-10 aircraft
were completed in conjunction with the formal
school and for continuation training. The Chile
Flag exercise series continued to provide squadron
exposure to the demanding joint arena, with
tactical airdrops accomplished for both US Army
Special Forces and US Navy SEALs. During the
58th SOW’s ORI, the 550th SOS was the only
squadron to receive an outstanding rating by the
Headquarters AETC/IG. The squadron also excelled
during a Nineteenth Air Force Standardization
and Evaluation Visit, again receiving
the highest rating of the entire wing.
While conducting an off-station night training
mission, a Combat Talon II crew responded to an
aircraft crash in its operating area. After locating
the crash site, the aircraft landed on a nearby
runway, and three crew members deplaned to assess
the situation and to determine if the pilot
had survived the crash. The crew members found
that the pilot was still alive but was trapped in
the mangled wreckage. While two crew members
provided fire protection with aircraft fire extinguishers,
Tech Sergeant Belsches crawled into
the crushed inverted wreckage and managed to
free the trapped pilot. For his heroism Belsches
was awarded the USAF Airman’s Medal.
The squadron finished out the year by being
awarded the prestigious 1999 AETC Maintenance
Effectiveness Award for the best medium-aircraft
category squadron in the command. The squadron
was poised to enter the new millennium as one of
the top units in AETC.
The 7th SOS Goes to War in the
Balkans: Operation Allied Force
On 3 January 1999 the holiday season came
to an abrupt end when three 7th SOS Combat
Talon II aircraft and crews were tasked to fly a
mission in support of Operation Joint Forge in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Within two hours of initial
notification, the three Combat Talons were airborne
and headed for Stuttgart, Germany, to
pick up key staff personnel and then to move
them forward to the Balkans. Weather in the
target area had dropped to minimums, and it
was questionable as to whether even the Combat
Talon , with its sophisticated navigation and
instrumentation systems, could complete the
mission. The aircrew flew self-contained approaches
down to minimums and was able to
see the runway environment and land at Tuzla
AB. No other weapons system could have landed
in such foggy conditions. 173
On 24 March 1999 NATO launched Operation
Allied Force, a US-led air operation directed
against Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milosevic.
The conflict was caused when Milosevic refused to
accept a diplomatic settlement to the Kosovo crisis
that involved withdrawing Serbian troops
from Kosovo, accepting a force of international
peacekeepers, and agreeing to a plan for Kosovo
autonomy. On 19 March 1999, a week before the
actual beginning of air strikes, a planning order
was issued by the CJCS to USCINCEUR outlining
possible forces to be used in support of NATO
operations in Kosovo. 174
The planning order requested that US-
CINCEUR identify both strategic and tactical
targets that, if eliminated, would impede the
movement of the Yugoslav army and police forces
into and out of Kosovo. Also on 19 March Secretary
of Defense William Cohen issued a deployment
order for support of Operation Noble Anvil,
the phased air operation portion of Allied Force.
Portions of the 16th SOW (including AC-130 gunships
and MH-53s) and the entire 352d SOG
were tasked to support the operation. Forces
were alerted at both locations, and each tasked
455