European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 03, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 4 the stars and stripes bosnian crisis sunday september 3,1995 Iri Irig kicks in inst Fly idiots say apprehension nervousness part of airstrikes by Effie Bathen staff writer Aviano a Italy air Force capt. Gunz walked into the press conference in the 510th fighter so briefing room with his name tag on. Air Force officials cautioned him to re move it the order had come Down that for the Protection of personnel in last week s nato Mission against bosnian serbian targets names of pilots were not going to be made Public. Til live with it said the 29-year-old f-15 Eagle Pilot from Nebraska whose first name was not revealed. Gunz stepped Forward with a major who had his own name tag taken off and talked about How it Felt to be in the first wave of planes in the airstrike. The feelings apprehension and a Little nervousness gun said of his first com Bat Mission. The training is very close to the actual you Are very Sharp. You Are very Sharp. Your senses Are very aware of what s going on. Even though you re trained this is the first time people shoot at you with missiles instead of cameras a major who flew in the air assault thing. The Only thing that makes it differ ent is the feeling that you have As individuals. You be been training for a thousand Days and you never have the feeling of actually going into the major 37, who also flies one of the. $30 million tactical fighters hails from Atlanta and had seen combat from the ground during operation desert storm in the persian Gulf. His personal recollections about the air Armada s night missions Over Bosnia and Herzegovina you Are very Sharp. You Are very Sharp. Your senses Are very aware of what s going on. Even though you re trained this is the first time peo ple shoot at you with missiles instead of the Energy for such a Mission is intensive usually compared with that required for an athlete to play a full game of base Ball or football. Gunz said the Assumption is that the Force on the ground has the Best training and the Best weapons. And that they Are a but both pilots from the Buzzard Squadron did not hesitate to repeatedly use the to word training. The actions you take become absolutely automatic he said. You Don t think about them. Because they Are the Correct procedures they allow you to the pilots said that they could takeout the outlines of cities Trees and mountains during the airstrikes. They also could see cars that had their headlights on the major said. Could either Pilot estimate How much material was destroyed _ or How Many lives some pilots reported relatively Light anti aircraft fire from below. . From Page 1 a . Jet takes off thursday from Aviano a Italy As part of the nato assault on bosnian serbian targets. A Mission from Page 1 tuesday night. Your heart just started beating from so much Pride the Allen okla., native said of being part of the Mission. That s what we were Here Many among the support Crews on base said they did t know much about the politics tearing apart the former Yugoslavia but they knew their jobs and threw themselves into them full Force. Many support services members went to 12 or 24-hour shifts. The Golf course baseball Fields and track were closed As a safety precaution and to keep crowd from gathering near the flight line. Security was in creased on the loops around the hardened hangars. For Days Many members did t have time to eat or work out Davis said the focus was on getting planes in the air.". Support services members generally handle bedding feeding and fitness facilities or base personnel but last week Davis said he also was thinking about another duty mortuary affairs. He knew the possibility of combat casualties. But Davis said he was worried More about the people who were working Long shifts becoming preoccupied. He feared that Many would get careless and get into Auto accidents in the Tricky italian traffic. Many people were turning up for duty Early and Leav ing late. One lieutenant colonel said he had to Send his people away telling them look i m going to need you tomorrow. Go among those who kept the engines going was a 32-year-old technical sergeant from Detroit nicknamed motor she supported one of the stateside units on its deployment to Aviano but spoke in an interview along Side a priv i Friday when air Force officials refused to release names and units citing Security reasons the 32-year-old Jet engine Mechanic said she and those in her unit had expected their planes would go into combat but they still got hyped. She said she went to work at 10 30 one morning and did not leave until just before the next Day s Sunrise. A single Parent motor mama swaps Teddy bears with her son Ryan 8, when they Are apart. At Aviano during the recent events she handed Ryan s toy named combat Teddy to the Pilot who tucked him into the cockpit. Few listen More closely than the Jet engine Mechan the planes come Back. On that first night of the nato Blitz among those listening were firefight ers such As Truver. For this operation they pulled their trucks around the 8,592-foot runway and waited. It was about an hour and a half after the first planes took off that Truver saw the first returning string of tiny plane lights in the distance. The first plane an f-16, had a problem unknown that caused Truver to hold his breath. It turned out to be Low fuel. But it was a Good night for a run. They All came Back safely. But you Don t know said Truver. Not until you see those first seven lights in the their 2vi-hour meeting and referred the matter to governments involved in the operation said a Western dip Lomat there speaking on condition of anonymity. Envoy Richard Holbrooke a . Assistant Secretary of state was to inform the allies of his round of talks. With Balkan leaders in recent Days which set up meeting scheduled for this week of the foreign ministers of Bosnia Croatia and serbian led Yugoslavia. While Aviano waited for word on whether to resume airstrikes Wald said All Are anxiously awaiting news of the downed French pilots. Airmen have a common language a common understand the Lingo. They understand the mis Sion. So there s a common ground with airmen out there Wald said explaining the Bond the . Forces have for their fellow nato service members. When you re in the air flying other than maybe an other accent there s Zero dissimilarity he said. Wald called the massive Campaign the largest in nato history a conjunctive combined multinational Mission and said it was the bosnian Seibs Are doing is immoral the i discriminant bombing of civilians Wald said. The had to be adrenalin was pumping during the Days of airstrikes he said. The Pace was so hectic that even some lost track of the Days. The greatest concern was to avoid hitting nonmilitary targets. Every target we hit was 100 percent military related Wald said noting that targeting was in coordination with the United nations. Wald said his forces would have aggressively bombed bosnian government military Sites if they had been designated without a this is not a sides Issue. This is in support of the . There is no doubt in my mind that if. The Muslim were doing the same thing we would be bombing the other Side he said. Wald also echoed the words of president Clinton, the objective was not to destroy the Infra Structure but to Force the bosnian serbs to consider a political end to the conflict. The Vietnam Veteran with More than 3,000 hours of flying time said he had in fact flown one of last week s missions. But he added there was some sensitivity about identifying combat personnel. The commander admitted that his base at the Foo of the Alps with about 2,500 families is experiencing a bit of the Warrior spirit but he said that if people were asked whether they were glad the bombing Campaign was happening they would probably say no i wish it would go the Mission though was Well defined Wald said it s going to the same place As operation deny flight missions except that this time you re going to drop bombs on the place you be been watching for two years he said contributing to this report the associated press
