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File: aabgb_01.txtSUBJECT: 4410 OPERATIONAL SUPPORT WING(P) CONTINGENCY HISTORICAL REPORT, 13 DEC 90 - 16 FEB 91, SD#74 DESERT SHIELD/STORM SUPPORT DOCUMENT TO #00881355 Oral Interview with Lt Col Steven "Bear" Emery F-16 Detachment Commander 363 TFW, 33d TFS By: TSgt Barry L. Spink, 16 Feb 91 Transcribed by: Faye Davis S: First of all, Sir, what prompted the detachment to be brought out here to KKMC [King Khalid Military City]? E: The whole concept was simply an effort to put more bombs on target 1n a shorter period of time. The, 363d is flying out of the UAE United Arab Emirates in A1 Dhafra, just outside of Abu Dhabi. Depending upon where you go into Iraq, it is a 5-hour flight to Baghdad, and it is a 3-hour round-trip sortie just to get to Kuwait, which means a pilot and airplane will fly, at most, twice a day. Usually because of the crew rest problem it will be once a day. What we have done is, with the mission we will get into now, a guy will take off in the morning out of A1 Dhafra; he will come in and hit a tanker, drop the first load of bombs in Kuwait or Eastern Iraq, land back here, get loaded with gas and bombs in a very short period of time, which I can specify later if we have to, and take off again. From here, our average sortie duration for the second sortie is between .9 or 1.1 hours. Then he will come back, recover in here a second time, get loaded with gas, bombs, and take off; go to Kuwait, drop his bombs a third time, and then hit a tanker before recovering back into Al Dhafra. That typically means you have about an 11- to 12-hour day, but he has got three sorties, three loads of bombs on target, as opposed to one. At the same time, doing this, knowing that he is going to be able to land here where he has been able to drop external
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