Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. Per Mathissen has been the FOL Ørland Commander since 2003. (Photo by...... read more read more
By Maureen Geraets-Head
ORLAND, Norway - Soft raindrops hit the faces of the newly arrived personnel from NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany, when they step down the stairs of the transport aircraft. They quickly walk across the flightline to get inside into the dry, wooden beamed hangar.
The Norwegian Forward Operating Location (FOL) Ørland will be their temporary duty station for the next few weeks. With the ongoing runway restoration project at the E-3A Component’s main operating base, the operational tasking, training and all related work continues, partly from this FOL.
During the in-briefing, Operations Officer, Capt. Dag Arne Joergensen, explains the rules and regulations applying to the newly arrived personnel who will work from the most northern NATO AWACS located operating station.
FOL’s permanent personnel strength of 22 officers and one civilian and since May this is increased with 50 to 80 men and women, military or civilians. Four NATO AWACS aircraft and two USAF KC-135 Tanker aircraft with its crews and maintenance personnel make the FOL a busy place.
“As of May 7th this year, we had to change our routines,” explains Lt. Col. Per Birger Mathisen, FOL Ørland commander since 2003. “Normally we run a morning and an evening shift. Now, with the increased operations, we had to add a third one, a swing shift. We had to do this so that during every shift there would be one of our FOL military available at in each working area. Here, from the FOL, we are supporting the Poland missions. We do this every other day and every weekend. Additionally, we support pilot sorties. We’ve just passed our average of 177 sorties per year, counting at 180 sorties as of Aug. 20, 2104.”
He continues, “There is an excellent coordination and cooperation between the MOB, its augmentees and our Norwegian host nation base - from both an operational as well as a logistic perspective - it all works out. Also, we have a very good relation with the Air National Guard tanker personnel providing air-to-air refuelling support on a daily basis, necessary for pilot training and mission support. The team spirit is wonderful – everybody is helping each other, military and civilians, officers and NCO’s, to get the job accomplished in a quick and professional way.”
Mathisen adds, “When the exercises Jawtex and Unified Vision were taking place, we experienced that there were insufficient rooms at our FOL. As a standard, we have room for 100 people, but with that many augmented personnel, we needed to double up during that timeframe. Normally, the host nation base would help out, but also they had crews staying to participate in these exercises, so accommodation was over and beyond the capacity. I’d like to mention as footnote, that we have only two cleaning ladies here at the FOL and they have been running this “big hotel”, cleaning all rooms for each rotation. They have been doing an amazing job!”
Lt. Col. Dieter Meissner, the deployment commander (DC) agrees to the Commander’s finding. “Currently, we’re flying from here the Poland support mission and pilot sorties, both with tanker aircraft support, and it’s all running very smooth,” he says. “The support from the hosting FOL is tremendous, the operations are going well.”
It is his second tour as DC at the FOL since the start of the runway project. Here, he is in charge of all flying operations and everything that comes with it, like personnel rotation and accommodation in close coordination with the FOL’s Operations office. Every fourth day, a transport aircraft flies to and from the FOL to rotate personnel, equipment and spare parts for the NATO AWACS aircraft.
For Lt. Col. Mark Pehrson, Air National Guard liaison officer, it has been a new experience to support NATO AWACS from other locations besides MOB Geilenkirchen. He says, “With the runway closure in Geilenkichen, we had to split up our operation, meaning having one tanker aircraft at the FOL and another one in the South. My assistant is covering the Southern area from Souda, Crete. And I’m taking care of business from Ørland. Except for the last two weeks, when we had both tankers here at the FOL.”
He speaks enthusiastic about the support and the facilities, “We enjoy working with Norwegian personnel. It’s awesome! They have opened their house, so to speak. I’ve been getting very positive feedback from my crews and maintenance personnel. Also, the interaction among personnel from Geilenkirchen is great here, since we are all working a staying at the same buildings and that way getting to know each other better. We’ve been enjoying the friendships!”
Editor’s Note: King Salmon is call-sign for FOL Ørland. This is not related to the placing of orders of fresh and smoked salmon in the early start up days by the visiting crews. The story goes that it used to be the call sign for a Canadian radar post that closed down in the 1970’s. Since then, this call sign was no longer in use and that’s how “King Salmon” became the FOL’s its call sign. It has been in use ever since.
| Date Taken: | 08.29.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.01.2014 04:33 |
| Story ID: | 140881 |
| Location: | ØRLAND, NO |
| Web Views: | 190 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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