Photo By Tech. Sgt. Francesca Popp | Air Force Airman 1st Class Eric Ring, 407th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron,...... read more read more
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By Tech Sgt. Francesca Popp
407th Air Expeditionary Group
ALI BASE, Iraq – For the son of a Bennetsville woman, life at this coalition air base in isolated southern Iraq, is a struggle of extremes. A dusty haze fills the sky, as the winds blow over the cracked-soil streets that were baked the desert sun, making life constantly a challenge for the men and women supporting the Air Force's only major airfield in the southern part of the country.
Air Force Airman 1st Class Eric J. Ring, son of Barabara R. Quick of Lightwood Road in Bennettsville, S.C., is one of more than 700 Airmen deployed to this desolate outpost with important missions that range from receiving and sending cargo, airspace control and managing the MQ-1B unmanned aerial system, the Predator. He is supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.
Ring, a flight line entry controller, provides security to all the Airmen and aircraft on the base. "I help protect important Air Force resources, as well as Navy aircraft," said Ring, a 2007 graduate of Marlboro County High School. "I help deter any enemy threat to our mission here. I enforce who is allowed access to the flight line and, by doing so, it deters enemy attempts to gain access and possible harm to our mission in southern Iraq."
Originally named Tallil Air Base, Ali was one of the first bases coalition forces established following the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ali is the home of the 407th Expeditionary Group, along with an Army combat brigade and coalition forces from Australia and Romania.
Ring said that without him and other security forces Airmen, anyone could gain access to areas where they shouldn't be. "It only takes that one person to create harm to our resources, aircraft and personnel," said Ring, who has been in the Air Force for one year.
Extreme conditions, coupled with living in a tent city where showers, dining and recreation are long walks away and the further stress of being away from family and friends, makes Ring miss things most Americans take for granted.
"I miss the comforts of home, such as wearing civilian clothes, hanging out with friends and most of all my family," Ring said. "While I miss those things, there's not much that I don't have here. The Air Force provides me with just about everything we could want or need."
Once his six-month deployment ends, Ring will return to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz. Before joining the Air Force, Ring was a member of the Junior ROTC program at Marlboro County High School.
| Date Taken: | 10.17.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 10.17.2008 07:46 |
| Story ID: | 25129 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 170 |
| Downloads: | 152 |
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