By Sgt. Whitney Houston
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE WAR EAGLE, Iraq – Every time a helicopter flies overhead, one can't help but watch the magnificence of a machine that defies the laws of gravity.
Rarely would anyone think of the time and preparation it takes to coordinate those flights; the Brigade Aviation Element for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, toils daily to ensure air operations go smoothly within its operational environment.
"We deal with helicopter operations and pretty much schedule, plan and track all of the flights that are submitted through our brigade. The way we plan for this is through air mission requests, which take around three days to approve," said Staff Sgt. James Tebbe, a native of Reno, Nev., serving with BAE, 3rd BCT, 4th Inf. Div. "We take the request and send it up to division, where it gets filtered through an approval process. And finally, Soldiers, commanders and pretty much anyone who needs to move efficiently and safely throughout the battlefield in a timely manner, can do so."
Coordination of flights is a continuous mission and demands nearly all of the time and focus of the dedicated Soldiers' who work within the BAE.
"A typical day starts out with a mountain of requests, and we basically sift through them and see what we need to submit by what times. We are basically submitting those requests throughout 12- to 14-hour days. We are constantly adjusting for things that will happen or did not happen the day before," said Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Green, a Jackson, Miss., native, serving with BAE, 3rd BCT, 4th Inf. Div.
As time draws nigh to leave Iraq, the BAE has started making preparations to move Soldiers serving with the Striker Brigade to where they need to be in order to take off for home.
"We're in charge of getting 3,500 to 3,800 Soldiers out of this AO, and we're probably right on target. Our biggest concern is that our numbers match up and timelines are met as far as when the helicopter comes in and how many Soldiers get on and, at the same time, ensuring everything runs smoothly and safely," Tebbe said.
"Right now we are formulating a manifest and figuring out how many people we gotta move and to what locations," added Green. "That number of people will play a part in which type of aircraft we'll use, like Chinooks for larger loads or Blackhawks for the smaller ones."
The strenuous work of BAE Soldiers may, at time, seem to fly under the radar. However, the Soldiers witness and appreciate the fact their hard work keeps Soldiers from encountering improvised-explosive devices.
"We enjoy keeping Soldiers off of potentially dangerous roads and getting them where they need to be as quickly and safely as possible," Tebbe said.
| Date Taken: |
01.07.2009 |
| Date Posted: |
01.07.2009 06:01 |
| Story ID: |
28545 |
| Location: |
BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: |
160 |
| Downloads: |
133 |
PUBLIC DOMAIN
This work, Striker Brigade aviation element plans for takeoff, by SFC Whitney Houston, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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