Four bells over the 1MC signified 1400, and Wilson stood to face the group. “Okay, guys, seats. Attention to AOM.” Psycho killed the music and the room came to order.
In a familiar routine, each officer with a message to pass addressed the group, followed by the XO. Then, it was time for the CO to have the last word. Typically, the ground pounders were excused at this point, while the pilots remained to repeat the ritual in order to cover pilot-specific issues, but as he stood before his squadron officers, Cajun’s message was one the CO wanted all of them to hear.
“Okay, guys, welcome, or welcome back, to the Persian Gulf,” said Cajun. “In forty-eight hours we’ll be up in carrier box four and fly our first OIF hops into Iraq. We are going to spend the next four or five months flying combat missions — long ones — day and night in support of our troops. First we go to Iraq, then to Afghanistan later in the cruise. Here’s the bottom line… For the foreseeable future we are here to answer their tasking and the tasking of National Command Authority. That’s one main reason we are here. The guys on the ground are going to need us sooner or later, and we have to be on station with fused ordnance available, and we must deliver it when and where they want it. After a while, the kill box geography, and most everything else, will become routine. You’ll know the procedures by heart, and even the controller’s voices will become familiar to you. However, it is not routine for the guys on the ground. They are in a firefight, or they got hit by an IED or they see the bad guys planting one. For them it’s very, very personal, and when they need ‘fast mover’ support, they need it right now. They are in combat — and so are you.
“If you, all of you, do not have your game face on right now, you are late. If you have not made a Gulf divert chart that includes the divert fields inside Iraq, make it. And if you do not know the JDAM max release airspeed, are confused about how to preflight your expendables and set a program, do not know the Mk 80 series frag patterns in diameter and altitude, are not intimately familiar with your survival radio, have not preflighted the items in your survival vest in months, learn it or do it. Any one of dozens of small details can bite you if they drop out of your scan. So, you’ve got 24 hours to get your act together. Ask yourself where your deficiencies are and use this time wisely.
