The Fairford few: a small group of airmen keep a base in England ready for when needed

Airman, Feb, 2005 by Orville F. Desjarlais, Jr.

The "Subway" sandwich shop, "Community Bank" and base library are all situated in quonset huts dating to World War II.

A new face here. some new paint there, but many aspects of life at this small base seem to have changed little over the last 60 years.

Outside, a small deer grazes on the lawn alongside a munitions building.

People are so scarce there's no need for a fulltime doctor or dentist--they only travel to Royal Air Force Fairford once a month to provide treatment.

Its military, working dog section consists of a single dog and it doesn't even belong to the Air Force. The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence Police owns it.

In fact, the base doesn't even have aircraft. Thing is, this Mayberry-sized town is the Air Force's future.

"Every time we get into a fistfight somewhere -either in this area or beyond this [area of responsibility] Fairford flexes its muscles and pluses up." said Gen. Robert Foglesong, U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander.

It's easy to compare Fairford to the Incredible Hulk. It's small and unassuming until it needs to expand into a military menace.

For decades, the United States believed its greatest threat was the Soviet Union. America amassed large fixed bases in strategic locations along Eastern Europe to counteract the potential communist invasion. When needed, U.S. forces deployed to Europe. It worked, but eventually the concept became outdated.

"It dawned on us in the early '90s that the Soviet Union wasn't going to be the threat we had envisioned," General Foglesong said. "There was a new threat out there, and often it was located at places where we would employ air power and initially the most vertical structure on many air fields would be the landing lights on the runway. We truly would become an expeditionary force."

The Air Force realized it needed a place with buildings and an infrastructure to handle large numbers of people in a short amount of time. It also needed a place to hone its wartime skills--thus, the birth of contingency bases, one of which is RAF Fairford.

Its core of 200 Airmen and 250 Ministry of Defense employees is able to handle an influx of 2,000 to 3,000 people. It's a mini-wing that can become a large wing in just days. On hand are 733 beds, 50 washers and dryers and 1,000 lockers.

Two bases, one squadron

The 424th Air Base Squadron has two primary installations: RAF Fairford, which is the main base with a runway, and RAF Welford, located 38 miles away, where munitions are stored.

Like most Air Force bases in Europe, RAF Fairford and Welford were built during World War II. On D-Day, in June 1944, Horsa gliders launched from both locations. After the war, the bases traded hands many times between the United States and England until December 2000, when the Royal Air Force pulled out of RAF Welford for the last time.

Since then, the most recent change to the 424th includes falling administratively under a group, as opposed to once being under command of the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.

RAF Fairford is one of five units under the command of Col. James Smith, 420th Air Base Group commander, located at Fairford.

"As I see it, I'm providing oversight of course," Colonel Smith said. "But in a way that allows these isolated units to get together and compare notes. It's important for geographically separated units to be able to overcome the distance that separates them."

The 420th Air Base Group does this by teleconferencing and putting a lot of miles on government vehicles.

The base is so small, it ...

Like most air traffic control towers, the Fairford tower is isolated on the far side of the runway. Unlike most towers, which are abuzz with activity and squawking radios, Fairford air traffic controllers get so few airplanes landing and taking off they have to go to another base to remain proficient. Usually less than 10 planes land per month. The two controllers only man the tower when aircraft are scheduled to land on its nearly 10,000 feet of runway.

For a small base, it has a lot of room, almost too much room, it seems. Two or three people work in a room built for 10, but that's the way it's designed. Deployed units will take up the extra space.

Like most small bases around the world, the "Fairford few" have learned to be flexible, many times working on things outside their career fields.

Staff Sgt. Kiera Daniels is a floor chief for the aerospace ground equipment shop. She also was once laying out the base newspaper and was the squadron commander's junior executive. She did all that during her first year-and-a-half on base.

"It isn't unique that I've been doing all these jobs," she said. "It's what makes this base tick. Out here, we respect each other's jobs. Being smaller means you can see what other people do. You get to better understand what people's jobs are."

It also means greater accountability.

"We have [company grade officers] and NCOs who are stepping up to greater responsibilities because they are at a forward operating base where there are fewer people," Colonel Smith said. "So, we have programs that are being run by technical sergeants that are frequently administered at a main operating base by senior master sergeants."