Crouching airman hidden dragon: cool wings, hot wheels and ground crews keep U-2s flying over Iraq

Airman, July, 2002 by John B. Dendy, IV

Maj. Denis Steele flew his U-2 "Dragon Lady" aircraft 70,000 feet over Iraq. Done with his reconnaissance mission, he started his decent and flew into a hot desert storm.

He dropped down through the cloud of fine sand. Below was Prince Sultan Air Base, a sandblasted haven in Saudi Arabia. A recovery team waited for his arrival.

Capt. Spencer Thomas was part of that team. He sat in a chase car, waiting to help Steele land the skittish black jet. As the jet came in for touchdown, Thomas gunned his Camaro chase car and raced down the runway behind the U-2.

Rose-colored dust clouds billowed beneath the plane. Thomas' job was to tell Steele how far he was off the run-way and guide him down to a safe landing. Like the space shuttle, the U-2 is difficult to land, and the pilot can't gauge his height above the runway. So the ground team acts as a "mission control" on wheels during launch and recovery. The team of space-suited pilots and support troops works well.

"I don't think anyone kids themselves about the importance of these sorties," Thomas said. "If it's possible, we're going to get them in the air."

Teamwork is a must. Because gathering intelligence and doing surveillance and reconnaissance for Operation Southern Watch depends on getting U-2s into the sky over one of the most fiercely contested areas on Earth, Thomas said.

It's just what deployed U-2s and the airmen who fly and maintain them have done for the past 11 years. The airmen, known as the "Desert Dragons," have given the Air Force information mastery over Iraq.

High on the job

"The U-2's the best high-altitude intelligence platform the Air Force has," said Maj. Jon Guertin, the U-2 detachment commander. The jets and airmen rotate into Southwest Asia from the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.

The Beale airmen have been on the job in Saudi Arabia since August 1990 when they started flying missions over Iraq. They were permitted, but not desired by the Iraqi regime, Guertin said.

Then, Iraq started behaving like a startled and heavily armed moonshiner, cornered at his still and mad at the world. In 2001, the Iraqis launched surface-to-air-missiles in an attempt to bushwhack the U-2s.

The source was Iraq's integrated air defenses.

"Does that make me uncomfortable? Sure it does," Thomas said of Iraq's missile launches. "I keep my eyes open up there. I 'see' into other countries, but I don't have time to enjoy the view."

There are always going to be threats to the aircraft, Guertin said.

"The U-2 allows us to look into the affairs and activities of our adversaries at will," he said.

So the last thing airmen want is to have the U-2's health threatened. Conscientious ground crews keep the U-2's safety factor at a high mark, Thomas said. Its home is a cool hangar, deep inside rural Prince Sultan. Ground crews run the show.

Going mobile

Thomas is not only a chase car driver. He performs the U-2 preflight checks, positions ground crews for launch and monitors the flight. Later, he arranges the recovery team. It's the same kind of service he gets when he's in the cockpit.

"I make considerations for the pilot that I would want if I were flying the plane," he said. "I make the calls for the pilots, as they go up for or come down from missions over Iraq."

Chase cars have been part of the U-2 team since the jet joined the force. The first cars were Chevy El Caminos. Then the Air Force switched to Ford Mustangs.

"We wore out both models," said Coy Cross, the reconnaissance wing historian. "Pilots were delighted to get the new Camaros."

The coupe isn't flashy like the Z28 police pursuit model, but the low-slung Chevy can move. The wingman at the wheel has as much responsibility for landing the U-2 as the pilot.

"The driver is always a U-2 pilot. That ensures identical mindsets," said Thomas, a prior enlisted U-2 crew chief. "When I'm not flying a mission, I'm 'mobiling.'"

There's a backup Camaro in the garage, er, hangar, along with another U-2. Unlike a police car with its shotgun rack, the Desert Dragon's Camaros have radios to talk to the U-2 pilot. The fourth-generation Camaros are afterburner blue, not desert scorpion brown. They don't have moon or sun roofs; instead a high-pursuit beacon spans the roof.

Launch data enters a Camaro's radio lines from a control tower, maintenance truck and an on-field airfield observation position. Precise flight details pass over another radio line, strictly "pilot to pilot."

C-rations fit for astronauts

Airmen run the aerospace physiology shop at Prince Sultan. They get the pilots ready for flight and attend to their every need.

In the shop, a few instrument panels glow with vital signs as oxygen rushes from a tall canister to several life support tubes. The clear plastic lines stretch a few inches from a crisp yellow space suit to the enlisted U-2 medical crew.

From inside his suit, a pilot told his helper he wanted a beef and gravy meal for this flight.

"It's tube food. We have sloppy joes and chicken a la king too," said Staff Sgt. Vicente Obillo, the "old man" of the physiology airmen deployed with the Desert Dragons. The food comes in what look like toothpaste tubes. They're the meals, ready to eat, for the near-space pilots. The food is made by Gerber, the baby food maker.