Denied hot meals and indoor toilets, US airmen prepare for the fog of war
By: Valerie Insinna
August 28 at 6:00 AM
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany — A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle prepares to touch down at Poland’s Powidz Air Base when a bird strike takes out one of the fighter’s two engines, forcing an emergency landing. Meanwhile, on Powdiz’s ramp, another F-15E pilot sees a warning light turn on, halting plans to take off until further notice.
Both jets were supposed to be on the ground in Poland for a short amount of time — enough to get refueled or rearmed with inert weapons before taking off again. A broken jet is a real problem for the U.S. Air Force personnel temporarily stationed at Powdiz, and they response by immediately going into crisis mode.
It’s a perfect test for Operation Rapid Forge, a U.S. Air Force exercise held in Europe this July that was meant to test the service’s ability to rapidly deploy to partner nation bases — and in some cases, to live in the spartan conditions airmen could face in a battle with a near-peer adversary like Russia or China.
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