Colorado Springs Gazette 3-28-03
From friendly skies to hostile ground
Local soldiers fly commercial to war
By JOHN DIEDRICH THE GAZETTE
Fort Carson soldiers will fly to war in the same planes ordinary Americans board every day, but it won’t feel like a typical flight.
Every passenger will carry rifles, knives and other items that would set off alarms at any airport security checkpoint.
"It is strange," said Capt. Kory Brendsel of the 4,200-soldier 3 rd Brigade Combat Team, which will leave soon for the Middle East. "Everyone who gets on the planes will have some kind of weapon."
The military routinely leases airliners to move troops, and it sets flight rules.
Troops are allowed to carry on weapons because they always must have control of their guns. They put them in the overhead compartments or at their feet. Ammunition is stored in the plane’s belly.
The troops receive an antiterrorism briefing before boarding. "They tell us, ‘If you try to do something in the air, you will be prosecuted,’ " Brendsel said.
The 3 rd Brigade and the 5,200-soldier 3 rd Armored Cavalry Regiment are scheduled to leave Colorado Springs shortly. Days and times aren’t released for security reasons.
Colorado Springs-based troops flew out in January and February on two full 283-passenger planes, said Bob Astley, a local Continental Airlines official.
The military leases airliners to move troops because it doesn’t have room on its 1,200 cargo planes.
The war against Iraq prompted the activation of a seldom-used, 52-year-old program requiring 11 airlines that do business with the Pentagon to set aside 47 planes for military use. It was activated only once before, in the Persian Gulf War.
Since Feb. 8, there have been 12 to 15 flights to the Middle East each day, costing $120 million to $200 million a month, said Navy Capt. Stephen Honda, spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command.
The flights are like a typical airline flight — there’s food and maybe a movie — but the bar is closed. A regular flight crew, which volunteers for the duty, is on board.
The troops make well-behaved passengers, said Sean Bishop, a Delta Air Lines pilot and 1981 graduate of the Air Force Academy who flew several planeloads of soldiers to the war.
"Not any of these kids complained on any trip and some of them will not come back from this war. That is the hard fact of it," Bishop, who lives in Germany, wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette.
"Taking these soldiers along with us and doing our country a service made us feel that we were contributing in a meaningful way to the war on terrorism."