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Airmen protect President during travels across Europe

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stacy Fowler
  • 552nd ACW Public Affairs
Tinker Air Force Base --  While President George W. Bush prepared to visit several countries in Europe for the G8 Conference during June, Airmen and aircraft from the 552nd Air Control Wing also made preparations - to help protect their commander in chief during his travels. 

"We constantly train for a variety of missions, and POTUS (President of the United States) missions are some of the most critical ones we fly," said Lt. Col. D.J. Johnson, commander of the 964th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron. "Our mission is to ensure the president is protected against any possible attack when he travels. There isn't a more important mission for us." 

During President Bush's travels over and across Europe, NATO E-3 aircraft were able to support the majority of airborne surveillance, command and control. But there were a few gaps that the European Command tasked the 552nd ACW crews to cover, ensuring a continuous and seamless air surveillance picture. 

E-3 Sentry aircraft and crews based their operations at Naval Air Station Souda Bay, Crete, and worked closely with the Navy to ensure the aircraft were secured and the Airmen were taken care of during their stay. 

"The Navy has been incredible with their assistance of our POTUS mission," said Col. Jim Dew, 401st Air Expeditionary Group commander. "This mission would have been much more difficult without them. Not only have they given us outstanding support with finding quick billeting for a large group, keeping our Airmen well-fed at their dining facility and club and protecting them on base and downtown, they have also kept 24-hour surveillance of the E-3s while they are on the flightline, as well as given us our own areas for maintenance and ops to help ensure mission completion." 

With the support of the Navy, E-3 aircraft and crews flew several practice missions June 8 and 9 - and overcame several communication and tanker maintenance challenges - before their real-world command and control mission on June 10. 

"We had several issues during our practice sorties on Friday that had to be rectified before Sunday," said Maj. Gavin Marks, 964th EAACS director of operations. "So we spun up a last-minute sortie for the next day, and were able to get those issues resolved." 

According to Maj. James Donkin, the mission crew commander of the June 9 practice sortie, some of the potential fixes had already been given to the crews - Airmen just needed to test them to make sure they were viable solutions. 

"We were able to take the lessons learned from the earlier sorties, implement the solutions and complete the practice sortie without any major problems - which helped clear the way for successful sorties [Sunday]," Major Donkin said. 

Once President Bush left their area of coverage during the rest of his travels, Airmen from the 552nd ACW were also able to head home - with new stories to tell, and new lessons learned. 

"It's been great being able to come out here, see different countries and meet people from different cultures," said Master Sgt. Doug Cataline, a flight engineer in the 964th EAACS. "We were able to show some of the host nation and Navy personnel our aircraft, and it's paid huge dividends for us. The Greeks and the Navy had never been inside the E-3, and they were blown away - we were also able to show them that we are not a 'spy plane,' which probably helped take care of any concerns they might have had. The people here are outstanding and very nice, and the downtown and beach areas have been awesome. I'm ready to come back here again!" 

So in addition to protecting the President, Airmen of the 552nd ACW also came away from this mission with the added bonus of promoting goodwill and cooperation with people of diverse cultures and different branches of service. 

"This trip has been a great experience for all of us," Colonel Johnson said. "We have done an incredibly important mission, and have enriched the lives of our Airmen and the people of Souda Bay."