by Staff Sgt. Karina Jennings
100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE STATION MILDENHALL, England (AFNS) -- The 488th Intelligence and 95th Reconnaissance Squadrons completed their 1,000 Rivet Joint sortie on Oct. 17. Rivet Joint aircraft provide direct, near real-time reconnaissance information and electronic warfare support to theater commanders and combat forces.
The statistics behind this achievement are impressive. To accomplish this feat in just over four years, the units flew the 1,000 missions in 1,588 days, logging more than 9,140 flying hours. This equates to an average of 9.2 hours per sortie.
But long hours and commitment to duty are nothing new for these people, said Lt. Col. T.J. Kopf, 488th IS commander, and they've proven they can be counted on to get the job done, no matter what obstacles lay before them.
"It has not been an easy thing to fly this many missions," Kopf said, "because it wears down the body and affects families. But our people have done it and done it well no matter what the mission. Now we're celebrating that feat."
Lt. Col. Chuck Bradbury, 95th RS commander, echoed Kopf's comments and added that achieving this milestone wasn't a goal, it's a result of day-to-day excellence. "We work one day at a time," he said. "We focus on each mission separately and when the next day rolls around we do it again. It's really an accumulation of day-to-day work which proves the dedication and commitment to duty of the members of these squadrons."
Not to be forgotten are two other units that work in tandem with the 95th and 488th and which have been just as instrumental in this flying achievement. The 38th and 343rd Reconnaissance Squadrons from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., supply the pilots and electronic warfare officers respectively
When the first Rivet Joint mission in the Adriatic took off July 10, 1992 in support of Operation Provide Promise, the crew on board never expected that eight contingency operations and four years later they would still be performing missions in this region.
"It's truly amazing," said Capt. Rich Caskey, 343rd RS tactical coordinator who flew the 1,000 mission. "I first flew these missions with the 95th in 1992, shortly after it started, and never imagined I would still be here four years later. Of course at the time there really wasn't much thought of how long we would be doing it, but looking back now it's hard to believe."
In many ways, following the path of these units from the time they flew their first Bosnian Rivet Joint mission to now resembles a history lesson. They began by supporting the humanitarian air drop missions of Provide Promise, moved to the patrolling of the no-fly zone with Operation Deny Flight, then the air strikes of Operation Deliberate Force and are now helping keep the peace with Operation Joint Endeavor.
According to Master Sgt. Stephen Spencer, 488th Serbo-Croatian crypto-linguist, what keeps their job so challenging is their changing missions. When he arrived here in 1993, they were supporting the NATO air drop missions over Bosnia.
These were dark missions, he said, because they were primarily flying at night. Then they moved into Operations Deny Flight and Deliberate Force where U.S. forces involved needed near real-time information.
"Now we're supporting Joint Endeavor and the forces enforcing the Dayton Peace Agreement," Spencer said. "And who knows what's going to happen next. But inevitably, (Joint Endeavor) will end, things will change and we'll have to adapt to a different mission."
Spencer, who's been in 18 years, said his life here has been relatively stable because he hasn't been TDY much, but his flying time has increased tremendously.
"In this era of contingency ops I've flown 221 missions in my three years here," the master sergeant said, "whereas in this same time frame in the past I only flew 80. That's how we've picked up 1,000 missions in this short amount of time."
One 488th member used to be on the receiving end of Rivet Joint information. Maj. Kurt Wilkerson, 488th IS operations officer, was an intelligence officer aboard Joint Stars during the beginning of Joint Endeavor and he had many opportunities to work directly with the Rivet Joint team.
"I was one of the guys on the other side and I've seen the outstanding work of the 95th and 488th," he said. "And whether I was talking to the Ravens (electronic warfare officers) up front or the 488th guys in back, I always got a quick answer and they were always ready to help. It really made a difference knowing the RJs were up there." (Courtesy USAFE News Service)