Desert Shield Has Dover AFB Hopping Around the Clock

At the world’s largest military cargo base, busier during Operation Desert Shield than ever before, six-story Lockheed C-5 Galaxies fly in and out around the clock as they shuttle supplies to U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.

Helicopters, tanks, trucks, food, clothing, spare parts--everything needed by the troops is brought to Dover AFB from across the nation by more than 130 trucks a day and packed into the C-5s, which stretch nearly the length of a football field, for the long flights halfway around the world. Each plane’s cargo compartment, the size of an eight-lane bowling alley, is big enough to airlift six transcontinental buses, 48 Cadillacs or 106 Mustangs.

Col. Rich Fabbre, 47, a tall Texan with 22 years in the Air Force, recalled that “I went all through Vietnam flying C-141s loaded with cargo from Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino to resupply the troops in the Far East.” But “the pace here the past five months has been much more intense because of the rapid (military) buildup,” added Fabbre, who is commanding officer of the aerial port squadron at Dover.

Lt. Col. Lars Lindenhall, 47, of Annapolis, Md., and Maj. Mike Kelley, 39, of Dover, are commercial airline pilots in Air Force Reserve units who volunteered to be activated and have been flying out of Dover since Aug. 18, less than three weeks after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

“I added it up this morning. I’ve flown 55 sorties so far,” Kelley said to Lindenhall as they awaited the departure of their latest flight. For his part, Lindenhall hadn’t kept track. Each sortie is a leg of a flight, from Dover to a staging area in Europe, from Europe to Saudi Arabia, back to Europe, then back to the United States.

“It takes us seven to eight hours to fly from here to one of the bases in Europe. Then we lay over for nearly a day before flying another Galaxy to Saudi. We pick up another pilot for that run,” Lindenhall explained.

“On the Saudi flights we’re gone about 20 hours--seven hours down (to Saudi Arabia), 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours on the ground unloading, then 7 1/2 back to Europe. Crews rest, then fly other trips in the C-5 from bases in Europe to and from Saudi Arabia.”

The seven-person C-5 crews--two pilots, two flight engineers and three load masters--are gone for up to two weeks, then return to the United States for sometimes as little as 12 hours. Then they’re flying again.

“I lucked out. I was home Dec. 18 when my daughter, Justine, was born,” Kelley said.

Lindenhall is a Northwest Airline pilot, while Kelley flies for USAir. Both men’s jobs are on hold until the Iraqi situation is resolved. When they came aboard at Dover, they were told by military officials that they would be rotated out in three months. Now, it’s indefinite.

Kelley said a “phenomenal amount of stuff (is) being flown over there” and added that he is still “amazed at the miles of lighted freeways at night in Saudi Arabia with no vehicles on them.”

“There is no similarity whatsoever in flying the Saudi runs and our jobs as commercial airline pilots,” Lindenhall said. “At Northwest I knew exactly when I would be flying, when I would be home. Not now. This is a job that has to be done. But for the C-5 pilots and crew it is very boring--long, long hours, little happening. Of course, we all hope it ends without anybody getting hurt.”

“Everything has gone extremely well, partially because we were ready when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. We were four days away from a once-every-two-years readiness inspection designed to test the base’s readiness for going to war,” Fabbre said.

“It was like final exam week around here. We had prepared for months for the readiness inspection. When the Iraqi thing happened, it was almost like we didn’t have to shift into high gear. We were already there.”

During the first weeks of the buildup, all materiel was sent by plane. Now, Fabbre said, 90% of the military are by sea-lift and 10% by airlift. Even so, the airlift from Dover--which accounts for 80% of everything flown in to the troops--continues in high gear.

In addition to flying cargo, planes from the air base--including C-141s and commercial DC-10s and 747s--also carry troops to the Persian Gulf. And Dover will continue to play a sad but necessary role in the long aerial link if formal hostilities begin: It is the nation’s military mortuary for victims of wars, disasters and terrorist acts.