Strike Eagles fly dawn patrol

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan: It's two o'clock in the morning.  A bus pulls into a parking space at Camp Cunningham in the heart of Bagram Air Field. Aircrew members, still wiping the sleep from their eyes, climb on board and head out.

While the rest of Bagram sleeps, these F-15E Strike Eagle pilots and weapons systems officers get ready to protect coalition forces yet again in their ever-vigilant close-air support mission.

This is the dawn patrol.

"Dawn patrol, put simply, is just a time that we fly," said Capt. Vanessa Mahan, a weapons systems officer, or WSO, deployed from Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.  "This is the first go for the day shift, getting up real early before the sun rises."

While just the thought of waking up so early may seem daunting, pilots and WSOs have other difficulties to face. The air and ground crews must perform a thorough preflight inspection with little more than dim illumination from their flashlights. One oversight in preflight and setup could mean the difference between mission success and failure, the difference of life and death for the aircrew and the coalition forces they protect.

It doesn't get easier with sunrise. Blinding light of the new day's sun washes out instrument panels and the glare makes even routine tasks, like refueling, a challenge.

For Captain Mahan though, it's also a rewarding experience. She enjoys waking up early and seeing the sun rise each day.

A crew chief with the 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron marshals a dawn patrol F-15E Strike Eagle at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, Aug. 27. The two F-15Es that made up the dawn patrol taxied out just as first light began to break over the picturesque mountains of Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse) More Military Pictures

"If you go east, it's all mountains up there, and in the winter they're all snow-covered. It's gorgeous. This really is a beautiful country," she said.

However, the beauty doesn't distract her from her mission. As a weapons systems officer, she is charged with making sure her F-15E's munitions are used timely, effectively and precisely. She talks with the joint terminal attack controllers on the ground, often when they are just waking up. In the ground-based fighting in Afghanistan, the F-15Es perform close-air support for coalition forces.

"CAS is my favorite," said Captain Mahan.  "I think it's one of our, as WSOs, primary roles, where we get to shine."

Her tenacity for flying and being a WSO stems back to her freshman year at Purdue University as a member of the Air Force ROTC detatchment . She already had developed a love for flying from her father, a private pilot and instructor, and wanted to be one of the best. Poor eyesight prevented her from becoming a pilot, but without a second thought, she embraced a career as an F-15E WSO.

Nearing the end of her extended deployment here at Bagram, Captain Mahan still expresses a deep commitment and love for her profession.

"When things go bad for the guys on the ground, it's your time to put a stop to it ... That's probably one of the best feelings when you know you're helping them out.  You're saving their lives by putting bombs on target on time."

Flying over Afghanistan as the new day breaks, Captain Mahan gets a feeling of hope; hope the new day will be better than the last in this war-torn country.

When asked what she would like to say to everyone back home, her answer was simple: "We're doing the right thing."