Below:
Lt Col Barasch
pre-flights his
jet prior to a
mission during
‘Load Diffuser’ in
Hungary in 2017.
USAF/SMSgt
Beth Holliker
Bottom: The
fabulous full-color
tail markings
applied to the
‘boss bird’ are
shown to good
effect during a
local mission from
Toledo.we received two more, plus we received
an increase in resources to expand our
maintenance manning. That had been in
the works for a long time.
‘Because we have an increased
experience level, the active-duty sends us
new pilots to receive their initial mission
qualification training for their first three-
year tour. They deploy with us and they are
required to fly the same levels of readiness
as we do, so we can take an inexperienced
guy and get them to at least wingman
status. In fact, one of them is already into
his instructor upgrade. They are then fed
back into the active air force.’
With the USAF struggling to train
sufficient numbers of new pilots, while
losing experience at the same time, thisis a ‘win-win’ situation. The addition of TFI
crossovers means the average guard unit
has the added benefit of more full-time
staff. Barasch says that the TFI pilots ‘blend
right in’ with the new pilots who come
through the ANG system.The alert mission
In terms of enduring commitments,
Aerospace Control Alert (ACA) in support
of NORAD (North American Aerospace
Defense Command) drives much of
the 112th’s operations. The squadron’s
location means it regularly gets tasked by
vector controllers at the East and West Air
Defense Sectors (EADS and WADS). ‘From
Toledo we can cover 60 per cent of the US
population within 600 miles of here’, sayshttp://www.combataircraft.net // May 2018 75
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