AFM’s visit. Although Osan is considered a
remote assignment, ‘Crush’ put it at the top of
his list after his prior assignment as an F-16
instructor at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and
said he “was looking forward to getting back
to an operational base. There’s a real mission
here that goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year, with a real threat that’s very close to us.”
He added: “Also, we train exactly where
we would fight, so this is the squadron
building we would fight out of. We wouldn’t
deploy somewhere else to fight our war.
We can do it right here. Ironically, it’s also
ended up being a fantastic assignment
for my family too. They’ve really enjoyed
it here. It’s a very close-knit group.”
Focused fl ying
“I think Osan is quickly becoming a highly
sought-after assignment for F-16 pilots,”
continued ‘Crush’. “Years ago, most would try
to avoid Korea if they could. Over the last few
years, other F-16 units have had a high ops
tempo with deployments to the desert, whereas
here you can count on coming home every night.
“Also, since we have a very real threat close
by, the recent budget cuts have not been
felt as badly here as some other places.
That means we typically fly more and get a
lot more support financially, which leads to
better training and higher morale for us.”
Capt ‘Jigga’ Watts, another ‘Fiend’ F-16 pilot,
agrees. He had moved from a stateside ‘Viper’
unit that was “flying just the bare minimum”.
His old unit even stopped flying for
a few months due to budget cuts,
whereas at Osan he flew “twice as
much as I ever have and ever will.
We’re shifting [political focus] to the
Pacific... Our focus is more on the threat that’s
going on here right now. That’s because we’re
so focused on being ready, so we are ready.”
‘Crush’ O’Connor said the average
F-16 pilot in their squadron at Osan was
flying around 250 hours per year. “The
goal for inexperienced pilots is to fly ten
times a month and experienced pilots
eight times a month. However, our
inexperienced pilots usually eclipse that.”
As an example, Lt ‘Alamo’ Morical – at the
time the only USAF female fighter pilot in Korea- went to the ‘Fiends’ at Osan straight from
training at Luke AFB. After a little more than
a year, she upgraded to four-ship flight lead –
something that normally takes almost two years
in a stateside fighter squadron. Osan was her
first choice because she had heard it “puts you
on a good, very tactical setting for your flying
career and allows you to grow from there”.Kunsan
Around 100 miles (160km) south of Osan AB are
the two F-16 squadrons of the 8th Fighter Wing
(FW), stationed at Kunsan AB. Capt ‘Mace’
Dover of the 35th FS ‘Pantons’ has been flying
the ‘Viper’ for several years. After finishing
F-16 training at Luke, his first assignment was
to the 35th FS at Kunsan;
then to Hill AFB, Utah,
where he became
the F-16 west coastA pair of GBU-31 JDAMs awaits loading
on a 35th FS F-16C Block 40 in a hardened
aircraft shelter (HAS) at Kunsan AB.
Perhaps surprisingly, the USAF Block 40s
in Korea began to receive the satellite-
guided GBU-31 only after the ROKAF’s
F-16 fl eet gained the capability.4848 // // JULY 2018 #364JULY 2018 #364 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com
USAF in Korea
Korean
standoff