Iraqi air force spreading its wings

[unhappycamper]

Lt. Col. Mark Bennett, right, commander of the 52nd Expeditionary Flight Training Squadron, and Col. Basim, an Iraqi Air Force instructor pilot, go through pre-flight checks before taking off on a training flight with a Cessna 172 Sunday at Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq. The U.S. Air Force is helping rebuild Iraq's Air Force and last month opened a new flight training school.


Iraqi air force spreading its wings
By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, November 22, 2007


KIRKUK REGIONAL AIR BASE, Iraq — The gray plane sailed across the desert, propeller spinning at full power through the hot air before banking to the right and flying into the blinding sunshine.

Lt. Col. Mark Bennett, a U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber pilot, stopped and watched for a moment.

The single-engine Cessna 172 would hardly attract a second glance anywhere else, but in this country, the planes marked “Iraqi Air Force” are something special. To veteran Iraqi air force pilots and the American aviators advising them, the new aircraft represent the modest rebirth of Iraq’s once-formidable air force.

“It’s symbolic,” Bennett said. “It sends a message that their air force is back.”

Although rebuilding the Iraqi air force has been slow and has had some problems, there are signs the fledgling service is finally beginning to take off.

Iraqi pilots are flying reconnaissance and surveillance missions over oil pipelines and power plants. C-130 planes donated to Iraq by the U.S. Air Force fly out of Baghdad on cargo missions. In what American pilots consider a milestone, surveillance planes with cameras and thermal imaging helped Iraqi soldiers earlier this year in a mission against insurgents.


Rest of feel good article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50448

[MADem]

1. Well, I suppose it beats looking at the Iraqi Air Force from a glass bottomed boat.. NT.