11 airmen survived 2006 confrontation in Sudan

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An HC-130P takes off from Camp Lemonier on April 4. The organization's mission is to prevent conflict, promote regional stability and protect coalition interests in order to prevail against extremism.


11 airmen survived 2006 confrontation in Sudan
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 28, 2009 20:04:18 EDT

One senior airman threw his weight against the door of the HC-130 King as 150 armed Sudanese soldiers surrounded the search-and-rescue plane. He and the 16 other crew members had their orders from the State Department — “If someone comes on the plane, shoot ’em.”

What started out as “taxi duty” to pick up a U.S. military liaison in the Darfur region was now stretching into a five-hour confrontation between the Americans and the Sudanese. The soldiers were convinced the airmen were at the airfield to collect evidence of war crimes, not fly a husband back to his pregnant wife.

The classified Air Force mission nearly cost the 11 airmen and six Guam National Guardsmen their lives and could have launched the U.S. into another armed conflict if they hadn’t kept their cool.

The confrontation happened three years ago but is coming to light only now because eight of the 11 airmen on board received valor medals this summer for their actions.

In his initial report to U.S. Central Command, the commander of the 79th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron didn’t note the airmen had been taken hostage during the mission. Three months later, CentCom received a corrected report, but it was too late for the airmen to receive proper crisis counseling or an adequate intelligence debriefing. The squadron’s command, Air Combat Command, referred all questions about the mission to Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon.


Rest of Africom article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/airforce_sudan_102809w/