Air Traffic Runs Skies of Iraq

[unhappycamper]

Air Traffic Runs Skies of Iraq
Air Force News | SrA Travis Edwards | January 04, 2008

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq - It looks simple in theory. All you have to do is keep little blips on a screen from bumping into each other. Now consider that those blips represent billions of dollars of government assets and hundreds of lives, all relying on one person's ability to control air traffic.

This is the job of the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron radar air traffic controllers here, working in one of the busiest combined en route radar approach, or CERAP, control facilities, where it's not unfamiliar to see more than 550 aircraft operations in just one day.

But don't confuse these radar controllers with tower controllers who manage the airport.

"We manage all the arrivals and departures of aircraft in middle Iraq," said Staff Sgt. Elida Bermudez, a 332nd EOSS air traffic controller and CERAP watch supervisor, deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

"It's different working here than anywhere else I've been," Sergeant Bermudez said. "The workload -- the airspace -- I'm used to only heavies, and all it takes is one phone call to take most of our airspace away, leaving us with only a minimal amount of airspace to work with."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,159446,00.html