Message posted by adc_dog on December 17, 2003 at 19:31:22 PST:

I am basing my suspicion on the following 3 paragraphs from the article plus the fact that (as I recall) the airfield was nearly doubled in size from the initial plans and we were having trouble trying to figure out why it needed to be so big.

"C-17 students participated in six missions during the exercise. Missions included troop insertions, aeromedical evacuations and cargo airdrops. Although actual cargo and passengers were simulated, to the aircrews that difference was transparent, Sullivan said."

"Many of the missions were developed through experiences aircrews actually faced during past combat operations, he said. The first mission flown during the exercise was very similar to the first C-17 operations in Afghanistan."

"Five years ago, I would have told you we would have never done airdrops in Iraq and Afghanistan," Wald said. "I would have told you we wouldn't have done assault landings on dirt runways. Those are great capabilities of the airplane that we were never using."

(assault landings on dirt runways)

dog

In Reply to: C-17 article posted by adc_dog on December 17, 2003 at 16:37:49 PST:

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