Hill pilots are playing prominent role in Iraq
By Stephen Speckman
Deseret Morning News
Published: February 4, 2008

Since the Iraq war began, it's usually the Army and Marines that grab headlines in local media from one state to the next. They are the boots on the ground, the people who are face to face with the enemy. Often the media attention they get is to report a death or for a feature on a hometown hero.

But above their heads in the sky is an element of the war that some say gets lost in discussions about how the ongoing war is being fought in Iraq.

"I think the Air Force has been taking a back seat in the media — rightfully so," said Lt. Col. Brick Izzi, commander of the 425th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron deployed from Hill Air Force Base.

Izzi is an 18-year Air Force veteran and an F-16 pilot currently stationed at Balad Air Base in Iraq. He readily admits that forces on the ground are most in harm's way. His job, in the air, is relatively safe, albeit somewhat lost in terms of recognizing its importance in the war effort.

"I think that the Air Force has a story to tell," Izzi said from Balad Tuesday morning, nearly 8,000 miles away from his family in Utah. "We are in the fight, we have been in the fight."

He said it's been an ongoing battle without a break for the Air Force since 1991 and the first Gulf war.

"We've been fighting this war day in and day out for 17 years," Izzi said. "I think the Air Force needs to be recognized for the amount of effort its members have put into this fight. We are engaged in this fight for the long term — and it's not easy."

In terms of weather, at least, it's cooled off in Iraq and is at least a little easier physically without the constant heat. It even recently snowed for about three hours in the Balad and Baghdad areas, Izzi said. So, there's not the relentless high temperatures most people might associate Iraq's climate.

But the climate of war in Iraq, Izzi points out, is still very much hot.

"I see a lot of action down there," Izzi said. "Those guys are engaged — they're fully engaged."

That's where guys like Izzi earn their keep in Iraq. As intelligence is gathered on the enemy and plans are made, as Izzi puts it, to counteract the insurgency, the Air Force makes its plans in a "smart way" to help from the air by taking out targets in advance with lots of technology, precision-guided weapons and an aim toward minimizing collateral damage.

"We're not trying to stir up trouble," he said. "Everything is calculated to make sure we're not providing force in a manner other than what's proper. We're not trying to overstep our bounds and create enemies."

The Air Force was all over the news earlier this month when it sent two B1-B bombers and four F-16 jets ahead of ground forces to take out specific suspected al-Qaida operations in one of the most massive air strikes since the war began in 2003. The jets in that attack were from a base in Germany.

Izzi will be in Iraq for five months. He and other Hill pilots will be in the air a lot, engaged in the ongoing fight.

"We try and do our best with very deliberate processes and excellent training," he said. "We're winning. I believe that. I think that what we're doing over here is working."

Going home now after 17 years in the fight, according to Izzi, may not be the answer. "I want to make sure we get it right," he said. "It is a war," a battle Izzi wants people to know that the Air Force is in on "every day."


E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com

Ellie