Loring AFB personnel to assist in operation Desert Shield

LIMESTONE — Loring Air Force Base personnel have departed to take part in operation Desert Shield.

Strategic Air Command officials said Tuesday that planes and personnel from Loring AFB had been deployed to Southwest Asia in support of American involvement in the Middle East.

“The location of the deployment and the number of aircraft and people (deployed) could not be released due to safety and security reasons,” the Loring AFB public affairs office said. The Air Force declined to specify whether Loring’s conventional B-52 bombers or KC-135 tankers or both types of aircraft had been sent to the Southwest Asia theater of operations.

Personnel assigned to the northern Maine installation said Monday that Loring’s squadron of B-52s was no longer at the station. The Loring public affairs office said it could neither confirm nor deny that all of the base’s B-52s had left the 10,000-acre facility.

Lt. Gen. Charles A. Horner, commander of 9th Air Force Tactical Air Command and a visitor to Loring last March, was elevated to command all American air and ground forces in Saudi Arabia, Loring personnel were informed. Horner was a speaker at the Eastern Region Company Grade Officers Council when he visited Loring.

“General Horner is the air component commander and in charge of forces on the ground in Saudi Arabia,” said Capt. Sam Grizzlecq, a spokesman at the Pentagon. “He’s the senior commander on the ground for U.S. involvement, reporting to the commander-in-chief of the U.S. central command.”

Grizzle wouldn’t say how many men and planes Horner had under his jurisdiction as commander of operation Desert Shield.

Stationed at Shaw Air Force Base, Horner said here last March that the role of fighter aircraft hadn’t changed greatly. “Our primary role is to provide deterrence,” he said, “to show that we are ready to support our national policy.”

Horner, a veteran of 111 combat missions in Vietnam, also said, “You look at some of the poor countries in Africa and the Middle East, and their wars are internal within their borders. It’s a tragedy because millions of people are starving. So I think our military forces have a role there in resolving conflicts in a very peaceful way. Providing stability to legitimate governments. Building bridges between people.”

“We are extremely proud of the men and women who have deployed from Loring,” said Col. Al Jorgensen, vice commander of the Loring 42nd Bombardment Wing. “They have been called upon to support the United States effort in Southwest Asia.”

Paul Haines, chairman of the Keep Loring Air Force Base committee, said he didn’t know how many Loring B-52s might have left in the American overseas buildup. Loring became a conventional B-52 base in 1988 after being on nuclear-capable alert for 35 years. “They’re apparently going to need every cannon they can get over there (in Saudi Arabia),” said Haines.

Loring officials also announced that because of the base’s support of operation Desert Shield, the annual Loring air show scheduled for Sept. 8 had been postponed indefinitely. Officials said they would try to reschedule the annual activity as soon as possible.

Staff Sgt. Don Moncrief of the Loring public affairs office said that contrary to reports that Loring planes may have departed earlier this summer during runway repairs, Loring aircraft had remained on base during a resurfacing of the runway, shifting from day to night missions.

The Strategic Air Command news service said earlier that SAC KC-135 and KC-10 refueling tankers had deployed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Diego Garcia, an island installation in the Indian Ocean, as part of SAC’s support of the U.S. forces deployment to the Persian Gulf region.