MAINEiacs called to duty

BANGOR — Should the standoff between the United States and Iraq lead to war, it’s a fairly sure bet that the Maine Air National Guard’s 101st Air Refueling Wing stationed here will play a significant role.

Tensions are escalating between the United States and Iraq, who last squared off on the battlefields during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Each day seemingly increases the chance of repeat action.

The United States has threatened to use force unless Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gives United Nations weapons inspectors unlimited access to suspected weapons sites in Iraq. Saddam, who has complained about the number of Americans on the U.N. inspection team, so far has refused.

To date, military Reserve units in Maine have not been issued any alerts to increase readiness because of Iraqi threats, according to an Air Guard base spokesman. Such a call would have to be issued by President Clinton, who has the authority to activate up to 200,000 troops before having to obtain congressional authority.

Congress is now in recess and isn’t scheduled to resume business until members return Feb. 23.

Asked Monday if the Maine-based tanker unit might be called upon to serve should diplomacy fail to resolve the conflict between the United States and Iraq, base spokesman Lt. Col. William Beutel said, “Absolutely.”

Beutel could not predict, however, whether “pieces or parts or the whole wing” could be called up, or whether Maine’s Guard members would be operating a staging area here at home or be sent out into the field.

Of the 13 ANG tanker units around the country in 1991, the home of the 101st is the closest to Europe, which makes its location strategic.

The Bangor base was one of two operations centers on the East Coast that planned and handled all refueling missions during the Persian Gulf War. The other center was established at Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire.

From August 1990 through May 1991, the Bangor-based tanker wing handled 656 missions and logged 2,112 flying hours.

The 10 KC-135 planes it had then provided nearly 17 million pounds, or more than 4 million gallons, of fuel to U.S. aircraft en route to and returning from the Persian Gulf.

The 101st, which now has 12 tankers, participated in at least four times its normal number of refueling missions during the Gulf War.

Beutel said that the role of the nation’s Guard and Reserve units has expanded since the Persian Gulf War.

The Air National Guard now has close to 75 percent of the U.S. Air Force’s aircraft inventory.

Though its workload is four times what it was in 1989, the ANG is operating with two-thirds of the work force it had then.

“We’re not saying this to toot our own horns. That’s a fact of life,” Beutel said.

On any given day, Beutel said, five of the Bangor unit’s 12 planes are “out in the world,” involved in such missions as supporting the U.N.’s peacekeeping mission in Bosnia or supporting NATO missions in such places as Germany.