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File: aabfd_04.txtThe long fold in the fighter operation is the weapon storage area. After the first few days of the war, we began loading iron bombs here for the A-10, and then subsequently F-16s began operating with the standard load of four Mark 84 2,000-pound general purpose bombs. We have the capability in our weapon storage area to generate for the A-10 about 600 iron bombs a day, so that will require mixing ordnance a good bit to get to that 300 sorties a day since generally the A-10 is using four to six iron bombs per mission. The F-16s will be able to handle the four Mark 84s to support their 64 to 70 sorties. Mixing that ordnance for the A-l0 with Mark 20 CBU [cluster bomb unit] and Mavericks will let us get to the 300 and sustain that level as long as we get the necessary ammunition resupplied. The other long fold, of course, is fuel. The Army has done an excellent job of supporting that. We got a young captain in here from Keesler [AFB MS] about 2 weeks into the war. Captain Forester came to us and was appointed our fuels officer and has done an excellent job of insuring that the fuel resupply, maintenance, and operation of our roughly 2 million gallons of fuel storage here on the airfield, or adjacent thereto, and six bladder refueling points have been well maintained and manned, so he has done an excellent job in assuring that aspect was handled correctly. From a lessons learned perspective, I don't think there have been any big surprises. The cooperation of our Saudi hosts certainly has been absolutely essential. It has clearly been a very personality driven problem insuring the right people were interfacing with the Saudis in a manner that the Saudis were comfortable with, and that has been a big key to our success. In that regard, Captain McManus has done an excellent job. 4
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