Wake Island

One of the pilots with whom I work with also happens to be a flight planner in the U.S. Air Force here in HNL. Recently he was tasked with handling a group of aircraft movements. Major Madson, call sign "Maddog" headed to Wake Island to dispatch the aircraft that were on layover and get them to their final destination.
While on Wake, he happened to take some photo's and sent them to me.
(All photo's, except where noted, courtesy of Maj. Madson)

Here's some background info on Wake. Wake Island (also known as Wake Atoll, pronounced /weik/) is a coral atoll having a coastline of 12 miles (19 km) in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu 2,300 statute miles (3,700 km) west to Guam 1,510 statute miles (2,430 km) east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior. Access to the island is restricted, and all current activities on the island are managed by the United States Air Force.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo

The Battle of Wake Island began simultaneously with the Attack on Pearl Harbor and ended on 23 December 1941, with the surrender of the American forces to the Empire of Japan. It was fought on and around the atoll formed by Wake Island and its islets of Peale and Wilkes Islands by the air, land and naval forces of the Empire of Japan against those of the U.S., with Marines playing a prominent role on both sides.

The island was held by the Japanese until September 4, 1945, when the remaining Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines.

Welcome to Wake Island!

Admiralty Command Post on the beach. The sign in the picture reads:

Historical Site

 Japanese Admiralty

Command Post Built

By American Civilian POWS - Completed

1942

Another site built by American Civilian POWs, This sign reads:

Historical Site

Japanese Aircraft

Revetments Built By

American Civilian

POWS - Completed

1943

Maj. Madson standing next to "98 Rock".

The "98 Rock" is a memorial for the 98 U.S. civilian contract POWs who were forced by their Japanese captors to rebuild the airstrip as slave labor, then were blind-folded and killed by machine gun Oct. 5, 1943.

 An unidentified prisoner escaped, and chiseled "98 US PW 5-10-43" on a large coral rock near their mass grave, on Wilkes Island at the edge of the lagoon. The prisoner was recaptured and beheaded by the Japanese admiral, who was later convicted and executed for war crimes.

The shell, of what once was the bunker for Major James Devereux, commander of the First Marine Defense Battalion on Wake Island.

Major Devereux fought for the defense of Wake for 15 days before being captured with his men and taken as a POW

The Marine Corps Memorial on Wake Island in remembrance of those who served there during the battle

The Base Operations Building on the airfield

The flight line with it's complement of A-10 and F-18 "Super Hornets" in the early morning awaiting their crews

During this mission, Maj. Madson caught a ride on an KC-10 mid air refuel over and back from Wake to dispatch the A-10 and Hornets. During which time he was able to take some shots of the mid-air refuel of a couple of the aircraft's

A refueling A-10 Thunderbolt, better known as the "Warthog"

And here, a Navy F-18 gets "topped off" by the Hawaii Air National Guard somewhere over the Pacific

Thanks again to Maddog for allowing me share these photo's of a very historic and important part of American History.

Lest We Forget...

Military Aviation in Hawaii

Hawaii has always been a focal point of the U.S. Military. A strategic point in the Pacific. We are a critical link in the defense of the U.S. As some may or may not know, HNL is a joint civilian/military airfield. On any given day you can see a variety of military aircraft coming or going from here.

Here's a look of some of the aircraft that I have seen from my office window.

The U.S. Marine Corps VIP C-20, also known as the "Grey Ghost

 A USAF C-40B Executive transport aircraft

A USAF C-130 Hercules aircraft arriving and taxing to Joint Base Pearl Harbor/Hickam, Hawaii

 A Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 departing via RWY 22L in HNL

 A Navy F-18 Super Hornet after departing 08L in HNL

 Followed by a USAF KC-10 airborne refueler

 Another refueler, the old but venerable KC-135 departing RWY 22L on a rainy day

 A US Navy P-3 Orion  turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft. As Ryan, a visitor to my blog pointed out, that Navy P-3 was recently painted in that old seaplane paint scheme in honor of the Centennial of Naval Aviation.
Thanks Ryan!

A USAF C17 based out of Elmendorf AFB in Alaska takes the high speed
after landing on 04R in HNL

And a pair of UH-60 of the U.S. Army practicing the ILS on RWY 08 at HNL

And probably the most recognized aircraft in the world...

Air Force One lands at Hickam Air Force (AFB) with US President George W. Bush on board for his first visit to Hawaii while holding office. On the ground, the second Boeing VC-25A.

(I've seen Air Force One twice, but never had a camera with me, so I got this photo from Wikipedia. Photo credit: CPL Roman Gray, USMC)

Hawaii is proud of it's service to our country and also of it's military personnel. These island will remain an integral part of the U.S. Military and the U.S.A. to ensure that all people and countries of the Pacific region remain a safe place

More Thunderbolts

These three A-10's "A" models are returning from a Maintenance check flight after being sidelined for a few days at Hickam AFB (PHIK)

These aircrafts are from the 25th Fighter Squadron based in Osan, Korea.

Looks like everything checked out

PILSUNG!

Thunderbolts

Early Friday morning, I was given the opportunity to observe the dispatching of a group of A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft that were relocating from Korea to stateside.

The morning started early at 0030L at the ACC operations building at Hickam AFB. I was given a briefing by the Maj, Madson who showed me what essentially was a dispatch packet for the flight crews. the time spent on the packet was about 4 hours prep time. This included weather, fuels overflight notifications, clearances and coordination with tanker ops which was part of this package.

The flight called a "coronet" by flight planning, is estimated to take 9 hours with an arrival time of around 1535L time stateside. There was to be an initial uplift of 2000 lbs of fuel, and 4 scheduled air refueling en route. Weather for the package was excellent with some storm activity south of the islands and a line of clouds well north of the proposed flight route. The Tanker commander was also briefed. Their call sign for the flight would be "Adobe".

From Hawaii to the west coast of the U,.S. was actually very clear and dry. Refueling times were covered as well as aircraft lead and wingman formations, call sign for this flight is "Zesty". Communication "freqs" and take off procedures discussed. With this done, time to head out to the aircraft!

"Zesty's" A-10's were part of a group which is scheduled for an upgrade to the A-10C models with enhanced targeting and electronic link capabilities, so the squadron was relocating the aircraft back to the states for this. Originally this flight was for 7 aircraft, but due to various mechanical and technical problems, it was lowered to 4 aircraft (this would change once again closer to departure time).

I was allowed to head to the flight line but needed to remain in the mobile air ops van for safety reasons. As I got to the flight line, alot of activity was ensuing. Ground crews were shuttling between aircraft. Crews were dressed in their gear and seated in the aircraft performing pre-flight checks in the cockpit.

As the crews continued to prep, a call came over ground freq advising the AAC of a problem with one of the aircraft. Seems that there was a fuel quantity indicator which had an indifference of 500+ lbs. One of the pilot's requested from "Zesty's" flight leader, call sign "McGruff", to occupy the spare aircraft that was there. He was approved for the swap.

By the time the the pilot had switched aircraft, his "McGruff's" aircraft had too developed problems, so the flight lead bumped the other pilot out of the spare and took it for himself. So one of the crew had an extra day in Hawaii. This now brought the package down to 3 aircraft.

Because of the swap, the flight was delayed an additional 30 min beyond estimated departure time and this was relayed to the tanker commander. But within 20 minutes, the flight was ready to depart Hickam. Time now as 0300L (1300Z). With the A-10's leading and the tanker following minutes behind them, "Zesty" launched from HNL on a clear night via runway 8R heading stateside. Followed 9 minutes later by "Adobe", the KC-10 tanker aircraft.

Thanks to Maj. Madson, call sign "Maddog" and the ACC as well as the flightcrew members of 25th Fighter Squadron for allowing me to "tag" along and observe the operation. PILSUNG!