Page 8 - Luke AFB Thunderbolt, Oct 5 2018

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October 2018 56Th operaTions group
Thunderbolt http://www.luke.af.mil
310th Fighter Squadron Top Hats
Mission: We train
the world’s great-
est F-16 pilots
and combat-
ready Airmen.
Vision: We devel-
op leaders as we
build fighter pilots. Demographics:
There are 45 assigned and attached instructor pilots, seven enlisted, five contractors and one civilian that support and train an average of 73 students annually.
Leadership
Commander: Lt. Col. Kristin Hub- bard
Director of operations: Lt. Col. Joshua Boudreaux Superintendent: Master Sgt. Ashley McGee
Fun facts: In 1988, the Top Hats were the first squadron to receive the low-altitude navigation and target- ing infrared for night vision system. Until the mid-‘90s, the FS was dedicated almost exclusively to the LANTIrN training mission. The Top Hats are the longest continuously operating fighter squadron at Luke, training students here since 1969. “Top Hats rule ... Dressed to Kill!”
63rd FS Panthers
Mission: Empower Airmen to inspire the world’s great- est F-35 pilots Vision: A collab- orative organiza- tion that grows
in service to one
another.
Demographics: There are
Air Force active-duty, reserve, civilians and contractors.
Commander: Lt. Col. Curtis Dougherty Director of operations: Maj. James Duncan
Turkey SNr: Maj. Halit Oktay
Fun facts: Partnering with Turkey, the unit activated Jan. 15, 1941, claims 10 aces with more than 174 air-to-air kills and 110 enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground. We stand on the shoulders of giants ... the 63rd FS heritage room is named after Col. Walker Mahurin, the first American pilot to become a double ace in the European Theater and the only U.S. Air Force pilot to shoot down enemy planes in both the European and Pacific theaters, and the Korean War. During the Korean War, Mahurin destroyed three- and-a-half russian MiG-15 jet fighters; he was shot down while on a pioneering dive bomb mission in an F-86 Sabrejet, and held in solitary confinement for 16 months as a POW before being released.
56th Operations Group, Detachment 1, Tucson Air National Guard
Mission: Provide exceptional F-16 instruc- tion to U.S., FMS and Mobile Training Team students at Tucson ANG and abroad. Demographics: There are five assigned instructor pilots.
Leadership
Commander: Lt. Col. Kevin Fisher Responsibilities: The 56th OG, Det. 1, stationed at Tucson International Airport, supports the 162nd Fighter Wing’s F-16 formal training unit; the ANG wing’s mis- sion is to provide F-16-qualified pilots to
the active-duty U.S.
Air Force, ANG and 15
partner nations; Det. 1
instructors teach all aspects
of the F-16 basic course, as well as aug- ment mobile training teams sent abroad for “in-country” flight instruction with partner nations.
Fun facts: Det. 1 was formed in 1996 when international training moved from the 311th FS at Luke to the 162nd FW at Tucson.
62nd Fighter Squadron Spikes
Mission: Train the world’s best F-35 pilots. Vision: Develop professional fighter pilots and leaders for the U.S. Air Force and our partners.
Demographics: There are seven U.S. Air Force officers, eleven Norwegian officers, five Italian officers, and seven enlisted personnel.
Leadership
Commander: Lt. Col. Peter Lee
Director of operations: Lt. Col. robert Miller; Norwegian senior national rep- resentative: Lt. Col. Martin Tesli; Italian senior national representative: Maj. Gi- useppe Ambrosio
Responsibilities: The
62nd FS is the only
multipartner F-35
squadron in the world
and is responsible for
conducting F-35 part-
ner training for the United
States and seven partner nations at Luke; the 62nd will eventually consist of 14 U.S., seven Norwegian and five Italian F-35s. Fun facts: The squadron motto: “Spike Aces ... 357 and Counting!” Since Janu- ary 1941, the 62nd FS has destroyed 357 enemy aircraft either in the air or on the ground.
REFuGEE
(from Page 3)
families and traveled north by night, moving from Christian village to Chris- tian village or taking refuge in caves in the mountains. Eventually they reached Turkey and were picked up by the authori- ties and placed in a refugee camp. They separated the men and she didn’t see her father again for weeks.
He was eventually brought back to the camp in a bus, where Esho and her family waited to greet him. When he stepped off, he looked emaciated and tired.
According to Esho, life in the refugee camp was highly regimented. There were wake-up calls, and health and aid organi- zations would come to do wellness checks. Despite this, people often got sick. The lack of waste disposal meant that trash and excrement would build up, and dis- eases would spread. Esho’s mother would cut her kids’ hair extra short, to stave off the threat of lice. Each month, each fam- ily in the camp would be provided food rations, which included a bag of rice and some vegetables.
“We didn’t have meat or poultry,” Esho said. “You had to be very careful about how much you ate, because you could run out.”
Esho’s family ultimately lived in the refugee camp under these conditions for more than two years, as her father worked to secure asylum for them in the west.
Esho’s father’s knowledge of Iraqi mili- tary practice helped to secure her family asylum in the United States.
“We got transferred to Istanbul,” Esho said. “That bus ride from the refugee camp to Istanbul was joyous. Music was being played. People were happy. I was sitting on my mom’s lap and everything was fine. I had my family.”
From Istanbul, the family flew to Frankfurt, Germany, and from there, boarded a plane to America. They landed in Chicago at O’Hare International Air- port, where relatives from her father’s side of the family were waiting to greet them, Esho credits her father’s bravery and perseverance for their survival.
“Everything that I have is because of him,” Esho said. “The strength, the moti- vation, the inspiration. Everything is be- cause of my dad and the hard work he did. What I witnessed as a kid was horrible. I saw terrible things that you shouldn’t see as a child. I can only imagine the [post- traumatic stress disorder], what he saw, what my mom saw, what it was truly like from an adult’s eyes.”
During the early years of her time as an American, Esho’s father worked three different jobs in order to support the family, while her mother raised the kids from home until they were old enough to attend school.
After Esho graduated from high school, she moved to Arizona where her older sister was living to begin working and evaluate where she wanted to go in life. In 2008, Esho watched former President Obama speak about public service on TV, which embedded the idea in her head.
“I wanted to give back in some way, and at first I thought pursuing medicine would be how I would give back,” Esho said. “When I was watching the politi- cal campaigns at the time, then-Senator Obama talked about serving your country as a way to pay for college, and I took that idea and it turned into something that matched the foundations that my father instilled in us, the honesty, the integrity, the hard work, all of those values.”
56th Operations Support Squadron
Mission: We
e provide out-
standing
service and
operations
support.
Demo-
graphics:
There are 16 of-
ficers, 180 enlisted, 28 civilians and two contractors.
Leadership
Commander: Lt. Col. Anthony St. Aubyn
Operations officer: Maj. James Christensen
Superintendent: Chief Master Sgt. Tracy Breitenkamp Responsibilities: Provide airfield management, air traffic control, rated training and flying training syllabus support, weapons, tactics, and intelligence expertise, weather forecasting services, aviation re- source management, operations scheduling, aircrew flight equip- ment, rated manning management, and airfield radar, weather, and ra- dio systems maintenance. Executes an annual flying hour program of more than 50,000 hours and 38,000 sorties.
Fun facts: The squadron war cry, “SHAZAM!” serves as a call to arms and a challenge to others to match the squadron’s excellence.
of Saddam Hussein. Her father, under the threat of death both to himself and his fam- ily, was forced into military service, where he eventually became an elite commando in Saddam’s special operations forces.
“When the Iraq-Iran war happened, he spent a lot of time in Iran,” Esho said. “Because he was Christian, they deployed him out with the other Christian men first, before the Muslims. The majority of the Iraqis who lost their lives during the war were Assyrians.”
Because of the danger of his forced ser- vice and the constant threat to his family, Esho’s father knew their time in Iraq was running out. While Esho’s siblings were born in Baghdad, where their father was stationed, Esho was born in Nineveh as the family moved north in preparation to leave the country.
“Things continued to get worse,” Esho said. “When 1990-1991 came around with the Kuwaiti invasion, the same thing hap- pened, here comes Saddam sending troops into Kuwait who happen to be Christian, and my dad decided that this was no life to live.”
According to Esho, the Arabs and Kurds in the region, knowing that Christian As- syrian families were leaving, would paint the letter N on the doors of Christian houses, representing the Arabic deroga- tory term for Christians, Nazarene.
“We left with nothing,” Esho said, “just what we could carry on our backs through the mountains. The ‘N’ painted on the door meant the house could be ransacked and people returning to them could be killed. ISIS continued to do that.”
Esho’s family left with several other