Oklahoma Soldiers Search For Smugglers On The War Front

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

IRAQ -- Members of Oklahoma's 2nd-285th are in Iraq right now on a year long deployment.

While I was embedded with members of Bravo Company, I learned smuggling illegal weapons into the country from Iran was a big problem.

So, in part three of our series, we fly security for crews trying to stop those smugglers.

The coffee is brewing and the clock reads just before 2 a.m. in An-Nasireyah, Iraq, which is 6 p.m. back home.

Oklahomans here are already at work.

The pilots on duty have much to do. First, they check the day's weather. The weather conditions in Iraq are a daily battle for our soldiers, with pop up storms, high winds and blowing sand, always blowing sand.

"Basically, what we're looking at is a lot of really, really, really crappy weather."

The weather can change as quickly here as it does in Oklahoma and the consequences, equally life and death.

"This is a bunch of storms by Basrah. Right now, it's starting to die down, there's a lot of rain, occasional strike, bolt of lightning, coming out of em."

That's where our teams are scheduled to fly and low visibility makes the mission riskier.

The next stop is the airfield, to get the Blackhawk ready. Crews begin working a full three hours before scheduled lift-off.

That includes firing up the bird and completing a pre-flight check list to make sure all systems are a go.

Then, it's back to the office for more mission adjustments and high security briefings as the sun comes up. Then, seven hours after that first pot of coffee, it's time to fly.

We're in the Blackhawk, flying wingman for Apaches. Apaches hold a pilot and co-pilot who doubles as a gunner. They carry hellfire missiles, two-and three-quarter inch rockets and a 30 millimeter chain gun.

Their job on this day is to swoop down on convoys traveling on the roads below, to search for smuggled weapons. Our job is to fly above them, searching the ground and air for threats, basically, we've got their back.

This is not a typical mission, but other crews got stranded by sand storms, so last minute changes had to be made, which we learned happens all the time.

Lori Fullbright, The News On 6: "What has surprised you about being here?"

Platoon Sgt. Chris Graves, Verdigris: "How fast, the fast pace of the day. It never stops. It's constant movement of day to day staff."

"Nothing is ever the same here," Flight platoon Sgt Jo Rumpel, Catoosa, said. "You no more have a mission set, you want those people to go, that aircraft will break, you have to et different people, different crews, it's an ongoing job."

As an air assault company, Bravo company's bread and butter mission is to put troops on the ground for combat.

If you think of the Tallil base where they're stationed as the mother ship, there are smaller ships or bases all over Iraq that need supplies, people and paperwork everyday. Bravo company transports those people and packs.

They train to be on time, on target, plus or minus 30 seconds.

"Chances are, if you've traveled anywhere in the air in 2010 in Iraq, you probably flew in one of our aircraft," Captain Phillip Hemmert, Owasso, said.

You see a lot of interesting landscape after a six-hour day in the sky. These marshes are an unexpected surprise, after all the desert we've seen.

The Oklahomans say the way Iraqi citizens respond to Americans flying overhead, varies day by day.

"You see one house, people are waving," Crew Chief Shane Sappington, Oologah, said. "The next house over, they're throwing rocks and shoes, there's no telling."

The Apache crews found mortar rounds and rockets during the search of the smugglers.

Watch behind-the-scenes video from Lori's trip to Iraq

Watch Part 4 of Lori's story next Wednesday, May 19th, to see some of the good natured pranks the soldiers played while she was in Iraq, including one on her crew.