Tulsa-based guard unit headed to Middle East to enforce `no-fly' zone

Monday, February 14th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- For the fourth time in 40 months, a Tulsa-based Oklahoma Air National Guard fighter jet squad will join American military forces in the Middle East to help enforce the" no-fly zone" over northern Iraq.

The deployment from Tulsa involves the Oklahoma Air National :P. Guard's 138th Fighter Wing, which will be stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, officials announced Sunday. The assignment had been scheduled for months and is not the result of the intensifying campaign against Saddam Hussein's forces, First Lt. Marcell Crawford, executive officer of the 138th,said.

About 200 members of the fighter wing will go to Turkey, said Brig. Gen. Ron Turner of Tulsa, commander of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. The Tulsa-based guardsmen will be in Incirlik anywhere from two weeks to three months. Col. Bud Wyatt, the wing commander, said 150 to 200 members of the unit also will be deployed to an estimated 10 other countries this year. The planes flying out of Incirlik are enforcing a no-fly zone to prevent the Iraqi military from using aircraft to attack its minority Kurdish population to the north.