High alert in 1986

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Michael Hess
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs office
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  “In peace, we train for war and don’t you forget it,” was the inscription lettered on the base’s main gate while Col. Sam Westbrook was commander of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath in 1986.

Times were different. The Berlin Wall separated Germany and a hammer and sickle flag flew over the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.

Magazines rated the Galaxy Club, RAF Mildenhall, as one of the top clubs in the United Kingdom. A pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, broadcasted pop music from a converted ferry three miles off the coast of England to break BBC’s monopoly of the airwaves. Ronald Regan was president and the 48th TFW flew the F-111 Aardvark. The long-range bomber, commissioned in the late 1960s, was a swept-wing bomber and its unsightly appearance on the ground prompted maintainers to refer to taxiing aircraft as an elephant walk.

Master Sgt. Terry Stayton, 48th Equipment Maintenance Squadron aerospace ground equipment production supervisor, was stationed at RAF Lakenheath. The threat from the Soviet Union was real enough to cover buildings in sand bags and camouflage netting, though ironically there weren’t the fence lines of today. The concern wasn’t from the ground, the fear came from the eastern sky. The era was made famous by photos of pilots running to their aircraft during “victor alerts.”

Exercises during the Regan-era Air Force were base-wide. There was no Farout Air Base. The base became the exercise. During wing recalls, the giant base speakers, which normally call retreat, blared the William Tell overture.

Exercises were so real that aircraft flew low over the base while Airmen on the ground set off ground burst simulators and smoke bombs to simulate an air-to-ground attack.

Through months and years of realistic training, Airmen of the 48th TFW were prepared for anything and ready for action.

“It didn’t matter if you were a personnelist or a mechanic, you still had a war-time function whether it was manning the entry control points or assembling munitions. I was in AGE, but I still knew how to arm the munitions,” said Sergeant Stayton.

“We had the mindset that it wasn’t a matter of if we would be attacked,” said Sergeant Stayton. “It was a matter of when.”

The wing finally saw action on April 14, 1986, but it wasn’t the massive Soviet offensive for which they trained. It was a quiet mission against a country in North Africa that sponsored a series of terrorist attacks against the United States.

The base went into high alert and tankers lined the airfield at RAF Mildenhall as orders filtered through senior leadership.

“With the regular exercises, we were used to high alert. It seemed to be an exercise. Normally, Airmen loaded the aircraft with live munitions, marked it on their training log and replaced them with dummies,” said Sergeant Stayton.
“This time, however, when they loaded the live munitions they rose into the aircraft and the doors closed.

He said the first he heard about the attacks were from Radio Caroline, which reported explosions in Tripoli, Libya.

Caroline didn’t lie. The reported explosions were the destruction of military targets in Libya.

The aircraft began their seven-hour journey back to RAF Lakenheath as they made a dash for the coast under cover of Navy fighters.

Twenty-four aircraft left for Libya that evening and 14 hours later, only 23 returned.

RAF Lakenheath recognizes the impact of this event and the sacrifices made by those who did not return home.

Although the camouflage netting and sandbags are gone, memories of the Cold War-era remain.

The United Stated began its war against terrorist actions 20 years ago with the launch of Operation Eldorado Canyon. Twenty years later, Libya has condemned Al Qaeda and renounced weapons of mass destruction.

Although a long, hard battle, the Air Force and the 48th Fighter Wing continue to make ground daily, wiping out terrorist capabilities with their commitment to winning the Global War on Terrorism.