Distant Frontier 2011
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska
From 7 March till 29 April 2011, eleven Dutch F-16 participated in exercise Distant Thunder and Red Flag from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska for the first time. Divided over three periods from 2,5 week each, I visited Eielson Air Force Base in the 2nd period from 29 March till 16 April 2011. The RNLAF flew 3 missions as day while performing hotpit-refueling between the first and second mission in the morning. With tempertures between -21 and 2 degrees celcius, various missions were performed including some missions for FWIT 2010. These missions included live bomb droppings with bobs you don't see everday like a GBU-24 and GBU-31. I participated in Distant Frontier from 29 March till 16 April 2011.
Taking pictures at Eielson AFB was really hard, and almost impossible as I was limited to shoot only once. I had to make a photographing appointment with the base PAO who would escort me during the morning I would to shoot the based 18th AGRS F-16's and the Dutch ones. Taking pictures of our "own" F-16's wasn't allowed without a PAO escort. On a Friday morning I got accompanied by the Eielson AFB photographer who was my escort. On base photography is only possible during the morning, as the sun will turn and face you around noon. The based 18th AGRS do fly alot with their F-16's as eight to nine aircraft get into the skies each mission. With a great set of camoflauge colours like black and white, grey and blue and brown and green, the jets really stand out perfectly against the snow coverd backgrounds. The 168th ARS of the Alaska Air National Guard is also based at Eielson AFB that operates the KC-135. In the last three days of my stay, some Red Flag Alaska participants came in at Eielson AFB. F-16's from Kusan, South Korea and F-15's from Kadena, Japan who are all USAF aircraft. I would like to that Eielson AFB PAO especially Staff Sgt. Boitz for escorting me around allowing me to shoot.
