With the initial battalion briefing over and operations order in hand, Bob Mennzinger sauntered on back to his company orderly room. There he would be able to sit down, reread the order, digest everything in it, his notes and what he heard in the briefing, and begin to develop his own company operations order. Walking into the open orderly room, he was greeted by half a dozen pairs of eyes. George Katzenberg, his senior flight warrant, nicknamed "the Cat," asked what they were all wondering: "Well, yes or no — do we self-deploy to Egypt?"
Mennzinger didn't answer. Instead, he walked over to the coffee pot, tucked his copy of the operations order and notebook carefully under his arm, took a cup from a stack of styrofoam cups next to the pot, and slowly began to pour himself some coffee. As he did so, everyone watched him and waited for an answer. Turning to the assembled group, he lifted his cup in a mock toast and announced, "Gentlemen, I give you a toast to the United States Navy. Briefing in thirty minutes." With that he took a small sip, turned on his heels, and went into his office.
From the comer of the orderly room, one of the younger aviation warrants looked around. "Now what the fuck was that supposed to mean?"
Staring at Mennzinger's closed door, the Cat answered to no one in particular, "That means, sports fans, that we self-deploy." Standing up, he stretched. "Unless y'all have a bladder of steel, I'd recommend you lay off the coffee. Damned few pit stops where we're goin'."
With a small map of the route spread in front of him and the order in his left hand, Mennzinger went over the deployment phase again step by step. Whenever he had a question or wanted to make a note for his own company order, he jotted it down on a pad of yellow lined legal paper. The plan for the deployment phase was deceptively easy. Deployment would commence at 1300 hours ZULU, or 0800 hours local time, on 30 November. Selected elements of the Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB for short) of the 11th Airborne Division (Air Assault) would commence deployment from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to a training area just west of Alexandria, Egypt. The entire 1st of the 11th Heavy Attack Battalion, which included Mennzinger's attack helicopter company, was committed to participate in the unannounced emergency deployment and Bright Star exercise. That battalion, equipped with eighteen AH-64 Apaches, thirteen OH-58C scouts, and three UH-60 Blackhawks, would lead off the deployment. Other elements of the CAB that would follow the 1st of the 11th were the 3rd of the 11th Assault Battalion, equipped with forty-five UH-60 Blackhawks reinforced with six CH-47D Chinooks, and one troop of the 2nd of the 14th Air Cavalry Squadron, equipped with four AH-64s and six OH-58C scouts. All aircraft capable of self-deployment, including the six AH-64s of Mennzinger's company, would fly over on their own. Only those aircraft with short legs, such as the OH-58Cs, would be broken down and transported by Air Force C-17 transports.
The actual deployment was broken into seven segments, or hops. An AH-64, equipped with four 230-gallon external fuel tanks and carrying no ordnance, was capable of flying one thousand nautical miles with a forty-five-minute reserve. Therefore, each hop had to be equal to or less than one thousand nautical miles. Flying the traditional, northern route into Europe during winter was risky and would entail long detours around countries that normally denied overflights by U.S. military aircraft. To reduce weather interference and long detours, the deployment plan that would be used called for a straight shot across the Atlantic. A combination of land bases and aircraft carriers for refueling would put the aircraft self-deploying in Egypt in just under sixty-four hours. To assist in the navigation and back up the helicopter's own Doppler navigation system, the Air Force would deploy E-3 Sentinel airborne warning and control systems, or AWACS aircraft. The E-3s would track the deploying helicopters and vector them to where the carriers were.
For the deployment, all aircraft self-deploying would be divided into groups, each group having four aircraft, with no less than two transport helicopters in each group. The reason for that organization, as the commander of the CAB explained, was twofold. First, the aircraft carriers along the way could easily handle the refueling of four Army helicopters, at thirty-minute intervals, without interfering with the routine operations or the primary mission of the carrier. Second, the transport helicopters were distributed among the groups in pairs in case one or more of the aircraft in a group had to ditch over the sea. One of the transport aircraft would be able to recover the crew of the downed helicopter. The reason for a minimum of two transport helicopters per group was a hedge against the odds, chances being slim that both transport aircraft in one group would go down. Though no one seriously believed they would lose any aircraft, the operations plan was covering all possibilities.
The route would require forty-nine flying hours total. The first hop would be the easiest, Fort Campbell to Fort Bragg in North Carolina for a thirty-minute refueling stop. The unit had made that trip twice in the past year for training. From Bragg, the next hop would take them over the ocean to Bermuda for another thirty-minute refueling. The third hop was the real challenge. From Bermuda, the aircraft would fly almost due east to a rendezvous with the carrier USS George Washington near the 45th west meridian. While the theory of operating Army helicopters off Navy aircraft carriers had been practiced, the tests had been limited and well planned. This operation was the largest application of that capability. Little coordination, other than the exchange of radio frequencies and the location of the carriers, had been provided for. On top of that, due to the deployment schedule, many of the helicopters would be making their first carrier landing during the dark. Mennzinger considered that for a moment, trying to figure out how he could put it in a positive light when he briefed his own men.
After the carrier refueling, the rest of the operation would be relatively simple. The fourth refueling stop would be Lajes Field in the Azores, followed by a twelve-hour stopover at Gibraltar, the fifth stop. Where the sixth refueling stop would be was still in question. The Italian government, as of the time of the battalion order, had not given its permission to use Sicily as a refueling stop. The Navy, therefore, was prepared to have a second carrier positioned south of Sicily to provide an alternate refueling point in case the Sicilian stop fell through. From Sicily, the aircraft would fly into Alexandria, Egypt.
Mennzinger paused for a moment and looked at his notes. Simple — the whole plan was simple. All that was required to make it work was a few thousand people from three different services, two aircraft carrier groups, and a couple hundred thousand gallons of fuel to be at the right place at the right time. He looked at his watch. He could hear his pilots gathering in the orderly room. There was a great deal to do. Everyone would be anxious to run his aircraft up three or four times to make sure everything was in working order and that the external fuel tanks weren't leaking out of their filler caps. If time permitted, Mennzinger also wanted to go over to Kyle Lake and rehearse recovery procedures, just in case one of his aircraft went into the ocean. Standing up, Mennzinger looked down at his notes and thought for a moment. Rather than hold up the works and prepare the perfect plan, he decided to brief the deployment and wait on doing any planning for the actual in-country exercise in Egypt. Hell, he thought, Once we're there, we can finesse that part of it.
There was a knock at the door before the first sergeant opened it and stuck his head in. "Sir, everyone's here."
Looking up at the first sergeant, Mennzinger smiled. "Okay, Top, I'll be right with you. Oh, and Top — tell 'em to lay off the coffee."