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Airmen dedicate 3 new buildings to Iraqi air force

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tim Beckham
CAMP TAJI, Iraq --  Members of the Coalition Air Force Training Team handed over three new buildings to the Iraqi Air Force here May 13 in a traditional dedication ceremony. Among the new facilities were an avionics testing facility, a communications building and a munitions storage area. According to Lt. Col. Angel Olivares, CAFTT Base Support Unit Director, the new facilities will greatly enhance the capabilities of the Iraqi Air Force.

"The projects were designed to provide the Iraqi Air Force here at Taji with the basic infrastructure to allow it to complete its flying and training missions," the Colonel said.

The avionics testing facility is unique because the equipment inside is from Russia and utilizes more than six different electrical power supply variations. The facility was designed to allow the phase testing of all MI-17 and UH-1 electronic components.

"There are only two facilities of this type in the world - one in Russia and now one here in Taji, Iraq," said Master Sgt. Bonnie Trajanowski, CAFTT air advisor. "It will give the Iraqi Air Force the capability to test and make adjustments to all the avionics equipment, to include: all the instruments, the auto pilot and radios on the Mi-17."

Sergeant Trajanowski, a native of New Britain, Connecticut, who is deployed from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, said the biggest challenge for her team has been receiving all of the Russian equipment, translating the operating procedures into English so Coalition advisors can understand, and then re-translating into Arabic for the Iraqi Air Force. She said it was a necessary step to ensure the success of the Iraqi aerial mission.

"With the shortage of parts and aircraft, we have to ensure that these helicopters are performing at the optimal level and with this new facility we can now make sure that happens," she said.

The second facility dedicated to the Iraqis was the communications building, which is also a one-of-a-kind for the Iraqi air force.

"It is designed to house all the communication needs for the entire base, to include phone, internet and radio and will be utilized to service all repairs on those capabilities," said Colonel Olivares, who is deployed from HQ NATO SHAPE, Belgium, and is a native of El Paso, Texas.

The third and final facility the Iraqis took over was a new munitions maintenance and storage area, modeled after the munitions storage facilities used by the U.S. Air Force. The maintenance facility consists of three bays designed to conduct maintenance on rockets, chaff and/or flares and ammunition, and also has office space for the technicians.

"The significance of this munitions area is that we have increased the capabilities of the Iraqi air force by 400 percent," said Tech. Sgt. Otis T. Reed, munitions advisor to the Iraqi air force. "This building will now be used for weapons checkout and munitions inspections as well as munitions building." Sergeant Reed is deployed from Luke AFB, Ariz., and is a native of Arkansas.