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Rivet Joint reaches 7,000 combat missions in AOR

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brok McCarthy
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  The 763rd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, stationed in Southwest Asia, reached a major milestone Friday when an RC-135 Rivet Joint flew the air frame's 7,000th combat mission in the U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility. 

"Seven thousand missions is a big deal for us, there's a lot of history in our home wing with this weapon system because this aircraft is just at the 55th at Offutt," said Lt. Col. Tom Nicholson, 763 ERS commander. "And there are just a lot of folks who are contractors and civilians now in the program who remember what it was like to fly day one." 

Approximately 30 people were on the jet that reached the historic milestone. The mission was intelligence collection and analysis in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The crew of a typical Rivet Joint mission is made up of pilots, navigators, electronic warfare officers, airborne cryptologic operators, airborne system engineers and special signals operators. 

"It's been a real honor to be in a program that has been in theater for 19 years now," said Master Sgt. Jeffrey Parris, a 763 ERS airborne mission supervisor, and Las Vegas native. "The Rivet Joint is a large part of the Air Force's intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance mission, and it can adapt very easily to flying different parts of the ISR spectrum." 

He also noted that while this is the 7,000th mission in the U.S. CENTCOM AOR, the RC-135 has consistently operated in all other theaters around the world, this is just the only area where combat missions have been flown non-stop since they originally started.
The Rivet Joint, which is operated by the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., first arrived in theater to participate in Operation Desert Shield in August of 1990. 

According to historical documents maintained by the Offutt history office, the first RC-135 mission in theater was flown by Capt. Brian Janeway and his crew who arrived in theater on the morning of August 9 at Riyadh Air Base, Saudi Arabia. 

Two days later, Rivet Joints began 24-hour coverage and since then it is estimated more than 50,000 hours have been flown in Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Northern and Sothern Watch, and Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. 

Colonel Nicholson said originally, the RC-135 was designed to be a strategic asset, collecting a broad spectrum of information. But in recent years it has morphed into more of a tactical asset, providing a more focused picture to warfighters. 

"We still have a broad spectrum of collections under the (signals intelligence) moniker, so we do have products that go national and they are significant," he said. "But because of the number of our operators, we can really focus on the area so we play in the tactical game. We can leverage more resources on that particular sector of the fight and we've actually been able to take and scrutinize a lot of different signals from different collectors as we try to put together the picture for the guy on the ground in most cases." 

One of the things that has allowed the Rivet Joint to evolve over the years and continue to provide timely, accurate information to the joint services and coalition partners is the skills of the operators onboard. 

"The greater part of this platform is enlisted aviators, and each and every mission can hinge on these enlisted aviators," Sergeant Parris said. "These Airmen can go through as many as three years of training before they even step foot on the aircraft. They are all very good at their jobs, and our platform couldn't fly without them." 

Another thing that has allowed the RC-135 to maintain a high mission-effectiveness rate are the upgrades it has received during the past 19 years including improved antennae, radio equipment, a glass cockpit and a tactical display for the pilots. 

"We used to have to build a picture abstractly from verbal comments that came from our collectors in back, taking the time away from them focusing on the fight passing data to other people," the colonel said. "Now we can depict that up front and see some of the stuff that's going on so the whole team is aware." 

One example of the effectiveness of persistent ISR provided by the Rivet Joint and other intelligence sources is the improving political condition in Iraq, Colonel Nicholson said. "We've been out here for a long time, and we look at it as a constant pressure over time. It's been very rewarding and moving to see the types of elections that have taken place in Iraq and having seen that, flying the borders on one country for a long time, this is quite a development for those of who have been involved with the Rivet Joint." 

Col. Nicholson said he was very proud of all the people who have worked on the Rivet Joint and made it possible for it to fly its 7,000th mission here. 

"We are proud of what's happened out here in the AOR and we feel like, as a Rivet Joint, we've seen it through from the start, and it's very moving for us," he said. 

(Capt. Courtney Groves contributed to this article.)