RED FLAG 13-3

Well, I just got back from Las Vegas and Nellis AFB, where they conducted Red Flag 13-3, and now with mandatory Budget Cuts, this may be the last Red Flag exercise for awhile.

First let me state that I want to thank the United States Air Force for opening it's doors to the Media to cover these exercises, as they do not have to, and it's almost always a pleasure to deal with the Air Force personnel.

Now why do I say this......because in the last two exercises, there has really been a lot of miscommunication and a lack of coordination between the different commands when it has come to getting the media up in the air.

At the last Red Flag (13-2), I was scheduled to fly on a RC-135 Tanker to shoot some air2air images, and after driving the 5 hours from San Diego to Las Vegas, I'm sitting with a few other media types in the Operation' Room, and watch as the two pilots walk by, get into the plane and start the engines. The PAO starts running around trying to figure out what's going on, and after awhile, it's found out that the pilots knew we were suppose to fly, but they claimed they had no flight manifest for us, and the PAO said that they gave it to the flight crew already. Well, the plane left without us onboard, and it was a long and angry trip back to San Diego, with me thinking about the wasted time and expenses of driving back and forth.

At this Red Flag (13-3), I was not getting half of the E-mails, that were being sent out by the PAO, and when I finally got ahold, of someone, my name was not on the list to fly, but that was taken care of quickly. When it came my day to fly, again siting in the Op's, our group is told by a Major in charge of the tankers, that we can not take any images while flying (OUR ENTIRE PURPOSE OF GOING). The PAO explains that we (the media) are all cleared to take photos, and if anything sensitive is found (as all of our images will be inspected), they will be deleted.

So the debate begins and we wait for a decision to be made. The Major has his orders from his Commanding Officer, and we have paperwork signed off by the Base General and his staff. After sitting on the plane for about 20 minutes, we are kicked off, and again no flight. Now I have wasted 2 more days in Vegas, plus more expenses. The lack of communication and coordination is astounding.

The Air Force graciously allowed the Media (both real and fake), onto the flight line and it was extremely enjoyable to be able to take images of the planes close up. Why do I say "fake media", because there are a lot of people who claim to be media and they put up blogs and other websites, and somehow manage to get on the base. This is a real problem, because they take up room from the real media and professional freelance photographer who should be there. Maybe if the "fake" media types were not there, the PAO would have less work to do and things wouldn't get so messed up in the future.

So the exercise started in the early afternoon, and then it's non-stop action for 3-4 hours., as planes took off and recovered. Planes and helicopters from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines were present, as were planes from Great Britain, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates (Green Flag participants) .

One of the nice things about Nellis Air Force Base, is that when your not on base, you can get great images from outside of the base, and this is where most of the photographers spend most of their time when shooting the exercise.

Well it's another Red Flag in the books, lets hope there will be another one soon. Again, thank you to the Air Force for the successful parts for the exercise, but this whole Tanker Flight thing needs to be address. Again, thank you to the US Air Force for the opportunity to be on their base.